Evan McKissack - Football Coach - Troy University Athletics

Evan McKissack

Title:
Tight Ends
Email:
jmorgan@troy.edu

Evan McKissack, a former All-Sun Belt offensive lineman for the Trojans, begins his second season on Troy's staff coaching the tight ends following two years at Murray State.

In 2022, McKissack 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.

The Trojan offense was one of the most explosive in the country in McKissack’s first season, ranking fourth with nine passes of 50-plus yards and five passes of 60-plus yards. Additionally, Troy was 24^th in passes of 20-plus yards (54) and 16^th in passes of 30-plus yards (24).

Troy’s tight ends combined to catch 23 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair of touchdown receptions on the final play of the third quarter and three minutes later in the fourth quarter as Troy rallied from a 17-0 deficit at Louisiana. The receptions and yardage totals were the most by a tight end unit in Troy’s SBC history, while the touchdown tally tied for the most.

A former walk-on, McKissack went from playing in just two games on special teams in his Troy career to the Trojans’ starting center and an All-Sun Belt selection despite checking in at just 5-foot-10 and 256 pounds as a senior.

At Murray State, McKissack coached both the Racers’ tight ends and running backs during his two-year tenure. Under his guidance, Damonta Witherspoon earned back-to-back All-America and All-Ohio Valley Conference honors. He rushed for 912 yards with eight touchdowns as a redshirt freshman in 2021 after leading the Racers with 501 yards and five touchdowns in the shortened 2020 season; he was also named to the 2020 OVC All-Newcomer Team.

In his first season at Murray State, the Racers improved from 4-8 the previous year to 5-2 with a victory over No. 16 Southeast Missouri State. The Racers posted back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2011.

Murray State led the OVC and ranked 25^th nationally in scoring offense during his first season, while the Racers had a top-25 rushing attack in 2021. The Racers also ranked second nationally in sacks allowed during the 2020 campaign.

McKissack began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Kentucky (2017-19), where he worked primarily with John Schlarman, who was his offensive line coach while a player at Troy. McKissack coached a trio of All-Americans – Bunchy Stallings, Logan Stenberg and George Asafo-Adjei – all were selected in the NFL Draft. Additionally, McKissack’s offensive line were key blockers for All-American running back Benny Snell.

The Wildcats played in a bowl game in each of McKissack’s three seasons on staff, including a Citrus Bowl victory over Penn State and No. 14 final College Football Playoff ranking in 2018. Kentucky’s offensive line finished as a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top offensive line.

After graduating from Troy, McKissack began his coaching career just up the road at Enterprise (Ala.) High School as the defensive line coach before moving to Colquitt County (Ga.) High School for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

While coaching the Packers, Colquitt won the Georgia AAAAAA state title and the High School America National Championship. McKissack coached the linebackers in his first season and was the special teams coordinator in his second year.

His senior year at Troy, McKissack graded out as the highest-rated offensive linemen for the Trojans and was charged with just 0.2 sacks allowed on the season. In addition, he recorded 27.5 knockdown blocks and graded out at over 90 percent in five games and held his own against ACC runner-up Duke where he graded out at 93 percent.

McKissack graduated magna cum laude from Troy with a degree in math education in 2014 and earned his master’s degree in sport leadership from Kentucky in 2019.

He and his wife, Erica, have a daughter, Arya, and a son, Riley.