Meet Coalition member Khenon Hall, he is the new Running Backs Coach at Texas Southern University. Coach Hall was born and raised in Dallas Texas and a self-proclaimed die-hard Cowboys fan. When we spoke, he reflected on his humble beginnings in Dallas. 

Like so many of the stories of our coaches he grew up in a home where his mother nor father were present. He was raised by some strong women, specifically his aunt, who took on the task of raising a boy on limited means. Beside his aunt he said that there were some coaches along the way that did not give up on him and likely saved his life. He told me a story of his sophomore year in high school when he was dealing with the tragedy of loosing a close family member. In not knowing how to deal with the pain he started to act out and fall off the straight and narrow path, but he had a coach and a counselor who were committed, and they reeled him in and kept him on the right path. He learned from early age that the path is full of adversity and that he had to be strong and persevere to get where he was going. 

Those were good lessons as he would face much more adversity along the way. He became a standout football player with big dreams. Those dreams seemed to be falling into place when he was offered a scholarship to Baylor, but he suffered a neck injury and was faced with adversity once again. The Baylor offer was gone, and he thought his dreams were gone as well. Through hard work, determination, and the grace of God he recovered and went on to play Junior College ball before transferring to Illinois State. There he felt like he found a home with strong male influences who had a vested interest in his success. He spoke of his defensive coordinator Galen Scott (now ILB Coach at University of Louisiana Lafayette) who was like a father figure to him, and Mike Menefee (now Asst. Coach/Safeties at UTSA) as being instrumental in his growth as a player and a man. In addition to them he was surrounded by mentors on and off the field. 

He was thriving in his new environment and excelling in the classroom and on the field. However, this is not a fairytale, and he would be faced with another adverse situation in his life. In his junior year he broke his neck and was temporarily paralyzed. His football playing dreams were over and essentially being his own parent, he was faced with what now? That is when another mentor entered his life. Lamar Conard (current Running Backs Coach at Miami of Ohio) joined the Illinois State staff his senior year and he instantly gravitated to him. It was Coach Conard who sparked the fire inside him that if he can’t play anymore, he wanted to put his passion into coaching. Coach Conard fought for him to make sure that there was a place for him with the program. 

That December, Khenon had spinal surgery and finals. He came out on the other side healed and with a degree in Kinesiology. He began Grad School right away, but there were no GA positions available. He became an academic advisor to be able to serve in a GA capacity. The academic advisor role required 30 hours a week on top of studying and coaching. He was the father of a newborn and working basically for free. I asked how he maintained? He said that his life experiences had taught him how to live off nothing, so he was built for this. 

In the spring of 2012, he accepted a GA position at New Mexico as a corners coach. The relationship with the defensive coordinator made the position unnecessarily difficult and he was away from his young son who was suffering from seizures. After that season he headed back to Illinois state as an intern defensive assistant making 15k a year. In 2014 Coach Conard moved to the running backs coach and Hall became the full time DB’s Coach. In 2017 Conard left for Miami of Ohio and Hall continued to follow in his mentor’s footsteps and became the new running backs coach at Illinois State. He said that moving to the offensive side of the ball was the best decision he ever made. He was able to use his knowledge of the defensive side as an added advantage and it broadened his coaching knowledge. It also allowed him to open new GA positions for young coaches that he was mentoring. 

One of the players that he coached and took great pride in mentoring was a young James Robinson. I asked what was it about the relationship with Robinson that was so special? Hall replied that mentoring him helped him grow as a coach and as a man: “He took coaching well, he wanted to be the best he could be and he let me make an example out of him to get the rest of the team in line. He was a special young man and a true professional and that why I’m so happy to see the success that he is having with the Jaguars.”

Over the next two seasons he had back-to-back top 15 recruiting classes and Coach Hall was flying high again. Then came 2020. With the season pushed to the spring of 21 and all the of social justice issues going on, fractures in the program started to appear. A coach defaced a Black Lives Matters poster and the players were unhappy and there was talk of sitting out practices until the situation was addressed. The head coach called on Hall to be the peacemaker and to get the players in line. This was not an easy task because he was upset about the situation too and the players leaned on him for guidance as he had become a mentor to them. Through this process it became increasingly clear that this was no longer the place for him. He went from being a top recruiter and top assistant who was interviewing for OC positions to being relieved of his duties. While things didn’t end the way he would’ve liked, Coach Hall said that Illinois State really helped him grow up and mold him into the man he is today and that he will always be thankful for that. 

While disappointed with the way things ended at Illinois State, Coach Hall kept his head up and focused on the next chapter even though he was not sure what that would be. Soon after he was introduced to Coalition Executive Committee member Alonzo “Coach Zo” Carter. After a few conversations Alonzo put in a call to coach McKinney at Texas Southern and told him that if they did not hire him, he would. Coach Zo told Khenon to expect a call and to be ready. Coach McKinney didn’t waste anytime in hiring coach Hall and making him their new Running Backs Coach. After spending the last 15 years away from Texas he is more than glad to be coming back home. When I spoke with him, he was in Indiana preparing for Houston and looking forward to hitting the ground running through recruiting, camps, meeting coaches, and just diving in. 

I asked how his family was managing all of this change and he was quick to praise his fiancée Sierra. She is a marketing director with AT&T and the rock that holds their family (Jazlyn 12, KJ 10, and Khaydon 6) together through thick and thin.

We are excited for this new chapter in Coach Hall’s career, and we will be wishing him and the Texas Southern Tigers all the best. We can’t wait to see them take the field this fall! If you have a chance, reach out to Coach Hall, introduce yourself and show him some love.

*You can connect with Khenon Hall via Twitter: