Written by Christopher Mercer, Sports editor.

The Blazers have officially promoted offensive coordinator Graham Craig as their 12th head coach in school history.  

According to Football Scoop, VSU had at least three candidates to replace Jackson, including Sparky McEwen, current head coach at Davenport University and a former assistant at Ferris State.

Craig is no stranger to VSU as he has been on the staff each of the last two seasons. He served as quarterbacks coach in 2023 before he became the offensive coordinator in 2024 and was the backup quarterback coach for VSU during their national championship win in 2012.  

In Craig’s lone season as the offensive coordinator, he led the Blazers to have a top 10 scoring offense in the country. He led the Blazers to a national championship appearance last season. 

Before his time at VSU, most of his coaching career was under former VSU head coach David Dean at West Georgia. He spent four years as their offensive coordinator from 2019-2022 at West Georgia before going to Memphis University as the senior offensive analyst in 2023.   

The Blazers will have a press conference introducing the new Head coach this Thursday, Jan. 23. 

Photo courtesy of Valdosta State University.