Former Hornet Garin Higgins completed his 15th year and 14th season on the field as the Hornets head coach in 2021. He has moved into the top ten of the MIAA’s all-time wins list and is the second winningest active coach in the league.
He has taken his alma mater to the NCAA Division II playoffs three times, including a national quarterfinal appearance in 2015. Higgins ranks second in career wins at Emporia State behind stadium namesake Fran Welch. He has a 139-83 record in his 19th season as a head coach with an 88-74 record in 14 seasons at his alma mater.
He is the 21st head football coach at Emporia State and has built the Hornets the right way over his tenure. He was the first person to lead the Hornets to ten wins in two different seasons and has done it in three seasons with three different quarterbacks. He has coached in more post season games than any one in Emporia State history.
He orchestrated one of the great turnarounds in Emporia State history. He inherited a team that was 7-14 the two years before he arrived and was 19-36 in his first five seasons. Since then the Hornets have gone 69-37 with six trips to the postseason, including three NCAA Playoff berths.
In 2018 the Hornets capped their fourth straight winning season for the first time since joining NCAA Division II with a Corsicana Bowl Championship as Emporia State finished the season 8-4. In 2016, he led the Hornets back to the NCAA Division II playoffs as Emporia State went 11-2 and played host to a first round playoff game for the first time in school history. The Hornets went 11-3 and advanced to the NCAA Super Region-3 Championship game in 2015. Higgins took the Hornets to just their second NCAA Playoff appearance and first in ten years in 2013.
The Hornets had one of the best turnarounds in the country in 2012. They improved by five wins over the previous year’s 5-6 record and finished in second place in the rugged MIAA. The offense set several school records in 2012 as the Hornets racked up ten wins for the first time since 1989, when Higgins was suited up as quarterback.
He led the Hornets to within one game of a post season berth in both 2010 and 2011 before 2012’s breakthrough season. The 2010’s were the most successful decade in Emporia State history with the 73 wins between 2010-19 the most in a decade by 16 wins.
He has coached 15 All-Americans, 171 All-MIAA selections including 23 First-Team picks, and eight CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in his 14 seasons at Emporia State.
Higgins compiled a 51-9 record (.857) as the head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State University before becoming the co-offensive coordinator at NCAA Division II member Minnesota State in 2005. Prior to returning to ESU he was the offensive coordinator at Northeastern State University of the Lone Star Conference in the 2006 season. Northeastern State was 3-2 in the Lone Star, their first winning conference record since 2000.
While the head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State, the Rangers qualified for the NAIA playoffs five consecutive seasons, had three national title game appearances and Higgins was named the Central State Football League Coach of the Year five straight years from 2000 through 2004. He also led the Rangers to five CSFL titles during that span. Higgins’s offense rolled up over 42 points per game from 1999-2003 and his rushing offense led the nation in 1999 and 2000. The Rangers won 31 consecutive games from Oct. 1998 through December 2000 and were 15-3 against NCAA Division II schools under Higgins. His .857 winning percentage is the highest in NWOSU history.
Higgins has coached four players that have gone on to play in the NFL regular season - Jeff Richards with the Chargers, Lynn Scott with the Dallas Cowboys, Sam Breeden with the Green Bay Packers, and Patrick Crayton with the Cowboys and San Diego Chargers. Most recently Jeff Richards appeared in six regular season and two playoff games for the Chargers in 2018. Three former Hornets - Adam Schiltz with the Kansas City Chiefs, Austin Willis with the Buffalo Bills, Harold Ayodele with the Chiefs have appeared in NFL Preseason games since in 2011.
“Emporia State can and will compete for conference championships in football,” said Higgins. “And the MIAA is hands down the best conference in the nation.”
A native of Blackwell, Okla. where he was an all-state quarterback, Higgins earned his undergraduate degree at Emporia State in 1992. He was a four-year letterman for the Hornets and helped lead the team to a national runner-up finish in 1989. He has been involved with four teams that have played for or won national championships as a player, coordinator or head coach.
“Emporia State provided me a wonderful experience as a student-athlete and I hope to do the same for my players,” said Higgins. “We are going to recruit kids that want to come to ESU and represent this university well on the field, in the classroom and in the community.”
Higgins and his wife Heather, a 1995 graduate of ESU, are the parents of three children - son Halen and daughters Harlee and Gracyn.
