Southern Virginia athletic director Jason Lamb today named former Navy and BYU assistant, Joe DuPaix, as the Knights’ next head football coach.
DuPaix replaces Jason Walker, who was a graduate assistant at BYU. He inherits a program that went 1-19 under Walker. Matthew Edwards, BYU’s former tight ends coach, was named interim coach when Walker was let go in November. Including Edwards, five people have been in charge of the Southern Virginia program in the past 25 months.
"We are thrilled to announce the hire of Coach DuPaix as our head football coach," said Lamb, "He comes highly recommended from prominent coaches throughout the country and has tremendous experience building successful football programs. He helped create a blueprint that we can model here at Southern Virginia University. "
Most recently, DuPaix comes to Southern Virginia from BYU where he served two seasons as the Cougars’ recruiting coordinator and running backs coach. During his stint at BYU, DuPaix was part of the staff that led the Cougars to an 18-8 overall record from 2011-12, including back-to-back bowl wins and a 10-win season (2011).
Before BYU, DuPaix coached the slot backs at the United States Naval Academy under current Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo. During DuPaix’s three years in Annapolis, the Midshipmen appeared in three consecutive bowl games, won two Commander-In-Chief trophies and ranked in the top-ten nationally for rushing offenses each season. DuPaix was also part of Navy’s 10-win season in 2009, which culminated in a 35-13 rout of the University of Missouri in the Texas Bowl.
Coach Niumatalolo, who hired and mentored DuPaix at Navy, said, “Joe DuPaix is a perfect fit for Southern Virginia football. He is a great football coach and a wonderful leader of men. He and his wife are wonderful examples of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that the program will flourish under his leadership.”
DuPaix's collegiate coaching career began in 1998 as an offensive coach at Division II Missouri-Rolla, before becoming the offensive coordinator at Division I-AA Cal Poly in 2007.
As a player, DuPaix was the starting quarterback and team captain for two years at Southern Utah, where he set an NCAA Division I-AA individual rushing record during the 1996 season for yards by a quarterback (1,246 yards). The following season, DuPaix’s senior year, he helped the Thunderbirds finish second in the nation while earning I-AA Independent Player of the Week honors with 218 yards rushing against UC Davis.
DuPaix transferred to SUU from Snow College where he was also the starting quarterback and team captain for two years. As a sophomore at Snow, DuPaix was named an honorable mention junior college All-American and the MVP of the1995 Real Dairy Bowl finishing the year with 2,482 passing yards and 832 rushing yards.
The Salt Lake City native played his high-school football at Skyline High School for his father and legendary Skyline coach Roger DuPaix, who led the Eagles to eight state titles before retiring in 2011. As a senior at Skyline, DuPaix was the 1990 Utah State MVP (Class 4A) while guiding the Eagles to their first state title of the 90’s.
After serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Barranquilla, Colombia, DuPaix married to the former Monica Taylor. They have seven children together.
“We are excited to welcome Joe DuPaix to our university family,” Wilcox said. “He is a natural leader with the motivation and talent to build a successful, winning football program at Southern Virginia focused on developing well-rounded young men.”