WIU’s Rob Jeter hired to be the new head coach at Southern Utah

After three seasons at Western Illinois, Rob Jeter is headed to the WAC to be the new head coach at Southern Utah. Jeter has gone 39-45 at WIU and previously was 184-170 in eleven seasons at Milwaukee.

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

The Chicago-native came back to his home state in 2020 after spending the previous two seasons on staff at Minnesota. The WIU job is a tough one and Jeter’s back-t0-back 16 win seasons are just the second such occurrence for a Leathernecks head coach since 2000. Last season the team played in The Basketball Classic, their first postseason appearance in nine years.

During his time at Milwaukee, Jeter led the Panthers to two NCAA Tournaments, one NIT and one CBI, winning two Horizon League titles and finishing with 20+ wins on five occasions.

“My family and I are so excited to join the SUU family and community, we are truly blessed to  have this opportunity and to continue the successes that Todd Simon has had,” said Jeter. “I want to thank Doug and President Benson for this opportunity. Let’s go Thunderbirds!”

Jeter is taking over for Todd Simon, who left last month to be the new head coach at Bowling Green. Simon had been with SUU for the last seven years, building the program into a consistent winner that earned a share of the Big Sky title in 2021. The program moved to the WAC in 2022 and finished in 3rd in their first season (12-6, 24-13 overall).

Meanwhile, WIU has named Chad Boudreau interim head coach of the Leathernecks. Boudreau has been on staff there for the last three years as associate head coach, and previously worked under Jeter for eleven seasons in Milwaukee.

credit to Southern Utah Athletics for the image