Preston Pace III joined the Wolves football staff in 2021 taking over as the Tight Ends Coach while also serving as the team’s on-campus recruiting coordinator and assistant NFL liaison.
Pace joins the Newberry family after spending time with the University of South Florida football team as their assistant running backs and tight ends coach. He assisted coach Sean King with the tutelage of D’Ernest Johnson, a 2016 Paul Hornung award candidate, who set career marks at USF in all-purpose yards (4,186), receiving yards for an RB (909) and career receptions for a RB (73). He is currently a member of the Cleveland Browns. He also helped with the development of Jordan Cronkrite, who posted the ninth 1,000-yard season in program history (184 rushes for 1,121 yards) which still stands as the sixth best in program history.
In addition, Pace also helped coach Mitchell Wilcox, who currently plays for the Cincinnati Bengals, while he was in college at USF. He was a Mackey Award Candidate from 2017-2019 while setting career records in tight end receiving yards (1,326), receptions (100) and touchdowns (11) while on his way to a First-Team All-Conference honor in the 2018 season.
Prior to his time at USF, Pace served as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State University under the late and former assistant vice chancellor Kenneth Miles from 2015-16. While at LSU, Pace, along with his former supervisor Calvin Marshall, created and facilitated the LSU football player development program. The program focused on the wholistic development of LSU football players and is still used in the program today. During his time with the Tigers, Pace helped coach the likes of Leonard Fournette, DJ Chark, Dante Jackson, Brandon Harris, Tredavious White and Devin White. Before joining the LSU program, Pace spent one year at Northwestern State where he served as an academic advisor for the football team.
Pace’s collegiate playing career started in 2007 as a member of Jeff Jordan’s team at Butte Community College. During his time there he was named the team’s shut-down corner while only allowing 10 completed passes on his way to being the ninth-ranked defensive back in the country. He was a key member of the Roadrunners defensive squad that earned a perfect 12-0 record on their way to a national junior college national championship.
After two years at Butte, Pace transferred to the University of Louisville where he played under Charlie Strong. While a member of the Cardinals defense, the team boasted a nationally top-10 ranked defense while finishing 11-2 on the year overall and 5-2 in the Big East Conference, finishing in a tie for the conference title.
Pace earned his Master’s in Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies from the University of South Florida while earning his Bachelor’s in Sports Administration from Louisville. Preston is a St. Petersburg, Fla. native and has two children, Preston Pace IV (12) and Paris Pace (11).
