Jacksonville State and Charles Kelly announced the latest members of his first-year staff at Jax State, all coming to the Conference USA program with Power Four ties.

Among the latest additions to Kelly’s staff are tight ends coach Taylor Housewright, defensive backs coach Rohan Gaines, defensive line coach Xavier Garcia and outside linebackers coach/recruiting coordinator Bert Biffani.

Housewright was hired from Georgia Southern, where he served as a senior analyst on the same staff as new Jax State offensive coordinator Clint Trickett. Before being hired at the Sun Belt Conference program, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Montana State.

His Big Sky Conference offenses played for the FCS championship in 2021 and ranked second in the nation in scoring and rushing in 2022.

Housewright has also had stints at Oregon, Mississippi State and Wyoming.

Gaines, a former Arkansas defensive back, was a defensive analyst at Auburn on Kelly’s staff last season, working with the Tigers’ cornerbacks.

He was hired at Auburn last season after serving as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M under Jimbo Fisher.

The former Arkansas defensive back was a four-year starter for the Razorbacks from 2012-2015, earning Southeastern Conference All-Freshman honors. He played in 47 games and started 39 for Arkansas and racked up over 200 tackles.

Garcia spent the 2024 season as a defensive assistant with Georgia Tech, working with the defensive line as the Yellow Jackets finished 7-6 and played in the Birmingham Bowl against Vanderbilt.

Georgia Tech finished the year with 18 sacks and had two players earn All-ACC recognition on defensive line. Before spending the 2023 season at Duke, he also had stints at SMU, Temple, Central Oklahoma, Angelo State and New Mexico Military Institute.

He played at Eastern Kentucky when the Colonels and Jax State were both in the Ohio Valley Conference and logged two tackles against the Gamecocks on Oct. 22, 2016, in a 24-7 Jax State win.

Biffani is a longtime coworker of Kelly, with the two being on the same staffs at Alabama, Tennessee and Florida State when Biffani served as an analyst; he won a BCS national title with FSU in 2013 and a CFP championship with Alabama in 2020.

He spent the 2024 season as defensive coordinator at Pell City High School.

The announcements now bring the total number of official position coaches to 10 on Kelly’s first-year staff; the program has yet to announce who will coach quarterbacks.

2024 Jax State announced coaching staff members

Head coach: Charles Kelly

Offensive coordinator: Clint Trickett

Defensive coordinator: Vinnie Sunseri

Special teams coordinator/running backs coach: Max Thurmond

Wide receivers coach: Lawrence Dawsey

Tight ends coach: Taylor Housewright

Offensive line coach: Rick Trickett

Defensive line coach: Xavier Garcia

Linebackers coach: Deshaun Davis

Outside linebackers coach/recruiting coordinator: Bert Biffani

Defensive backs coach: Rohan Gaines