Southern Utah finalizes hiring of new coach Rob Jeter from Western Illinois

SALT LAKE CITY — Southern Utah found its next head coach, even if it took the Thunderbirds some extra time.

SUU finalized the hiring of new men's basketball coach Rob Jeter, the university announced late Tuesday night, bringing the 53-year-old Pittsburgh native to Cedar City after three seasons at Western Illinois with a 39-45 record.

Jeter will be formally introduced at a press conference Thursday at 11 a.m. MDT at the Sharwan Smith Student Center Ballroom on campus.

"My family and I are so excited to join the SUU family and community," Jeter said in a statement from the school. "We are truly blessed to have this opportunity and to continue the successes that Todd Simon has had. I want to thank (athletic director Doug Knuth) and President (Mindy) Benson for this opportunity. Let's go Thunderbirds!"

With the hire, each Division I men's basketball program in the state has now filled its head coaching role. Southern Utah was the last of three new hires that also included Utah State (Danny Sprinkle) and Utah Valley (Todd Phillips).

Jeter replaces Simon, who took the head coach job at Bowling Green after seven years in Cedar City. Simon, 42, went 118-106 with the Thunderbirds, winning just six games in his inaugural season in 2016-17 and built up to a Big Sky title in 2020-21 and back-to-back 20-win seasons.

Jeter inherits a program coming off a 22-12 record in SUU's first season in the WAC that was a game away from the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational. Like most of college basketball programs across the country, the Thunderbirds have also seen players enter the transfer portal, including three players in the portal that included standout guard Drake Allen and starting center Jason Spurgin.

Jeter became the all-time winningest coach at Milwaukee when he led the Panthers to a 185-170 record from 2005-16, including two Horizon League regular-season titles, two tournament championships and two trips to the NCAA Tournament before he was mysteriously fired following a 20-13 campaign in 2015-16.

The former assistant coach at UNLV, Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Wisconsin-Platteville, his alma mater, won a Division III national title in 1991 while playing under legendary Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan.

"After conducting a nationwide search, we are confident that Rob Jeter is the right person to lead our men's basketball program," Knuth said. "He brings an impressive resume to SUU, and we are thrilled he, Deanna, and their children are joining the T-Bird family."

But getting to the hiring of Jeter took some time.

After ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that the two sides had agreed to a deal last week, Southern Utah initially announced the hire Monday morning in a press release. Western Illinois didn't wait that long, naming former associate head coach Chad Boudreau as the program's interim coach, without mentioning Jeter's departure in a late Friday announcement.

But a few hours after the announcement, the Thunderbirds pulled the news release from their website, and a similar story announcing the hire had also been removed by St. George News, which has worked with SUU as a media partner in the past.

A spokesperson for the Southern Utah athletic department told KSL.com that the release had been posted online "by mistake," adding that a new hire would likely be finalized "in the coming days."

That day came Tuesday, just shy of 48 hours later for Jeter, his wife, Deanna, and the couple's four children.

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