Former Southern baseball coach Kerrick Jackson was hired by Missouri on Sunday, becoming the first Black head baseball coach in the Southeastern Conference and returning to the program where he’d been an assistant for five years.
Jackson spent this season at Memphis, where the Tigers finished 29-28 — their first above-.500 record in six years.
Before that, he had spent two years in an administrative position in Major League Baseball.
Jackson was an assistant coach at Missouri from 2011-15 under Tim Jamieson, then left for two years as a player agent.
At Southern, Jackson replaced the legendary Roger Cador, and after an ugly 9-33 debut season, Jackson engineered a remarkable turnaround in 2019, winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship, earning a trip to the NCAA Starkville regional.
It was the Jaguars’ first SWAC championship since 2009. It was also Southern’s first 30-win season since 2012, and the turnaround from 9-33 was nation’s biggest that season.
The 2019 season was highlighted by a victory over No. 8 LSU, as well as wins against Memphis, Eastern Illinois, Northwestern State, UNO and Nicholls State.
Southern was off to a 6-10 start in 2020 before the baseball season was cut short by the pandemic.
He compiled a 47-67 record from 2018-20, his third and final year cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jackson left Southern for an administrative job in Major League Baseball, which he held until taking over at Memphis.
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