Bennett Adds Sawyer To Staff
Jun 18 | Football
DALLAS (SMU) - Joe Sawyer has been hired as a full-time assistant football coach, Head Coach Phil Bennett announced today. Sawyer has spent the last three seasons with the Mustangs as the defensive graduate assistant and will coach defensive tackles for the 2004 season.
?Joe brings great enthusiasm to our staff,? said Bennett. ?He is a tireless worker and is willing to do anything to improve the program. I?m glad to have him on board.?
Prior to coming to SMU, Sawyer spent four years as a coach at the high school level, serving at Rockwall (Texas) and Duncanville (Texas). He helped guide Duncanville to the state 5A title in 1998. He served as the head football coach at Knoxville College during the 1995 and 1996 seasons, where he coached a pair of players there that were selected in the NFL Draft ? Clarence Thompson, a fourth-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens, and Grady Jackson, a sixth-round selection of the Oakland Raiders. Sawyer also spent time as an assistant under the legendary Eddie Robinson in 1992 and 1993, helping Grambling to the Black College National Championship as the defensive line coach. His coaching resume also includes stops at Northwestern (La.) State and Trinity Heights (La.) High School.
As a player, Sawyer was a four-year letter winner and two-time all-conference selection at Harding University, where he earned a bachelor?s degree in management. He went on to gain a master?s in sports administration from Grambling State.
Sawyer and his wife Gina have two children ? Kelley Jo and Stone.
