Jamaal Barnes is in his first season as an assistant coach with the Purdue track & field team in 2024-25. Barnes joins Purdue from Tennessee, where he was an assistant coach in 2023-24. With 10 years of coaching experience, Barnes will lead Purdue’s sprinters.
“Jamaal is a great addition to our coaching staff, and he brings a wealth of experience to Purdue,” Miller said. “Jamaal and I coached together at Louisville, and I saw first-hand his dedication to his student-athletes and his commitment to doing the little things right to create a winning program. I am looking forward to having him be a Boilermaker and seeing our program excel under his leadership.
At Tennessee, Barnes coached horizontal jumps and combined events, and led the Volunteers’ recruiting efforts. A sprinter at Auburn as a student-athlete, Barnes’ career also has included stops as an assistant coach at Louisville, Southern Miss, Georgia State and Augusta University. He also was head coach at Pratt (Kansas) Community College from 2017-19.
“I want to express my utmost gratitude to Coach Miller and Associate Athletics Director Calvin Williams for providing me with this opportunity,” Barnes said. “It’s an honor to be given this opportunity to work at such a prestigious university like Purdue. I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running and helping to grow this program within the confines of Coach Miller’s vision. Go Boilermakers!”
In his 10-year coaching career, Barnes has led his athletes to 25 All-America honors, 18 individual conference titles and 157 all-conference honors.
With Louisville in 2022-23, Barnes coached his athletes to two ACC titles and seven All-America finishes. He guided freshman high jumper Brion Stephens to the 2023 USATF U-20 title and a runner-up finish at the U-20 Pan American Championships.
In three seasons at Southern Miss from 2019-2022, Barnes helped the Eagles to back-to-back Conference USA women’s indoor team titles, in 2021 and 2022. He coached high jumper Corvell Todd to a national runner-up finish indoors in 2022 and C-USA Field Athlete of the Year accolades.
From 2017-19 at Pratt, Barnes led the program to its first top-25 NJCAA finish since 1983. His athletes collected 12 All-America honors and 45 school records in two years.
Two stints as an assistant at Georgia State, from 2014-15 and 2016-17, featured four individual Sun Belt crowns and 19 all-conference accolades. Ravin Gilbert was named Most Outstanding Women’s Track Performer under Barnes’ leadership.
Barnes served as an assistant and residence life assistant at D-II Augusta (Ga.) University in 2015-16. He helped his team to an individual conference title, 12 earned all-conference distinction and two were bestowed with all-region awards.
From 2011-14, Barnes’ coaching career began as associate head coach at Opelika High in Opelika, Alabama. The boys team were state runners-up in 2014 as more than 15 athletes received NCAA or NAIA scholarship offers.
Off the track, Barnes’ athletes have totaled 19 individual USTFCCCA All-Academic honors and seven All-Academic Team accolades.
A 2011 graduate of Auburn with a degree in exercise science, Barnes earned his master's in sport management from Southern Mississippi in 2022. He has achieved USATF Level 1, USTFCCCA Sprints/Hurdles/Relays and USTFCCCA Strength & Conditioning coaching certification.
