Lumberjacks Add Three New Football Coaches
3/24/2025 12:00:00 PM | Football
NACOGDOCHES, Texas- Head football coach Colby Carthel and the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks added three new members to their coaching staff. Joshua Atkinson, Kevon Beckwith, and Nelson Gunnell will all be joining SFA for the 2025 season.
Joshua Atkinson joins the Lumberjacks as their new wide receiver's coach. Atkinson spent the previous two seasons (2023-24) with the Colorado State University-Pueblo ThunderWolves as their wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.
In his first season with the Pack in 2023, Atkinson's receivers helped the CSU-Pueblo offense finish in the Top 10 in Division II in both passing offense (289.7 yards per game) and scoring (42.0 points per game). The Pack's receivers set a new single-season school record for pass receptions with 268.
Atkinson came to CSU Pueblo after spending the 2022 season as the receiver's coach at Midwestern State University. During the 2022 campaign, Atkinson coached an All-LSC performer in Kylan Harrison, who caught 26 passes for 354 yards and three touchdowns on the season. Harrison is one of just three players in MSU history to amass 2,000 receiving yards in his career as he caught 118 passes for 2,034 yards and also is the school's all-time leader in touchdown receptions with 24.
Prior to going to Midwestern State, Atkinson, who is a native of Carrollton, Texas, served two seasons (2020-21) as an offensive graduate assistant at Baylor University. He helped the Bears to a 12-2 record in 2021 including wins in the Big 12 Championship Game and the All-State Sugar Bowl after suffering through a 2-7 season in 2020.
Before going to Baylor, Atkinson worked two years as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Tulsa.
Atkinson was a four-year letterman and three-year starter at Tulsa and the wide receiver closed his Golden Hurricane career with 2,654 yards receiving with 202 receptions, including a pair of 1,000-yard seasons. Atkinson earned a degree in Communications from Tulsa in 2016.
Kevon Beckwith begins his first season with the Lumberjacks as the defensive line coach. Last year he was the interior defensive line coach at Temple.
Beckwith, a New Orleans native, spent the 2023 season with Southeast Missouri in the Ohio Valley Conference. Prior to that, Beckwith worked at Incarnate Word (2022), Northwestern State (2021), Austin Peay (2019-20), and Louisiana-Lafayette (2014-19).
Beckwith led the Incarnate Word Cardinals (UIW) defensive group to 43 sacks and finished the season 12-2 overall. The Cardinals earned a spot in the FCS Semifinals and lost to North Dakota State. At UIW he developed two first-team all-conference defensive linemen and finished ninth in the FCS in team sacks. UIW also led the nation in tackles for a loss.
A year earlier, Beckwith's Northwestern State squad had 31 sacks and finished No. 22 in the nation in team sacks.
Prior to Northwestern State, Beckwith spent two seasons at Austin Peay serving as the assistant defensive line coach in 2019. Beckwith was promoted to defensive line coach in 2020. Austin Peay finished that season 36th in the FCS in team sacks and ninth in team TFLs. In his first season at Austin Peay (2019), he helped the Govs reach the FCS quarterfinals for the first time in school history, win the Ohio Valley conference for the first time since 1977, and produced a top-five nationally-ranked rushing defense.
Beckwith is a two-time UL Lafayette graduate, earning his bachelor of applied science in health/health care administrative management in 2015 and completed his master's degree in 2017.
Nelson Gunnell will start his first season at SFA as the Lumberjacks running backs coach in 2025. He joins the Lumberjacks after serving as the running backs coach for the University of Central Arkansas for the last five seasons (2020-2024). A top recruiter, he was responsible for recruiting Houston and Northeast Arkansas. Under his leadership, the Bears running attack rushed for over 2,000 yards in each season from 2022-2024. Some of the key running backs he recruited includes ShunDerrick Powell who was fourth in rushing yards and touchdowns in the FCS, three-star running back Landen Chambers in 2023, Isaiah Broadway a 2022 four-star back, Travelle Anderson a three-star recruit ranked third in the state of Arkansas, Darius Hale in 2021 who led the FCS in rushing touchdowns for the regular season and runner-up for the National Freshman of the Year, and Trysten Smith a three-star running back in 2020.
Gunnell was the Offensive Graduate Assistant and Assistant Quarterback coach for the Bears in 2019-20 and served as the head student assistant quarterback coach from 2018-19. He began his coaching career with Central Arkansas as a student assistant from 2015-18. He played one season for the Bears (2015) as a linebacker but had to end his football career because of a severe injury. He earned his master's of health promotion and his bachelor of science degree at the University of Central Arkansas (year?).
