NEW ORLEANS – The Sun Belt Conference welcomes a trio of new football head coaches heading into the 2022 season—one with collegiate head coaching experience from a prominent coaching family and two first-time head coaches with deep roots in the Sun Belt as assistants.
Clay Helton, Georgia Southern
Clay Helton was named the 11th full-time head coach in the Georgia Southern modern football era on Nov. 2, 2021. Helton was previously the head coach at USC from 2015-21.
Helton is from a coaching family—his father Kim Helton is a long-time NFL and college coach, including a seven-year stint as the head coach at Houston from 1993-99, and his brother Tyson Helton is currently the head coach at Western Kentucky.
Helton compiled a 46-24 record at the helm of the USC program, while leading the Trojans to three conference championship games. His USC teams won the Rose Bowl in 2016 and the Pac-12 Conference title in 2017.
He has also been an assistant at USC (2010-15), Memphis (2000-09), Houston (1997-99) and Duke (1995-96). As a player, he was a backup quarterback at both Auburn (1990-92) and Houston (1993-94).
Michael Desormeaux, Louisiana
Michael Desormeaux was named Louisiana’s 27th head football coach on Dec. 5, 2021.
A record-setting quarterback for Louisiana from 2005-08, Desormeaux has been on the Ragin’ Cajuns staff for the last six seasons (2016-21) and served as the co-offensive coordinator during the 2021 campaign in which the team won its fourth-consecutive Sun Belt West Division title and its first outright Sun Belt championship in program history.
As a player, Desormeaux passed for 3,893 yards and 23 touchdowns, while rushing for 2,843 yards and 16 scores. He was a three-time All-Sun Belt selection as an all-purpose performer, before being named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2008 after throwing for 1,876 yards and rushing for 1,035 yards. He became the eighth quarterback in NCAA history to post back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, after rushing for 1,141 yards as a junior in 2007.
He won his first game as the Ragin’ Cajuns head coach, defeating future conference foe Marshall, 36-21, in the 2021 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
Jon Sumrall, Troy
Jon Sumrall was named Troy’s 23rd head football coach on Dec. 2, 2021. Sumrall returns to Troy after previously serving as the Trojans assistant head coach on Neal Brown’s staff from 2015-17.
During his tenure at Troy, Sumrall helped lead the Trojans to a pair of bowl wins—the school’s first since 2010, the 2017 Sun Belt title and a stunning victory over LSU.
Sumrall has since served on the staffs at Ole Miss (2018) and his alma mater Kentucky (2019-21), where he was most recently the co-defensive coordinator.
Sumrall was a three-year letterwinner as a middle linebacker at Kentucky from 2002-04, before a career-ending injury led him to a career in coaching as a graduate assistant for the Wildcats in 2005 and 2006. His coaching tenure also includes stops at Tulane (2012-14) and San Diego (2007-11).
The trio joins a group of returning head coaches that includes Shawn Clark at App State, Butch Jones at Arkansas State, Jamey Chadwell at Coastal Carolina, Shawn Elliott at Georgia State, Terry Bowden at ULM, Kane Wommack at South Alabama and Jake Spavital at Texas State.