Hall of Famer J.T. Higgins named USC men’s golf coach

The USC Trojans men’s golf team had to have rocketed up the national rankings this past week, all by the naming of J.T. Higgins as their new head coach. A Hall of Fame coach already, Higgins’ time spent with the Texas A&M Aggies saw him lead his team to a whopping 17 NCAA appearances in just 19 seasons.

USC Athletics Director Mike Bohn took to social media to express his delight in naming Higgins the new golf coach.

“So excited to introduce you to our new USC Men’s Golf head coach! He is a big time addition to our program and our athletic department. #FightOn” Bohn’s tweet was sent on top of the Men’s Golf team account announcing the news that shed a little more light on Higgins’ success as a coach.

“We are thrilled to introduce GCAA Hall of Famer J.T. Higgins as USC’s new Men’s Golf Head Coach! Higgins joins the Trojan Family after 19 seasons at the helm of Texas A&M, which included a 2009 NCAA title and 17 NCAA appearances.”

A native of Venice, California, Higgins told USCTrojans.com the following:

“This is such an incredible, exciting day for me. I have always known I would end up back in Southern California, it may have taken 40 years but I finally made it home! I am so grateful to Mike Bohn for this opportunity. He has put everything in place for us to be successful and compete for championships. The roster is filled with talent, the athletic department is pure excellence and when you combine that with a world-renowned university in the most vibrant city in the country, you have a recipe for success. I am so excited for the opportunities that lie ahead for this golf program and can’t wait to get started.”

The full release from USC also includes the following stats on Higgins:

In his 23-year head coaching career at Texas A&M (2002-20) and New Mexico (1998-2001), he has been named Conference Coach of the Year three times and Region/District Coach of the Year four times. He was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2015.

With Higgins at the helm, Texas A&M captured the 2009 NCAA crown (the program’s first ever in golf, as well as A&M’s first in any sport since 1987 and first in a men’s sport since 1939). His teams earned a school-record 12 consecutive NCAA Regional berths from 2003 to 2014. Texas A&M’s appearance in the NCAA Championship in 2004 was its first since 1998.

Under Higgins, the Aggies posted 12 Top 5 finishes in NCAA Regional play, including Regional championships in 2018 and 2019, and had 10 Top 15 finishes at the NCAA Championships, including tied for fifth in 2018 and 2019. A&M finished in the Top 20 national ranking 12 times under Higgins and twice was in the nation’s Top 5 in scoring rating. His teams posted the 15 lowest season scoring averages in school history.

His Aggies placed in the Top 3 of their conference tourney nine times (the first three were as members of the Big 12), including winning the Big 12 in 2012 (A&M’s first league title since 1987) when he was the Big 12 Coach of the Year.

Texas A&M golfers earned 24 All-America honors under his watch, as well as more than three dozen Academic All-Conference honors. He produced nine professional tour players.

Higgins, 54, was the 2020 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year as he led Texas A&M to a pair of tournament victories and a final No. 6 national ranking during the coronavirus-shortened season.

In 2018, A&M won a school-record six tournaments and for a portion of the season was ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll.

He was the Region Coach of the Year in 2005-08-10.

Higgins biography doesn’t just start there, either. There are a multitude of other honors in his career. Read the full biography here.

Welcome to the Trojan Family, Coach Higgins! Fight On!