Todd Berry became the fifth executive director of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) on March 1, 2016 after being voted into position by the AFCA's Board of Trustee at the 2016 AFCA Convention in San Antonio.
Berry takes over the AFCA after a 33-year career in coaching, including several head coaches jobs at the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision levels.
As a standout athlete in high school, which saw Berry named an All-Star quarterback in Oklahoma, he had several offers from well-established programs, but always kept his education as a top priority. In 1983, Berry graduated from Tulsa and immediately pursued coaching as his profession. He was hired onto the staff at the University of Tennessee as a graduate assistant and tight ends coach under the legendary Johnny Majors. Berry would coach at Tulsa and Oklahoma State as a graduate assistant before being named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1986.
While at UT-Martin, Berry coached the Pacers to a top-five finished a Division II passing offense, total offense and scoring offense, total offense and scoring offense. Berry was quickly picked up by Mississippi State University quarterbacks coach from 1989 to 1990 before serving as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Southeast Missouri State in 1991. In 1992, Berry moved to East Carolina University as offensive coordinator and running back coach, positions he would hold for three years before signing on for his first head-coaching job at Illinois State University in 1996.
At Illinois State, Berry took a program that was on the verge of cancellation and brought it back from the brink. After several years of hard work, Berry and the Redbirds achieved what many thought impossible - they made it to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs in 1998 for the first time in program history. They did even better the following year. His efforts in the 1999 season landed Berry AFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors.
After four seasons at Illinois State, Berry went on to the head coach for the Army Black Knights. In four season with the United States Military Academy, Berry's players and teams set 25 Academy records, and in 2001, were the last team to defeat Navy. In 2004, Berry was named the offensive coordinator at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and in 2005, his offense helped the Warhawks win the Sun Belt Conference championship.
After a one-year stint as the quarterbacks coach at the University of Miami (Fla.), Berry moved on to become the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and assistant head coach at UNLV. Berry returned to Louisiana-Monroe in 2010 as head coach and led a program that was dominated by underclassmen. Berry was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year in 2012.
Berry's association with the AFCA began in 1984 when he became a member. He has been very active with his membership, serving on several committees such as the Luncheon Committee, the Program Committee, the Summer Manual Committee, and the Hall of Fame Committee, just to name a few. In 2001, he was named to the AFCA's Board of Trustees while serving as head coach at Army, and was re-elected to the Board in 2010 after he arrived at Louisiana-Monroe, rising up to the position of First Vice-President in 2015. Berry is married to former Lisa Grimes and the couple have two daughters, Jordan and Ryleigh Jo.
