EMCC replaces 18-year coach Buddy Stephens with interim leader Preston Rice
East Mississippi Community College has named associate head coach Preston Rice the interim head football coach for the rest of the season, ending Buddy Stephens’s 18-year tenure during which he won five national championships and compiled a 155–31 record. EMCC confirmed the replacement effective immediately and did not confirm Stephens’s employment status, while also distancing the program from Stephens’s recent critical remarks about scheduling and playoff changes; Stephens did not comment on the move.
