09/01/2026
Stephens no longer head football coach at EMCC
For Daily Times Leader
SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College officials have announced that associate head football coach/offensive coordinator Preston Rice has been chisen the Lions' interim head football coach effective immediately. The announcement was made by EMCC Director of Athletics Cade Wilkerson.
Buddy Stephens is no longer the head coach of the Lions. The school did not give a reason for Stephens’ departure, but Stephens has recently been critical of the new MACCC playoff format.
Rice, a Tennessee native, is in his second year on the EMCC football coaching staff, having assumed the Lions' offensive coordinator duties along with continuing to serve as the team's quarterbacks coach.
A year ago, in his first season on the Scooba campus, Rice helped mentor quarterbacks Rodge Waldrop and Trey Irving during EMCC's 7-3 campaign that featured the program's 12th MACCC North Division title since 2008. With the 2025 Lions ranking among the conference's top five teams in every offensive statistical category, Rice was instrumental in EMCC's quarterbacking success. After Waldrop, a Troy University signee, went down with a season-ending injury midway through last season, Irving, the 2024 MHSAA Class 5A Mr. Football out of Gautier High School, stepped in to finish the season averaging nearly 200 passing yards and more than 100 rushing yards per game as a true freshman for the Lions.
Following the Lions' 2025 football season, Rice was hired as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Shorter University, an NCAA Division II program located in Rome, Ga. After spending the spring semester developing the Hawks' offensive game plan under head coach Zach Morrison, Rice was afforded the opportunity to return to Scooba as the Lions' new offensive coordinator when Cade Wilkerson moved from the coaching sidelines to become EMCC's Director of Athletics this past June.
Rice arrived at EMCC in 2025 from now-defunct Limestone University in Gaffney, S.C. He spent the 2023 football season as a graduate assistant working with quarterbacks and wide receivers. Rice was then elevated to become the staff's quarterback coach, pass game coordinator and recruiting coordinator for the 2024 season. During Rice's two seasons, Limestone posted consecutive eight-win seasons with a dynamic offense that featured two-time South Atlantic Conference Offensive Player of the Year Dustin Noller.
Rice's collegiate playing career consisted of five seasons at Murray State University as the Racers' three-year starting quarterback and two-time season team captain before he spent the 2022 football season as a graduate transfer at Middle Tennessee State University. After seeing limited action as a redshirt freshman, Rice became a 12-game sophomore starter while passing for 2,932 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Rice enjoyed a stellar prep career as a standout quarterback for his father and prep coaching veteran, Rick Rice, at Wayne County High School in Waynesboro, Tenn.
