Stacy Searels, a former Trion High School standout who went on to earn All-America honors at Auburn University and build a decades-long career in college football, was inducted into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Searels was among the members of the Hall of Fame’s 2026 class honored during the Oct. 24 ceremony at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta. He was recognized for his accomplishments as an offensive lineman at Trion, where he earned first-team All-State honors in 1982.
After graduating from Trion, Searels played offensive line at Auburn, where he was a three-year starter. He earned first-team All-America honors as a senior in 1987 after helping protect Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson in 1985 and All-America running back Brent Fullwood in 1986.
Searels graduated from Auburn in 1990 with a degree in marketing and transportation. He later earned a master’s degree in higher education administration from Auburn in 1995.
He began his coaching career at Appalachian State, where he served as an assistant from 1994 to 2000. During that time, he helped the Mountaineers make five playoff appearances and win two Southern Conference championships.
Searels moved to Cincinnati for two seasons before joining LSU, where he coached the offensive line from 2003 to 2006. The Tigers compiled a 44-8 record during that span and won Southeastern Conference and national championships in 2003.
In 2007, Searels joined Georgia’s coaching staff as offensive line coach, a position he held through the 2010 season. He added run game coordinator duties during his time in Athens and coached several standout offensive linemen, including All-America selections Clint Boling and Ben Jones, along with All-SEC players Fernando Velasco and Cordy Glenn.
After leaving Georgia, Searels coached at Texas, Virginia Tech, Miami and North Carolina. He returned to Georgia in February 2022 after spending three seasons coaching the offensive line at North Carolina.
During his first two seasons back in Athens, Searels was part of the coaching staff that helped Georgia capture the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship. The Bulldogs finished the season 15-0 after defeating TCU 65-7 in the championship game, following a 42-41 victory over Ohio State in the Peach Bowl semifinal.
Georgia followed the championship season with a 13-1 record in 2023, including a 63-3 win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl. The Bulldogs’ offense ranked among the nation’s leaders in scoring and total offense during both seasons.
Searels has also helped develop offensive linemen who have gone on to the NFL. In the 2023 NFL Draft, Broderick Jones was selected 14th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers, while Warren McClendon was taken in the fifth round. In 2024, Amarius Mims was selected 18th overall by the Cincinnati Bengals, and Georgia center Sedrick Van Pran was drafted in the fifth round by the Buffalo Bills.
Across his coaching career, Searels has helped produce 14 NFL draft picks along the offensive line.
A 30-year veteran of college coaching, Searels has worked at multiple major college football programs and contributed to conference and national championship teams. His induction into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame honors a career that began at Trion High School and extended to the highest levels of football.
