Western Carolina head football coach Mark Speir has added eastern North Carolina native Graham Hobbs to his offensive coaching staff as the running backs coach in February 2020. Hobbs made the move westward to Cullowhee from Greenville, N.C., where he was most recently an offensive graduate assistant coach at ECU.
“Graham is an outstanding offensive mind. He has been a part of some very explosive offenses and has also coached several different positions in his young coaching career. We are excited about the knowledge and energy that he will bring to our program,” said Speir.
While at East Carolina, Hobbs worked with both the wide receivers and tight end positions, helping coach freshman WR C.J. Johnson to an ECU freshman record 908 receiving yards and FWAA Freshman All-America honor. Johnson ranked second among the Pirate receivers with 54 catches and four touchdown receptions. Hobbs’ responsibilities in Greenville also included coaching the defensive scout team each week, providing the offense with the proper looks of the opposition.
Prior to working on the Pirates’ coaching staff, Hobbs served as the quarterbacks coach at North Carolina Central in Durham for the 2018 season. The Eagles used three different quarterbacks to combine for 16 passing touchdowns against only three interceptions with then-sophomore QB Chauncey Caldwell twice earning MEAC Offensive Player of the Week prior to suffering a season-ending injury.
Hobbs had spent the previous two seasons at Marshall, first as an offensive quality control coach before being promoted to an offensive graduate assistant, working primarily with wide receivers. He helped tutor first-team All-Conference USA selection Tyre Brady, who recorded 942 receiving yards and eight touchdowns on the season. Marshall’s 2017 campaign ended with a victory in the New Mexico Bowl. He also helped recruit both North and South Carolina for the Thundering Herd.
Hobbs began his collegiate playing career at Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C., in 2012, appearing in three games at quarterback. The following year, he transferred to Florida International to finish his bachelor’s degree before parlaying his experience into the administrative and later coaching side of the game. He joined the Panthers’ football video operations staff before later taking a position as an offensive quality control coach at FIU for the 2014 and 2015 seasons to begin his coaching career.
During his time on staff at his alma mater, Hobbs worked with the quarterback and wide receiver positions at FIU while also helping with film analysis and opponent scouting reports. He left FIU to join Elizabeth City State University as an offensive assistant coach and assistant recruiting coordinator in February of 2016, before moving on to Huntington, W.Va., in August prior to the start of the 2016 season.
Originally from Corapeake, N.C. – a small community in the northeastern corner of North Carolina on the outskirts of the Great Dismal Swamp, just north of Edenton, N.C. – Hobbs graduated from Gates County High as a three-sport student-athlete, earning all-conference and all-area honors in football, basketball and baseball for the Red Barons.
A 2015 graduate of Florida International with a bachelor of science degree in recreation and sport management, Hobbs additionally completed a master’s degree in parks, recreation, tourism, and sport management from North Carolina State in 2017 and a master of science degree in adult and continuing education from Marshall in May of 2018.
