USF Athletics

New Tight Ends Coach King Knows How to Win Big in Caring Way

April 30, 2020

COACHES PROFILE SERIES: While we wait for USF football to hit the field once again, Senior Writer Tom Zebold and Voice of the Bulls Jim Louk give Bulls fans a window to know more about the people and personalities on head coach Jeff Scott's first USF staff.

The series continues with a feature on new tight ends coach Joey King, who was instrumental in developing star Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence during their highly successful run at Cartersville (Ga.) High School.

LISTEN: King's interview with Voice of the Bulls Jim Louk HERE.
 
PAST PROFILES:
Charlie Weis Jr. - Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
Glenn Spencer – Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach
Xavier Dye – Wide Receivers Coach
Jules Montinar – Cornerbacks Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
Allen Mogridge - Offensive Line Coach/Assistant Head Coach
Da'Quan Bowers – Defensive Line Coach
Pat White – Running Backs Coach
Wes Neighbors – Safeties Coach
 

By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer

TAMPA, APRIL 30, 2020 – One of the crown jewels in Georgia high school coaching history is now in Tampa and set to inspire a playmaking position group and help build USF football into a big winner.

Joey King – Clemson superstar Trevor Lawrence's head coach at powerhouse Cartersville High School – is now in charge of guiding the Bulls' tight ends as the very promising Jeff Scott era gets rolling.

"We're gonna play really, really fast and hopefully we're gonna score a lot of points," King said. "That's always the plan."

Points weren't a problem during King's reign as head coach at Cartersville High School from 2014-18.

The Purple Hurricanes amassed a 67-4 record and captured two Class 4A titles with Lawrence at quarterback (2015-16). King's teams made three state title game appearances overall and advanced to at least the state semifinals four times in a five-season span.

Throughout King's tenure, Cartersville lost just one regular season game and won 41 straight outings from 2015-17.

"My life's calling, I guess, if you will, is to make a difference," said King, who continued to do just that last season in the college ranks as Coastal Carolina's wide receivers coach.

It's All About 'Heart' for Caring Coach
Football is much more than X's and O's for a father of three who treats his players like family.

"I've had a lot people make a difference in my life," King said. "I've always kind of felt the call to do the same."

King was shown how to win big in a caring way during his own playing days for Carson-Newman University in Tennessee.

While King suited up as a quarterback and served as a model student-athlete, the Eagles won three South Atlantic Conference championships and were consistent NCAA playoff contenders in the early-to-mid 2000s.

King's head coach back then was the legendary Ken Sparks, who still ranks fifth all-time in college football history - at any level - with 338 NCAA wins from 1980-2016.

"He didn't care about the score at the end of the scoreboard. He always talked about the scoreboard in your heart and who we were as a person," King said. "That's really impacted me from a coaching standpoint. If I focus on who the kids are, how their heart is, the rest of it ends up taking care of itself."

King has modeled his coaching philosophy/style after Sparks since starting in the business at Jacksonville State University, where he earned his master's and educational specialist degrees.

Once King took his wife Ashley's hand in marriage, the couple wanted to start a family of their own. That led to the Cedartown, Ga., native continuing his coaching career in his home state at two high schools - Sonoraville and Carrollton, where he was an offensive coordinator.

"Then the opportunity presented itself for me to take the job as the head coach of Cartersville," he said. "We did that."

Lots of Success With Lawrence
With two tall and highly talented quarterbacks to choose from, King knew he was "going into a pretty good situation" as head coach at Cartersville High.

It turned out to be great.

Amazingly, King reached 50 wins faster than any coach in Georgia high school football history and won the region championship in all five of his seasons with Cartersville (2014-18). King also guided the Purple Hurricanes to back-to-back state titles (2015-16) with the eventual top-ranked recruit in the nation under center.

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence led Cartersville to 41 straight wins during his historic high school career that saw the 6-foot-6 phenom set Georgia state records with 13,908 passing yards and 161 TDs through the air. Lawrence went 52-2 overall as a starter after taking over in the third game of his freshman year.

"He checks every single box and handled everything - and still does to this day - with an extreme sense of maturity," King said.

While he coached Lawrence, lots of college programs came calling and the one that rang the loudest was Clemson. Jeff Scott, who was the Tigers' co-offensive coordinator and a top recruiter, made a "first-class" impression on both Lawrence and King.

"You kind of felt a genuine relationship being established. They cared more about who (Lawrence) was as a person than what he could do on a football field," King said. "That really stood out to me from Coach Scott and the rest of those guys at Clemson."

More history has been made since Lawrence committed to Clemson. As a true freshman, the ACC Rookie of the Year capped off an undefeated 2018 season with Offensive MVP honors in the Tigers' CFP National Championship Game win over No. 1 Alabama.

Last season, Lawrence totaled 45 combined passing/rushing touchdowns while leading 14-1 Clemson back to the national championship game.

"It's not just a talent deal. He's a phenomenal kid. He's a great student. He gives back to the community. All those things I tried to do," said King, a former South Atlantic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year and AFCA Allstate Good Works Team member.

Reconnecting With Scott at USF
Once his historic run with Cartersville was done, King achieved more success as Coastal Carolina's receivers coach in 2019 before he reconnected with Scott.

The two crossed paths when King was recruiting in upstate South Carolina and popped in to watch an ACC Championship-bound Clemson practice during some downtime.

"Jeff walks up to me, walking off the practice field and says, 'Hey, listen. I got some big things shaking. I may be announced next week as the head coach at South Florida. If I have an opening, are you interested?" King recalled. "I said, 'Well, sure, coach.' That was it. That was the extent of it."

Sure enough, Scott was named USF's new head coach soon after that chat.

"Then that weekend rolls around and my phone rings," King said. "He wanted to talk to me about the job. I was definitely thrilled."

Months later, King is still ecstatic about his opportunity as USF's tight ends coach in the same city his uncle, Joe Kines, served as linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1987-90).

Despite having just one spring practice with the Bulls, King continues to coach up his players virtually and care for them throughout the pandemic.

"I've told them since day 1, my job was to be able to love them," he said. "It's hard to put my hands on them when I'm not around them. But I still get to look them in the eyes using technology, so that part has been great."

So is the amount of potential King sees in the rising USF program he learns more and more about each day.

"I think the key ingredients are there, as long as the guys continue to buy in, continue to believe and continue to hold each other accountable through all this (COVID-19) mess that we're going through right now," he said. "I'm definitely excited about what's here at the university."
 
About USF Football
The USF football program first took the field in 1997 and completed its 23^rd season (20^th at the FBS level) in 2019. The Bulls have posted 15 winning seasons, earned 14 All-America selections and 29 first-team all-conference selections and has seen 30 players selected in the NFL Draft. USF has made 10 bowl games appearances (going 6-4 in those games) and posted a program record six straight appearances from 2005-2010. The Bulls most recently made four straight bowl appearances from 2015-18 and posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, logging a program-record 11-2 mark in 2016 while finishing both seasons ranked in the Top 25. USF spent a program record 20 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 during the 2016 and 2017 seasons and reached as high as No. 2 in the national rankings during the 2007 season.
                                                                                
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