Tyson Summers
Tyson Summers went 5–18 as a head coach, 2016–2025, at Georgia Southern and Colorado State. Share
- Record
- 5–18 career
- Seasons
- 3
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Apr 11, 1980
- Alma mater
- Presbyterian 2002
- Best season
- 2016 5–7
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Georgia Southern | 5–7 | 6th | |||
| 2017 | Georgia Southern coached six of 12 games | 0–6 | ||||
| 2018–24: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2025 | Colorado State interim, remainder of season | 0–5 | 12th | |||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Conference games | 15 | 4–11 | 27% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 8 | 3–5 | 38% |
| At home | 9 | 3–6 | 33% |
| On the road | 13 | 2–11 | 15% |
| At neutral sites | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 10 | 4–6 | 40% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 13 | 1–12 | 8% |
His own 23 games on file, 2016–2025, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| New Mexico Stateseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Arkansas Stateseries | 2 | 0–2 |
| South Alabamaseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| UL Monroeseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Savannah Stateseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Troyseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Auburnseries | 1 | 0–1 |
| Georgia Techseries | 1 | 0–1 |
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Tift County HS (GA) high school | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2003 | Presbyterian | Defensive backs coach | |
| 2004 | Troy | Graduate assistant | |
| 2005 | Georgia | Graduate assistant | |
| 2006 | Georgia Southern | Safeties coach | |
| 2007–10 | UAB | Linebackers coach | |
| 2011 | UAB | Safeties and co-special teams coach | |
| 2012–14 | UCF | Defensive coordinator | |
| 2015 | Colorado State | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2016–17 | Georgia Southern | Head coach | |
| 2018 | Georgia | Defensive quality control coach | |
| 2019 | Colorado | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2020 | Colorado | Defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach | |
| 2021 | Florida | Defensive assistant | |
| 2022–24 | Western Kentucky | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2025–present | Colorado State | Defensive coordinator | |
| 2025 | Colorado State | Interim head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Tommy SpanglerPresbyterian
- Larry BlakeneyTroy
- Mark RichtGeorgia
- Brian VanGorderGeorgia Southern
- Neil CallawayUAB
- George O’LearyUCF
- Mike BoboColorado State
- Kirby SmartGeorgia
- Mel TuckerColorado
- Karl DorrellColorado
- Greg KnoxFlorida
- Dan MullenFlorida
- and 3 more
Assistants who became head coaches
- Chad LunsfordGeorgia Southern, Florida Atlantic
- David DeanValdosta State, West Georgia, Delta State
- Matt MummeLaGrange
Worked under (15)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tommy Spangler | Presbyterian | 2003 | Defensive backs coach | |
| Larry Blakeney | Troy | 2004 | Graduate assistant | |
| Mark Richt | Georgia | 2005 | Graduate assistant | |
| Brian VanGorder | Georgia Southern | 2006 | Safeties coach | |
| Neil Callaway | UAB | 2007–11 | 2007–10: linebackers coach; 2011: safeties and co-special teams coach | |
| George O’Leary | UCF | 2012–14 | Defensive coordinator | |
| Mike Bobo | Colorado State | 2015 | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Kirby Smart | Georgia | 2018 | Defensive quality control coach | |
| Mel Tucker | Colorado | 2019 | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Karl Dorrell | Colorado | 2020 | Defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach | |
| Greg Knox | Florida | 2021 | Defensive assistant | |
| Dan Mullen | Florida | 2021 | Defensive assistant | |
| Tyson Helton | Western Kentucky | 2022–24 | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Jay Norvell | Colorado State | 2025 | Defensive coordinator | |
| Jim Mora | Colorado State | 2026 | Defensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (3)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chad Lunsford | Georgia Southern, 2016–17: special teams coach and recruiting coordinator | Georgia Southern, Florida Atlantic | |
| David Dean | Georgia Southern, 2016: co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | Valdosta State, West Georgia, Delta State | |
| Matt Mumme | Colorado State, 2025: assistant head coach, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator | LaGrange |
Other assistants under him (6)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Lorenzo Costantini | Georgia Southern, 2016–17: defensive coordinator | |
| Rance Gillespie | Georgia Southern, 2016: co-offensive coordinator | |
| Bryan Cook | Georgia Southern, 2017: offensive coordinator | |
| Juston Wood | Georgia Southern, 2017: wide receivers coach | |
| Jeremy Moses | Colorado State, 2025: running backs coach | |
| John Jancek | Colorado State, 2025: outside linebackers coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | State payroll | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Georgia Southern | head coachbonuses up to $292,500 | $530,000 USA Today | ||
| 2016 | Georgia Southern | head coachbonuses up to $292,500 | $500,000 USA Today | $300,000 | |
| 2015 | Colorado State | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $55,556 | $300,000 USA Today | ||
| 2014 | UCF | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $15,000 | $182,700 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Open Georgia (State of Georgia, unaudited): salary paid in the fiscal year from July to June, shown against the season inside it.
Contract pay and the state payroll differ by design: one is the season’s contract, the other what the state paid in a calendar or fiscal year, so a December hire’s short first year, bonuses and camp money paid as special payments, and pay that ran on after he left all show in the payroll.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Summers’s teams went for it on 19% of fourth downs and on 36% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 32% of plays and took 26.3 seconds a play, in 2016.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 12 g | 17 of 91 19% | 36% | 32% | 26.3 | +0.01 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.