Jon Williams is in his third year at the Naval Academy coaching the tight ends.
Williams helped lead the Mids to a 10-3 record, wins over Air Force and Army to win the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy and a victory over Oklahoma to win the Armed Forces Bowl. The 10 wins marked just the sixth time in school history Navy has won 10 or more games in a season.
The win over Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl was the first time Navy has defeated a team from the SEC in a bowl game since 1954 (1955 Sugar Bowl) when the Mids beat Ole Miss 21-0. It was the first win against an SEC team overall since Navy defeated Vanderbilt in 2004.
Navy finished the regular season with a complete domination of Service Academy rival #19 Army, knocking off the Black Knights 31-13 in the 125th playing of the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA. With wins over Air Force and Army, the Mids won the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, which is presented annually to the winner of the football competition among the 3 major service academies (Navy, Air Force and Army) and is named in honor of the President of the United States.
Navy won the two Service Academy games in 2024 by a combined 45 points, which ties the 2019 Navy team for the biggest combined CIC blowouts by any of the three Service Academies since 2007 when Navy beat Air Force and Army by a combined 46 points.
Navy’s win over Army gave Navy victories over two ranked opponents for the first time since 1958, when the Mids defeated #8 / #7 Rice 20-7 and #14 / #12 Michigan 20-14. Navy defeated #24 (Coaches) Memphis 56-44 on Sept. 21, 2024.
Navy was predicted to finish 11th in the 2024 American Athletic Conference preseason poll and ended the year tied for third with Memphis (Navy beat Memphis head-to-head) with a 6-2 mark.
The Navy offense scored 407 points in its 13 games in 2024, which was a whopping 195 more than it scored in its 12 games in 2023.
Navy averaged 247.5 rushing yards per game in 2024, the sixth-best average in the FBS and the program’s best since 2019.
The Mids finished 37 of 42 (.881) in the red zone with 34 (.810) of those scores resulting in touchdowns. Navy finished #1 in the country in red zone touchdown percentage.
Navy finished with a 5-7 record and a 4-4 mark in the American Athletic Conference in 2023. The Mids, picked ninth in the preseason poll by the league’s coaches, finished tied for fifth in the AAC despite having to play 4 different quarterbacks due to injury (second most in the country) and was the only FBS school to start 3 different quarterbacks in a win.
Williams came to Navy from Miami (Fla.), where he was the Director of Football Operations and the Chief of Staff.
At Miami, Williams served as the senior staffer responsible for oversight of all aspects of the program, including operations and recruiting which netted the highest-rated recruiting class in school history, the #1 class in the ACC (2023) and top 5 in the country.
Prior to Miami, Williams was the Director of Recruiting and Player Development at Rice University in 2021, where he was responsible for revamping the recruiting department which resulted in the highest-rated signing class in program history.
Williams was the tight ends coach at Birmingham Southern in 2019-2020, where he was part of a record-setting squad that had the ninth-ranked offense in Division III and the #1 rushing offense in school history in 2019. The 2020 season was canceled due to COVID.
Williams served as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Tennessee Martin in 2016, where he helped the team make the Ohio Valley Conference Championship game.
Prior to his stint at Tennessee Martin, Williams was the assistant head coach, tight ends coach and director of player personnel at Southern Miss for Todd Monken, who was the offensive coordinator at Georgia in 2022 when the Bulldogs won the National Championship and is currently the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens.
At Southern Miss, Williams was an integral part of the biggest turnaround in NCAA history at the time going from 3-9 in 2014 to 9-4 in 2015 and winning the Conference USA West Division. Williams was directly responsible for implementing a recruiting strategy and overseeing all recruiting operations that led to Conference USA’s top-rated class in 2015. Williams was part of a Southern Miss offense that finished the 2015 season as one of two programs in NCAA history to have a 4,000-yard passer, two1,000-yard rushers and a 1,000-yard receiver.
Williams was the head coach at Itawamaba Community College in Mississippi from 2010-13, where he led the program to a 21-16 record in four seasons including a win over National Champion East Mississippi College in 2012. His teams finished in the top 20 twice in his four years at Itawamaba where he produced five NFL players. Williams was also an assistant coach at Itawamaba from 2007-09.
Williams has also served as the head coach at Locust Fork High School in Alabama (2006), assistant head coach and offensive line coach at Mississippi College (2002-05), special teams coordinator at Wayne County High School in Mississippi (2001), head coach at Simpson Academy in Mississippi (1999-00), offensive line coach at East Central Community College (1996-98).
Williams is a 1996 graduate of Wingate University and he received his master’s degree from Alcorn State in 2004.
Williams and his wife, Lisa, have a daughter, Jordan, and a son, Cole, who was a four-year member of the Navy football team and graduated in May of 2024. He is currently serving in the Marine Corps.
