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Joe Speed Named To Yellow Jacket Coaching Staff

Feb. 13, 2010

ATLANTA – Joe Speed has been named assistant football coach at Georgia Tech, Yellow Jacket head coach Paul Johnson confirmed today.

Speed, who spent the past eight seasons at the U.S. Naval Academy, including six years when Johnson was head coach of the Midshipmen, will serve as inside linebackers coach at Georgia Tech.

The hiring of Speed completes Georgia Tech’s 2010 coaching staff, following an unusual off-season in which four openings were filled.

“Joe worked six years with me at Navy and I saw first-hand what a good football coach he is,” Johnson said. “He will do a great job for us, on the field and off, and he will be a great representative of Georgia Tech.”

At Navy, Speed spent the past four seasons coaching the secondary as well as serving as head coach of the Midshipmen junior varsity team. Over the last seven years combined, Navy has produced a record of 61-29, including a 10-4 mark in 2009.

In 2007, Johnson’s final season as head coach in Annapolis, the Midshipmen posted an 8-4 record, won a school-record fifth-consecutive Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, appeared in a school-record fifth straight bowl game, and defeated Notre Dame for the first time since 1963. One of Speed’s pupils, safety Ketric Buffin, became the first player in school history to intercept a pass in each of the first four games of the season.

In 2006, another Speed-coached player, Keenan Little, became the first player in Navy history to score a defensive touchdown in both Service Academy games in the same year.

Prior to the 2006 season, Speed embarked on a two-year hiatus from the Naval Academy, serving as the director of athletics for two seasons and as the head football coach for one year at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I.

Before going to the prep school, Speed had a successful military tour at the United States Naval Academy.

On the field, Speed served as the assistant linebackers coach and head junior varsity coach. He coached four seasons

In his first stint at Navy, Speed served as the Executive Administrator and Military Liaison Officer for the football team, while serving to recruit future Marine Officers, as well. Speed’s military duties involved the supervision of various administrative, logistical, and professional matters pertaining to the football team and the Naval Academy Athletic Association.

On the field, Speed served as the assistant linebackers coach and head junior varsity coach. He coached four seasons at Navy and in 2003, helped guide the football team to an impressive 8-5 record, which included capturing the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy and an appearance in the 2003 Houston Bowl.

A 1996 graduate of the Naval Academy, Speed was a standout on the gridiron for the Midshipmen. A four-year starter at safety, he finished his career with 260 tackles and five interceptions.

Following graduation, Speed was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and reported to Quantico, Va., where he trained and took the Infantry Officers Course.

In September of 1997, he reported to GOLF Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines in Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif. and in July of 1998, went to Okinawa, Japan, for six months, where he was involved in exercise FOAL EAGLE in Korea. After working with the Army in Fort Erwin, Calif. for a month, Speed went to Africa for three months on a security mission for the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

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