East Mississippi Community College has fired head coach Buddy Stephens, the program announced Monday. Stephens actually was not mentioned in EMCC's announcement, the school instead revealed that associate head football coach/offensive coordinator Preston Rice has been named interim head coach for the remainder of the season, effective immediately.
Rice spent the 2025 season as EMCC's quarterbacks coach and took the offensive coordinator job at Shorter, a Division II school in Georgia, after the season, but returned to Scooba, Miss., in June after offensive coordinator Cade Wilkerson was promoted to athletics director.
Wilkerson made the decision to fire Stephens and promote Rice, EMCC said.
Stephens spent 18 seasons leading the Lions, leading the program to national titles in 2011, 2013-14, and 2017-18. Stephens rose to national prominence as the centerpiece of the first two seasons of Netflix's Last Chance U, which followed the Lions' 2015 and '16 seasons.
Stephens was critical of EMCC and Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference leadership to increase the league's regular season to 10 games and reducing the number of teams that make the playoffs to only division champions in a story in the Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch on Thursday. “They’re idiots,” Stephens told the paper. “It was really ‘junkified,’ the way they decided they were going to do it and there wasn’t a lot of real thought. I was very surprised at how it came out because there were actual people who have doctorates that came up with this.”
In a statement posted to EMCC's Facebook page on Monday, EMCC president Scott Alsobrooks said the school “strongly disavows the remarks published in a recent article. These comments are inconsistent with the college’s core values and standards of professionalism, respect, and civility and do not reflect the views, mission, or expectations of EMCC. While the college supports open and constructive dialogue, personal attacks have no place in that discourse and are contrary to the standards we uphold within our college community. EMCC sincerely apologizes for the concerns raised by these comments and remains committed to fostering a respectful, professional, and collegial environment for all.”
East Mississippi opened its 2026 season with a 14-6 win over Southwest Mississippi on Thursday, and a source tells FootballScoop Stephens did not coach the game. The Lions play their home opener Thursday against Hinds.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest for coaching news and information.