Larry Blakeney 2025 NFF COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS

larry blakeney

By Matt Fortuna

Before Troy become one of the most consistent Group of 5 programs in America, the Trojans were mired in a rut at the Division II level. Back then, the school was known as Troy State. Back then, the program played in the Gulf South Conference, not the Sun Belt Conference. That all changed once Larry Blakeney stepped in.

A former football and baseball player at Auburn, Blakeney, then an assistant at his alma mater, was hired to his first head-coaching job in 1991. It would be his only head-coaching job. Turns out the man would go on to literally rewrite the program's history in his own image.

The school went on to name the playing surface at Veterans Memorial Stadium after Blakeney. During his 24-year tenure, Blakeney became the winningest coach in Troy and Sun Belt history. And now he is the first College Football Hall of Famer in the history of both the school and the conference.

"I'm excited about it for all of my family and friends, and the recognition is always good, and I'll try to deal with it properly," Blakeney said with a laugh.

Where do you even begin with Blakeney's accomplishments? He led the Trojans to seven FCS playoff appearances. Then he led them to five bowl appearances, winning two. Troy won three Southland Conference titles, before winning five straight Sun Belt titles from 2006-10. Blakeney was named conference coach of the year two times apiece in each of the two aforementioned leagues. He coached undefeated teams in 1993 and '95.

"Troy was a godsend for me," Blakeney said. "It was a head-coaching job in college football, and I was excited about it. Janice, my wife, was excited about it, and my girls were getting close to college age. So, it was a good place for us all to go. It was a good town and good people at the top, (chancellor) Dr. Jack Hawkins and the administration."

A Birmingham, Ala., native, Blakeney was thrust into coaching not long after graduating college, as he received word that Southern Academy in Greensboro, Ala., was in need of a head coach just two weeks before the start of its season. He answered the bell, found immediate success and, not long after taking the job, told his mother: "Mom, I found my place."

Head jobs at Walker High and Vestavia Hills High followed, before Doug Barfield brought Blakeney aboard as an assistant at Auburn in 1977. Blakeney was the only assistant coach retained by Pat Dye when the future Hall of Fame coach (Class of 2005) took over the Tigers in 1981. Blakeney did a little bit of everything on the Plains, from coaching the offensive line to coaching tight ends and receivers, to calling the plays during one of the most important stretches in the program's history. Auburn won at least a share of four SEC titles during his tenure, finishing ranked in Top 25 nine times with a final ranking highwater mark of No. 3 in 1983.

Troy made Blakeney a head coach and, by extension, a literal college football legend. But his prep roots guided the coach's philosophy every bit as much. Players from those days, such as Curt Mitchell from that first job at Southern Academy, still call Blakeney to this day.

"They players always came first, then everyone else," Blakeney has said over and over again. "The players win the games and coaches lose the games," went another one of his favorite sayings.

The ultimate players' coach received the ultimate honor in 2011, when "Larry Blakeney Field" at Veterans Memorial Stadium became official.

"We'd been there a while and won some games and gone to a bowl or two and did some pretty good things program-wise, so they decided to name the field," Blakeney said. "I was awestruck. I didn't know what they were thinking. It was good for everybody as it turned out."

As crazy as the coaching profession is, Blakeney never had to leave the state during his 45-year career across all levels of football - fitting for a native son of Alabama whose relationships knew no bounds.

"It was a good thing to be stable like that, not only for me as a coach, but my family and my players and my school," Blakeney said. "So, anyhow, Troy was home, and it turned out to be a good one, so it was a good match."