Troy University football coach Jon Sumrall announced on Friday that he has hired longtime college and high school coach Travis Pearson to serve as cornerbacks coach.

Pearson replaces Troy assistant Al Pogue, who departed Troy to join the Missouri coaching staff last month. Pearson spent the last three years at Alabama State, serving as defensive coordinator in 2019 along with serving as interim head coach at ASU for the final three games of the 2021 season.

“I am excited to have Travis joining our staff,” Sumrall said in a statement. “He is a native of Alabama and a former Alabama high school coach.

“He has extensive experience as a defensive coordinator in Division I football, having served in that role for seven of the last nine years. He has tremendous energy and passion for developing young men on and off the field.”

Pearson came to ASU in 2018 as a cornerbacks coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator the next year. Before coming to Alabama State he served as defensive coordinator at Alabama A&M in 2016 and 2017 after serving as an assistant coach at South Alabama for three seasons. He was linebackers coach at USA in 2013 and defensive coordinator in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Pearson grew up in Silas and played college football at Alabama State before playing professionally with the Arena Football League for seven seasons.

Pearson’s coaching career began as the head coach of Central-Hayneville while he was still playing for the AFL’s Florida Bobcats. He became an assistant coach at Elmore County in 2000 and was elevated to head coach at Elmore County in 2002 until 2004 when he became defensive coordinator at Oxford High School.

In 2007, Pearson became Director of Football Operations at Iowa State University before becoming head coach and athletic director at Jeff Davis in Montgomery in 2009. In 2011, he became the defensive coordinator at Colquitt County High School in Georgia, where he helped guide the school to back-to-back state championships.