Pete Adrian
Head Football Coach

Phone: (757) 823-8824
Email: padrian@nsu.edu

When Pete Adrian was named the 16th head coach in Spartan football history on January 19, 2005, he said that Norfolk State was a gold mine waiting to be discovered. After four seasons at the helm of the program, Adrian’s words are proving to be prophetic.

After NSU won a total of two games in the two seasons prior to his arrival, the Spartans won eight games in Adrian’s first two seasons. They matched that eight-win total in 2007 alone and have won 13 games the last two seasons. Adrian’s four-year record at NSU is 21-24.

The 2007 campaign was a particularly memorable one for Adrian and the Spartans. NSU recorded the school’s first winning season in its 11-year Division I history, going 8-3 and coming within an overtime loss to Delaware State from capturing the program’s first MEAC championship.
 
For all of his team’s success, Adrian was named 2007 MEAC Coach of the Year, the first time a Spartan football coach has won that award. He was also named the MEAC Coach of the Year by the 100% Wrong Club of Atlanta, Ga. Adrian was the recipient of the J. Roy Rodman Memorial Award as the Virginia Collegiate Coach of the Year by the Norfolk Sports Club.

In addition, a school-record 10 Spartans were named to the All-MEAC football team in 2007. Included among them was defensive back Terrell Whitehead, who has also earned third-team All-America honors from The Sports Network each of the last two years.

After being picked to finish seventh in the preseason MEAC poll, the Spartans won a school-record six MEAC games last season. That included the program’s first win over Bethune-Cookman since 1997, first over South Carolina State since 2000, first over Hampton since 2001, and first-ever over Florida A&M. Along the way, the Spartans also garnered the school’s first-ever Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly I-AA) national ranking, reaching as high as No. 23.

NSU also set a season attendance record for Dick Price Stadium, averaging 17,220 fans per game. That ranked seventh nationally, first among MEAC and state FCS schools.

The Spartans have made steady strides under Adrian, who stresses a balanced offense and an attacking style of defense. In 2007, NSU ranked fifth nationally in pass defense (147.8 yards per game allowed) and 19th in total defense (319 ypg), up from 71st the year before.

Special teams play, a weakness in seasons past, has become a Spartan strength. NSU led all of Division I FCS in punt return average in 2006 and ranked second in 2008.

Adrian has also developed a reputation for being a good recruiter. In his first four full recruiting seasons at the helm of the program, Adrian signed 11 players from the Southeastern Virginia area who were named to The Virginian-Pilot’s All-Tidewater team.
His freshman class of 2007 was ranked sixth among Division I Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Adrian came to NSU after serving as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for seven seasons at one of the Spartans’ MEAC rivals, Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Adrian, who preaches accountability, hard work and discipline, joined the Wildcats’ staff in 1997 after serving as head coach and athletic director at Deltona High School in Deltona, Fla., from 1993-96. Adrian left Bethune-Cookman briefly to serve as defensive coordinator of the XFL’s Chicago Enforcers in 2001, and returned to his post at B-CU in 2002.
 
During his tenure at Bethune-Cookman, Adrian helped the Wildcats to the most successful period in school history. In his seven seasons, the Wildcats went 54-25 and had winning records in each of his last six years there. B-CU made the first two Division I FCS playoff appearances in school history in 2002 and 2003 and won a MEAC title in 2002.

The Wildcat defense was a big reason for that success, regularly ranking among the conference leaders in numerous categories. In 2004, Adrian’s last year with the Wildcats, B-CU finished second in the MEAC in scoring defense (20.9 ppg) and total defense (325.1 ypg). The 2004 unit also forced the second-most turnovers in the MEAC (35) and ranked 14th in FCS in passing efficiency defense.

Adrian has coached numerous players who have reached the professional ranks. Included among them is former NSU defensive back Don Carey, the first Spartan to be drafted in the school’s Division I era. Carey was a sixth-round choice of the Cleveland Browns in the 2009 NFL draft after a senior season which saw him become the first NSU player ever selected to play in the East-West Shrine Game.

Other pro players whom Adrian has coached include Pro Bowl defensive backs Nick Collins (Green Bay Packers) and Rashean Mathis (Jacksonville Jaguars). Both starred for Adrian’s defenses at Bethune-Cookman. Mathis was the second HBCU athlete to win the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defensive player in Division I FCS. He still holds FCS records for interceptions in a season (14, in 2002) and a career (31).

Adrian also coached back-to-back MEAC Defensive Players of the Year in 2002 (Mathis) and 2003 (defensive end Steve Baggs).

Adrian has 40 years of coaching experience, 35 at the collegiate level. He has held assistant coaching positions at West Virginia, Rhode Island and Idaho State. At Rhode Island, he was on staff for three Yankee Conference championships and NCAA playoff teams. He was also the head coach at Division II Bloomsburg (Pa.) University from 1986-92, compiling a 36-37-1 record. He has the third-most wins of any football coach in Bloomsburg history.

A native of Brilliant, Ohio, Adrian lettered in five sports at Brilliant High School before attending West Virginia. At WVU, he played one year of freshman football, in 1966, before playing parts of three seasons on the varsity in 1967-69. An injury cut short his career in Morgantown, W.Va., but he coached the Mountaineers’ freshman football team as a senior in 1969. He earned his bachelor’s degree from WVU in 1970 and received his master’s from Rhode Island University in 1972.

Adrian, 60, and his wife, Christine, have two sons, Rocco and Zach.

 

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