Belin Tabbed As Dukes New ILB Coach

HARRISONBURG – Warren Belin knew he wanted to stay active in coaching, but said he wasn’t going to leave Vanderbilt for just any job.

The right one turned out to be James Madison.

Dukes coach Mike Houston tabbed Belin as the school’s new inside linebackers coach on Tuesday.

“When you’re coming from the SEC and places that I’ve coached, I sat there and said, ‘If I’m going to go, I’m going to make sure it’s for the best of the best,’” Belin said.

Belin, who replaces Byron Thweatt, brings 27 years of coaching experience with him to JMU. Thweatt left JMU last month for the same job at Marshall.

“I think we have a very talented, young core of linebackers, that have a chance to be pretty good,” Houston said. “So to get the right guy was really important to me.

“Warren is going to give us so much on the field and at the same time, just with the kind of character person he is and his commitment to developing young men off the field, is going to be just as important for this group.”

Belin led the outside linebackers at Vanderbilt this past fall, but said he was likely going to be moved into an off-the-field job with the program for the 2018 season.

Commodores coach Derek Mason had made some staff changes, which included the return of outside linebackers coach Osia Lewis, who spent 2017 away from the field while battling cancer.

Previously, Belin was at Wake Forest where he spent three seasons as linebackers coach and one as the director of recruiting.

“I knew coming into [Vanderbilt] that it could possibly be a one-year deal,” Belin said. “Coach Mason was up front with me, but we were hoping that I could stay here for a while, having been here before.

“But with the transition and the way Coach Mason put it all together, it was going to result in me trying to go into a position off the field and I didn’t want to be off the field again.”

Of his 27 years in the profession, only the one season at Wake Forest had Belin in a non-positional coaching role.

Before Wake Forest, he worked two seasons with Carolina Panthers linebackers. Under Belin’s watch Luke Kuechly was the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012.

Between his first stint at Vanderbilt, which lasted seven years and his time in the NFL, he spent a season at Georgia.

The connection between JMU and Belin was there through a few different sources.

Belin and Houston had known of each other through mutual friends and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Belin’s brother, Levern, worked with current Dukes defensive coordinator Bob Trott at Richmond.

Levern is currently the defensive line coach at Delaware.

“The first person I called when I heard the position was available was my brother,” Belin said. “I asked him about Coach Trott, and he did a nice job of informing me and he made the connection to Coach Trott for me.”

Belin, a North Carolina native, said it was also comforting to join a staff that features so many coaches from the Tar Heel state.

Houston said the interview with Belin lasted a few days and that the Dukes’ staff was impressed.

“We had really quality candidates interview, but to me, as soon as he finished his time with us I knew exactly which direction I wanted to go,” Houston said. “So it just came down to working it out to where he felt it was the best situation for him.”

Belin takes over a position group that will feature battles for starting jobs that begin as soon as JMU opens spring practice next month. Starters from this past season’s team, Kyre Hawkins and Brandon Hereford, both graduated.

Junior linebackers Dimitri Holloway and Landan Word are the most likely to fill the roles.

“Coaching linebackers is about fundamentals and bringing out the best in those young men that I get the chance to work with on a daily basis,” Belin said. “The expectation that I have for them on and off the field as young men and football players is going to be very, very high, but I didn’t get to where I am in a 28-year coaching career to not have those expectations.”

Houston’s staff is now complete with the addition of Belin and Steve Shankweiler, who was hired in January to coach the offensive line.

Houston said he hasn’t narrowed down all the recruiting areas for each of his assistants, but that he figures one of Belin’s would be Winston-Salem, N.C., since Belin has close ties there.

JMU linebacker Gus Little has left the program, the team’s sports information director, Chris Brooks, said Tuesday.

Little transferred to JMU from Maryland for this past season. He started five games and made 37 tackles.