Hinds Announces 2025 Football Coaching Staff

RAYMOND, Miss. – First year Head Coach Chris Jones has announced his inaugural staff for the 2025 season this fall. Omarr Connerwas named the Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receiver’s Coach. Terrance Pope was named Assistant Head Coach/ Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach. Terrian Dora was named Special Teams Coordinator and Linebackers Coach. Quentin Saulsberrywas named the Offensive Line and Strength and Conditioning Coach. To round out the staff is Micah Lewis who will be in charge of the Running Backs. 

Omarr Conner – Omarr Conner has been with the Hinds football program since 2015. Conner will be the Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receiver’s Coach going into the 2025 season. Conner previously spent three years coaching at Hinds as the wide receivers coach before taking over as the quarterbacks coach.

A Macon native, Conner graduated from Noxubee County High School. During his playing career at Noxubee County, Conner was named to the Dandy Dozen, as a Parade All-American, and as the Mississippi Player of the Year.

Conner moved on to Mississippi State University where he started at wide receiver his freshman season in 2003 before he was moved to quarterback and started there the next three seasons.  

He returned to his high school alma mater to start his coaching career. Conner served as the quarterbacks coach for one season before becoming the receivers coach at Yazoo County High School for three seasons. Conner then moved on to Louisville High School where he served as the offensive coordinator for three seasons. While there, his offense helped win a state championship in 2014.

In 2015, Conner came to the college coaching ranks as wide receivers coach for Hinds. Conner coached six receivers and two running backs who went to National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I institutions following careers at Hinds. One of those receivers was Javon Wims, now in the NFL with the Chicago Bears.

Conner and his wife, the former Ashley have four children, Lailya, Ariel, Donovan and Carson Conner. 

Terrance Pope – Former Southern Miss and South Panola standout defensive lineman Terrance Pope is in his first season as Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach for the Hinds CC Eagles football team.

Before Hinds, Pope was an assistant coach on Buddy Stephens’ East Mississippi Community College football staff. His initial season in the collegiate ranks resulted in the Lions claiming their ninth conference championship during a 15-year span as well as increasing his personal state championship ring count to the same total. The successful 11-year high school coaching veteran previously won a combined total of eight rings as a player and coach at the prep level. 

Two seasons ago he earned a second straight Mississippi Association of Community College Conference (MACCC) championship with East Mississippi, which finished as National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) runners-up. Pope helped coach five EMCC defensive linemen who went on to sign with four-year programs, including two with SEC schools.

Pope arrived on the Scooba campus in 2023 after serving two seasons as the defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at perennial Class 6A state powerhouse Starkville High School.  

Prior to his successful coaching stint under the direction of SHS head coach Chris Jones, Pope spent the two previous seasons in the same coaching capacity as defensive coordinator and defensive line coach for head coach Randal Montgomery’s North Panola High School squad.

A product of South Panola High School’s historical 89-game winning streak that produced five consecutive Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 5A state championships (2003-2007), Pope began his football coaching career at his prep alma mater following his Southern Miss playing career when his former high school head coach Lance Pogue hired him on SPHS’s staff beginning with the 2012 season.

Following his career-launching, six-year coaching stop at South Panola as the staff’s tight ends and defensive line coach, which produced two more Class 6A state championships (2012 and 2014) for the Tigers, Pope spent the 2018 season as an assistant on M.C. Miller’s coaching staff at Louisville High School. As the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Pope earned another state championship ring for the team’s Class 4A title run.

His championship pedigree was formed during his title-filled prep playing days at South Panola High School, where the Tigers went 60-0 with four straight Class 5A championships during his playing career (2004-2007) in Batesville. As a senior, Pope garnered all-region and first-team, all-state honors from the Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) before capping his high school career by participating in the Mississippi/Alabama All-Star Classic.

Pope’s winning ways competing on the gridiron continued in the collegiate ranks at the University of Southern Mississippi. Playing all four USM seasons (2008-2011) under the guidance of coaching veteran Larry Fedora, Pope was a four-year starter at defensive tackle for the Golden Eagles, debuting by earning 2008 Freshman All-Conference USA first-team honors. 

He played a key role on four straight winning teams that participated in postseason bowl games en route to compiling a collective overall record of 34-19 (.642) and 20-12 league mark. Pope capped his productive college playing career by earning All-Conference USA second-team recognition from Phil Steele’s publication after helping lead the 2011 Golden Eagles squad to a school-record 12 wins, a Conference USA championship and a victory in the Hawaii Bowl.

Pope is a 2012 Southern Miss graduate with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and certified in special education teaching. The Pope native has two children – daughter Madison and son Kruz. 

Terrian Dora is in his first season as Special Teams Coordinator and Linebackers Coach.
Dora has worked on the staff as both a student and graduate assistant at the University of Southern Mississippi.

He earned his Bachelor of Liberal Arts in May 2021 and his Master of Sports Management in May 2023. In 2018, he was a part of top defenses in Southern Mississippi. He came to Southern Miss after earning 4A all-region honors at Noxubee County High School, where his school won two state titles during his time there.  

Dora and his wife, Taylor, has two children, Teyana and Terrian.

Quentin Saulsberry is in his first season at Hinds and will be charge of the Offensive Line and Strength & Conditioning. 

Before Hinds, Quentin was the Offensive Line Coach with the Southwest Mississippi Community College Bears. Before his stop in Summit, he coached the offensive line at Starkville High School.

A native of Independence in Tate County, Saulsberry graduated from Independence High School in 2007 after lettering all four years for the Wildcats. After graduation Saulsberry enrolled at Mississippi State where he continued his academics and athletics for the Bulldogs as an offensive lineman.

While in Starkville, Saulsberry started 52-consecutive games for the Bulldogs. He earned freshman All-SEC honors. During his junior year he earned All-SEC Second Team and All-SEC Honorable Mention during his senior year.

Following his time at Mississippi State, Saulsberry went into the NFL signing as an undrafted free agent with the Minnesota Vikings. He also played for the Denver Broncos before playing in the Canadian Football League for the Winnepeg Blue Bombers. Afterward he played for the New Orleans Voodoo of the Arena Football League.

After his playing career wrapped, Saulsberry entered law enforcement as a patrol officer with the Starkville Police Department. He then became a School Resource Officer at Starkville High before transitioning into coaching full-time with the Yellow Jackets.

Saulsberry has three children: Quentin McCoy, Dakota and Christian.

Micah Lewis is in his first season as the Hinds Running Backs Coach. For the last five seasons, he was an Assistant Coach for the Starkville High School Yellowjackets football team. 

He graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. Before his time at Mississippi State, he was a standout on the gridiron for the Northwest Rankin High School Cougars. 

Lewis and his wife, Olivia, are expecting a baby girl in June 2025. 

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