Shawn Watson is calling it a career.
Wofford announced Tuesday that its head coach will retire at the end of the 2026 season, closing a 45-year run in the profession.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel added the decision was entirely Watson’s, and that Watson started the conversations with school administrators himself over the weekend.
The program will honor Watson at the Terriers’ final home game on Saturday, November 14, against East Tennessee State at Gibbs Stadium. A confidential search for his replacement is already underway.
“It has been a blessing to coach for 45 years,” Watson said in the announcement. He added that he “found my why” in the profession and thanked his wife, Anita, and their children.
Watson arrived in Spartanburg in January 2022 as Josh Conklin’s assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. That fall Conklin resigned with the program on a 15-game losing streak. Watson was named interim head coach on October 6 and went 3-3 the rest of the way. On December 1, 2022, we shared the news that Wofford was removing the interim tag.
His Terriers went 2-9 in 2023 and 5-7 in 2024. In 2025 they finished 6-6 and went 5-3 in SoCon play, good for a tie for third.
This year’s team is 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the league after a 26-10 loss at Western Carolina on Saturday.
Watson also beat Furman four straight times, including a 32-25 win on October 3 in the historic 100th meeting of the rivalry.
Most of the coaching world knows him as an offensive mind and a quarterback developer. Watson is from Carbondale, Illinois, and played free safety at Illinois and Southern Illinois. He got his start as a graduate assistant at SIU in 1982. He then spent seven seasons at Miami (Ohio) coaching tight ends, receivers and quarterbacks before returning to his alma mater as head coach from 1994 to 1996.
From there, he coached quarterbacks for Gary Barnett at Northwestern and followed Barnett to Colorado, where he ran the Buffaloes’ offense from 2000 through 2005. He was Nebraska’s offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2010 under Bill Callahan and Bo Pelini. At Louisville he took over play-calling midway through 2011 and coached Teddy Bridgewater to a 2013 Sugar Bowl win over #4 Florida.
He joined Charlie Strong’s staff at Texas as associate head coach and quarterbacks coach in 2014 and 2015, and ran Pitt’s offense in 2017 and 2018. He also coached at Indiana, Georgia and Northern Iowa before landing at Wofford.
His career spans 13 programs across 45 years, and a lot of quarterbacks and young coaches who learned the game in his room.
Very few coaches in this business get to pick their own ending. After 45 years, Watson is able to do it on his terms, in front of his own players and his home crowd on Saturday.
Please join us in congratulating coach Watson on a terrific career. Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest on the Wofford search.