Felton Huggins Jr. enters his fourth season as head coach at Kentucky State University in 2026 after leading the Thorobreds to one of the best seasons in program history.
In 2025, Huggins was named SIAC Coach of the Year after guiding Kentucky State to a 9-3 overall record, a 7-1 mark in SIAC play and the program's first NCAA Division II playoff appearance. The nine wins tied the school record originally set by the 1935 team and marked just the fifth time, among available records since 1930, that Kentucky State won at least eight games in a season. The seven SIAC victories set a program record.
Kentucky State also earned its first postseason appearance since defeating Livingstone 30-27 in the 1997 Pioneer Bowl. Before 2025, the Thorobreds had never appeared in the NCAA Division II playoffs, which began in 1973.
The Thorobreds closed the 2025 regular season on an eight-game winning streak, their longest overall winning streak since the 1976 and 1977 seasons. It also marked Kentucky State's longest single-season winning streak since 1977 and just the sixth time in program history that the Thorobreds won seven straight games.
Kentucky State's late-season run included a 55-0 road win over Lane on Nov. 8, 2025. The victory was the program's first shutout since a 63-0 win over Central State in 2021 and marked Kentucky State's largest margin of victory since that same game. The shutout was also the Thorobreds' first over Lane since a 34-0 win in 1992.
Under Huggins, Kentucky State placed four student-athletes on the 2025 All-SIAC teams. Daniel Bostic, Darius Cyprian and Navy Curry earned first-team honors, while Jon McCall was named to the second team.
In 2024, Huggins led Kentucky State to a 5-6 record and a 4-4 mark in SIAC play. The Thorobreds won five of their final six games and closed the season with three straight victories over Allen, Central State and Shorter.
Huggins was named head coach on Feb. 16, 2023. In his first season, Kentucky State finished 3-7 overall and 2-6 in SIAC play, opening the Huggins era with a 34-20 win over Clark Atlanta in the SIAC Labor Day Kickoff.
Before Kentucky State, Huggins coached at McNeese State, Charleston Southern and LaGrange. He played collegiately at Southeastern Louisiana and spent time with the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Felton Huggins Jr. enters his fourth season as head coach at Kentucky State University in 2026 after leading the Thorobreds to one of the best seasons in program history.
In 2025, Huggins was named SIAC Coach of the Year after guiding Kentucky State to a 9-3 overall record, a 7-1 mark in SIAC play and the program's first NCAA Division II playoff appearance. The nine wins tied the school record originally set by the 1935 team and marked just the fifth time, among available records since 1930, that Kentucky State won at least eight games in a season. The seven SIAC victories set a program record.
Kentucky State also earned its first postseason appearance since defeating Livingstone 30-27 in the 1997 Pioneer Bowl. Before 2025, the Thorobreds had never appeared in the NCAA Division II playoffs, which began in 1973.
The Thorobreds closed the 2025 regular season on an eight-game winning streak, their longest overall winning streak since the 1976 and 1977 seasons. It also marked Kentucky State's longest single-season winning streak since 1977 and just the sixth time in program history that the Thorobreds won seven straight games.
Kentucky State's late-season run included a 55-0 road win over Lane on Nov. 8, 2025. The victory was the program's first shutout since a 63-0 win over Central State in 2021 and marked Kentucky State's largest margin of victory since that same game. The shutout was also the Thorobreds' first over Lane since a 34-0 win in 1992.
Under Huggins, Kentucky State placed four student-athletes on the 2025 All-SIAC teams. Daniel Bostic, Darius Cyprian and Navy Curry earned first-team honors, while Jon McCall was named to the second team.
In 2024, Huggins led Kentucky State to a 5-6 record and a 4-4 mark in SIAC play. The Thorobreds won five of their final six games and closed the season with three straight victories over Allen, Central State and Shorter.
Huggins was named head coach on Feb. 16, 2023. In his first season, Kentucky State finished 3-7 overall and 2-6 in SIAC play, opening the Huggins era with a 34-20 win over Clark Atlanta in the SIAC Labor Day Kickoff.
Before Kentucky State, Huggins coached at McNeese State, Charleston Southern and LaGrange. He played collegiately at Southeastern Louisiana and spent time with the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Head Coach Felton Huggins Jr. enters is second season at the helm of the Kentucky State football, being named head coach on Feb. 16, 2023.
In his first season at KSU, the Thorobreds achieved 1,539 receiving yards, their highest total since 2014. He ended the 2023 season with a 3-7 overall record.
Huggins comes to Kentucky State University after spending the past year as the Assistant Coach of Wide Receivers at NCAA DI school McNeese State.
Prior to McNeese State, he served as the offensive coordinator and inside wide receivers coach at Charleston Southern in 2019. He arrived at Charleston Southern after six years at LaGrange College in Georgia, where he was the associate head coach, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and academic coordinator.
In his first season calling plays for Charleston Southern, he put numerous student-athletes in the top 100 in FCS in multiple offensive categories, including pass efficiency, passing touchdowns, passing yards, points, receiving touchdowns, scoring, and yards per attempt. Kameron Brown set the Charleston Southern single-season receiving touchdown record (10), while the Bucs posted the second-most first downs per game in Charleston Southern history (20.1).
Charleston State posted a trio of All-Big South Second Team selections (Kameron Brown – WR, Zack Evans – OL, Stephen Haralambis – OL) as the Bucs recorded the third-most total offensive yards in a CSU single season (4,341). A CSU record 21 different receivers caught passes in the 2019 season as well, with five different receivers hauling in at least 20 catches.
Huggins’ offenses at LaGrange were often among the best in the USA South conference. In his six years with the team, the Panthers ranked top five in the conference in the total offense all but one year and finished as high as second in 2017 when they averaged 408.6 yards per game.
In 2014, Huggins saw senior receiver Griffin Roelle earn USA South All-Conference honors. Rolle broke his own single-season record with 67 pass receptions and graduated as the Panthers’ leading receiver with 126 receptions.
During the 2013 season, the Panthers’ receivers broke or tied all of the team’s receiving records. Sophomore Marsalis Jackson was named the USA South Offensive Rookie of the Year after setting school records of 902 receiving yards and 12 touchdown receptions. Freshman Ervens Oge (713) and junior Griffin Roelle (675) also broke the previous season's record for receiving yards in a season (450).
Huggins played collegiately at Southeastern Louisiana. He started for three years and finished his time at the school as the career leader in receptions (162) and receiving yards (2,350) when he finished his collegiate career. Huggins still holds school records for catches in a season (84) and receiving yards in a season (1,313). In addition, he is tied for the most catches in a game (13) and has the single-game receiving yards record of 266. Huggins received third-team All-America, and All-Conference honors his junior and senior years.
During his time at Southeastern Louisiana, he was coached by Matt Mumme, son of the “Air Raid” innovator Hal Mumme. Following his playing career, he implemented the “Air Raid” offensive style during his coaching career, which has led him to success.
