SAN ANTONIO — UTSA head football coach Jeff Traylor on Tuesday announced that he has hired Brad Sherrod, a coaching veteran for more than two decades, as the program's linebackers coach. His appointment is effective immediately.
Sherrod's hiring completes the Roadrunners' full-time assistant coaching staff of 10 and he joins fellow defensive coaches Jess Loepp (co-defensive coordinator/safeties), Rod Wright (co-defensive coordinator/defensive line) and Nick Graham (cornerbacks).
Sherrod, who spent more than a decade on the coaching staff at his alma mater, Duke, comes to UTSA from Tennessee State, where he was the Tigers' safeties coach in 2020, a season that was postponed to this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
His long coaching career also has landed him on staffs at Delaware, East Tennessee State, Elon, Massachusetts, Sam Houston State, Wake Forest and Western Carolina.
Prior to his tenure at Tennessee State, Sherrod spent three seasons as the outside linebackers coach at Wake Forest. There, he tutored Justin Strnad, a 2020 fifth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos who led all Atlantic Coast Conference linebackers and finished third nationally with three interceptions in 2017.
In his first season with the program, he helped lead the Demon Deacons to a Belk Bowl victory over Texas A&M to cap an 8-5 season. The defense broke the school record for tackles for loss in a season and also recorded 17 tackles for loss against Florida State, the most by a Power 5 Conference team in a single game during the 2017 season.
Sherrod also helped guide Wake Forest seven wins and a Birmingham Bowl victory over Memphis in 2018. The following year, the Demon Deacons posted an 8-4 regular season record and made an appearance in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
Prior to Wake Forest, Sherrod spent three years at Sam Houston State, where he was on the same staff as Rod Wright. He was co-defensive coordinator for his first two seasons before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2016. The Bearkats went 34-10, earned three FCS playoff berths, won a Southland Conference title, defeated nine top-25 opponents and posted a pair of top-four national finishes during his three-year tenure in Huntsville.
While at Sam Houston, he coached a pair of All-Americans and eight all-conference performers. He mentored P.J. Hall, a current NFL defensive lineman who was a Buck Buchanan finalist, first-team All-American and Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2016. He also tutored Justin Johnson to first-team All-America and all-conference accolades.
In 2016, he helped Sam Houston post a 12-1 record and achieve a No. 1 ranking in the FCS final regular season poll. The Bearkats lost to eventual national champion James Madison in the quarterfinal round of the FCS playoffs.
Sherrod served as the defensive coordinator at Elon in 2013 after a three-year stint as the linebackers coach at Delaware where he coached current NFL veteran Paul Worrilo, a first team all-conference performer, the conference's defensive rookie of the year, Jeff Williams and all-conference linebacker Matt Marcorelle. In his first year with the Blue Hens in 2010, the program went 12-3 and advanced to the FCS title game. That year the Delaware defense led the FCS in scoring defense (12.1 points per game) and was fifth in total defense (280.7 yards per game).
Sherrod spent the 2008 and 2009 seasons at Western Carolina, where he coached running backs and linebackers.
He spent 11 seasons on the staff at his alma mater, Duke, where he tutored the linebackers for nine years from 1997 to 2005, tight ends in 2006 and running backs in his final two campaigns. He tutored several standout players, including Chike Egbuniwe, all-conference linebacker Ryan Fowler and Ryan Stallmeyer, who all finished their careers in Duke's career top 10 for tackles. He also mentored Mike Brown Tauiliili, who earned freshman All-America honors in 2005 and went on to garner All-America and first-team all-conference honors after leading the league in tackles as a senior.
Sherrod's coaching career began in 1995 at UMass, where he served as a graduate assistant for the defensive tackles before heading to East Tennessee State as linebackers coach in 1996. He helped lead ETSU to a No. 8 national ranking, a 10-3 record and the second round of the FCS playoffs.
He has served two internships in the NFL, spending the summer of 1998 with the Dallas Cowboys and the 2000 preseason with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sherrod is a 2007 graduate of the NCAA Expert Coaches Academy.
During his playing career at Duke, Sherrod was a team captain who earned second team All-ACC and Academic All-ACC honors as a senior in 1993 when he led the Blue Devils and ranked fifth in the ACC with 113 total tackles. A native of Monroe, N.C., Sherrod had 279 career stops during his Duke career from 1990-93.
As a prepster, Sherrod was a two-time all-state and honorable mention All-America selection at Monroe (N.C.) High School.
Sherrod earned his bachelor's degree in history from Duke in 1993.
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