Larry Hart joined Campbell’s staff in January of 2023, coaching the Camels’ defensive line.
Prior to Campbell, Hart spent three seasons as the University of South Alabama’s outside linebackers coach.
Despite losing three of six individuals on the preseason depth chart for most of the 2018 season, Hart helped three members of the position group — Sean Grayer, Chason Milner and Taji Stewart — combine to post 15½ stops behind the line of scrimmage including 7½ sacks. Milner would end the year among the top 10 in the Sun Belt Conference in sacks per game while all three would set new career highs in both tackles for loss and sacks in a season.
Three different individuals would post career-high tackle totals under Hart’s direction in 2019, led by honorable mention all-Sun Belt Conference selection Riley Cole; not only did he post 59 total stops, he ranked second on the team with nine tackles behind the line and third on the squad with three sacks. A.J. DeShazor was fourth overall with 61 tackles to lead the unit, tying for the team lead with a pair of fumble recoveries while also intercepting a pass, and Chris Henderson chipped in with 23 stops after posting 18 his first three years in the program combined.
He came to USA after serving on the staff of current head coach Steve Campbell at Central Arkansas as defensive line coach during the 2017 campaign, where his efforts helped Chris Terrell earn All-America honors from two different organizations as well as first-team all-Southland Conference accolades.
He first worked as a coach as a graduate assistant for two seasons at Arkansas State, where he helped the Red Wolves to 16 wins, a pair of postseason bowl appearances and the 2015 Sun Belt Conference championship after going 8-0 in league play. In 2016, Hart was the defensive line coach at Holmes (Miss.) C.C.
After earning all-state honors as a player in each of his two years at HCC, he transferred to Central Arkansas where he would go on to record 21½ sacks in two seasons — a total that still ranks among the top five in the school’s career record books. Hart was chosen an All-American and the Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year as both a junior and senior, recording 21 tackles for loss including 12 sacks during the 2008 campaign, and was later named to the league’s All-Decade Team for the 2000s.
Following his senior season, Hart was chosen in the fifth round of the National Football League draft — going 143rd overall, the highest selection in UCA’s history — by the Jacksonville Jaguars, going on to also sign with the Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders. He also played in both the Canadian and United Football Leagues before entering the coaching profession.
A 2009 graduate of Central Arkansas with a degree in health sciences, Hart received his master’s degree in media and communications from Arkansas State in 2016. He is married to the former Juliet Rentz.
