DANVILLE, Va. — Averett University football head coach Patrick Henry announced Tuesday the hiring of Terry Lantz as a defensive coordinator for the Cougars. Lantz will also coach the defensive backs position group.

Lantz brings a wealth of experience to the Cougars' coaching staff having coached in Division I and Division II for more than 30 years.

"Coach Lantz is someone who brings 32 years of experience, and he is also someone I worked with at Ball State University," Henry said. "He has coached in multiple defenses and brings a wealth of knowledge to the back end of our defense. He comes from a coaching family as well. His dad was a college and professional coach for 30-plus years. Terry has been a student of the game his whole career and we are excited to have him join our program."

Most recently, Lantz was the outside linebackers coach at North Carolina A&T University from 2017-22. Prior to that, he was the defensive backs coach at Elon University from 2014-16. Lantz also served as the safeties coach at Ball State  (2011-12), defensive backs coach at Wofford College (2000-10), defensive backs coach at Liberty University (1999-00), linebackers coach at Glenville State College (1997-98), defensive backs coach at Virginia Military Institute (1996-97) and defensive backs coach at the University of Massachusetts (1994-95).

Lantz also had graduate assistant coaching stops at Northeast Louisiana University (now known as University of Louisiana-Monroe), University of Tennessee and University of Louisville.
 
Throughout his coaching career, Lantz has coached numerous all-conference selections, including a First Team All-America selection and two Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year selections.
 
A four-year letterwinner at Louisville, Lantz played defensive back from 1986-89 with the Cardinals. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in sports administration from Louisville in 1991. He earned his Master of Education in exercise science from Northeast Louisiana in 1993.
 
Lantz and his wife Meredith have two children, Adam and Olivia.