Richard Owens is in his third season as a member the University of South Alabama football coaching staff, and his second guiding the Jaguar offensive line. This will also be his second year working as co-offensive coordinator.
Owens wasted little time making an impact after coming to South in 2015, helping one Jag at his position earn multiple Sun Belt Conference honors and another who would end up signing with a National Football League team in the spring. After leading South in receptions (41), receiving yards (575), touchdown catches (eight) and total touchdowns scored (12) — marks that tied the school record for touchdown catches in a season, and also ranked among the top 10 in program history for receptions and receiving yards in a year — Gerald Everett was a first-team all-league selection, named to the Sun Belt All-Newcomer Team and added to the John Mackey Award Watch List in the middle of the campaign. With his help, the junior would end the campaign sixth in receiving yards per game and tied for 11th in catches per contest among all tight ends in the country.
Following the season, after catching 11 passes for 147 yards as a senior, Braedon Bowman signed with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
Last fall, Owens’ unit helped South allow fewer sacks while averaging more passing yards, total yards and points per contest than the 2015 campaign as the Jags qualified for a postseason bowl game for the second time in three seasons.
Owens came to USA after three years as a full-time assistant in the state at Alabama-Birmingham, where in his last year with the Blazers he worked with Jaguar co-offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent.
He coached tight ends during the 2014 season as UAB averaged more than 430 yards and 33 points per game — both figures ranked fourth in Conference USA — to help the program gain bowl eligibility for the first time since the 2004 campaign. Under his direction, Kennard Backman — now a member of the Green Bay Packers organization in the National Football League — earned second-team all-league honors after leading the team with 39 catches while recording 399 yards and three touchdowns, while Everett added 17 receptions for 292 yards and a score and Tristan Henderson added six catches, 50 yards and a touchdown.
In 2013, the Blazers averaged nearly 400 yards and more than 26 points per outing with Owens serving as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, and he also led the tight ends in his first season with the program.
He came to UAB from Arkansas, where he spent two years as a graduate assistant working with Razorback tight ends. His second season, Owens coached a unit that featured Chris Gragg — entering his fourth season with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills — who ended the campaign ranked third on the team with 41 receptions and fourth with 518 receiving yards; not only did he tie for the lead among Southeastern Conference tight ends, he tied for 11th overall in the league in catches per game.
The previous season Owens’ group included D.J. Williams, who would go on to become the first Razorback to win the John Mackey Award — given to the nation’s top tight end — after topping the squad with 54 catches for 627 yards and four touchdowns. Williams also won the Disney Spirit Award and was Arkansas’ first Sullivan Award finalist in 2010, and after concluding his career with 152 receptions — the second-highest total in the school’s record books and the most by a non-wide receiver — and 1,855 yards, he was selected in the fifth round, 141st overall, of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers to become the earliest-drafted tight end in program history.
Owens played collegiately at Louisville before going on to a five-year career in the NFL during which time he played for the St. Louis Rams, Minnesota Vikings and N.Y. Jets.
After sitting out as a redshirt in 1999, he appeared in all 12 contests — starting three times — to be selected to the Conference USA All-Freshman Team at tight end. Owens played in 13 games, recording three catches with two of those going for touchdowns, as a sophomore, while the following season he ranked sixth on the team with 20 receptions for 182 yards after starting six of the Cardinals’ last seven outings and playing in all 13 contests.
As a senior, he played in all 13 games with four starts and finished his career with 36 catches for 371 yards and eight touchdowns while also serving as the Cardinals’ long snapper.
After completing his collegiate career, Owens signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings. He appeared in 53 games between 2004-09 with seven starts, totalling 17 receptions for 141 yards and one touchdown. Owens was with the Vikings from 2004-07 — serving as special teams captain during the 2005 campaign — before signing with St. Louis; after two years with the Rams, he signed with the New York Jets in July of 2009.
A native of Middleburg, Fla., Owens played tight end and defensive line at Middleburg High School. After earning first-team all-area honors his high school number was retired in 2006.
Owens — who earned his degree in sports administration from Louisville in 2004 — is married to the former Tina Ryan. The couple has one daughter, Rylan.
The Owens File
Born: Nov. 4, 1980, in Gainesville, Fla.
Education: Louisville ’04, bachelor’s degree in sports administration
Collegiate Playing Experience: Four years, tight end/long snapper, Louisville
Professional Playing Experience:
Minnesota Vikings, NFL, 2004-07
St. Louis Rams, NFL, 2007-08
New York Jets, NFL, 2009
Coaching Experience:
Arkansas — graduate assistant, 2010-11
Alabama-Birmingam — assistant coach, 2012-14
South Alabama — assistant coach, 2015-
Family: Wife, Tina; One daughter, Rylan (10)
