Prairie View A&M athletic director Anton Goff still chuckles when he thinks about how a hotel shortage led him to the coach who would help transform Panthers football.
During the 2023 season, Prairie View traveled east to Tallahassee, Florida, to face Florida A&M for the Rattlers’ homecoming. With no nearby hotel capable of accommodating the Panthers’ full travel party, the team was forced to stay nearly 90 minutes away in Valdosta, Georgia.
That inconvenience proved pivotal.
Driving through Valdosta, Goff noticed a billboard for Valdosta State football. Curiosity kicked in. A little research revealed the Bulldogs’ head coach was Tremaine Jackson — a Houston native, former Texas Southern player and assistant coach, and a rising name leading one of Division II’s most successful programs.
At the time, Prairie View had no coaching vacancy. The Panthers were in the middle of a SWAC West title run under Bubba McDowell. Goff simply filed the name away.
“I wasn’t thinking about Tremaine Jackson at all,” Goff said. “I was focused on what we were doing.”
A year later, everything changed.
Following a disappointing season, Goff made the difficult decision to move on from McDowell. Suddenly, Prairie View was in the market for a new head coach — and Goff remembered the name he had tucked away during that long bus ride in Georgia.
Through back channels, Goff reached out to Jackson, whose Valdosta State team had just completed an undefeated regular season and was deep in the Division II playoffs. Goff was careful not to become a distraction, but the interest quickly became mutual.
“First and foremost, I think he did a heck of a job. I knew he would do a great job here. I had no doubt. That’s why I hired him, the man.”
Anton Goff (Prairie View AD) on Tremaine Jackson
Late-night phone calls followed. At first, they talked football philosophy. Then life — raising daughters, leadership, and being members of different fraternities that share the same 1911 founding year.
“We got to the point where we weren’t even talking about the job,” Goff said. “We were just talking.”
But Goff likes to play cards face up, so he showed Jackson his hand.
“I told him, ‘You’re my guy. If you want this job, I’m going to offer it to you,’” Goff said. “He told me, ‘AD Goff, you’re my guy too.’ He had already told his agent he was taking this job and not to mess it up. He wanted to come home. He felt like we could do something special.”
They agreed to gamble on each other. And last January, Jackson was introduced as the Panthers’ new coach. Within in seconds of his introduction, Jackson told the media and alumni in attendance of his immediate plan to the SWAC West, SWAC Championship, and then onto Atlanta for the Celebration Bowl.
One year later, that gamble has paid off in historic fashion.
In his first season, Jackson led Prairie View to a SWAC West title, a SWAC championship, the program’s first Celebration Bowl appearance, and its first 10-win season. A program once fighting for relevance has suddenly become a blueprint for winning at an HBCU in the NIL, revenue-sharing, and transfer portal era.
Jackson wasted no time reshaping the roster, aggressively attacking the transfer portal and bringing in more than 70 players while retaining key holdovers. He’s doing it again this offseason, with Prairie View now viewed as a destination rather than a rebuilding stop.
“When you’re 10-4, won the SWAC and played in the national championship game, you’re a lot more attractive than when you’re 5-7, and the coach gets fired,” Jackson told the Defender ahead of the Jan. 2 transfer portal opening. “People are already reaching out. We just have to be ready for the attraction.”
From day one, Jackson said his goal was to dominate the SWAC, then HBCU football, and eventually compete with the FCS elite. Even after a heartbreaking four-overtime loss to South Carolina State in the Celebration Bowl, that vision hasn’t wavered.
“I told everybody we’ll be back,” Jackson said. “I don’t care who’s been hired or what players people have — we will be back, and we’ll be ready to win.”
Goff, meanwhile, understands exactly what was at stake when he made the change.
“I prayed over it. I prayed with Bubba,” Goff said. “We still talk. But in my heart, I knew I needed to make a change. This was about the business.”
Hiring Jackson meant betting on a brash, confident young coach making the jump from Division II to FCS — a move that can define or derail an athletic director’s career.
“A lot of ADs are either praised or fired based on football hires,” Goff said. “It’s the most visible sport. Every move gets scrutinized.”
Now comes the harder part: sustainability.
Prairie View must navigate limited NIL resources, a relentless transfer portal, attendance challenges — and the reality that Jackson’s success makes him a target. His name surfaced during the FBS opening at UAB, and more interest will follow if the Panthers continue winning.
Goff knows that, too.
“Obviously, we don’t want to lose him,” Goff said. “But if he gets an incredible opportunity, I’m going to tell him to take it. I’ll hug him, tell him I love him, and support him. That’s what good leaders do.
“If he left tomorrow, he would have left this place better than he found it,” Goff added. “And that’s all you can ask.”
