Kent Austin
Encyclopedia
Richard Kent Austin is the Head Coach for the Cornell University Big Red
football team. Prior to this, he was the Offensive Coordinator
for the Ole Miss Rebels football
team. He is the former Head Coach of the Canadian Football League
's Saskatchewan Roughriders
. He also was an Offensive Coordinator for the Toronto Argonauts
and a Quarterbacks Coach for the Ottawa Renegades
.
himself. Following high school at Brentwood Academy
, he went to the University of Mississippi
and played quarterback in the early 1980s. He ranks third in passing yards in the Ole Miss records, behind Eli Manning
and Romaro Miller
. Austin was an Academic All-American in each of his four college seasons and is a member of the University of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
by the St. Louis Cardinals. He played two seasons in the NFL as the team's third-string quarterback, attempting a single pass.
In 1988, the Cardinals chose not to resign Austin, and he instead jumped to the CFL and joined the Roughriders, initially as their back-up quarterback. On November 26, 1989 in Toronto, Austin was at the helm of the Roughriders when they won the 1989 Grey Cup
versus the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
, winning the MVP trophy for his 474 yards passing in the game. One of the Top 10 quarterbacks in CFL history, with 36,030 career passing yards on 4,700 pass attempts, having completed 2709 passes (57.6%), Austin is a Roughriders legend for leading the team to its second league championship (Grey Cup). He also threw 198 touchdown passes and 191 interceptions in his 10 CFL seasons with 4 teams.
Austin started at quarterback for the Roughriders, British Columbia Lions
, and Toronto Argonauts
(the second Ole Miss star to play quarterback for Toronto, the first being Eagle Day in 1967), as well as serving as a backup for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
. He is one of only four CFL quarterbacks to pass for more than 6,000 yards in a single season (6,225 in 1992 with Saskatchewan). Austin won his second Grey Cup in 1994 with the British Columbia Lions, starting the 82nd Grey Cup
but being replaced at halftime by Danny McManus
due to an injury. McManus would lead the Lions to a win on a last-second field goal.
In the Columbo episode A Bird in the Hand... (air date November 22, 1992), footage from a Saskatchewan Roughriders versus Edmonton Eskimos
game was used to portray a fictional game played by a football team called "The Stallions". As the footage showed Kent Austin playing and wearing the No. 5 jersey, the actor playing the quarterback wore a jersey bearing that number throughout the television episode. When a scene required seeing the quarterback in play, they used footage of Kent Austin.
. The following year he was hired as Toronto offensive coordinator, helping lead the team to an offensive surge that allowed the franchise to win the 2004 CFL championship. He was fired in the 2006 season, largely in part to failing to properly utilize RB Ricky Williams. He was later hired as Roughriders head coach for the 2007 season.
On November 25, 2007, Kent Austin coached the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 95th Grey Cup
Championship beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
23–19. In doing so, Austin became the first head coach to win a professional football championship for the same team with which he won the championship as a quarterback. Interestingly, he did it in his first year as head coach, and at exactly the same stadium where he won the cup as a player, 18 years earlier. His performance as head coach won him the 2007 CFL season
Annis Stukus Trophy
as coach of the year.
On January 16, 2008, Austin accepted the job as Offensive coordinator
at the University of Mississippi
, his alma mater, to serve under head coach Houston Nutt
. In 2008 Kent’s offense ranked 28th nationally scoring 32 points a game up from 20 points a game in 2007.
On January 26, 2010 Austin accepted the head coaching job at Cornell University replacing Jim Knowles
who left Cornell to become the defensive coordinator for David Cutcliffe
at Duke University
.
Cornell Big Red football
The Cornell Big Red football team represents Cornell University in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Championship Subdivision college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. It is one of the oldest and most storied football programs in the nation...
football team. Prior to this, he was the Offensive Coordinator
Offensive coordinator
An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of a gridiron football team who is in charge of the offense. Generally, along with his defensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
for the Ole Miss Rebels football
Ole Miss Rebels football
The football history of the University of Mississippi , includes the formation of the first football team in the state and is 26th on the list of college football's all-time winning programs...
team. He is the former Head Coach of the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
's Saskatchewan Roughriders
Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor...
. He also was an Offensive Coordinator for the Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
and a Quarterbacks Coach for the Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades was the most recent name of a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded...
.
College career
Austin is a former starting quarterbackQuarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
himself. Following high school at Brentwood Academy
Brentwood Academy
Brentwood Academy is a college preparatory school with a campus located in Brentwood, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Brentwood Academy is a coeducational, independent, college-preparatory school....
, he went to the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
and played quarterback in the early 1980s. He ranks third in passing yards in the Ole Miss records, behind Eli Manning
Eli Manning
Eli Nelson Manning is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He is the younger brother of NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning...
and Romaro Miller
Romaro Miller
Romaro Miller is an American football quarterback from Shannon, Mississippi. He is best known as a three year starter for the University of Mississippi Rebels...
. Austin was an Academic All-American in each of his four college seasons and is a member of the University of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
Professional career
After college, Austin was selected in the 12th round (312th overall) of the 1986 NFL DraftNFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
by the St. Louis Cardinals. He played two seasons in the NFL as the team's third-string quarterback, attempting a single pass.
