Brian Sheppard joins the Norfolk State football coaching staff ahead of the 2024-25 season as the team’s offensive coordinator, bringing experience from several high-level winning programs.
Sheppard comes to Norfolk State from Towson, where he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for two seasons. He helped Towson earn its fifth .500-or-better CAA year in the last five seasons, producing 7-5 overall record with a 5-3 mark in conference play.
Towson tight end Carter Runyon earned All-CAA First Team honors in 2024, while offensive lineman Ralph Paige Jr. was named to the All-CAA Second Team. Running back Devin Matthews picked up a third team accolade.
Sheppard led the Tigers to a strong 2023 campaign, his first year with the program, highlighted by breakthrough individual performances. Nathan Kent, in his first year starting at quarterback, had the team's first five-plus touchdown passing performance since 2019 in a 54-51 overtime victory at #14/17 New Hampshire to earn CAA Offensive Player of the Week. Runyon became the first-ever Towson Division I tight end to earn All-America status, receiving Second Team honors by the Associated Press and STATS Perform, while right tackle KJ Brooks was an FCS Freshman All-American by FCS Football Central and STATS Perform.
Sheppard served in the same role at Stetson University in 2022. Stetson had the top passing offense in the Pioneer League (PFL) with 295.9 yards in the air per game, including the PFL Freshman Offensive Player of the Year, who was also second in the conference with 245.6 total yards per offense a game.
Sheppard spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons as a quality control coach and assistant quarterback's coach at the University of Minnesota. The Golden Gophers went 9-4 in 2021 with a victory in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
Sheppard was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Virginia Military Institute from 2018-19. Four players earned all-league recognition, including his quarterback, who had over 3,000 yards passing each season. In 2018, VMI was eighth in FCS in passing offense, also being top-20 the following year.
Sheppard also produced all-conference quarterbacks in the previous three stops: Case Cookus at Northern Arizona (2017), Mike Perish at Indiana State and Josh Dean at Willamette (2012). Sheppard was at Indiana State from 2013-16 as an assistant head coach. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at all three places. He helped Indiana State and Northern Arizona to playoff berths, including his 2014 team being ranked in the top-20 with a seven-game turnaround from the previous year.
At Willamette in 2012, the Bearcats finished first in the Northwest Conference in total offense and passing offense en route to an 8-2 season. He spent the 2011 season at the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at West Virginia Wesleyan in 2011.
Sheppard was the tight ends coach at UCLA in 2010. He coached Joe Fauria, who went on to play for the Detroit Lions in the National Football League.
Sheppard was at New Mexico State from 2007-09 as the tight ends and inside wide receivers coach, starting his coaching career at Tulsa as a quality control coach and assistant quarterback's coach in 2006.
He is a former quarterback at Saddleback J.C., Southeastern Louisiana and Baker, being a team captain at the latter two places. He graduated from Baker with a degree in business in 2006.
