Faulkner University

Rob Gray enters his second season at the helm of the Faulkner Football program.

In his first season, the Eagles climbed back into the top 25 and reached as high as No. 14 before finishing the season with an 8-2 record. 

Gray spent the 2019 campaign as the pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach before departing to work with Charles Henderson High School in Troy, Alabama, in the Fall of 2020. As Faulkner's 2020 season moved to the spring semester of 2021, Gray returned to the program as associate head coach while also leading defensive backs.

With Gray as head coach, Faulkner has produced two first team all-conference and six second team members. Academically, the Eagles have had two CoSIDA Academic All-District and 18 MSC All-Academic Team members. 

He has tutored his share of standout defensive backs, including Malik Meadows, who made the all-conference list each year under Gray from 2019-21, and two-time selection Alex Dawson. These two combined for 112 tackles in their final campaign, and 13 total interceptions in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, transfer defensive back Chris Thompson and cornerbacks Ovurton Gates and Aaron Reynolds combined for 84 tackles, 20 pass breakups and nine interceptions in 2021. 

Gray, who played in 49 games as an outside linebacker and safety at Jacksonville State from 2009-2013, began his journey in coaching as a graduate assistant on Bill Clark's staff at University of Alabama-Birmingham from 2015-2017. He returned to Jacksonville State as a GA and outside linebackers coach in 2017 before serving as co-defensive coordinator and defensive back coach at Mobile Christian School from 2018-2019. It was from there that then-head coach Tommy Wasden, who had previously been at Mobile Christian, hired him at Faulkner. 
 
A native of Collinsville, Alabama, he has been married to the former Samantha Ockay since April 2016. The couple has a daughter, Scarlett, while also serving as the guardians of Gray's younger brother, Jaydon McElrath.