Kynjee’ Cotton comes to Arkansas after spending the 2024 and 2035 seasons with the Miami Dolphins as the assistant defensive line coach.
His two seasons in the NFL came after more than a decade of coaching in the collegiate ranks. His work with the 2024 Dolphins helped the team produce a top-five defense, ranking fourth in total defense allowing 314.4 yards per game. Cotton helped defensive tackles Calais Campbell and Zach Sieler produce at a high level with Sieler leading the team with 10.0 sacks and 13.0 tackles for loss. Campbell recorded 12 tackles for loss, second on the squad.
Cotton brings SEC experience, having spent the 2023 season at LSU as a senior defensive analyst and a year as a strength and conditioning assistant at Alabama early in his career (2013). His lone season with the Tigers was a 10-3 campaign ending with a No. 12 ranking in the final AP and Coaches polls.
In 2022, Cotton helped transform Travis Bell into an All-ASUN performer at Kennesaw State. Bell then became the first NFL Draft pick in program history when he was taken in the seventh round by Chicago in the 2023 NFL Draft. Cotton spent three seasons (2019-21) at Samford coaching defensive ends. During the spring season of 2021, he helped Nelson Jordan earn Second-Team All-Southern Conference honors after leading the team with 7.5 tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks.
Cotton coached the defensive line at West Georgia in 2018 after spending two seasons at North Carolina as a defensive quality control. He earned his first on-field coaching position at Birmingham Southern in 2015 as the team’s defensive line coach after spending the 2014 season as a graduate assistant at UAB. Cotton was a strength and conditioning intern at the University of Alabama during the fall of 2013, where he worked with football, baseball and rowing. His coaching career began as a student assistant at Alabama State in 2012.
He was a four-year letterman at Alabama State as a defensive lineman. He served as a team captain and was named Second-Team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference as a senior. He is married to his wife, Chatil.
The Cotton File
Kynjee’ is pronounced ken-jay
Hometown: Daphne, Ala.
High School: Daphne HS (Ala.)
College: Alabama State, 2012
Family: Wife – Chatil
Coaching Experience
2012 Alabama State – Student Assistant
2013 Alabama – Strength & Conditioning
2014 UAB – Graduate Assistant
2015 Birmingham Southern – Defensive Line
2016-17 North Carolina – Defensive Quality Control
2018 West Georgia – Defensive Line
2019-21 Samford – Defensive Ends
2022 Kennesaw State – Defensive Ends
2023 LSU – Senior Defensive Analyst
2024-25 Miami Dolphins – Assistant Defensive Line
Playing Experience
2008-11 Alabama State
