Football | 1/13/2017 10:29:00 AM

STATESBORO, Ga. – Georgia Southern head football coach Tyson Summers announced Friday the promotion of Chad Lunsford to a new role as assistant head coach of the Eagle football squad. He will also continue his duties as the tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.

"First off, I would like to thank Coach Summers for this opportunity," Lunsford said. "It's an honor to be at Georgia Southern and I'm excited about Coach Summers' plan. I just want to be a part of the process and contribute any way I can to help us succeed."

The 2017 campaign will mark the ninth season overall, and fifth in his current stint at Georgia Southern for Lunsford, who has worn many hats in his time in Statesboro. After working with the wide receivers in 2013, Lunsford worked two seasons with the tight ends and served as recruiting coordinator in 2014 and 2015. As he has since 2014, Lunsford will continue to coach the Eagle tight ends and will once again serve in the role of special teams coordinator, a title he added in 2016. He was also named the program's assistant head coach in 2017.

Over the past three seasons, his tight ends contributed to the option ground game which led the FBS in rushing yards per game in both 2014 and 2015 and also led the FBS in rushing touchdowns in 2015. In 2016, Lunsford was named a Broyles Award nominee, given to the nation's top assistant coach, as the Eagles blocked seven kicks and featured a Lou Groza Award finalist in Younghoe Koo.

On the recruiting side, Lunsford helped engineer signing classes which featured 22 players and ranked in the top half of the Sun Belt in 2015, also ranked near the top of the Sun Belt in 2014 and in 2016.

Georgia Southern's wide receivers in 2013 led NCAA Division I with most yards per completion, averaging 19.3 yards per catch. Fourteen catches ranked among Georgia Southern's big plays as the Eagle receiving corps contributed to one of the nation's top offenses.
 
 "I'm excited about the opportunity to give Chad a chance to help us here as assistant head coach," Summers said. "When you talk about guys who are 'True Blue,' Chad comes to mind. He does a phenomenal job with our players, in organizational recruiting and certainly did tremendous job as the leader of our special teams unit this past year. He's very deserving of this opportunity we're excited about his leadership taking over more of the team aspect."