Joe Graves, who served as a graduate assistant coach in 2018, enters his first season at running backs coach at ULM.
In his role as a graduate assistant last season, Graves worked closely with offensive line coach Eman Naghavi.
The Covington, Louisiana, native came to ULM following two seasons as running backs coach under Ron Roberts at his alma mater Southeastern Louisiana.
In 2017, SLU led the Southland Conference and ranked third in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in rushing, averaging 283.1 yards per game. The Lions also finished second in the league in rushing touchdowns with 27. A trio of running backs – Marcus Cooper, Eugene Bethea and Darren Johnson – combined to rush for 1,813 yards and 12 TDs.
In 2016, Julius Maracalin earned second-team All-SLC honors after finishing fourth in the league in rushing, averaging 67.9 yards per game. Maracalin, who led the Lions with 747 rushing yards and eight rushing TDs, closed out the season with three-straight 100-yard games.
A three-year starter on the offensive line for the Lions from 2013-15, Graves became one of the most-decorated student-athletes during Coach Roberts’ tenure. He garnered All-SLC honors each of this final three seasons (honorable mention, 2013-14; second team, 2015) while helping SLU win back-to-back conference championships in 2013 and 2014.
In addition to his production on the field, Graves was a three-time Southland Conference All-Academic and a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. He also was named to the FCS ADA Academic All-Star Team as both a junior and senior.
Graves received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Southeastern Louisiana in May 2016.
