Greg and fellow coach Kim Dameron already had a decade of friendship under their belts when they were the offensive and defensive coordinators at Stephen F. Austin starting in 2001. Each went their separate coaching ways in 2005, but when Kim was hired as the head coach at Eastern Illinois in 2014, one of his first calls was to Greg to see if his old friend would be his offensive coordinator. Even though Greg was coordinating an offense at Southeastern Louisiana that was Top 10 in FCS scoring in 2013, the draw of friendship was too strong to pass up, so Greg took over the OC at EIU.

Only months after taking over as the offensive coordinator at his new school, Greg was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s large B-cell lymphoma in June. His diagnosis was scary, but Greg was determined to still do his job to the best of his ability.

Chemotherapy treatments started right away and lasted until early October. But Greg made sure he didn’t miss a single practice or Eastern Illinois game while undergoing treatment – all with his close friend and boss at his side.