01/13/2012 Franklin adds Barlow, Gattis to football staffGeorge Barlow and Josh Gattis join Franklin's coaching staff. George Barlow, who served as interim head coach and defensive coordinator at the University of New Mexico in 2011, enters his first year at Vanderbilt. Barlow will serve as defensive backs coach and defensive recruiting coordinator under Head Coach James Franklin. Barlow, 40, served three years at New Mexico after a successful stint mentoring defenses at James Madison (Va.) University, one of the top teams in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Barlow becomes the third highly respected former FCS defensive coordinator on Vanderbilt's staff. The Commodore defense is directed by Bob Shoop, former coordinator at William & Mary. Brent Pry, the former coordinator at Georgia Southern, serves as co-coordinator and linebackers coach at Vanderbilt. Barlow began the 2011 season as UNM's assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. Four games into the season, Lobo athletics officials named Barlow as the team's interim head coach after Mike Locksley was relieved. Barlow's 2011 New Mexico defense was led by middle linebacker Carmen Messina. The senior was a first-team All-Mountain West Conference recipient after topping the league in tackles for a third straight year. He also broke the conference career record with 454 tackles, including a career-high 21 stops in the 2011 finale at Boise State. Barlow joined New Mexico after a highly successful decade of coaching at James Madison. Barlow experienced tremendous success at JMU, helping guide the Dukes to the 2004 NCAA I-AA national championship and FCS postseason appearances in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Barlow's JMU was consistently among the nation's best. In 2006, the Dukes were second nationally in sacks and fourth in rush defense (84.8 ypg). In 2005, the unit ranked first nationally in rush defense (84.8. In JMU's championship season of 2004, the Dukes set a FCS record for sacks and ranked second in the nation in rush defense. Serving as JMU's running backs coach in 1999 prior moving to the defensive staff, Barlow tutored Curtis Keaton to team records in rushing yards (1,719 yards) and rushing touchdowns (20). Keaton was later selected by the Cincinnati in the fourth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. The following year, Barlow coached tailback/return specialist Delvin Joyce when he became the first Division I-AA player to reach the 1,000-yard career mark in rushing, receiving, punt returns and kickoff returns. Prior to James Madison, Barlow spent three years at Oklahoma, coaching outside linebackers and strong safeties in 1998 after serving as a defensive graduate assistant in 1996-97. Barlow was the defensive coordinator at West Virginia State in 1995 and defensive line coach at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College in 1994. He started his coaching career in 1991, spending three seasons as a defensive assistant at Marshall. In college, Barlow was an all-conference safety at Marshall from 1986-90. He was a member of the 1987 Thundering Herd squad that played in the NCAA I-AA national title game. Barlow graduated in 1990 with a degree in business administration concentrating in finance and business law. Barlow has a daughter, Kierstin Paige. The Barlow File: Coaching Experience |
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