Three former UWF football coaches headed to Benedict College with Ron Dickerson Jr.
The University of West Florida football team will be replacing more than just its offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Ron Dickerson Jr., who was introduced as head coach of Division II Benedict College on Jan. 25, is bringing a few former UWF coaches and a former UWF player with him to Columbia, South Carolina.
The Tigers' football X, formerly known as Twitter, account shared a graphic on Friday, announcing Dickeron's coaching staff for the 2024 season. Shea Campbell, Mike Beaudry and Jarrod Sanders Jr., who all spent 2023 in Pensacola with the Argos, were listed as assistant coaches. Former UWF defensive back Shannon Showers, who graduated in 2022, is also joining Benedict.
Campbell, who also played for UWF during the 2020-21 seasons after transferring from West Virginia, will be Benedict's defensive coordinator while also coaching linebackers. Campbell, who played linebacker for the Argos, served as a defensive assistant and academic coordinator in 2023 with the Argos.
Beaudry was the first official signee in UWF football history, and was with the Argos during the 2015-18 seasons. He eventually transferred to Division I University of Connecticut for the 2019 season and the University of Idaho for the 2020-21 seasons. Beaudry dressed in 10 regular-season games in the Canadian Football League and was cut at the conclusion of the 2023 raining camp.
Beaudry only competed in two seasons with UWF after suffering an injury to his left fibula in the spring of 2016. He missed the 2016 season in the fall rehabbing the injury. In 2017, he led UWF to its first Division II National Championship game. The Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, native, who holds dual citizenship between Canada and the United States, will be Dickerson's quarterbacks coach. Beaudry was an offensive assistant in 2023.
Also joining Dickerson at Benedict is Jarrod Sanders, who was with UWF for one season in 2023 as a graduate assistant coach, working with the secondary. Initially, Sanders left for a job at Coffeyville Community College – where he was a coach during the 2022 season. Sanders will be Benedict's defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator – the same position he held at Coffeyville in early 2024.
Showers, who played for UWF during the 2021-22 seasons at defensive back, is headed to Benedict as a graduate defensive backs graduate assistant. Showers, a Fort White native, also played at Southern Miss before transferring to UWF. In 25 total games for the Argos, Showers posted 94 total tackles (64 solo, 30 assisted) with two interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
"I'm very excited for Coach Dickerson. He did a great job while he was here. He was a person I could lean on and get some wisdom from. I'm just very excited that he's getting a chance to run a team. He'll be good for that program," UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles told the PNJ on National Signing Day. "We'll have a new wide receivers coach, working on development. We've kind of already identified the guy who that's going to be.
"It's not able to be publicly announced yet," Nobles said, referring to a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator. "That'll probably be coming out in the next week or so."
Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Benedict College's Ron Dickerson hires three former UWF coaches for Tigers
