Brian Newberry enters his fourth season as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach with Kennesaw State in 2018. He originally joined Brian Bohannon’s staff on June 17, 2013.
Boasting more than a decade of coaching experience, Newberry led the Owls to their best defensive season yet. Stifling opponents at every turn, KSU held teams to a seventh-best 15.5 points/game nationally, as well as ranking second in the country in interceptions (24 – 11 more than the next-highest Big South team).
En route to the top turnover margin (1.64) in the nation, Kennesaw State led the Big South in rushing defense (102.1 yards/game), pass defensive efficiency (117.0), and ranked second in sacks (31), third-down stops (34.5 percent) and turnovers-on-downs (53.8 percent). After forcing at least one turnover in every game last season, the Owls ranked third in turnovers gained (35).
Newberry’s crew held especially strong on its own doorstep, leading the league in red zone defense (76.9 percent), while also forcing a conference-high four red-zone interceptions.
In three seasons, only four teams have rushed for more than 200 yards against the Owls, holding an impressive 32-of-36 teams below the mark. Thirteen teams in the last three seasons have also been held to less than 100 total rushing yards.
Individually Newberry has helped develop two standouts in 2017, all-American Bryson Armstrong and 2016 all-Big South honoree Dante Blackmon.
Winner of the prestigious Jerry Rice (National Freshman of the Year) Award, Armstrong captained an airtight defense last season, finishing first in the nation in fumbles recovered (four), while leading the Big South in sacks (11 solo). He finished second in the conference in tackles (114) and third in tackles-for-loss (12.5).
Blackmon, who led the Big South and ranked second nationally with six interceptions, became the first Owl to participate with an NFL team when he was invited to mini-camp and signed to an Undrafted Free Agent contract by the Indianapolis Colts. Free safety, Derrick Farrow, meanwhile, became the first Owl with CFL ties as he was signed to a contract by the Montreal Alouettes.
Newberry joined the Kennesaw State coaching staff after spending the 2012 season as defensive coordinator at Division II Northern Michigan. While leading the defensive unit, Newberry coached first-team Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) defensive lineman Zach Anderson and three linebackers who received GLIAC honorable mention recognition.
Prior to his one season at Northern Michigan, Newberry served as defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., in 2011 where the Tigers improved their scoring defense by 16 points per game and total defense by 85 yards a contest.
Newberry’s coaching experience also includes four seasons (2007-10) as defensive backs coach at Elon and five years (2004-06, 2001 and 2002) as defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach at Washington & Lee University. He also served as a graduate assistant/defensive line coach at Rice during the spring of 2004, spent one season as a defensive backs coach at Lehigh and began his coaching career at Southern Arkansas where he was a graduate assistant coaching the defensive backs and wide receivers in 1999 and 2000.
While defensive backs coach at Elon, Newberry mentored five players who earned All-Southern Conference honors and in 2009, the Phoenix defense ranked fifth nationally in total defense.
In 2004, Newberry’s Washington & Lee defense produced a school-record 43 sacks and ranked among the Division III leaders in rushing defense. The Generals’ defense led the Old Dominion Athletic Conference in pass defense, rush defense and scoring defense in 2005 and in 2006, Washington & Lee forced 30 turnovers and ranked among the nation’s leaders in pass defense.
Newberry played collegiately at Baylor and graduated in 1998 with a bachelor’s of science degree in education. He helped the Bears to the Southwest Conference co-championship and an appearance in the 1994 Alamo Bowl and to a No. 5 national ranking in total defense in 1995.
