Brock Hays - Football Coach - Troy University Athletics

Brock Hays

Title:
Running Backs
Email:
jmorgan@troy.edu
Phone:
3682

Selected to the AFCA 35 Under 35, Brock Hays begins his second season as Troy's running backs coach following a three-year stint at Louisiana Tech.

In 2022, Hays and the Trojans finished the season ranked in a major poll for the first time in program history, checking in at No. 19 in the AP Top 25 and No. 20 in the USA Today/Coaches Poll. Additionally, Troy's appearance in the Coaches Poll and College Football Playoff Poll after its Sun Belt Championship Game victory were also firsts for the program.

Troy hosted and appeared in the Sun Belt Championship Game for the first time, reached the 12-win mark at the FBS level for the first time and hosted Army in front of a Veterans Memorial Stadium record crowd of more than 31,000 fans.

Kimani Vidal took home All-Sun Belt Second Team distinction under Hays’ watch and became the 11th 1,000-yard rusher in program history. Additionally, Vidal tied the Troy single-game record with four rushing touchdowns against Arkansas State; it was tied for the fourth most in a game this season and the most by a player in the Group of Five. His four rushing touchdowns tied for the 10th most in a game in Sun Belt history and just one off the record.

Vidal became just the second player in program history to rush for more than 200 yards in multiple games in the same season; Eddie Brundidge (1986). He also became just the 13th player in Sun Belt history to post multiple 200-yard rushing games in a season.

Troy scored on 50 percent or more of its possessions in the three games heading into the Cure Bowl and posted nine passing plays of 15-plus yards and six passing plays of 20-plus yards in the Sun Belt Championship Game victory over Coastal Carolina.

The Trojans ranked second in the Sun Belt per Pro Football Focus in overall offense and first in rushing. Troy topped the 100-yard rushing mark in eight games, including a stretch of six straight and added back-to-back games with 260-plus rushing yards to close out the regular season.

Hays mentored a pair of All-Conference USA backs during his tenure at Louisiana Tech in Justin Henderson and Israel Tucker and oversaw a Bulldog rushing attack that finished with more than 1,500 yards in addition to 16 touchdowns in 2021.

Following the conclusion of the 2021 season, Hays was invited to the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute. The AFCA 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute is a prestigious program aimed at identifying and developing premier, future leaders in the football coaching profession.

During his second season at Louisiana Tech, Hays coached Tucker to All-Conference USA honorable mention honors. In his first season with the Bulldogs, Henderson became the 13th running back in program history to rush for 1,000 yards and was named to the C-USA Second Team. His 15 rushing TDs led C-USA and tied for the seventh most in a single season in school history.

Hays was part of a 2019 Louisiana Tech team that went 10-3 overall, marking the first time a Bulldog squad reached double-digit victories since 1984. The 10th victory came in the 2019 Walk On's Independence Bowl as the Bulldogs shut out Miami, 14-0. It was the first shutout in Independence Bowl history and the only shutout of the 2019 bowl season.

Hays spent one season on the Southern Miss staff in 2018 as the tight ends coach after spending the previous two seasons as the running backs coach at Nicholls State.

During his time at Nicholls State, Hays helped lead the Colonels to the 2017 FCS Playoffs, just its fourth in program history and first since 2005. That same season, Nicholls ranked 19th nationally among FCS programs with an average of 200.3 rushing yards per game.

In 2016, Hays led a group that had totaled only 10 career carries heading into the season to an average of 162.9 yards rushing per game and 23 touchdowns. Under Hays' guidance, Nicholls' backs combined for five 100-yard games that season.

Hays joined the staff at Nicholls after coaching one season at Louisiana College as the defensive line coach, pro scouting liaison and academic liaison for the Wildcats.

Before coaching in the college ranks, Hays served as the assistant head coach, assistant defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Edna Karr High School in his hometown of New Orleans from 2014-2015.

Hays also acted in a similar role at Edna Karr from 2010-2013 before taking the defensive coordinator position at Miller McCoy Academy in New Orleans for the 2013-2014 school year. Prior to his first stint at Edna Karr, Hays started his coaching career in 2004 as an offensive line coach at Helen Cox High School in Harvey, Louisiana, before switching over to the defensive side of the ball in 2007 when he accepted a job as the defensive line coach at New Iberia (La.) Senior High School.

In 2008, Hays returned to his college stomping ground for a stint as the defensive line coach and assistant defensive coordinator at Grambling High School.

Hays is a 2009 graduate of Grambling State, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in kinesiology. He and his wife, the former Lekeshia Williams, have two daughters, Lilah and Laken, and a son, Braylonn.