Joe Craddock - Football Coach - Troy University Athletics

Joe Craddock

Title:
Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks
Email:
jmorgan@Troy.edu
Phone:
3682

Joe Craddock returns for his second season as the Trojans' offensive coordinator. Craddock, who will also coach Troy's quarterbacks, joined the Troy staff prior to the 2022 season with five years of experience as an FBS offensive coordinator.

In 2022, Craddock 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 Craddock'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).

Offensive linemen Austin Stidham and Jake Andrews earned All-Sun Belt First Team honors, while running back Kimani Vidal took home All-Sun Belt Second Team distinction. Vidal became the 11th 1,000-yard rusher in program history, while the New England Patriots selected Andrews in the 4th Round of the NFL Draft, Troy's first draft pick in six seasons. Andrews was invited to the NFL Combine and played in the Senior Bowl. Additionally, Stidham was a finalist for the Campbell Trophy and earned Academic All-America honors for the third time in his career.

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 passing, receiving and rushing.

Once the youngest offensive coordinator in the country, Craddock has spent two seasons (2020-21) helping lead the UAB offense following stints as the offensive coordinator at SMU (2015-17) and Arkansas (2018-19).

With the Blazers, Craddock focused most of his attention on UAB's tight ends, and his players produced at an elite level. Gerrit Prince earned C-USA second team honors in 2021 as he led all tight ends nationally in yards per reception (19.4) and paced the team in receptions (34) and touchdowns (10) while ranking second in receiving yards (699) – he had two touchdown receptions in UAB's Independence Bowl victory over No. 13 BYU.

In his first season with the Blazers, Craddock helped UAB to a Conference USA championship. UAB's tight ends accounted for five of the Blazers' 14 receiving touchdowns, including two multi-touchdown games for Prince.

Before joining UAB, Craddock, a native of Chelsea, Ala., spent the previous two years as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas. In his first season with the Razorbacks, he engineered one of the nation's most productive tight end units as they ranked second nationally in tight end touchdowns and fourth in tight end first downs.

Prior to Arkansas, Craddock became the youngest offensive coordinator in the country at the time, joining SMU in 2015 and leading the Mustangs' offense for three years.

With the Mustangs, Craddock guided quarterback Ben Hicks to numerous SMU passing records, including career passing yards (9,081), TD passes (71), TDs responsible for (74), completions (718) and 300-yard games (12).

Over his three seasons with the Mustangs, Craddock's offense produced a 3,000-yard passer (Ben Hicks, 2017), two 1,000-yard rushers (Xavier Jones, 2017; Braeden West, 2016) and two 1,000-yard receivers (Courtland Sutton, 2017 and 2016; Trey Quinn, 2017).

During the 2017 regular season, Craddock's unit ranked No. 8 in the FBS in scoring offense (40.2 points), No. 13 in total offense (493.8 yards) and No. 16 in passing yards (308 yards). In addition, SMU was one of just two teams in the country that featured a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and multiple 1,000-yard receivers in All-Americans Sutton and Quinn.

For his efforts, Craddock was named a nominee for the Broyles Award, which is annually presented to the nation's top assistant coach.

Before his time in Dallas, Craddock coached at Clemson for three seasons as an offensive graduate assistant (2013-14) and a player development coach (2012).

During his time at Clemson, Craddock assisted in the development of current NFL star Deshaun Watson. In 2014, the Tigers' averaged 448.2 yards of total offense per game, ranked No. 21 in scoring offense (35.4) and was one of just 14 teams in the FBS to average 200 yards rushing and passing per game.

Craddock played quarterback at Middle Tennessee from 2004-08. Upon graduating with a degree in liberal arts, he spent two years playing professionally in the Italian Football League from 2009-10. While playing for the Parma Panthers, Craddock guided his team to the Superbowl Italiano, defeating the Catania Elephants 56-26 in the championship game.

Prior to his collegiate coaching career, Craddock was the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Briarwood Christian, from 2010-11. Briarwood went 25-4 during Craddock's tenure and finished as the state runner-up in 2010.

Craddock and his wife, Abby, have a daughter Charlie, and a son Cain.Trojan great Gary Banks begins his third season on the Troy staff and second coaching the Trojan receivers after coaching the outside receivers in 2021.