Blackwell started his coaching career at East Carolina as a student assistant after he suffered a neck-injury while playing offensive line for the Pirates.
[4] After being out of football for two seasons, Blackwell returned to college football as the defensive coordinator for Fordham from 2012 to 2013 before joining the Jacksonville State coaching staff in 2014 as a co-defensive coordinator and the inside linebackers coach.
[5] After finding success at Jacksonville State, Blackwell was hired to be the defensive coordinator at his alma mater East Carolina for the 2018 season.The ECU defense made dramatic improvements in almost every area finishing 3rd.
[9] Despite the drastic improvement of the defense, the Monarchs only won 1 game which led to Blackwell being terminated along with head coach Bobby Wilder.
Blackwell was named the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech in January 2020.