12/28/2018 football Edit

John Garrison expected to boost NC State recruiting

Jacey Zembal • TheWolfpackCentral

Writer

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NC State hired offensive line coach John Garrison to replace Dwayne Ledford, who left to become Louisville's offensive coordinator after three seasons in Raleigh.

New NC State offensive line coach John Garrison is known for having a good touch in football recruiting.

Rivals.com ranked him among the top 25 assistant coaches for recruiting in the country for the class of 2014, when he coached the offensive line at Nebraska. He subsequently has coached at UNLV and most recently at Florida Atlantic, but he has the potential to shine as a recruiter at NC State.

“He is good with families and in living rooms, takes a family approach to recruiting. He knows how to sell comfort and does an especially good job with offensive linemen,” Rivals.com national recruiting director Mike Farrell said. “He's a good player development guy as well. This guy should do well at NC State.”

Sean Callahan of HuskerOnline.com, which is part of the Rivals.com network, watched Garrison as a player (1999-2002) for then-NU head coach Frank Solich. Garrison started at center in 2001 and helped Nebraska reach the BCS National Championship Game. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion when his playing days ended that he’d go into coaching.

“He was a fiery guy and a captain in 2002, which was a tough year,” Callahan said. “It was a 7-7 season. That was the first time since the 1970s they hadn’t won nine or more games. There was a rough spot there. He was a well-respected guy when he played.

“I know when he got out of football, there was a time he wanted to become a professional bass fisherman.”

Callahan believes that NCSU head coach Dave Doeren has a long relationship with Garrison, so he wasn’t overly surprised when he heard the news about the hire.

“There is some history there,” Callahan said of the two coaches who are both from the Kansas City area.

After serving as an assistant at Blue Springs (Mo.) High, his alma mater, Garrison broke into college coaching as an intern from 2008-10 at Nebraska. He then became the Cornhuskers' assistant offensive line and tight ends coach the following two seasons before taking over as the team's offensive line coach from 2013-14 under then-head coach Bo Pelini. The team went 9-4 in 2014, but Pelini was let go, and that altered Garrison’s job trajectory.

New UNLV coach Tony Sanchez hired him in 2015, and after three seasons as the run game coordinator and offensive line coach, Garrison left to work for Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin in the same role. This fall, Garrison helped FAU rush for 241.8 yards per contest, which was 14th best in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) while averaging 5.1 yards per carry (25th), and allowed only 14 sacks in 12 games.

Callahan agrees with Farrell and expects Garrison to be a quality recruiter at NC State.

“He won some really good battles, was very aggressive and related well to kids,” Callahan said. “Kansas City was an area where he really made a name for himself.”