Norfolk State (MEAC) has announced that Dawson Odums will no longer be the football head coach. Odums went 15-31 in his four seasons with the Spartans.
The Spartans started 6-5 in Odums’ first season in 2021 but didn’t achieve a winning season after that. They fell to 2-9 in 2022 followed by a 3-8 record in 2023 and 4-8 in 2024. Odums went 7-13 in the MEAC and only cracked the top half once in 2022 as a result of a three-way tie for 3rd place.
Odums played collegiately at North Carolina Central and became an assistant coach in 1999 with Gardner-Webb. After two seasons as an assistant with Georgia Southern, he was hired as the associate head coach and defensive coordinator for NCAA Division II Clark Atlanta in 2002 and 2003. He was the interim head coach in 2004 and posted a 1-9 record. From 2005 through 2012, he worked as a defensive assistant coach for Bethune-Cookman, North Carolina A&T, and Southern.
In 2012, he was named the interim head coach at Southern following the firing of Stump Mitchell. He went 4-5 in that span and finished in a tie for second in the SWAC West and later landed the full-time role of head coach. From 2013 through 2021, he went 59-28 with the Jaguars, made 4 SWAC title games, and won the 2013 SWAC Championship 34-27 against Jackson State. Odums has an overall career record of 79-72 and a conference record of 61-36.
Photo Credit to Norfolk State University Athletics
