Former college head coach and NFL assistant coach Kevin Higgins was hired as App State Football's Chief of Staff/Pass Game Specialist in April 2025.
Higgins has head coaching experience at Lehigh (1994-2000) and The Citadel (2005-13), was a position coach with the Detroit Lions (2001-04) and spent 11 years at Wake Forest, serving as associate head coach and wide receivers coach (2014-22) and general manager (2023-24).
Higgins arrived in Boone with a combined 48 years of coaching experience in high school, college and the NFL. During his time at Wake Forest, he helped the Demon Deacons earn seven straight bowl berths – with five wins – from 2016-22. Wake ranked as high as No. 9 in the polls in 2021 before completing just the second double-digit win season in program history with an 11-3 record and a Gator Bowl win.
The Demon Deacons rewrote their offensive record book during Higgins' tenure in Winston-Salem and were the only ACC team to average at least 30 points per game each year from 2017-22.
Some of Higgins' most notable pupils at Wake were A.T. Perry, Greg Dortch, Jaquarii Roberson, Sage Surratt, Kendall Hinton and Scotty Washington, all of whom have spent time in the NFL.
As a head coach, Higgins has been a four-time conference coach of the year honoree, winning the Patriot League's award three times (1995, 1998, 2000) while at Lehigh and claiming 2012 SoCon Coach of the Year while at The Citadel. That 2012 season included top-10 wins in back-to-back weeks when the Bulldogs beat No. 3 Georgia Southern on the road before winning at No. 8 App State the following week. His Lehigh teams made the Division I-AA playoffs in each of his final three years at the helm from 1998-2000 before he moved to the NFL ranks.
The Detroit Lions improved their record each year during Higgins' tenure as the team's quarterbacks coach (2001-03) and then wide receivers coach (2004).
Higgins got his start coaching high school at Emerson High School (1977-78) and North Warren High School (1979-80) before becoming a college assistant coach at Gettysburg (181-84) and then Richmond (1985-87). He was an assistant at Lehigh from 1988-93 before assuming the head coach role in 1994.
A 1977 graduate of West Chester, Higgins earned a bachelor's degree in health and physical education while playing free safety and being named the team's most valuable defensive back his senior season. He went on to receive his master's degree in physical education from East Stroudsburg in 1981.
Higgins and his wife, Kay, have three children: son Tim (wife Sarah), and daughters Meaghan (husband Jason Helms) and Katie Rose.
