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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. Pope and his wife Bridney has 5 children: Tegan, Madison, Cason, Kyndal, and Kruz.