1/7/2002 - Football
Bohannon Named Wide Receivers Coach

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ANNAPOLIS, Md.-Naval Academy head football coach Paul Johnson announced today that Brian Bohannon has joined his staff as the wide receivers coach. Bohannon comes to Navy from Georgia Southern where he was an assistant coach for Johnson for the past five seasons.

"Brian is an outstanding coach who will do a great job for us," said Johnson. "He played wide receiver at Georgia and has coached both the wide outs and defensive backs for me at Georgia Southern. He is a teacher, a motivator and does a great job recruiting."

"I am excited to be here working with Coach Johnson and working with him and the staff to get Navy back to its winning tradition," said Bohannon. "It is a great opportunity for my wife and I and we are really excited about it."

Bohannon, 31, coached the wide receivers for three seasons at Georgia Southern before taking over the defensive backs the last two seasons.

During his initial season as defensive backs coach, Bohannon's unit played a key role in Georgia Southern's efforts, ranking 18th in pass defense (156.1 yards per game), 24th in passing efficiency defense (100.32 rating) and 28th in interceptions (16). He also helped develop Eagle cornerbacks, Nate Gates and Lavar Rainey, into All-America performers in during their first season as starters.

This past season saw the Eagle defense take another leap forward, finishing second in pass defense (125.6 yards per game), fourth in scoring defense (12.0 points per game) and sixth in total defense (261.4 yards per game).

As wide receivers coach, Bohannon's unit played a vital role in Georgia Southern's offensive success, not only as pass catchers (Chris Johnson and Dedric Parham combined for 50 of the team's 89 receptions in 1999) but as key blockers in the Eagles triple-option attack.

A former standout at the University of Georgia where he was a four-year letterwinner at wide receiver, Bohannon started his coaching career at West Georgia before earning his first full-time position at Gardner-Webb (N.C.) University as wide receivers coach in 1996.

Bohannon, a native of Griffin, Ga., earned his bachelor's degree in general business from UGA in 1993 before following with a master's in business education from West Georgia in 1996. He is married to the former Melanie Cobb.