SC State hires Benedict football coach to fill Bulldogs’ vacancy
After resurrecting Benedict College football, Chennis Berry will get a shot leading another in-state program.
Berry will be the new coach at South Carolina State University, president Alexander Conyers announced Thursday at a board of trustees meeting. 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz and HBCU Gameday were first to report the transaction.
Berry succeeds Buddy Pough, who retired at the end of the year and is the winningest coach in program history with 151 victories.
Pough is currently the interim athletic director at the school.
“We have an agreement for our new head football coach,” Conyers said. “The new football coach will be none other than Chennis Berry. ... We look forward to coach Berry joining our team.”
The school also announced Thursday that former S.C. State football player Nathan Cochran will be the new athletic director.
“We are ready to rejoin the Bulldog family,” Cochran said via Zoom video of the board meeting.
Cochran, who is currently the athletic director at Walsh College in Ohio, will join the school later this month. A press conference to introduce Berry will be held next week.
“I’m confident we have hired two great additions to the team,” Conyers said. “I look forward to working with each of them.”
Berry’s new salary wasn’t immediately known. Pough was making $287,000 annually in his final contract.
Berry was believed to be SC State’s top choice, sources told The State. His name also has been linked to Southern University and Texas Southern job openings.
“Ultimately, my focus is to go 1-0 every day. I don’t focus on any outside noise,” Berry told The State in October about possible rumors to other jobs. “This college has been really, really good to me.”
Berry just finished up his fourth season at Benedict. He led the Tigers to back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. Benedict also earned back-to-back trips to the Division II playoffs. It was the first time the program made the postseason in school history. They were No. 1 seeds in their region both years.
Benedict lost in the second round of the playoffs this year to Lenoir-Rhyne.
Berry was a longtime college assistant before getting his first head coach job at Benedict. He spent seven years as offensive coordinator at Southern. Other coaching stops included assistant jobs at Howard University, North Carolina A&T, Morris Brown, Kentucky State and Fort Valley State, while also serving internships with six different NFL teams.
S.C. State went 5-6 this season but has a rich tradition under Pough and Willie Jeffries, producing several future NFL stars. The Bulldogs have won 18 MEAC championships, the last coming in 2021.
Berry is one of two Columbia coaches from HBCU schools leaving.
Teddy Keaton, who led Allen to a 7-3 record this year, was hired at Clark Atlanta on Nov. 27. Allen had a press conference scheduled to announce its new hire on Thursday but decided to postpone it.
This story was originally published December 7, 2023 at 11:05 AM.
