Tony Hughes is a Mississippi native and a lifelong devotee to football in the Magnolia State.

He’s coached at all three of the state’s FBS programs — Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Mississippi State — all in the last decade, and has developed some of the SEC’s most talented defensive backs in recent memory.

He earned a reputation as a savvy recruiter while at Ole Miss in the mid-2000s, and he’s continued that success as the recruiting coordinator on Dan Mullen’s coaching staff at Mississippi State since 2009.

HUGHES’ TOP ALL-TIME COMMITS AT MISSISSIPPI STATE

  • Four-star DE Denico Autry, Scooba, Miss. (2012 class)
  • Four-star WR Jamoral Graham, Decatur, Miss. (2014 class)
  • Four-star OLB Gerri Green, Greenville, Miss. (2014 class)

PRIMARY CURRENT TARGETS

  • Four-star S Jamal Peters, Bassfield, Miss (2015 class)
  • Four-star WR Donald Gray, Memphis, Tenn. (2015 class)
  • Three-star DT Jonathan Taylor, Wesson, Miss. (2015 class)

SALARY

  • 2014: $275,000

NOTABLE COACHING STOPS

  • 2008: Southern Miss, secondary
  • 2005-07: Ole Miss, secondary/tight ends
  • 2003-04: Louisiana Tech, secondary/outside linebackers

HISTORY WITH BULLDOGS

Before coaching at the Division I level, Hughes spent a decade coaching junior college football in Mississippi, and during that time he was able to familiarize himself with one of the best JUCO conferences in the country. He’s used that knowledge and the relationships he built during that time to establish himself as one of the best junior college recruiters in the nation.

Among the JUCO stars Hughes has signed to the various schools he’s worked for are four-star defensive end (and current NFL star) Denico Autry, four-star wideout Donald Gray (from this year’s class), four-star safety Justin Cox (a starter on this year’s 10-win MSU team) and others.

Hughes was named one of Rivals.com’s top 25 recruiters in the nation while serving at Ole Miss in 2006, and each of his first six recruiting classes at Mississippi State ranked in the top 35 in the nation in 247Sports composite rankings.

As of this week’s recruiting dead period, Hughes’ seventh class at MSU (his 2015 class) ranks 15th in the nation, thanks in large part to three critical JUCO signees.