North Carolina State University Athletics
Sands Joins Football Staff
2/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 15, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. - NC State head football coach Tom O'Brien has announced that Everette Sands has joined the Wolfpack staff and will coach the running backs. Sands has spent the past six years in that same capacity at his alma mater, The Citadel.
"We are excited to have Everette join our staff," said O'Brien. "He brings all of the qualities we look to find in an assistant coach: he's a winner, a great educator, a great communicator and he will do an outstanding job coaching our running backs."
In the past six years, Sands has coached three Bulldog running backs who were named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman team and had a back break the single-season and single-game school records for touchdowns. This was his second stint at The Citadel, as he also served as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs in 1999 and 2000.
Between his two coaching stints at The Citadel, Sands spent four years coaching the offensive backfield at Ohio University (2001-04). He coached the running backs at Elon from 1996-98.
A four-time All-Southern Conference selection during his playing days, the Conway, S.C., native ranks second all-time on the Bulldogs' rushing chart with 3,926 yards and second in scoring with 204 points on 34 touchdowns. He served as the team's captain in 1993.
In 1992, Sands helped lead The Citadel to a Southern Conference championship and a No. 1 final ranking, rushing for 1,449 yards and 12 touchdowns as the Bulldogs posted an overall record of 11-2. That yardage total was the second-highest single-season mark in school history. Sands was named first-team All-Southern Conference, first-team All-South Carolina and second-team All-American at the conclusion of that season.
Following his graduation from The Citadel in 1993, Sands worked in private business for two years before serving as the head football coach at Sea Island Academy in Charleston.
Sands, a 2004 Citadel Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, is married to the former Yvette Newton of Hartwell, Ga. They have three children, Tre (10), Sierra (8) and Josiah (4).
Sands will replace Jason Swepson, a member of O'Brien's staff at Boston College and NC State since 1999 who was recently named head coach at Elon. After having the same offensive staff in place for the past eight seasons (four at BC and four at NC State), O'Brien has made some adjustments in assignments. Jim Bridge, who has coached tight ends under O'Brien since 2003 will now coach the Wolfpack offensive line while Don Horton, who has coached O'Brien's offensive line since 2003, will now coach the tight ends.
"With Jason's departure and Everette's arrival, we decided it was time to move some folks around and give our offensive staff a different look," said O'Brien. "After eight years with the same offensive staff, this was a good time to do that. We are looking forward to this new structure and putting together some new concepts and coming up with new ideas."