THE HIGGINS FILE
Coaching Career
2021 Head Coach – Emporia State ~6-6
2020 Head Coach – Emporia State (No Games COVID)
2019 Head Coach - Emporia State 4-7
2018 Head Coach - Emporia State ^8-4
2017 Head Coach - Emporia State 6-5
2016 Head Coach - Emporia State $11-2
2015 Head Coach - Emporia State $11-3
2014 Head Coach - Emporia State 4-7
2013 Head Coach - Emporia State $9-2
2012 Head Coach - Emporia State %10-2
2011 Head Coach - Emporia State 5-6
2010 Head Coach - Emporia State 5-6
2009 Head Coach - Emporia State 2-9
2008 Head Coach - Emporia State 4-7
2007 Head Coach - Emporia State 3-8
2006 Off. Coordinator - Northeastern State 4-6
2005 Co-Off. Coordinator - Minn. State 2-9
2004 Head Coach - Northwestern Okla. *9-2
2003 Head Coach - Northwestern Okla. #11-2
2002 Head Coach - Northwestern Okla. *11-1
2001 Head Coach - Northwestern Okla. *7-3
2000 Head Coach - Northwestern Okla. #13-1
1999 Offensive Coordinator - NWOSU !13-0
1998 Offensive Coordinator - NWOSU 7-3
1997 Offensive Coordinator - NWOSU 5-5
1996 RB/QB Coach - NWOSU *8-3
1995 RB/QB Coach - NWOSU 5-5
1994 RB/QB Coach - NWOSU 1-9
1993 Grad. Asst. - Northeastern State 7-3
1992 Grad. Asst. - Northeastern State 5-5
Playing Career
1990 Quarterback - Emporia State 6-4
1989 Quarterback - Emporia State #11-2
1988 Quarterback - Emporia State *8-3
1987 Quarterback - Emporia State *7-4
$NCAA Playoffs
%Kanza Bowl Champion
^Corsicana Bowl Champion
~Live United Bowl
!NAIA National Champion
#NAIA National Runners-up
*NAIA Playoffs
Garin Higgins in the Postseason
12-8
at Emporia State (5-4)
2021 Southeastern Okla. 37, Emporia State 34~
2018 Emporia State 30, Ark.-Monticello 22^
2016 at NWMSU 44, Emporia State 13$
at Emporia State 59, Minn.-Duluth 26$
2015 at NWMSU 38, Emporia State 17$
Emporia State 29, at Henderson St 3$
Emporia State 51, at Minnesota St. 49$
2013 at Minn.-Duluth 55, Emporia State 13$
2012 Emporia State 45, TAMU-Kingsville 38%
at Northwestern Oklahoma (7-5)
2004 Azusa Pacific 16, NWOSU 0*
2003 Carroll (MT) 41, NWOSU 28#
NWOSU 16, Sioux Falls (SD) 13*
NWOSU 24, Dickinson State 17*
NWOSU 63, Tabor 21*
2002 McKendree 32, NWOSU 27*
NWOSU 22, Benedictine 7*
2001 Benedictine 29, NWOSU 27*
2000 Georgetown (KY) 20, NWOSU 0#
NWOSU 42, Northwestern (IA) 7*
NWOSU 31, MidAmerica Nazarene 27*
NWOSU 40, Neb. Wesleyan 13*
$NCAA Playoffs %Kanza Bowl ^Corsicana Bowl ~Live United Bowl
#NAIA National Championship *NAIA Playoffs
Emporia State in the Postseason Under Higgins
NCAA Playoffs (3-3)
2016 at NWMSU 44, Emporia State 13
at Emporia State 59, Minn.-Duluth 26
2015 at NWMSU 38, Emporia State 17
Emporia State 29, at Henderson St 3
Emporia State 51, at Minnesota St. 49
2013 at Minn.-Duluth 55, Emporia State 13
Bowl Games (2-1)
Live United Bowl
2021 Southeastern Okla. 37, Emporia State 34
Corsicana Bowl
2018 Emporia State 30, Ark.-Monticello 22
Kanza Bowl
2012 Emporia State 45, TAMU-Kingsville 38
“Coach Higgins will bring success to Emporia State both on the field and in the classroom. He helped me tremendously as both a player and a person and made sure I got my degree.”
Patrick Crayton
Wide Receiver
Dallas Cowboys (played for Higgins at NWOSU/coached with him at ESU)
