Track & Field
- Title:
- Associate Head Track & Field Coach
- Email:
- clyles@athletics.msstate.edu
- Phone:
- 662-325-2541
Carjay Lyles was promoted to associate head coach in Aug. 2024, after being hired as an assistant coach on Aug. 9, 2019, to work with State’s horizontal jumps along with the sprints and hurdles.
Lyles is a collegiate track and field coach with over 20 years of NCAA Division-1 coaching experience. He has won two NCAA Runner-Up Team Trophies and has twice been recognized by his national governing body, USTFCCCA, as regional coach of the year. Known for his coaching dexterity, Coach Carjay has built champions in all the sprinting, hurdling, jumps and combined events. His pupils have gone on to become Olympic Medalists, World Championship finalists, and developed into some of the best athletes in the history of their events.
During the 2025 season, Lyles coached Peyton Bair to the national title in both the indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon. During his performance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Bair also set the NCAA record in the decathlon 100m and 400m, as well as running the fifth fastest 400m in a decathlon in world history. He also oversaw Nicholas Fakorede in the 60m and the men’s 4x400m to indoor first team All-American finishes at the 2025 championships. Jessicka Woods also finished fourth in the 400mh at the SEC Championships and earned second-team All-American honors at the outdoor championships in the same event. In the postseason, he oversaw Fakorede to the Nigerian bronze medal in the 100m.
In 2024, Lyles coached Bair to a silver medal in the NCAA decathlon. In doing so, Bair set the NCAA decathlon 100 Meter dash record. He also coached Lee Eppie to the 2024 Botswana Olympic Team. Eppie won the silver medal at the 2024 African Games Championship as well. Lyles’ history of developing young athletes continued with freshman Jordan Ware running a world U20 outdoor-leading 200 meters, clocking 20.19 to open the 2024 season. This accomplishment earned the true freshman two SEC Athlete of the Week honors. During the 2024 indoor campaign, Lyles oversaw Rosealee Cooper to her fourth straight indoor national championship. She secured another All-American honor with an eighth-place finish in the finals of the 60m hurdles. Her eighth-place finish was the highest individual finish in the women’s hurdles in school history.
During the 2023 season, Lyles coached Cameron Crump Jr. to one of the top-five performances in NCAA and indoor American History. Cameron finished as the Runner-Up at the NCAA Indoor Championships, alongside earning SEC Champion, SEC indoor athlete of the year, and becoming the SEC meet record holder, all in the long jump. Lyles also oversaw Kamaya Dubose-Epps to three school records and the second all-time on the MSU list, running the fastest outdoor 200 meters since 1990 with a 22.84 at the NCAA East First Round. During his time at Mississippi State, his teams have had four Top-25 team finishes at the NCAA championships. He is also the home meet director and tasked with team academic liaison for both men’s and women’s track and field.
Before his time in Starkville, he was an assistant coach at the University of Southern California (USC). There, he coached Ayden Owens to the American Junior Record, World Jr. No. 2 All-Time global mark in the Men’s Decathlon (8130 points). Ayden won Pac-12 athlete of the year during the 2019 season and broke a 30-year-old school record in winning the Bryan Clay decathlon invite. Lyles also coached Earnie Sears to an undefeated regular season in the High Jump. Sears broke into USC’s legendary all-time Top-5 performances in the high jump with a personal best of 2.30m. Sears won a silver medal at the NACAC U23 Championships in the competition for Team USA. Sears became Lyles’ seventh athlete to represent their country at an international competition. Carjay also aided with the hurdlers during his time at USC and helped place four women in the NCAA 60-meter hurdle final during the 2019 indoor campaign, resulting in a national championship by Chanel Brissett, running 7.90. Carjay coached his teams to a PAC-12 championship, MPSF indoor team championship and two NCAA team runner-up finishes during his time with the Trojans.
Lyles spent the 2018 season at The University of Akron, coaching the sprints, hurdles and relays. His athletes posted 12 marks in the Zips' all-time top-10, including three school records. He led Zips to 10 All-MAC selections as they won the women’s team title outdoors, while coaching two athletes to outdoor conference meet records. Both the men and women were the league’s runners-up indoors.
In one season with the Zips, Dara Perry became the first hurdler from the MAC to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in over a decade. Perry trimmed more than half a second off her 100m hurdles time, running 13.10 en route to breaking the Mid-American Conference meet record. Taron Sloane and Daziah Green also improved by more than half a second in the 200m, at the NCAA East Prelims championships, running 20.65 and 22.99, respectively. Green was a double sprint winner at the Mid-American Conference meet, setting the meet record in the 100 meters. Kwad Smith, who was listed as one of the fastest football players in the country in 2018, posted pr times of 6.72 in the 60m and 10.29 in the 100m during Lyles’ lone season at Akron.
Lyles spent the 2014-17 seasons in the SEC at The University of Missouri, where he worked with the sprints, hurdles, jumps and relays. He helped rewrite the Tigers’ record book with 13 school records, five All-SEC performances, two World Junior Championships finalists, and two US Junior National Champions, and compiled 16 All-America honors. Four of his athletes represented their home nations in international competitions.
In 2016, he coached Kahmari Montgomery to USTFCCCA Midwest Athlete of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year honors. Montgomery won both the indoor and outdoor SEC championships in the 400m, recorded top-15 times in the world in the 400m and finished sixth in the event at the World Junior Championships. That same year, he coached Valerie Thames as she broke three school records and was the only hurdler, male or female, to make the finals in both hurdle competitions in the 2016 SEC Outdoor Championships. For his efforts, he was named USTFCCCA’s Midwest Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year for the second time in his career. Lyles coached three 16m triple jumpers during the 2015-16 season. Markesh Woodson claimed multiple SEC runner-up finishes in the 60m and was a three-time indoor All-American in the event. In 2016, he finished sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100m.
He spent the prior four seasons in his first full-time job as an assistant overseeing sprints, hurdles and relays at San Diego State. In his final year with the Aztecs, he won the 2013 USTFCCCA West Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year award as Shanieka Thomas won the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In the previous season, he saw the SDSU women finish ninth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, their best finish in program history.
While at San Diego State, Lyles’ athletes won 17 conference titles, earned nine All-American honors and set 24 school and class records. Thomas earned Mountain West Athlete of the Year honors on her way to a runner-up finish at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Before joining the Aztecs, Lyles trained at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, under 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist Al Joyner.
Lyles was an All-American in the triple jump at the University of Tennessee and was a member of the Vols’ 2007 SEC Outdoor Championship team. Lyles was a Penn Relays champion in 2006 as part of the Vol’s shuttle hurdle relay team. He graduated with a B.A. degree in sociology in 2008, and is a USATF Certified Coach for sprints, hurdles and relays. While still in college, he was both a high school club and a volunteer coach. He coached a high school national record holder and one of his high school athletes to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 100m hurdles. Carjay was a member of the Black Cultural Programming Committee (BCPC) during his time at The University of Tennessee, a student organization tasked with developing and hosting on-campus events that enhance public awareness of African Americans and their accomplishments within the international society. They were also tasked with hosting university-sponsored African American Homecoming events and outreach. He also volunteered his time speaking to the Knoxville area high schools, encouraging literacy and graduation. He spent his last two years in college as a student-leader for FCA/AIA, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action.
