MONROE, La.?Vance Vice, who has served as
Utah State's offensive line coach for the past four seasons, has been named
offensive line coach at ULM, head coach Charlie Weatherbie announced Tuesday.
Vice's hire is pending approval by the University of Louisiana System Board of
Supervisors.
The 19-year coaching veteran coached a pair
of players at Utah State who are currently in the NFL. Guard Shawn Murphy was a
fourth round pick by the Miami Dolphins in the 2008 NFL Draft and Donald Penn
was a 2005 free agent signee of the Minnesota Vikings and currently plays for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“We are excited to welcome Coach Vice to our
coaching staff,” Weatherbie said. “He has a great track record working with
offensive lines and is a great teacher of the game. We are blessed to have his expertise on our
staff.”
During Vice's four
seasons with the Aggies, four offensive linemen earned All-Western Athletic
Conference honors and Ryan Tonnemacher was a two-time selection to the
Rimington Trophy Watch List, which is awarded annually to the nation's top
center.
Under Vice's
guidance, Murphy was invited to play in the East-West Shrine Game in addition
to being selected in the NFL Draft. He became the first Utah State player selected to
the Shrine Game since 2002 and the first Aggie offensive lineman chosen to the
all-star game since center Tim Ruiz in 1986.
Vice came to Utah
State after spending the previous five seasons coaching the offensive line at
Illinois State. He was promoted to assistant head coach prior to his final two
seasons with the Redbirds.
At Illinois State,
three of his linemen earned All-America honors and eight garnered Gateway
Conference honors. In 2003, the Redbirds established a school record with 248.1
yards per game rushing and allowed just five sacks on 367 pass attempts.
Vice started his
coaching career as a graduate assistant at Georgia from 1990-92 before working
at Hart County (Ga.) High School from 1993-95.
He returned to the
collegiate level coaching tight ends at Clemson from 1996-98 and then spent one
year at Murray State as the offensive line coach.
Vice was a defensive
lineman and tight end at Oklahoma State, where he participated in three bowl
games on teams that featured Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders.
The three-time
academic all-Big Eight selection graduated from Oklahoma State in 1990 with a
degree in secondary education. He earned a master's
degree in education administration from Georgia in 1993 as well as an EdS
degree from Clemson in 1999.
He and his wife Kerry
have two daughters, Savannah and Sydni, and a son, Brock.
