Vicksburg native Norman Joseph named Offensive Coordinator at Northwestern State

Story from Northwestern State Athletics: 
Vicksburg native Norman Joseph has been named the new offensive coordinator at Northwestern State University.

Joseph begins his second stint as an NSU assistant after a two-year run as the Demons’ passing game and recruiting coordinator in Natchitoches in 1988 and 1989 under legendary head coach Sam Goodwin.

In the three-plus decades since leaving Natchitoches, Joseph has enjoyed success as both a head coach and offensive coordinator.

He was the first head coach in Belhaven College history, bringing the Blazers from scratch to a 16-15 mark in four seasons, including a 13-9 mark in his final two campaigns of 1999 and 2000. Joseph returned to Louisiana as the head coach at Louisiana Christian in the 2004 season before beginning a nine-season stretch as the head coach at Mississippi College.

In Joseph’s first season, the Choctaws went 2-8 before winning 27 games in the next four seasons. Joseph led Mississippi College to a 9-3 record and the 2009 American Southwest Conference championship, winning a first-round game in the NCAA Division III playoffs. That season, Joseph earned the American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year honor.

Joseph’s decorated career was just taking off during his first stop at Northwestern State. Joseph moved from Northwestern State to then-Northeast Louisiana University (now ULM) for a four-year stint as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, helping bring home Southland Conference championships in 1990 and 1992.

A Vicksburg, Mississippi, native, Joseph spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Southern Miss (1994-96), two seasons in the same capacity at San Jose State (2001-02) and at Midwestern State (2003).

Following a year out of coaching after his tenure at Mississippi College, Joseph returned to college coaching in 2015 as Millsaps’ quarterbacks coach before a two-year stint as the offensive coordinator at Columbia Academy. He jumped back into college coaching as the offensive coordinator at Southeastern University in Florida, helping lead the Flames to a conference title in 2018.

A 1977 graduate of Mississippi State, Joseph was the head football coach at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in 2021 and 2022 before spending this past season as the offensive coordinator at Stetson University.

He began his coaching career as a volunteer coach at Vanderbilt in 1977 before spending the next nine seasons at then-NLU coaching defensive backs, quarterbacks and wide receivers.