Stephen Tate, enters the 2025 season as the special teams coordinator and safeties coach after an accomplished coaching and playing career spanning the collegiate, professional, and NFL levels.
Before arriving at Shaw University, Tate spent the 2024 season at Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, Fla., coaching the nickelbacks. Prior to FAMU, he served two seasons as Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator at Saint Augustine’s University (SAU), where he was named Interim Head Coach in 2023.
From 2017 to 2020, Tate was the defensive backs coach at Fayetteville State University, where he developed then-unheralded cornerback Joshua Williams into a fourth-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft (135th overall) by the Kansas City Chiefs. During his tenure, the Broncos captured three consecutive CIAA Southern Division titles and made three straight CIAA Championship Game appearances. Tate’s 2018 secondary ranked ninth nationally in third-down defense and 13th in first-down defense. In 2017, under his guidance, Elvin De La Rosa earned CIAA Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and was named to the All-CIAA Rookie Team alongside Barnes-Brown.
Before joining the CIAA coaching ranks, Tate worked as a player personnel recruiting intern at the University of Miami (Fla.) in 2017 and served as a defensive backs graduate assistant at St. Lawrence University (2016–2017), where he coached James Holley-Grisham to First-Team All-Liberty League honors.
As a player, Tate was a standout Division I defensive back at Hofstra University (2004–2008), earning four letters and starting three seasons. Following college, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the NFL’s Washington Commanders in 2008. He later played for legendary coach Dennis Green in the United Football League (UFL) with the Sacramento Mountain Lions from 2010 to 2011.
A native of Centreville, Va., Tate was a two-way star at Centreville High School, earning All-State honors at cornerback and wide receiver. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Hofstra University (2008)
