After his two years in the Frontier League, Godwin began his coaching career as an assistant at
Kinston High School in
Kinston, North Carolina, 20 minutes from his hometown of Snow Hill. He spent one season at Kinston before moving on to his first position at the Division I level, with the
UNC Wilmington Seahawks. He spent two seasons at UNC Wilmington before moving on to
Vanderbilt. At Vanderbilt, he served as the Commodores' Director of Baseball Operations before joining
Paul Mainieri's staff at
Notre Dame for the 2005 season. After two seasons at Notre Dame, he followed Mainieri to
LSU prior to the 2007 season. In 2008, Godwin's LSU offense hit .306 with 100 home runs and 95
stolen bases. After two seasons with Mainieri at LSU, which included a trip to the
College World Series in 2008, Godwin coached at
UCF. With UCF, he helped with numerous highly ranked recruiting classes and helped lead the Knights to the NCAA tournament in 2011, their first appearance since 2004. Following his stint at UCF, Godwin moved on to
Ole Miss, where he served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. In 2014, he helped lead the Rebels to their first College World Series appearance since 1972. Godwin's first career game as a head coach came on February 13, 2015, a 3–1 loss to
Virginia. His first win came on February 21, 2015, against
UNC Greensboro. On May 22, 2025, Godwin became the all-time winningest coach in East Carolina baseball history. Godwin's 428 wins surpassed the previous record of 427 set by Coach Gary Overton on May 16, 1997. ==Head coaching record==