Tony Joe White has been named Birmingham-Southern's new head football coach, athletic director Kyndall Waters announced Monday. He becomes the sixth head coach in program history, and third since the program resumed in 2007 at the NCAA Division III level. White was most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Centre.
White replaces Eddie Garfinkel, who was relieved of his duties earlier this month following the Panthers' 1-9 season. Garfinkel was 41-46 as head coach at Birmingham-Southern.
"We are thrilled that coach Tony Joe White has accepted our offer to become our next head football coach," said Waters. "Coach White's integrity, enthusiasm, leadership, and commitment to excellence are the exact traits we were looking for in a coach to lead our student-athletes and our program. During his time at Centre, he led high powered offenses and helped to create a great energy around their program. I'm excited to see coach White bring his style of play and his care and dedication to our program."
Under White's guidance, the Colonel offense has broken program total yard records every season since 2013, finishing this year with 5,086 yards to rank 13th statistically for total offense. They are also ranked top 20 in NCAA Division III in six other offensive categories and finished the season in third place in the Southern Athletic Association.
"Coach White is one of the most successful offensive coordinators in the SAA, and I am thrilled that he is becoming a member of the BSC family," said BSC president Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith. "Coach White will bring to our program the standard of excellence that defines BSC's athletic and academic programs. And our athletic director Kyndall Waters and her selection committee are to be commended on such a successful search."
Centre has compiled 500-plus yards of offense in nine games in the past two seasons under White, with 12 of at least 400 yards. They picked up 703 yards in a 66-28 win at Rhodes this season. The Colonels finished top 20 in NCAA Division III in total offense in 2015 as well, with quarterback Heath Haden setting program career records in passing yards (8,872), passing touchdowns (68), and total yards (10,623).
Prior to his tenure at Centre, White was the quarterbacks coach at Belhaven, where his quarterbacks led the nation in pass offense in 2006 with 343 yards per game and scored more than 32 points per game. In 2007, White's quarterbacks threw for more than 350 yards per game, finished second in the country in pass offense and averaged 33 points per game.
White also coached at Division I-AA Southeast Missouri State from 2000-04. The SEMO offense averaged more than 410 yards per game in the five seasons White was there. He was also the special teams coordinator at SEMO and annually had some of the top kicking units in the Ohio Valley Conference. White also coached at Southwest Baptist University from 1998-99 and was a graduate assistant at Louisiana Tech (1997).
White and his wife Meredith, have two children, Emily and Tucker.