In 1988, the Cardinals chose not to resign Austin, and he instead jumped to the CFL and joined the Roughriders, initially as their back-up quarterback. On November 26, 1989 in Toronto, Austin was at the helm of the Roughriders when they won the 1989 Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
versus the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium...
, winning the MVP trophy for his 474 yards passing in the game. One of the Top 10 quarterbacks in CFL history, with 36,030 career passing yards on 4,700 pass attempts, having completed 2709 passes (57.6%), Austin is a Roughriders legend for leading the team to its second league championship (Grey Cup). He also threw 198 touchdown passes and 191 interceptions in his 10 CFL seasons with 4 teams.
Austin started at quarterback for the Roughriders, British Columbia Lions
British Columbia Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954...
, and Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
(the second Ole Miss star to play quarterback for Toronto, the first being Eagle Day in 1967), as well as serving as a backup for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...
. He is one of only four CFL quarterbacks to pass for more than 6,000 yards in a single season (6,225 in 1992 with Saskatchewan). Austin won his second Grey Cup in 1994 with the British Columbia Lions, starting the 82nd Grey Cup
82nd Grey Cup
The 82nd Grey Cup was the 1994 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Baltimore Football Club and the BC Lions at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, BC. It was the first-ever championship in professional football history to feature a United States-vs-Canada matchup...
but being replaced at halftime by Danny McManus
Danny McManus
Danny McManus , is a retired professional American football and Canadian football quarterback who passed for over 50,000 yards in seventeen seasons in the Canadian Football League...
due to an injury. McManus would lead the Lions to a win on a last-second field goal.
In the Columbo episode A Bird in the Hand... (air date November 22, 1992), footage from a Saskatchewan Roughriders versus Edmonton Eskimos
Edmonton Eskimos
The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They currently play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League . Edmonton is currently the third-youngest franchise in the CFL, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895...
game was used to portray a fictional game played by a football team called "The Stallions". As the footage showed Kent Austin playing and wearing the No. 5 jersey, the actor playing the quarterback wore a jersey bearing that number throughout the television episode. When a scene required seeing the quarterback in play, they used footage of Kent Austin.
Coaching
In 2003, Austin entered coaching as the quarterbacks coach of the Ottawa RenegadesOttawa Renegades
Ottawa Renegades was the most recent name of a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, seven years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded...
. The following year he was hired as Toronto offensive coordinator, helping lead the team to an offensive surge that allowed the franchise to win the 2004 CFL championship. He was fired in the 2006 season, largely in part to failing to properly utilize RB Ricky Williams. He was later hired as Roughriders head coach for the 2007 season.
On November 25, 2007, Kent Austin coached the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 95th Grey Cup
95th Grey Cup
The 95th Grey Cup was held in Toronto at the Rogers Centre on November 25, 2007. The Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909, is the championship game of the Canadian Football League. It was played between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with the Roughriders winning 23-19...
Championship beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...
23–19. In doing so, Austin became the first head coach to win a professional football championship for the same team with which he won the championship as a quarterback. Interestingly, he did it in his first year as head coach, and at exactly the same stadium where he won the cup as a player, 18 years earlier. His performance as head coach won him the 2007 CFL season
2007 CFL season
The 2007 CFL season was the 54th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 50th season of the league, and many special events were held to commemorate the event. Regular-season play began on June 28, 2007 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario and concluded on...
Annis Stukus Trophy
Annis Stukus Trophy
The Annis Stukus Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy, which is presented annually by the Edmonton Eskimos Alumni Association to the Coach of the Year, as determined by the members of the Football Reporters of Canada...
as coach of the year.
On January 16, 2008, Austin accepted the job as Offensive coordinator
Offensive coordinator
An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of a gridiron football team who is in charge of the offense. Generally, along with his defensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
, his alma mater, to serve under head coach Houston Nutt
Houston Nutt
Houston Dale Nutt, Jr. is an American football coach and former player. Most recently he was the head football coach at the University of Mississippi from 2008 to 2011. Previously, he served as the head coach at Murray State University , Boise State University , and the University of Arkansas...
. In 2008 Kent’s offense ranked 28th nationally scoring 32 points a game up from 20 points a game in 2007.
On January 26, 2010 Austin accepted the head coaching job at Cornell University replacing Jim Knowles
Jim Knowles
Jim Knowles is a head football coach who is currently the defensive coordinator at Duke University. From 2004-2009, he compiled a 26-34 record as head coach at Cornell University....
who left Cornell to become the defensive coordinator for David Cutcliffe
David Cutcliffe
David Cutcliffe is the head football coach of the Duke University Blue Devils. He is best known for coaching Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning at the University of Tennessee, and Manning's younger brother and fellow Super Bowl Champion Eli at the University of Mississippi...
at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
.
CFL coaching record
| Team | |Regular Season | SSK Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a Canadian Football League team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. They were founded in 1910. They play their home games at 2940 10th Avenue in Regina, which has been the team's home base for its entire history, even prior to the construction of Mosaic Stadium at Taylor... |
2007 | 12 | 6 | 0 | .667 | 2nd in West Division | 3 | 0 | Won Grey Cup |
|---|