After a decorated career as an offensive coordinator with stops calling offenses at Eastern Michigan, Oklahoma State, and Georgia as well as in the NFL with the Bucs and Browns,Todd Monken is busy building out his staff in Cleveland in his first NFL head coaching opportunity.
He has brought Ravens run game coordinator Travis Switzer, a trusted assistant from Baltimore, with him as his offensive coordinator and a number of other Ravens assistants are joining him while all eyes are on the defensive coordinator spot and if Monken is going to be succesful in bringing Jim Schwartz back. Schwartz had reportedly stormed out of the team facility after being told he wasn’t the choice for the head coaching job, and prospects of him returning to finish out his contract with the team have been bleak as of recent reports.
While NFL experience will surely be plentiful on Monken’s staff, according to a report today, one spot being filled on the Browns staff is going to a high school coach.
John Carr, the head coach at Starkville HS (MS), is reportedly joining the staff in a chief of staff role under Monken, according to the Starkville Daily News.
Both Carr and director of athletics (and fellow Southern Miss head coach) Jay Hopson confirmed as much to the news outlet this afternoon. Carr leaves the Starkville program after one season, noting that it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity at the pinnacle of the coaching profession.
“I tell our players all the time that you have dreams and goals and that doesn’t stop as kids,” Carr shared to Starkville Daily News. “You’ll go your whole life still wanting to reach goals and aspirations. Anytime you get in this profession as a coach or player, to try and reach a pinnacle of a profession is what you strive for. To have the opportunity to live out my childhood dream and join the National Football League with the Cleveland Browns is a dream of mine. I wanted to be a part of the profession as long as I could remember.”
Carr led the program to a 6-5 mark in his debut season with the Yellow Jackets. Their season ended in the first round of the playoffs with a 28-10 loss to Tupelo HS (MS).
A veteran high school for many years in Louisiana, Carr previously served as the offensive coordinator at East Mississippi College in the early 2000s before taking over as head coach at Oachita Parish from 2005-12.
He and Monken joined forces when Todd took the head coaching job at Southern Miss, and Carr became his director of football operations. Carr would go on to coach the receivers at Louisiana Monroe before a stint as the head coach at Clinton HS (MS) in 2024.