ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601100133
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
KEN MACK will coach running backs for the Heels, just as he did for the Cavs.
Ken Mack, a member of football coach George Welsh's original staff at Virginia, has taken a post at North Carolina.
Mack could not be reached for comment, but several sources confirmed that he would coach the Carolina running backs, the same responsibility he has had at Virginia.
Mack, a 38-year-old Cary, N.C., native, played at North Carolina from 1975-78 and was a part-time assistant coach at UNC for one year following his graduation.
Mack replaces Darrell Moody, who resigned as North Carolina's offensive coordinator and running backs coach. Tight ends coach Jim Cavanaugh, an ex-VMI and Virginia assistant, also will be leaving the Tar Heels' staff.
Virginia had feared that it might lose offensive coordinator Tom O'Brien; however, sources said Marshall has chosen Bob Pruitt as its head coach over a field that included O'Brien and Virginia Tech quarterbacks coach Rickey Bustle.
Pruitt, the defensive coordinator at Florida, is a West Virginia native and a Marshall graduate. He served as a Thundering Herd assistant and also worked as an assistant at Wake Forest, Mississippi and Tulane.
Mack worked for Welsh at Navy for one year and followed him to Virginia, where he first coached the defensive ends. Mack has coached the UVa running backs since the mid-1980s.
In that position, he has played a role in the development of 1,000-yard rushers Barry Word, Marcus Wilson, Terry Kirby and Tiki Barber. Kirby holds the UVa career rushing record, and Barber broke the season record this past season.
There was no immediate word on a successor for Mack, the lone minority among UVa's full-time football coaches. Most of the Division I-A coaches are in New Orleans for the national coaches' convention.
There is a moratorium on recruiting this week, but reports indicate that the Cavaliers have received a commitment from Donny Green, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound defensive end from Group AAA Division 5 state champion Hampton.
Green was rated the No.20 prospect in the state by The Roanoke Times and becomes the sixth Top 25 player - and 16th overall - to commit to the Cavaliers.
Green had 18 sacks this year, according to newspaper reports.
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