Tennessee State head football coach Eddie George has emerged as a target in Bowling Green’s head coaching search, sources told ESPN.
A final decision is expected in the near future, as he was one of three finalists interviewed Friday.
George is a former Heisman Trophy winner at Ohio State and has emerged as a successful head coach in the FCS at Tennessee State. He led the program to the FCS playoffs this past season and a share of the OVC-Big South title, the school’s first league title in football since 1999.
Bowling Green is looking to replace Scot Loeffler, who left to become the quarterback coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. George would potentially return to the state of Ohio, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1995 and ran for 3,768 yards over four seasons with the Buckeyes.
He went on to star in the NFL for nine seasons, rushing for more than 10,000 yards. He was a first-round pick of the Houston Oilers and made his name by playing seven seasons in Nashville for the Titans. The Titans have retired his jersey, as he’s the franchise’s all-time leading rusher.
Tennessee State hired George despite a lack of traditional coaching experience, with the school president at the time calling the move “the right choice and investment” for the future of TSU. George has worked as an actor and entrepreneur and earned an MBA from Northwestern.
George paid back the administration’s faith by building Tennessee State into a winner, including a 9-4 season in 2024 that culminated in an FCS playoff appearance. Tennessee State lost to Montana in the first round. That marked TSU’s first FCS playoff bid since 2013.
George’s hire at TSU continued the trend of former star players being hired at historically Black colleges and universities. Jackson State made the biggest splash in hiring Deion Sanders, who went on to a successful stint at Colorado. Both Michael Vick’s hire at Norfolk State and DeSean Jackson’s hire at Delaware State continued that trend in the current hiring cycle.
Bowling Green has become one of the top coaching incubators this generation, with Urban Meyer, Dave Clawson and Dino Babers all springboarding from the school to power conference jobs. Loeffler went 27-41 over six seasons, a run that included three straight bowl games the past three seasons.
