Lipscomb Academy (Nashville, Tenn.) announced Tuesday that it has hired Pro Football Hall of Famer Kevin Mawae as its new head football coach, replacing another former NFL player in Trent Dilfer.
Mawae takes over a program on the rise after four years under Dilfer, who left for the head coaching job at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in November. The Mustangs are coming off a 13-0 season and finished No. 13 in the final MaxPreps Top 25 rankings.
Dilfer went 44-10 with two state championships before taking the top post in Birmingham.
Mawae has been an assistant coach for the Indianapolis Colts since 2021 and had previous coaching stints with Arizona State and the Chicago Bears.
As an NFL player, Mawae played in 241 career games (224 at center) for the Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets and Tennessee Titans over 16 seasons.
He was an all-state football player at
Leesville (La.) and stayed in-state for college. At LSU he protected his quarterbacks from future Pro Bowl defensive lineman like Sam Adams, Tim Bowens and Chris Mims.
Mawae became a second round pick by the Seattle Seahawks in 1994. He came off the bench for three games before starting the next 238 games in his career until retiring in 2009 as an eight-time Pro Bowler. He joined Ed Reed, Champ Bailey and Tony Gonzalez as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019.
