The Troy University football staff is getting a shake up with Georgia State getting set to name Troy cornerbacks coach Travis Pearson as its next defensive coordinator. 

According to a report from ESPN, Pearson will be named the school’s new defensive coordinator after former defensive coordinator Deron Wilson was named the new cornerbacks coach at Florida. 

While neither Georgia State or Pearson have confirmed the report yet, Pearson was no longer listed on Troy’s 2025 football staff page as of Feb. 18. Pearson, a Silas native, has been at Troy since 2022 when former head coach Jon Sumrall hired him as his cornerbacks coach. 

Pearson played college football at Alabama State and went on to spend seven seasons as a professional football player in the Arena Football League. 

Pearson’s coaching career began in 1998 as the head coach of Central-Hayneville High School. He also spent time as an assistant and head coach at Elmore County and as defensive coordinator at Oxford High. 

Pearson’s first job at the college level was as director of football operations with Iowa State from 2007 and 2008 before returning to the high school coaching world as the head coach and athletic director at Jeff Davis (now JAG) for two seasons. From there, Pearson joined the staff of Rush Propst at Colquit County High in Georgia as defensive coordinator in 2011. 

Pearson returned to the college game as linebackers coach at South Alabama in 2013 and became the defensive coordinator in 2014. Pearson became defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Alabama A&M in 2016 before coaching the safeties at Alabama State in 2018. He served as defensive coordinator at Alabama State from 2019 until 2021 when he was named interim head coach. 

Pearson coached All-Sun Belt cornerbacks Reddy Steward, Oshai Fletcher and Irshaad Davis during his three seasons at Troy.