Linwood Ferguson leaving WSSU to work with long-time friend

After two seasons as defensive-back coach at WSSU, Linwood Ferguson is moving to Howard University in Washington, D.C. to take the position of offensive coordinator.

"We hate to lose him but I think it's a good move," Head Coach Kermit Blount said. "He brought a lot of experience to the table, and also the ability to deal with our players effectively."

Ferguson, who also served as recruiting coordinator at WSSU, said the move came unexpectedly.

Howard's head coach, Rayford Petty, was recruited by Ferguson while he was at Elon College. The two later coached together at East Carolina.

"We've had a long-lasting friendship," Ferguson said. "He had an opening on his staff and we'd always talked about coaching together if the opportunity presented itself. We started talking about the opening at a coaches convention last month and it just went from there."

The Bison finished the 2005 season with a 4-7 record, including an early-season win against WSSU. Ferguson inherits an offense that scored an average of 16 points per-game last season.

After a rough start, the Rams defensive backfield made big strides under Ferguson. WSSU's pass defense was its Achilles heel in 2004, ranking next to last in the CIAA.

In 2005, the pass defense was much improved and Ferguson predicts that the group will improve even more next season. "They made drastic improvement over the course of the year. They're gonna be a good group," said Ferguson.

Ferguson will make his return to Bowman-Gray later this year as Howard travels to Winston-Salem to face the Rams for Homecoming 2006.

"It's gonna be fun," said Ferguson. "Those guys are competitors and they don't have any quit in them."

Blount agreed that the game will be competitive, as well as fun. "For those four hours we'll get at it, but before and afterwards we'll be friends."