Pearl River Community College (JC - MS) is looking for a new head football coach with two games still left on the schedule.
The school announced Monday that Seth Smith has resigned after seven seasons leading the Wildcats.
Pearl River is 3-5 so far this fall. The college did not name an interim coach or say why the move came now.
The school's release goes on to share the search for Smith’s replacement is already underway.
Smith steps away from the Pearl River sidelines with an overall mark of 19-40. His best year was 2022, when the Wildcats went 6-3, the program’s first six-win season since 2010. That team beat rival Mississippi Gulf Coast in the 100th all-time meeting between the two schools. It also led the MACCC in scoring defense and ranked sixth nationally in points allowed per game, and Smith was named MACCC South Division Coach of the Year.
The seasons after that were tougher. Pearl River went 1-8 in 2023. In 2024 it bounced back to 4-5, beating #7 Northwest and picking up its first win over East Mississippi since 2008. Then it fell to 1-8 again in 2025. Last fall’s team averaged 335 yards and 22.6 points per game.
Anyone who has spent time around JuCo football in Mississippi knows how thin the margins are in the MACCC. Beating East Mississippi for the first time in 16 years is no small thing in that league.
Smith’s ties to Pearl River run deep. He is from Millard, Mississippi, starred at Pearl River Central High School and signed with the Wildcats in the spring of 1999. Keith Daniels recruited him as a quarterback, and he moved to defense once Scott Maxfield took over the program.
His coaching career started at Picayune, where he coached running backs and defensive backs from 2004 to 2008 before becoming defensive coordinator. He then spent four seasons as defensive coordinator at Pearl River Central. In 2013 he took over at East Central High School in Hurley.
East Central is where Smith built his reputation. He went 53-34 in seven seasons there. In 2014 he took the program to its first playoff appearance in 12 years, and he won playoff games in 2015 and 2016. His 2017 team went 13-1 and his 2018 team went 12-1. During that run, East Central reached the MHSAA Class 4A state championship game and played for a South State title. It made the playoffs again in 2019 after moving up to Class 5A.
Pearl River hired him in November 2019 to replace Ted Egger, who went 10-17 over three seasons. Smith’s first year was a shortened 2-4 season in 2020, and his offense led the MACCC in rushing. In 2021 his team led the state in rushing at 229.9 yards per game.
“Coach Smith and his family embody so much of what makes Pearl River Community College special,” PRCC President Dr. Adam Breerwood said.
Athletics director Michael Avalon said Smith “means a great deal to me personally and to Pearl River Community College,” calling him “a good man who is grounded in his faith, loves his family and cares deeply about his players.”
Walking away from your alma mater in the middle of October is never how a coach draws it up. The wins didn’t come the way anyone in Poplarville wanted, but the people running the school clearly still think plenty of the man.
Pearl River has two games remaining, at Copiah-Lincoln CC and vs Mississippi Gulf Coast CC.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for updates on the search.