Lipscomb Academy, football coach Kevin Mawae part ways after Tennessee playoff ban

Pro Football Hall of Famer and Lipscomb Academy football head coach Kevin Mawae parted ways on Friday, a week after the team received a two-year postseason ban from the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) for a recruiting violation.

Lipscomb Academy headmaster Brad Schultz said in a statement to The Tennessean that Mawae and the academy “mutually agreed to part ways.”

“We appreciate Kevin’s service as head of the coaching staff and for leading the Mustang football team as it transitioned into a higher level of competition this season,” Schultz said in the statement.

Mawae served as head coach for one season, stepping in after former coach and NFL star Trent Dilfer left the program for the UAB head coaching job. After winning back-to-back DII-AA state championships under Dilfer, the team moved up to the DII-AAA division and went 4-6 under Mawae.

One of those losses was the forfeit of a win over Briarcrest after the TSSAA ruled that Notre Dame quarterback commit Deuce Knight and three-star prospect Kohl Bradley “did not have a bona fide change of address when they moved to Mississippi,” The Tennessean wrote.

That was one of two findings of the TSSAA. The other was a recruiting violation “based on a brief text conversation between a football assistant coach and a former parent.” TSSAA executive director Mark Reeves wrote to Schultz that the organization’s findings suggest a coach “was offering to ‘intercede’ with donors to help secure financial assistance for the family,” according to the Tennessean. Read more here and here.

In February, the Lipscomb Academy athletics program was placed on probation and fined by the TSSAA for a social media post featuring a girls basketball player that the organization said broke a recruiting rule.