MOBILE, Ala. – South Alabama Football head coach Major Applewhite has hired former NFL player and coach Tim Rattay to serve as the program's passing game coordinator and receivers coach.
 
Rattay joins the Jaguars after a one-year stint at LSU as an offensive analyst for the Tigers.
 
At LSU, Rattay helped mentor a receiver room that produced four invites to the 2026 NFL Combine in Aaron Anderson, Barion Brown, Chris Hilton and Zavion Thomas. Brown led the Tigers in receiving yards in 2025 with 532. With Rattay helping lead the way, LSU finished the season with an appearance in the Kinder's Texas Bowl.
 
Prior to his lone season at LSU, Rattay was the quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State for five seasons. In 2023, Rattay coached Alan Bowman to the seventh-highest single-season passing yards total in school history (3,460). Bowman finished the year ranked No. 15 among FBS quarterbacks in passing yards. He also finished No. 7 in the nation and No. 4 in school history with 304 completions on the year.
 
In 2022, Rattay managed a quarterback battle that extended into the season before handing the reins to Spencer Sanders, who ended up starting nine games. Sanders led the Big 12 and ranked No. 14 among all FBS players with 303.3 yards of total offense per game. He also led the conference and was 25th in the FBS with 264.2 passing yards per game.
 
In 2021, Rattay coached Sanders on his way to becoming the second player in school history to earn first team all-conference honors at quarterback. Sanders earned the honor after finishing the year ranked No. 1 in the league with 269.8 yards of total offense per game. Under Rattay's guidance, Sanders capped the season as the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl Offensive MVP after finishing the game with 371 passing yards and four touchdowns to go with 125 rushing yards on 17 carries. Sanders joined Tajh Boyd as the only FBS players to record 350 pass yards, 100 rush yards and four touchdowns in a bowl game, and his performance was a critical piece of engineering the largest come-from-behind win in Fiesta Bowl history.
 
During his first season in Stillwater in 2020, Rattay coached Sanders to honorable mention All-Big 12 honors and Cheez-It Bowl MVP honors. Sanders finished the season ranked second in the Big 12 with 8.13 yards per pass attempt and third in the conference with a passing efficiency of 143.2.
 
Before returning to the college ranks at Oklahoma State, Rattay coached quarterbacks for the then Washington Redskins in 2019. That season, Case Keenum and Dwayne Haskins Jr. combined to throw for over 3,000 yards.
 
Rattay got his start in college coaching at his alma mater, Louisiana Tech when he was hired as the team's receivers coach in 2013. He coached receivers for three seasons before moving over to quarterbacks in 2016, where he spent an additional three years with the Bulldogs. During his six seasons in Ruston, Louisiana Tech won two division titles and went 5-0 in bowl games.
 
In 2016, Rattay mentored quarterback Ryan Higgins, who finished the season with 329 completions for 4,617 yards and 41 touchdowns against just eight interceptions. Higgins was honored as the Conference USA Most Valuable Player that season. Rattay then helped develop quarterback J'Mar Smith, who went on to become the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year in 2019.
 
Rattay earned his first coaching position in 2011 with the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League. In his two seasons there, the Locomotives went 7-1 with their only loss coming in the 2011 UFL championship game.
 
After starting his collegiate playing career as a quarterback at Scottsdale Community College, Rattay transferred to Louisiana Tech where he passed for 12,746 yards and 115 touchdowns in three seasons. To this day, Rattay remains LA Tech's single-season and career leader in passing touchdowns. He passed for 4,943 passing yards in 1998 and his 411.9 passing yards per game that season stands as the ninth-best single-season mark in FBS history. He was enshrined into the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.
 
After a successful career in college, Rattay was selected in the seventh round (212th overall) of the 2000 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers and spent six seasons with the team. His NFL career included stops in Tampa Bay in 2006, Tennessee in 2007 and Arizona in 2007. Rattay appeared in 40 games in his career with 18 starts and finished 432-of-714 passing for 4,853 yards with 31 touchdowns.
 
A Phoenix, Ariz. native, Rattay graduated in 2001 with a degree in general studies and is married to his wife, Allison. The couple has three children, Riley, Taylor and Sloane.
 
THE TIM RATTAY FILE
 
PERSONAL
Born: March 15, 1977
Hometown: Phoenix, Ariz.
Education: Louisiana Tech, 2001
Wife: Allison
Children: Riley, Taylor and Sloane
 
PLAYING CAREER
College: Scottsdale Community College & Louisiana Tech (Quarterback)
Professional: San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals & Las Vegas Locomotives (Quarterback)
 
COACHING EXPERIENCE
2011-12: Las Vegas Locomotives (Receivers)
2013-15: Louisiana Tech (Receivers)
2016-18: Louisiana Tech (Quarterbacks)
2019: Washington Redskins (Quarterbacks)
2020-2024: Oklahoma State (Quarterbacks)
2025: LSU (Offensive Analyst)
2026-present: South Alabama (Receivers)
 
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