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On Jan. 4, Troy University announced the hiring of new co-defensive coordinator Nathan Burton, who comes to Troy after a season as defensive coordinator at Kennesaw State.

Burton brings nearly two decades of coaching experience to Troy with both college and professional coaching stints. His defense at Kennesaw State this past season allowed just 17.9 points and 308 yards per game. Burton will serve as co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach.

Burton is an Atlanta, Ga., native, that played high school football at Greater Atlanta Christian School, where he earned All-District honors. He went on to walk-on at Georgia Tech before earning a scholarship with the Yellow Jackets playing safety.

His coaching career started as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech in 20005 and he became a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State in 2008. His first full-time coaching job came as linebackers and defensive backs coach at UT-Martin in 2010, where he first met Troy head coach Gerad Parker.

He became the defensive coordinator at Shorter University in 2012 and became the defensive coordinator at West Alabama in 2014. Burton served as defensive quality control coach at North Carolina State in 2017 and coached defensive backs at Temple in 2018.

Burton returned to his alma mater to serve as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Georgia Tech from 2019 through 2021. He moved into the professional game in 2022, serving as defensive backs coach for the USFL’s New Orleans Breakers in the first two seasons of the league’s return. His Breakers secondary gave up the fewest amount of passing yards in the league in 2022. He returned to the college game this past season to serve as defensive coordinator at Kennesaw State this season.