SHS defensive line coach Pope joins the EMCC staff in Scooba

East Mississippi Community College has been a pipeline for Starkville players for a long time, but the school is also becoming a pipeline for coaches as well.

Several years after former offensive coordinator David Boykin went to Scooba to run the offense, Chris Jones' defensive coordinator Keevie Thompson left for the junior college ranks at Hinds and is now at EMCC as well. Now, Jones will be looking for another defensive coordinator as Terrance Pope is joining Buddy Stephens staff as the new defensive line coach.

Pope was in his second season running the defense for the Yellow Jackets and is coming off of a successful year with SHS. A season after the team won the Class 6A, Region 2 State championship and made it to the North State championship, Pope helped the team win a state title for the first time since 2015 this year.

This year's SHS defense had an incredible 216 tackles for loss with 45 sacks, 15 interceptions and 12 fumble recoveries. Pope coached the Starkville Daily News Defensive Player of the Year in Nyjadus Roberts-holloway. He also had first-team All-state defensive tackle Tony Lucious and second-team defensive end Eric Thomas among his players coached this year.

Pope has a couple of handful worth of state title rings during his time as a player and coach. Before he was with the Jackets, he coached the defensive line at North Panola. Prior to that stop, Pope was coaching at Louisville where he won a state championship in 2018 and had eight Allstate defensive linemen.

The South Panola alum played for former Eupora coach Lance Pogue in Batesville and won four-straight state championships with 75-consecutive wins. He was a Mississippi All-star as a defensive lineman and was chosen first-team All-state unanimously. He went to Southern Miss to play his football and was freshman All-conference USA in year one with 14 tackles and three tackles for loss.

Pope was a regular starter for his final three seasons on campus.