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Finatik
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Former NFL defensive end Dion Jordan, the third overall pick in the 2013 draft, had become an assistant coach at the college level. He has now become the head coach of the program for which he had been working as assistant head coach.
With fellow former NFL player Randy Starks moving on to USF as assistant defensive line coach, Jordan becomes the head coach at Division III Eureka College in Illinois.
Last year, Jordan explained that he uses his own mistakes to help guide young players.
“Ain’t nobody else’s fault,” Jordan said at the time. “And look, I watch these kids now and I realize what I was messing up.”
Suspended multiple times for violation of the substance-abuse policy (which previously had far sharper teeth than it now does), Jordan ultimately played in 63 regular-season games through 2020, with five career starts. He finished his NFL career with 13.5 sacks.
Still only 35, Jordan has plenty more years to coach. And there’s plenty he can do to touch the lives of the young men who will be playing for him.
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Good for him, I love stories like that.
My high school football team had two players made it to the NFL and they both ended up being head coaches afterwards.
After a few division II head coaching gigs, Autry Denson now coaches RBs for the Cardinals.
That name may ring a bell because he was a RB for the Fins for a couple of years.
The other, Tyrus McCloud, backed up Ray Lewis for years in Baltimore and he now coaches our high school team.
While that's not as successful of a second career as Autry, I just love his story.
Each year he hosts an event where he tries to get all the old high school players to the homecoming game to be recognized...one of these years I have to actually make it.