Fort Valley State reaches into FCS level for latest head football coach

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The latest Fort Valley State head coach brings a diverse resume to town.

          The school announced the hiring Tuesday of Marlon Watson as the Wildcats’ eight head coach this century.

          Watson has spent the past two seasons at Prairie View A&M, a member of the Southwest Athletic Conference.

          The Panthers went 5-7 last year, 3-5 in the SWAC, 6-6 and 6-2 in 2023.

          Watson was the defensive coordinator at Elizabeth City State (Division II CIAA) for two seasons, following three seasons at Alabama A&M (FCS, SWAC).

          His first stint in Central Georgia came as linebackers coach at GMC JC in Milledgeville in 2014, after his college coaching career started at Bethel University in Tennessee.

          Along the way, he has coached special teams, defensive ends, defensive line, defensive backs, with several years as a defensive coordinator.

          Watson has been part of conference championship teams at Bethel, and helped the Wildcats knock off top-ranked Georgetown College in the NAIA playoffs in 2012.

          The Chicago native was a linebacker at Northern Illinois, helping the Huskies beat Maryland, Alabama, and Iowa State in 2003 and reach a top-10 ranking. NIU won or shared three MAC division championships, and won the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl.

          He has a Bachelor’s from Northern Illinois and Master’s at Bethel, and is the married father of three..

          Watson replaces Shawn Gibbs, who was hired in on Feb. 9 of 2022 and left in December of 2024 for North Carolina A&T, going 22-9 with the Wildcats.

He took over for Maurice Flowers, who went 5-5 in 2019 and 2-0 in a spring season after COVID-19 and returned to Johnson C. Smith as head coach.

          Flowers  was FVSU’s sixth head coach since 2000, following Kent Schoolfield (1997-2002), John Morgan (2003-2005), Deondre Clark , (2006-08), Donald Pittman (2009-16), Kevin Porter (2017-2019).

            Schoolfield, Morgan, Pittman, and Porter were all fired, and Clark asked to be reassigned.

            FVSU had several Central Georgians on last year’s roster:  8 K Daniel Gibbs, Veterans, Sr.; 10 DE Cedric Hillsman, Peach County, Sr.; 12 DB Landon Austin, Macon County, Jr.; 15 WR Jonathan Williams, Perry, Sr.; 16 QB Morgan Jones, Washington County, Sr.; 28 LB Cameron Johnson, Perry, Gr.; 38 LB Jeremy Denson, Central, So. (Savannah State); 53 DL Josh Burney, Jones County, Sr.; 70 OL Jose Gonzalez, Warner Robins, So.; 76 OL Vintavious Scott, Washington County, Fr.; 79 OL Jarvis Germany, Mary Persons, Jr., (GMC JC); 82 WR Santino Frnaklin, Howard, Jr.; 84 TE Alex Henton, Peach County, Sr. 87 TE Manny Thompson, Warner Robins, Jr.; 88 WR KamonteDurden, Washington County, Fr. 89 WR Solomon Burney, Jones County, Fr.; 90 DT DJ Wilson, Veterans, Jr.; 91 DL Broderick Henry Jr., Peach County, Fr.