Head coach Justin Fuente announced Friday that Zohn Burden will be joining his Virginia Tech coaching staff as running backs coach. Burden has spent the past season coaching wide receivers for the Hokies.
"I'm excited that Coach Burden will be part of our staff at Virginia Tech," Fuente said. "Coach Burden owns an excellent reputation as a teacher and a recruiter. I appreciate the work he's done at Tech, as well as his strong roots in the state of Virginia. I know he's committed to continue helping the Hokies get better."
A Virginia Beach native and Virginia Military Institute graduate, Burden is completing his first season with Tech after joining the Hokies from Old Dominion, where he served three years as passing game coordinator.
Burden has tutored sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Ford, who has evolved into Tech's initial All-ACC First Team performer at that position. Under Burden's guidance, Ford leads the ACC with 937 receiving yards and set a Tech single-season record with 10 touchdown receptions. His 63 catches are also a seasonal school record, while he is just 26 yards shy of surpassing Tech's single-season receiving yardage mark.
Fuente has already announced six others who will be part of his staff moving forward, which includes Bud Foster, Torrian Gray and Charley Wiles, current Tech coaches, and James Shibest, Vance Vice and Holmon Wiggins, who worked with Fuente at Memphis. Other additions to Coach Fuente's staff will be announced as they are finalized.
Comments
Hooray!
Sweet. Odd though to have a rb coach coaching wrs, and a wr coach coaching rbs. As long as they can teach
Wiggins spent the last few years coaching WR
Burden knows the game of football. there is zero doubt he will get the best out of the RBs under the overall guidance of Fuente.
"No" Doubt
Guh......
My gosh she's so freakin HOT! And to think that Blake Shelton is banging that. Smdh
Ehh...meh.
He'll take his focus on WR's blocking and carry it over to the RB's.
I'll be curious to see the staff's analysis of Fuente's offense and the RB role: blocking and receiving out of the backfield, etc.
Zohn, if you're reading this: (1) Congrats! (2) Coach your players to get back to the numbers!
They have math tutors to help with that.
Yes! yes, yes!
Dare I say it, but CJF has been #enfuente since day one!
On fountain?
Indeed
Double post?
TKP Article
This is also an official story from TKP, relaying the official media release provided by VT.
The earlier story was about the reports, before VT officially announced Burden's new position.
I'm happy to have him but I still feel like someone should post the picture of the obese woman with the gaped open mouth that screams "wat"?
I am not sure if I am weirded out or feeling sick. So Shane is gone?
I always like this dude
Well, Burden doesn't do rotations at all. Makes sense from that perspective!! Better get ready Mac!
Plot twist.
Is this something that's often done? The two positions seem different enough that they aren't interchangeable. Especially if you actually played the position youre not coaching.
Yes, assistant coaches switch positions all the time - except at VT. I would think the majority of the reasons is that the head coach is more comfortable/experienced with an assistant at one position (Wiggins at WR)
Ok now we're talking. I wanted to keep Bud, Torrian, Burden, and Wiles from the previous staff, in that order. Looks like Fuente has got his guys.
Stiney for recruiting coordinator?
No Stiney.
I understand this move from a recruiting standpoint, but I don't understand it from a position coach standpoint. He was WR coach at ODU and then at VT. It's not like his resume is very long (or at least long enough for us to assume he can seamlessly transition to coaching RB's). I'll also admit that I don't really know enough about the coaching profession.
Plenty of coaches move around, plenty of coaches coach positions they didn't play. The narrative that a coach needs to have played that position to coach it is a failed one.
Plus (and I think this was alluded to elsewhere), how much difference is there really, between a RB and WR? They should already know the basics of how to grab the ball. So, in either case, the coach is there mainly for route running and ball protection, concepts that apply to both positions.
and blocking
Next year's #1 player in VA is happy about Burden being on staff:
http://247sports.com/Bolt/Top-Junior-RB-Happy-Burden-is-Retained-42008416
I'm happy he's happy
Love to hear that stuff, good find.
Case in point to the discussion above: he's listed as the top RB in his class, but he lines up as a WR about half the time, and makes a couple of great catches.
yeah I noticed that too. He was lined up as a slot receiver or HBack more often than not. Most of his carries also came on sweep actions and pitches. I only saw a couple of plays where he lined up as a traditional tailback. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, though. He's clearly athletic and has good hands to be a threat in the passing game. He's a weapon that I'm confident Fuente and Co. would be able to use effectively. I would not be upset at all if we could land the guy but, as others have pointed out, we need LBs in a bad way. I hope we're pursuing some top talent at that position too.
I'm expecting a decent uptick in recruiting next year.
RB coach is the WR coach and WR coach is the new RB coach.
But I trust Fuente and I'm glad we kept Burden on staff.