Well-traveled Southern Mississippi linebackers coach Dave Wommack will be Georgia Tech's new defensive coordinator, outgoing Southern Mississippi coach Jeff Bower told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., on Thursday.

Wommack has been a defensive coordinator at Arkansas, Southern Mississippi, UNLV, Southwest Missouri State and Bemidji State. He became co-coordinator this season for Southern Mississippi, which forced Bower to resign after a team picked to contend for the Conference USA title finished 7-5 and earned a berth in Saturday's Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham.

The Golden Eagles rank 47th nationally in total defense and 38th in scoring defense.

Wommack's 2000 Southern Mississippi defense ranked second in the nation in total defense and eighth in scoring defense. A season earlier, current New England Patriots inside linebacker Adalius Thomas made All-America on a unit that ranked eighth nationally in scoring defense and total defense.

Defensive back Patrick Surtain, who went on to play for the Miami Dolphins, was 1997 Conference USA defensive player of the year.

Wommack has coached linebackers and defensive backs in 27 years as a college assistant coach. It was unknown Thursday which position he would coach at Tech. Yellow Jackets coach Paul Johnson could not be reached Thursday night.

Before the middle of this season, when he took on added responsibility because of a colleague's cancer treatment, Wommack hadn't been a coordinator since he left Arkansas in 2004. He was a position coach at South Carolina in 2005 and 2006.

His Southern Mississippi defenses in the late 1990s were the backbone of a team that won or shared three of the first four Conference USA titles. The Golden Eagles were known for their aggressive play. In 1994, they led the nation with 41 takeaways. The 1996 team ranked third in the nation in turnover margin, and the 1997 team ranked 10th in interceptions.