Jeff Purinton
Purinton comes to A-State following a 15-year stint at the University of Alabama, but his path to Jonesboro also included professional stops working with the Orange Bowl Committee (2006-07) and the Florida State Athletics Department (1994-2006) while also having a national presence on multiple college football committees.
Purinton most recently served as Alabama’s Executive Deputy Director of Athletics after being elevated to the position in 2021, but also held Deputy AD (2019-21), Executive Associate AD (2018-19), Senior Associate AD (2015-18) and Associate Athletics Director for Football Communications (2007-15) titles during his time with the Crimson Tide.
While operating as Executive Deputy Director of Athletics, Purinton was the sport administrator for football as well as the men’s and women’s golf programs after previously overseeing men’s basketball. Additionally, he supervised several departments within athletics, including human resources, marketing and trademark licensing and was the liaison to Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, Alabama’s LEARFIELD property.
In 2006, Purinton was hired by the Orange Bowl Committee (OBC) as the Director of Media Relations and Communications.
Prior to the Orange Bowl and Alabama, Purinton spent more than a decade at Florida State University working in various roles in the athletics department. He began as a student assistant in sports information during his undergraduate years, and followed up as a graduate assistant in 1998. He was promoted to a full-time role as assistant SID in 1999, where he worked directly with two of the winningest coaches in college history in Head Football Coach Bobby Bowden and Head Baseball Coach Mike Martin. In addition to the baseball and football SID duties, Purinton was the travel advance coordinator for the football program from 1999-2006.
Purinton has served on several College Football National Championship Game media coordination committees while working at Alabama and the Orange Bowl and was a member of the College Football 150th Anniversary Committee. He has successfully helped promote four Heisman Trophy winning campaigns (Chris Weinke at Florida State; Mark Ingram, Derrick Henry, DeVonta Smith at Alabama) along with a Campbell Trophy winner (Barrett Jones at Alabama).
Purinton is a member of the National Association of Collegiate Director of Athletics and the Football Writers Associate of America. He was a 2019 NEXT UP honoree by CollegeAD and was selected to attend the NACDA AD Mentoring Institute (2017 & 2019) and the Lead1 Institute (2018). From 2016-17, Purinton served as the athletics department coordinator for the University’s United Way campaign.
A native of Palatka, Fla., Purinton received his bachelor’s degree in sports management and master’s in athletics administration at Florida State University. He and his wife Julie have two daughters, Jillian and Josie.
