Name: Emily Dixon
Title: Coordinator of Offensive Operations
Hometown: The Woodlands, Texas
Claim to Fame: Media Mogul
If you’ve ever watched an interview on LSUSports.net, there’s a good chance you already know who Emily Dixon is.
Dixon is five seasons into full-time employment with LSU, with another four years as a student worker to her name. Her “main job and number one priority,” to quote her, is as LSU’s coordinator of offensive operations, assisting Matt Canada and the offensive staff with a number of tasks, as well as working with Sharon Lewis and the recruiting staff in their numerous tasks.
If she looks familiar, though, that’s because she’s done hundreds of interviews on LSU’s official website with players, coaches, and athletic department figures. Working together with Michael Bonnette in the sports information office, Dixon’s carved out a visible niche in front of the camera.
“When I got the job at LSU, there was nothing media attached to it,” she says. “But they allowed me to do my interviews, interview the players, coaches, and do features. Michael helped me make that into part of my position for the last four-and-a-half years.”
She’s certainly qualified. Prior to her return to LSU, Dixon worked for Fox Sports, Scout, and KNOE-TV in Monroe. The dual role she plays now, she says, helps her approach interviews from a unique vantage. The players she’s interviewing in her media role, she’s known for years through her primary job.
“It’s great, because it’s such a different perspective,” she says. “Especially when it’s interviewing the players. I’ve known so many of these guys since they were kids – 15, 16, 17 years old. When it comes time to interview them, it’s like interviewing a little brother or friend.
“It’s fun to play both roles.”
Dixon plays another role at home: wife. Her husband, Shea, covers LSU football and recruiting for 247Sports.com. Working in the same field, Dixon says, gives them an understanding of the demands pertaining to each job.
“I don’t know how I would be able to do my job without him, in a way,” she says. “Him knowing the demands of my job, that’s what makes it work. He knows during football season I’m not coming home and cooking dinner every night and making sure the house is completely cleaned, what you would call ‘wifely duties,’ because I’m working seven days a week.”
It goes both ways, too. When a player commits during dinner or on a holiday, Emily knows Shea has to answer the phone and pull out the laptop.
“It happens frequently,” she laughs. “These kids love to commit at dinner time, holidays. It’s just what they do.”
Though Emily does video work and Shea is a writer, she swears he gets recognized more often – at least in public.
Around LSU, she’s the star of the family.
“The coaches always joke, ‘He’s Emily’s husband,’” she laughs.
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