Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tech's revolving coaching door
Randy King
Randy King's Tech Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
See Doug and Randy talk sports every week with the Sports edition of the TimesCast
Recent columns
Eight-year assistant coach Danny Pearman has been reassigned to an unspecified position in the Virginia Tech athletics department, creating a void that will enable Hokies football coach Frank Beamer to officially announce the hiring of Mike O'Cain on Friday.
O'Cain, a former head coach at North Carolina State and most recently an offensive coordinator at Clemson, will join recent hires Curt Newsome and Kevin Sherman on the Tech staff.
Pearman, who spent seven years as an assistant at Alabama before moving to Tech in 1998, couldn't be reached for comment this afternoon in regards to his reassignment. A source close to Pearman said it didn't think the Charlotte, N.C., native will accept his reassigned position and stay at Tech.
O'Cain will replace Kevin Rogers as Tech's quarterbacks coach. Rogers left the program after four years in early January to take a similar post with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings.
Newsome, who has been an assistant the past seven years at I-AA James Madison, reached an agreement to join Tech's staff a month ago or so. He will succeed Pearman as Tech's tight ends and offensive tackles coach.
Kevin Sherman, a Radford native who has spent the past five seasons at Wake Forest, has been hired to handle the Hokies' wide receivers. He fills the vacancy left by Tony Ball, who left Tech after eight seasons to take the running backs post at Georgia last week.
The moves mark the first multiple changes on Beamer's staff since the 1992 season. Tech's staff has been intact for four years, or since Rogers was hired to fill a void left by offensive coordinator/QBs coach Rickey Bustle landing the head coaching post at Lousiana-Lafayette in 2002. Rogers took over the QBs, with Bryan Stinespring adding offensive coordinator's duties to his offensive line chores.
The hiring of O'Cain gives Tech an experienced QBs coach, much needed in the wake of Rogers' exit. O'Cain, who was a high school All-American QB in his playing days, was Beamer's offensive coordinator and QBs coach from 1981-84 at Murray State. He coached QBs at N.C. State from 1986-92 before being serving seven seasons as the Wolfpack's head coach.
O'Cain will have his work cut out for him off the get-go as the Hokies head into spring practice March 22 in search of a replacement for the exiled Marcus Vick.
O'Cain, who was fired at Clemson following the 2004 season, is a close friend of Beamer's who knows something about the Tech program. He served as color analyst with play-by-play man Greg Roberts last season on "Hokies Playback," which televised the school's games via tape delay on various stations in the region.
Newsome, who interviewed with Virginia coach Al Groh in December, was coveted by Tech for his recruiting abilities. The Hampton native served as a high school coach at Newport News' Heritage High School, where he was named the state's coach of the year in 1998, plus served 11 years as coach at Kecoughtan High. Newsome has very strong recruiting connections in the "757" area code that produces most of the state's top high school recruits, which is the biggest reason Beamer wanted him.
Sherman is considered a strong position coach and also has scored well on the recruiting front for Coach Jim Grobe at Wake Forest. He was one of eight assistants who accompanied Grobe from Ohio University to Wake Forest.
Prior to his stint at Ohio University, Sherman spent four seasons at VMI, where he coached in several capacities under three different head coaches. Beginning as the running backs coach, he later became the quarterbacks and receivers coach and coordinator for the passing game.
Sherman served as captain of the Ferrum team and was chosen as the team's Most Valuable Player as a senior in 1990.
