Five-time national championship-winning head coach Buddy Stephens is no longer with East Mississippi Community College, the school announced Monday night.
In a social media post, EMCC’s athletic department said assistant Preston Rice would serve as interim head coach but did not provide a reason for Stephens’ departure from a position he had held for 18 years.
Earlier Monday, the school released a statement apologizing for comments Stephens made about an updated schedule and playoff format in the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference. Stephens told The Commercial Dispatch that the leaders behind the new format were “idiots.”
The MACCC announced before the season that it would add an extra regular-season game and eliminate the conference semifinals. Stephens told the newspaper the changes were made to save money on travel and would hurt conference schools’ chances of making the NJCAA playoffs.
Rice, who is in his second season with the program, has served as EMCC’s offensive coordinator and associated head coach.
Preston Rice named EMCC interim head football coach. More: https://t.co/MfNnO2GvFC pic.twitter.com/TZC54d9Ol7
— EMCC Athletics (@EMCCathletics) September 1, 2026
Widely considered the most prominent junior college football coach in the country, Stephens lifted EMCC from a consistent sub-.500 program into an NJCAA powerhouse.
During his time in Scooba, Stephens amassed an 84% winning clip and won nine MACC titles and five national championships (2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2018).
Stephens is also a three-time NJCAA Football Coach of the Year recipient, among other national honors. To add to his success, Stephens was inducted into the NJCAA Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2024.
What Stephens may be best known for, at least to the masses, is his time in front of the camera when Netflix’s “Last Chance U” featured EMCC in its first two seasons. His loud, fiery personality and determination to win put EMCC in the national spotlight, even among people who don’t normally watch football.
With big shoes to fill, Rice will take over a team that is already 1-0 this season after beating Southwest Mississippi Community College in last week’s opener. Rice, who first joined the program in June 2025, helped the Lions to an MACCC North Division title a season ago. As the quarterbacks coach then, EMCC ranked among the conference’s top five in every offensive category.
The school has described Rice as “instrumental” to the Lions’ quarterback success last year. After starter Rodge Waldrop suffered from a season-ending injury halfway through the year, backup Trey Irving stepped into the starting role and averaged nearly 200 passing yards and more than 100 rushing yards a game as a true freshman.
Following the 2025 campaign, Rice left the program and took an offensive coordinator job at Division II Shorter University. After a semester there, he was offered the opportunity to return to Scooba as the new offensive coordinator after now-Athletic Director Cade Wilkerson moved on from the role.
EMCC will play Hinds Community College on Thursday, Sept. 3.
