Roger Cador Steps Down As Southern Coach

While Alabama filled its head coaching vacancy Thursday, two more jobs opened around the country. Incarnate Word announced coach Danny Heep resigned after 20 years, and Southern coach Roger Cador will step down from coaching and take on another role at the school.

Heep, a San Antonio native, played parts of 13 years in the big leagues before beginning his coaching career as an assistant coach at Incarnate Word in 1992. He was promoted to head coach in 1998 and went 602-475 over 20 seasons. The Cardinals went 20-36 and finished 12th in the Southland Conference.

Incarnate Word has spent the past four years transitioning from Division II to Division I. The Cardinals have been ineligible for the postseason during that time, but that restriction will be lifted next season.

Cador, 65, has been an institution at Southern, his alma mater, for nearly 50 years. He played for the Jaguars from 1970-73 and returned as an assistant coach in 1978. He took over as head coach in 1985, building Southern into a Southwestern Athletic Conference powerhouse. The Jaguars in 1987 became the first HBCU to win an NCAA Tournament game and he coached Rickie Weeks, the 2003 College Player of the Year.

But Southern has fallen on hard times in recent years. The Jaguars have struggled to meet the NCAA’s minimum Academic Progress Rate to be eligible for the postseason, and will again be ineligible next year. Southern went 14-27 and finished in last place in the SWAC this season.

2017 COACHING CHANGES
School	Departures	Arrivals
Alabama	Greg Goff	Brad Bohannon
Cincinnati	Ty Neal
Citadel	Fred Jordan
Dayton	Tony Vittorio
Incarnate Word	Danny Heep
La Salle	Mike Lake
Massachusetts	Mike Stone	Matt Reynolds
North Florida	Smoke Laval
Santa Clara	Dan O’Brien
Southern	Roger Cador
Stanford	Mark Marquess (retiring after season)
Tennessee	Dave Serrano
Texas-Rio Grande Valley	Manny Mantrana
Towson	Mike Gottlieb
Virginia Tech	Patrick Mason