HUNTSVILLE – The first pieces of the 2025 Sam Houston football coaching staff became official on Monday when head coach Phil Longo announced the additions of Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay, Gary McGraw and Issac Mooring on the defensive side of the ball.

Aughtry-Lindsay will lead the unit as defensive coordinator in addition to overseeing the linebacker corps. Meanwhile, McGraw returns to Huntsville for his second stint coaching the Bearkat cornerbacks and Mooring joins with an extensive coaching resume which includes the last eight seasons in the Lone Star State.

Aughtry-Lindsay takes over the Bearkat defense for 2025, coming to Sam Houston after five years on staff at his alma mater, NC State.

He coached the nickels each season with the Wolfpack and served as the team’s interim defensive coordinator for the 2024 Military Bowl. Aughtry-Lindsay played linebacker at NCSU from 2001-04 before entering the coaching field, beginning in the high school ranks in 2007 before returning to the Pack for three seasons as a recruiting assistant and defensive graduate assistant.

His trek to Huntsville will mark the third time he and Longo have served together on the same coaching staff, first in 2011 when Aughtry-Lindsay landed his first full-time gig as the linebackers coach at Slippery Rock. The pair later found themselves on staff together once again in 2018 at Ole Miss.

Aughtry-Lindsay made stops at Elon, St. Augustine’s and Campbell in between stops at Slippery Rock and Ole Miss before landing his first defensive coordinator job at NC Central in 2019. There the Eagles ranked 17th in total defense in the FCS (325.6 ypg), 11th in pass defense (170.0 ypg), 24th in takeaways (23) and 17th in interceptions.

A year later he returned to Raleigh and immediately made an impact with the Wolfpack, ranking second in the ACC in 2021 with just 19.7 points per game allowed while finishing second in passing efficiency defense (111.1). Along the way he has mentored backs such as Tyler Baker-Williams, Robert Kennedy III and Tamarcus Cooley, all who landed in the NFL.

McGraw returns to Huntsville and will move back into a familiar position, overseeing cornerbacks, after making stops at Tulsa and Southern Illinois in the past three seasons.

He boasts over 20 seasons in collegiate coaching and was on staff during Sam Houston’s historic 2021 calendar year which saw the Kats win the FCS National Championship and 21 consecutive games.

McGraw joined the Kats in 2016 as cornerbacks coach and directly mentored one of the best duos Sam Houston has ever had in three-time all-league selection Jaylen Thomas and four-time all-American Zyon McCollum who was selected in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Before his stint at Sam Houston, McGraw spent five seasons as the defensive secondary coach and special team’s assistant at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls. There he coached six All-Americans, eight all-region and 17 all-conference performers, while Midwestern completed a 42-12 record and won three Lone Star Conference titles.

McGraw spent the 2011 season as the secondary coach at Ferris State, where he coached two all-conference defensive backs. Before that, McGraw coached six years at Quincy University, including his final two seasons as the defensive coordinator.

He began his coaching career at Marist (Ore.) High School in 2002 as co-defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator. In two seasons, Marist posted a 23-1 record and won the 2003 Oregon Class 3A State Championship. A 2003 graduate of Oregon, McGraw played safety for the Ducks in 2000 and 2001, helping the team win back-to-back PAC 10 championships, compiling a 21-3 record and winning both the Holiday and Fiesta Bowls. The 2001 team finished the season ranked second in the final Associated Press poll. He began his collegiate playing career at Chabot (Calif.) Junior College, where he finished his two-year career as the nation’s leader for interceptions with 12 in his sophomore campaign.

Mooring joins the Bearkat coaching staff after most recently serving as a defensive analyst at Texas State in 2024, which came after four seasons as the defensive line coach at HCU. Prior to HCU, Mooring was the running backs coach at Grand Valley State and saw the group rush for 2,382 yards and 19 touchdowns. He was the defensive line coach at Texas State for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, guiding a pair of All-Sun Belt Conference selections and primarily recruiting the northwest Houston area, as well as Baton Rouge and junior colleges across the country. Mooring coached the defensive line at Gardner-Webb from 2013 to 2016, seeing the Bulldogs tie for the conference lead in sacks and two student-athletes earn all-conference honors in his final year. He had three defensive linemen named to the all-conference teams in 2013 and 2015, with one in 2014. During the 2013 season, GWU finished fifth nationally in total defense, 17th in tackles for loss and second in defensive fourth-down conversions.

He began his coaching career with the first of five seasons at North Carolina Wesleyan College in 2006, then spent the 2012 season at North Greenville University, before moving on to GWU. Originally born in Seoul, South Korea, Mooring played at Tarboro High School in Tarboro, N.C., before playing four seasons at North Carolina from 2000-03. He played on the defensive front alongside Hall of Fame defensive end Julius Peppers and All-American defensive tackle Ryan Sims in his first two years before moving into a starting role as a junior and senior.

Mooring graduated with a bachelor of arts in interpersonal and organizational communications from UNC in 2003.