April 12, 2001

SAU Names New Football Offensive Coordinator

Magnolia, Ark.--Tommy Laurendine, who coached the Southern Arkansas University offensive line last season, has been promoted to offensive coordinator by Mulerider head coach Steve Quinn, who recently returned to SAU after a year at Northwestern State University.

Laurendine came to SAU last season from the University of West Alabama. He was on the staff of John Bland in 2000, who was named the head football coach when Steve Roberts left the 'Riders in 1999 to become head coach at NSU. Bland then joined Ken Hatfield's staff at Rice earlier this year. Bland had played quarterback for Hatfield at Arkansas. Bland and Laurendine, both natives of Tennessee, knew each other all the way back to their high school playing days.

After coaching the offensive line at SAU last year when Quinn departed with Roberts for NSU, Laurendine will return to his more familiar position as quarterback coach. Quinn will return to tutoring 'Rider offensive linemen. Laurendine was an outstanding quarterback in his high school and collegiate playing days.

Laurendine served as the offensive coordinator at West Alabama for three years prior to his arrival at SAU. Before UWA, he was the offensive coordinator at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. He began his coaching career in 1990 as a student assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C., after an outstanding playing career there. He then advanced to State University of West Georgia where he coached wide receivers and tight ends. His next assignment was at Northwest High School in Dalton, Ga., where he tutored quarterbacks.

As a collegiate quarterback, Laurendine earned two letters at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., before transferring to Lenoir-Rhyne in 1988, where he was the South Atlantic Conference Offensive Player of the Year and an NAIA All-American while shattering several school records.

A native of Oak Ridge, Tenn., Laurendine earned his B.A. degree in Physical Education from Lenoir-Rhyne in 1990 and a Master's degree from West Georgia in 1993. He is married to the former Shawna Sauls. The Laurendine's have a daughter, Alexa Landry, born December 8, 1999.

Quinn stated, "I have been very pleased with the job Coach Laurendine has done since I have been here. He has worked extremely hard and has done a great job of helping with the offense we are currently installing. I feel extremely confident in his knowledge and background in the offense we are running. He has been able to relieve me of a lot of duties and I am confident in his ability to coordinate this offense. I'm very pleased to have a coach like this on my staff that allowed this move to be very easy for me. It did not take a lot of thinking or decision-making to do this and I am looking forward to having him functioning in this position. I am excited about the things we will hopefully be able to do on the offensive side of the football this year."