Georgia Tech’s coaching staff has taken on more local flavor. Coach Brent Key hired Vanderbilt running backs coach Norval McKenzie to fill the same role on his staff, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. The news was reported first by Rivals earlier Thursday.
McKenzie, who had been at Vanderbilt for the past two seasons, starred at McEachern High before playing at Vanderbilt, and later he coached at Hiram High.
McKenzie also coached with new offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, who also was a high school star in metro Atlanta (Parkview High), at Arkansas State from 2016-18.
That Key and Faulkner could hire McKenzie away would seem a significant move. Not only is McKenzie a Vanderbilt graduate, but he was teammates with Commodores coach Clark Lea and part of a program that appears to have momentum at the end of Lea’s second season.
This season, Vanderbilt running back Ray Davis ran for 1,042 yards, with five 100-yard rushing games. It was only the 10th 1,000-yard rushing season in school history.
McKenzie was at Louisville for the two seasons before taking the Vanderbilt job (2019-20). His pupils included Hassan Hall, who transferred to Tech last offseason. Coached by McKenzie, Hall was named second-team All-ACC as an all-purpose player in 2019. Another Cardinals back, Javian Hawkins, ran for 1,525 yards that season, the eighth-highest total that season in FBS, and also earned second-team All-ACC honors.
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