April 24, 2018
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech football assistant coach Lamar Owens has been selected to participate in the National Football League’s prestigious Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. As a fellowship participant, Owens will be immersed with the San Francisco 49ers’ coaching staff during offseason training activities and mandatory minicamp from June 3-15.
In its 30th year, the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship helps outstanding coaches gain exposure to NFL offseason workout programs and training camps. Designed as a vocational tool to increase the number of full-time minority coaches in the NFL, all 32 clubs participate each year.
Owens is entering his 11th season overall at Georgia Tech and his ninth season as the Yellow Jackets’ A-backs coach. He added special teams coordinator to his responsibilities prior to the 2016 campaign.
In seven of Owens’ eight seasons as A-backs coach, Georgia Tech’s slot backs have averaged better than eight yards per touch, including a whopping 11.4-yard average in 2016. In 2017, A-back Clinton Lynch, who still has a season of eligibility remaining, needed only 29 career games to become just the 47th player in school history to rush for 1,000 career yards.
As the Yellow Jackets’ special teams coordinator, Owens has directly overseen a punt unit that has improved from a No. 97 national ranking the year before he took over (35.8-yard net average) to 31st nationally in 2017 (39.7-yard net average). Punter Pressley Harvin III led all true freshmen and ranked 16th overall nationally in ’17 with a 44.1-yard punting average, en route to freshman all-America honors.
A highly respected recruiter, Owens was primarily responsible for the recruitment of former Georgia Tech place kicker and Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker, the school’s all-time leading scorer (337 career points) who broke the Chiefs’ record for consecutive field goals made (23) as a rookie in 2017.
Earlier this year, Owens was also selected to participate in the 2018 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) 35 Under 35 Coaches’ Leadership Institute. The AFCA 35 Under 35 Coaches’ Leadership Institute was created to train premier future leadership in the football coaching profession. Owens was one of 35 coaches selected from 168 applicants for the program, which will took place on Jan. 7 as part of the 2018 AFCA Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
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