New Virginia Tech football head coach Brent Pry announced the hiring of two assistant coaches, Derek Jones and Shawn Quinn, on Sunday afternoon.
Though it is unclear what specific positions the two will have as of now, they are both defensive-minded coaches. Jones has experience coaching defensive backs, and Quinn has coached linebackers and the defensive line. Pry already retained J.C. Price as his Associate Head Coach and Defensive Line Coach, so it’s likely Quinn will mentor linebackers.
Derek Jones
Jones ventures to Blacksburg from Lubbock, Texas, where he was the Associate Head Coach, Co-Defensive Coordinator and Secondary Coach for two seasons.
A longtime coach in the ACC, Jones has been around the block. An Ole Miss alumnus, he started his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Rebels in 1998. He went to Murray State in 2000, where he stayed for four years. After one-year stops at Middle Tennessee, Tulsa and Memphis, he joined David Cutcliffe’s staff at Duke in 2008, where he stayed until he left for Texas Tech.
Jones coached defensive backs (specifically corners starting in 2015) and was an Assistant Special Teams Coordinator in Durham. He mentored cornerback Ross Cockrell, who was selected in the 2014 NFL Draft, and wide receiver Jamison Crowder, who played on special teams in Durham and was taken in the 2015 draft.
Cockrell was a two-time All-ACC First Team performer and earned Honorable Mention All-American accolades. Crowder excelled as a returner on special teams, finishing his career with a school-record five punt returns for touchdowns. He was one of three Duke players to earn All-America honors on special teams in the ten years Jones coached that unit.
Jones also coached Breon Borders, Leon Wright and Matt Daniels at Duke. Borders finished his career at Duke with 34 pass breakups, second-most in school history, and he posted 12 interceptions in four seasons. He was an All-ACC player and signed an NFL contract after graduation, like Wright and Daniels.
A coach with 24 years of college experience, he had a role in mentoring Zach McPherson into an All-Big 12 selection at Texas Tech. “He is just the second Red Raider cornerback to garner first-team accolades since Texas Tech joined the conference in 1996,” per Jones’s Texas Tech bio.
Shawn Quinn
The former head coach at Savannah State, Quinn led the Tigers to a 7-3 record in his first season in 2019, the program’s first winning record since 1998. He has 25 years of coaching experience at the college level.
Like Jones, Quinn has been many places. A 1995 graduate of Carson-Newman College, his first Division I coaching gig was as an offensive line/special teams GA in 1999 at Tennessee. He moved to Louisiana in 2002, where he coached the defensive line until 2008 and worked with Pry, who was the defensive coordinator. Since, he’s coached both linebackers and defensive line.
He has stops at LSU, Georgia Southern (another connection with Pry, who was the DC), Charleston Southern, Western Carolina, Tennessee Tech and The Citadel. His defenses at all of those places have put up solid statistics, too.
Some notables:
- Savannah State was No. 1 in scoring defense in 2019 in the SIAC (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).
- As the Tigers’ defensive coordinator in 2018 (when Savannah State was still in the FCS), his unit led the MEAC in pass defense (third in the FCS) and second in total defense (19th).
- At Charleston Southern, his group led the Big South in pass defense and was third in scoring and total defense.
Quinn has coached and/or recruited a number of NFL players, per his Savannah State bio. Jason Whitten (Dallas), Tyson Jackson (Atlanta), Darius Eubanks (Tampa Bay), Jeremy Lane (Seattle), Antwoine Williams (Minnesota) and Edwin Jackson (Indianapolis) are among those talents.
Print
I’m on the “positive” side, reaction wise – just thinking, though: on my wish list is that they might find someone to coach effective tackling, including containing a ball-carrier in an open-field situation…
This sounds like the end of the road for Justin Hamilton
Yes yes but we need an OC and DC asap to retain players and recruits!
I’d read that Pry decided to keep Pierson Prioleau on staff, who was Director of Player Development under Fuente. Any idea whether he’ll be staying in that same position under Pry? (BTW, I realize Dir. of Player Development isn’t an assistant coaching job, but I’m curious: What other non-assistant coach jobs are there on a football team’s staff? I imagine things like Recruiting, and maybe Media Relations/PR, but does anyone know what *other* expected or typical non-assistant coach positions there are (or might be) on the staff?)
I think this move was made because he has been busting his butt along with JC trying to hold the class together. Not a great message to the class to can him now.
Pry needs to have as much of his staff in place by this week-end – when all the recruits re-take their official visits. Don’t think the D side is as important with these two guys – plus JC and Pry. it’s the O side that needs to be filled in.
I see our Murray State connections continue to continue… 😉
Not a big Fan of that-over it.
So no matter where else someone has coached and how well qualified they are, if they ever coached at Murray State, we shouldn’t hire them?
I’m surprised that Quinn would leave an FCS head coaching job for a FBS assistant role. Seems like his next move would have been a G5 HC job.
I think Quinn was making less than $100K.
Yep. I think he will get 5X what he was making. I would step back in title for that.
Savannah State had moved back down to Div 2 so he wasn’t actually or currently an FCS HC.
We’ve known or at least I read about these two last week. How about the two rumored for today?
Maybe they were the 2?
Not officially announced until today. The info leaked earlier when they left their prior positions.
I like the hires. Very detailed, focus on technique, and competition in practice.