Wake Forest Athletics
Brian Knorr to Join Wake Forest Football Staff
2/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 15, 2008
Brian Knorr, an assistant coach at the Air Force Academy, has been named to the Wake Forest University football coaching staff. Head coach Jim Grobe made the announcement Friday.
"We're delighted to have Brian Knorr and his family join us at Wake Forest," said Grobe. "He has great experience as a coach and as a recruiter. His background should make for a very smooth transition."
Knorr spent the last three seasons at Air Force as an assistant coach, working with the strong safeties and outside linebackers in 2005 and 2006 while tutoring the inside linebackers in 2007.
Knorr, a 1986 graduate of the Air Force Academy with a degree in management, was a three-year letterman at quarterback for the Falcons. AFA won 30 games during his three varsity years, marking the most successful three-year run in school history.
Following graduation, Knorr served in the Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, where earned his master's in business administration from the University of Dayton in 1991. He returned to the Academy as a captain in 1992 where he served as the assistant offensive line coach, junior varsity head coach and administrative assistant to the head coach.
Knorr left the Academy in 1995 to become the inside linebacker coach at Ohio University for Grobe where he led Ohio's resurgence on the defensive front. While at Ohio, the Bobcat defense was ranked in the top five in the Mid-American Conference in scoring, rushing and total defense each year. The 2000 Ohio defense was one of only five in the nation to hold opponents to less than 30 points in every contest. Knorr tutored five different players that earned first team all-conference honors. In 1999, Knorr was elevated to defensive coordinator.
In 2000, Knorr became the first AFA graduate to become a head football coach at the Division I level when he was named to succeed Grobe as head coach at Ohio. During Knorr's tenure as head coach, he coordinated the special teams to include a punt team that led the NCAA in punting in 2001. Ohio's punter, Dave Zastudil, earned All-America honors and went on to play with the Cleveland Browns. Knorr also coached seven players who would eventually play in the National Football League. The Bobcats were 11-35 during Knorr's four seasons as head coach including a 4-7 mark with a win at Kentucky in 2004.
After four seasons at Ohio, Knorr returned to the Air Force Academy where he coached under Fisher DeBerry in 2005-06 and Troy Calhoun in 2007.
Affectionately known as "Sunny" when he was at the Academy because of his great personality, Knorr was born on Dec. 20, 1963 and is a native of Shawnee Mission, Kan. He and his wife Julie, native of Fort Wayne, Ind., have a daughter Katie and twins Reagan and Brett.
Knorr's coaching position at Wake Forest is yet to be determined.
With the appointment of Knorr, Wake Forest will have three Air Force Academy graduates on its coaching staff in 2008 including Steve Russ ('95) and Steed Lobotzke ('92). Only the Air Force Academy, with nine graduates on its staff, has more former Falcons than Wake Forest.
