The Ole Miss Men’s Tennis head coach welcomed new head coach Jake Jacoby in May 2025. In the fall of his first season, he coached doubles pair Kai Milburn and Isac Strömberg to the NCAA Doubles Championship, and his squad is off to a 12-0 start this spring season.
Though Jacoby’s hometown of Little Rock, Ark., is not generally associated with tennis, the coach said he fell in love with the game through watching the biggest tennis players compete on the biggest stages.
“(Little Rock is) not exactly a hotbed of tennis, like areas like Texas, California, Florida (or) other areas, but (I) just really fell in love with the game around the age of nine or 10 years old — watching Wimbledon, the French Open, the US Open, the Australian Open, watching guys like (Rafael) Nadal and (Roger) Federer go at it,” Jacoby said.
Jacoby’s favorite tennis player growing up, American Mardy Fish, is not necessarily a household name, yet Jacoby said he modeled more than just his playing style off the professional.
“I used to wear the same clothes as him,” Jacoby said. “I have a very similar game style as him.”
Jacoby was a five-star recruit coming out of high school. He played his entire collegiate career at the University of Iowa, where he shined. His 127 total wins are No. 5 in school history; he ranks No. 7 in doubles wins with 60 and No. 9 in singles wins with 68. He cited head coach Ross Wilson as being instrumental in shaping him into the player he was and the coach he is now.
“I really loved playing for that coach. He was very much holding you accountable, day-to-day, little details (of) you wake up on time, you arrive on time, everything is perfect in terms of your preparation and your intensity every day,” Jacoby said.
After his playing days ended, Jacoby spent one season as an assistant at Charlotte. He then served as the associate head coach at Mississippi State for six seasons, which helped shape him as a coach and leader.
“A lot of my heart is still there (Mississippi State), and there’s some amazing people there. A lot of what I’m bringing here is what I’ve learned there,” Jacoby said.
Jacoby was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southern Regional Assistant Coach of the Year in 2023 and again in 2025. Despite these accomplishments, Jacoby hopes to build a culture centered around the athletes at Ole Miss.
“This program’s about them. It’s about them taking ownership of what they want it to look like. They don’t play for me,” Jacoby said. “My title is the head coach, but this is Ole Miss Men’s Tennis, and it’s their men’s tennis program.”
One of Jacoby’s main goals revolves around the Ole Miss community, specifically the fans who attend his team’s matches. He and his team honor the fans with a special ritual after every competition.
“One, (we hope to be) a program that the fan base in this community can be extremely proud of in terms of our engagement on the court in matches, and then off the court as well,” Jacoby said. “One thing we’ve implemented is, whenever there’s fans at the end of the match, we go up and say hello to them and say thanks for coming.”
Jacoby hopes that this tradition will familiarize players with their biggest local supporters.
“Let’s develop a relationship so that it’s not just someone playing court three. (Instead), that’s a player from this town that I can get to know and build a relationship with and show that I support them,” Jacoby said.
Jacoby’s other goal is performance-based. He hopes to transform Ole Miss Men’s Tennis into one of the premier programs in the nation. To achieve this, he teaches his players to strive for excellence in everything they do.
“Two, (we hope to be) a program that not only is competing in the SEC and making NCAA tournaments, but is consistently competing for Top 25 or better every year, ranking-wise,” Jacoby said. “We talk about letting results happen, but at the same time, they are nice goals to have, and if you have something to work towards, you can be more physical, more intense, more engaged every day.”
