When Pete Adrian was named the 16th head coach in Spartan football history on Jan. 19, 2005, he said that the Norfolk State football program was a gold mine waiting to be discovered. Adrian proved his words by building a winner on and off the field at NSU. He guided the Spartans to 54 victories as NSU’s head coach, making him the second-winningest coach in school history. Adrian also presided over a program which recorded the school’s first four winning seasons as a Division I program and the school’s first conference football title since 1984.
Adrian guided the Spartans to the first MEAC football title and Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth in school history in 2011. NSU finished with a 9-3 overall record and posted a 7-1 conference mark, both of which stand as the best in the school’s Division I history. The nine wins were the second-most in school history, trailing only the 1984 team that finished 10-2 and won the last of the school’s four titles in the Division II CIAA.
NSU finished the 2011 season ranked 18th in the FCS Coaches Poll and 19th in The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Poll, the highest rankings the Spartans have garnered in those respective polls. Adrian was tabbed MEAC Coach of the Year by his peers, the Washington, D.C. Pigskin Club’s MEAC Coach of the Year, and was named national FCS Coach of the Year by the College Sporting News. In addition, the Norfolk Sports Club named him its Tom Fergusson Award winner as the Metropolitan Person of the Year in Sports.
The 2011 season capped a remarkable transformation for the Spartans. After NSU won a total of two games in the two seasons prior to Adrian’s arrival (2003 and 2004), the Spartans won eight games combined in Adrian’s first two seasons. They matched that eight-win total in 2007 alone and tallied a 7-4 record in 2009. A 6-5 campaign in 2010 clinched the school’s first-ever back-to-back winning seasons in the school’s Division I era. The streak reached three straight winning campaigns following 2011.
Adrian’s players also reaped the rewards of the team’s stellar 2011 season. A school record-tying 10 Spartans earned All-MEAC honors. Quarterback Chris Walley was named MEAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year and tackle Blake Matthews was voted MEAC Offensive Lineman of the Year, the first time in program history that an NSU player has won either award. Matthews and kicker Ryan Estep both earned multiple FCS All-America honors and were two of a school-record four players who were selected as black college All-Americans.
In all, Spartan players earned 65 postseason All-MEAC honors during Adrian’s tenure. Sixteen players earned some form of All-America recognition.
The Spartans were also been successful off the field under Adrian. NSU's graduation success rate for football rose steadily under his leadership, reaching 65 percent.
Adrian became the first NSU football coach to earn MEAC Coach of the Year honors in 2007, when the Spartans posted the school’s first winning season in its Division I history. That team went 8-3 and came within an overtime loss to Delaware State from capturing the program’s first MEAC football championship. In addition to MEAC Coach of the Year honors, Adrian was also named the MEAC Coach of the Year by the 100% Wrong Club of Atlanta, Ga. He was also the recipient of the J. Roy Rodman Memorial Award as the Virginia Collegiate Coach of the Year by the Norfolk Sports Club, another first for an NSU football coach.
Also in 2007, the Spartans earned the school’s first-ever Division I FCS national ranking, reaching as high as No. 23. Additionally, NSU set a season attendance record for Dick Price Stadium, averaging 17,220 fans per game. That ranked seventh nationally and first among MEAC and state FCS schools.
Ten Spartans were named to the All-MEAC football team in 2007, matching the 2011 and 2014 teams for the most all-conference honors in the program’s Division I era. Included among them was defensive back Terrell Whitehead, who became NSU’s first-ever three-time Division I FCS All-American from 2007-09; and running back DeAngelo Branche, another three-time All-MEAC pick (2008-10) who became the school’s all-time leading rusher during the 2010 season.
A balanced offense and an attacking style of defense have been hallmarks of Adrian’s teams at NSU. The Spartan defense ranked in the top 20 nationally in total defense in seven of his last eight seasons, including four straight top-10 marks from 2009-12 and the No. 2 mark in 2014. His last defense, in 2014, allowed just 251.2 yards per game (second nationally), 102.7 rushing yards per game (sixth), and 17.6 points per contest (seventh). The 2013 unit ranked 13th in the FCS in fewest yards allowed (321.8) and posted top-10 national marks in interceptions (19, tied for fifth), turnovers gained (33, tied for fifth) and passing yards allowed (159.0, sixth).
The 2012 NSU defense ranked third in the FCS in fewest yards allowed (278.1), and the 2011 unit led the MEAC and finished second in the FCS after allowing just 275.8 yards per game. That came on the heels of back-to-back seasons where the Spartans were sixth nationally in the same category. NSU also finished fourth in the nation in scoring defense (17.1 points per game allowed) in 2011.
Adrian also developed a reputation for being a good recruiter. In his first nine full recruiting seasons at the helm of the program, Adrian signed 21 players from the Southeastern Virginia area who were named to The Virginian-Pilot’s All-Tidewater team.
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 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 to that point. 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 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 Spartan 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). Mathis was one of two MEAC Defensive Players of the Year that Adrian has coached, along with defensive end Steve Baggs in 2003.
Carey and Whitehead (free-agent signee) both signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Carey earned the starting free safety job early in the 2010 season and started the team’s final 10 games of the season. He was picked up by the Detroit Lions during the 2011 season.
Whitehead, meanwhile, was one of five Spartans from the 2009 team to sign a professional contract, along with receiver Chris Bell (free agent, New Orleans Saints), offensive lineman Calton Ford (free agent, Cleveland Browns), cornerback Dante Barnes (free agent, Washington Redskins) and quarterback Dennis Brown (Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders). In all, eight former Spartans whom Adrian coached signed NFL contracts (Carey, Whitehead, Bell, Barnes, Ford, quarterback Casey Hansen, linebacker Lynden Trail, safety Keenan Lambert). Trail was a two-time Buck Buchanan Award finalist as the top FCS defensive player during his last two years at NSU (2013-14)
Adrian coached for 46 years, 41 at the collegiate level. He also 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 (1966) before playing parts of three seasons on the varsity squad in 1967-69. An injury cut short his playing 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 and his wife, Christine, have two adult sons, Rocco and Zach, and two granddaughters, Reilly and Piera.
