Jovan Dewitt

Jovan Dewitt (born October 21, 1975) is an American football coach and former player who is currently the defensive coordinator at FIU. After an All-American playing career, Dewitt has spent the majority of his coaching career coordinating either special teams or defenses.

Coaching career Early career Immediately following Dewitt's college playing career, he spent some time as a student assistant working with the Northern Michigan defensive line. Following his arena football career, he returned to Northern Michigan for the 2000 and 2001 seasons as a graduate assistant working with the running backs.

Dewitt spent the 2002 and 2003 seasons coordinating special teams and coaching running backs, first at Fort Scott Community College, and then at Fairmont State.

Northern Iowa In 2009, Dewitt was hired as the linebackers coach at Northern Iowa, replacing Scott Frost. and went on to have a 10+ year career. He is currently a member of the Baltimore Ravens. Dewitt was promoted to defensive coordinator for the 2011 season.

Florida Atlantic In 2012, Dewitt joined Carl Pelini's inaugural staff at Florida Atlantic coaching the linebackers. Midway through the 2013 season Pelini and defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis resigned, and Dewitt was elevated to interim defensive coordinator for the final four games of the season.

UCF In January 2016, Dewitt was hired by Scott Frost, whom he replaced at Northern Iowa, to coordinate the UCF special teams, and coach the outside linebackers.

Dewitt also faced major medical issues while at Nebraska. He missed most of spring ball prior to the 2019 season, fighting throat cancer. 38 rounds of radiation and 3 rounds of chemotherapy were endured to get back to doing what he loved. Dewitt lost over 100 pounds during his battle, as well as the ability to produce saliva, at least temporarily. Even while through the intense treatments, Dewitt was watching film and regularly communicating with his fellow coaches and players.

North Carolina Prior to the 2020 season, Dewitt was hired by Mack Brown at North Carolina as the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach. Both groups have had major success, as Dewitt's linebackers helped the Tar Heel defense produce 36 sacks in 2020, the most since 2000. Receiver Dazz Newsome finished the 2020 season ranked 13th nationally in punt returns.

FIU After parting ways with North Carolina, Dewitt joined the staff of new Panther head coach Mike MacIntyre as defensive coordinator in January 2022.

Recruiting innovation Dewitt created his own recruiting app. The app has features that include forms for prospect information, data tables, rankings, reports, real time notes shared with other staff members, voice recording, geotagging, and film clips. The creation was inspired by his one full time job outside of coaching, when he was working as a mortgage broker and his interactions with different clients were logged.

Playing career Dewitt was a 4 time letterman at Northern Michigan from 1993 to 1996. He was a two time all conference and all American player, and was named the 1996 Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

Dewitt played professionally for three seasons in the Arena Football League, as a member of the Iowa Barnstormers in 1997, the Orlando Predators in 1998, and the Fargo Freeze in 1999.

Personal life Dewitt and his wife, Lisa, have three children. His two daughters are Maya and Kira, and his son is Jovan, Jr.

Dewitt graduated from Northern Michigan as a dual-major in mathematics and physics. He turned down a job to work for NASA following graduation to enter the coaching profession.