The Mel Tucker era, overall, was fairly forgettable. Outside of that 2020 win over Michigan and the 2021 Peach Bowl-winning season, the era didn’t have much to celebrate.
Following the 2021 season, several key members of the team and coaching staff moved on to bigger and better things. The program lost Kenneth Walker III to the NFL after he won the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation’s best running back, as well as the coach who helped develop him into a superstar, William Peagler.
Before coming to Michigan State, Peagler was a quality control coach at Colorado and spent time at Clemson, Georgia, Louisiana, and Minnesota before landing with the Buffaloes and Tucker. He then followed the head coach to East Lansing when he accepted the job, and he found almost immediate success.
In his second season with Michigan State, the running backs coach identified and helped Tucker land Walker who was splitting carries at Wake Forest.
It was a rather under-the-radar pull, but the staff raved about him all offseason leading up to the 2021 campaign. He kicked things off with a long touchdown run on his first carry as a Spartan, and the rest was history. Walker made Tucker look like a genius, and Peagler, too.
William Peagler is back in the position that made him a hot commodity
While Tucker’s career crumbled for other reasons, Peagler was able to parlay that big 2021 season into a role at Florida as the tight ends coach.
Now, he’s back at the collegiate level after spending the 2023-24 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. He spent the 2025 season at Florida where he was an offensive assistant but he’s been on the hunt for a new job, and he’s finally back in the same role he was at Michigan State, per reports.
James Madison is set to hire William Peagler as running backs coach, sources tell @CBSSports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 22, 2025
Worked at Florida this season. Previously worked in the NFL with the Cardinals, at Florida and as Kenneth Walker’s RB coach at Michigan State during his All-American season in 2021. pic.twitter.com/3a9e7k5YTG
Peagler has spent a couple of seasons at Florida before landing this new job at James Madison where he’s going to be the new running backs coach.
This move isn’t all that surprising considering former Florida head coach Billy Napier has been hired as James Madison’s new head coach. The two have spent some time together dating back to Napier’s Louisiana days, so the hire made sense.
We’ll see if he can develop the next Kenneth Walker III at James Madison.