The former Kansas State assistant head coach brings culture-building reputation and Big 12 pedigree to Pirate Nation.<\/p>\n
HAMPTON, Va. \u2014 Pirate Nation got its first official look at a new era of Hampton University football on Monday, as Van Malone was formally introduced as the Pirates\u2019 head coach during a press conference on campus.<\/p>\n
Malone arrives in Hampton after spending the past seven seasons at Kansas State, where he served as assistant head coach and oversaw the secondary in the Big 12. The 55-year-old is widely respected for his ability to build culture within a program, a trait that resonated strongly with Hampton leadership during the search process.<\/p>\n
During his time with the Wildcats, Malone coached seven defensive backs who earned All\u2013Big 12 honors. While this marks his first opportunity as a head coach, Malone said his approach as an assistant prepared him for the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI challenge myself as an assistant to operate as if I was a head coach,\u201d Malone said. \u201cTo operate within my defense when I was defensive coordinator, operate within that unit like it was the team. This is my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hampton Director of Athletics Anthony Henderson Sr. emphasized that Malone\u2019s impact extends well beyond the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside of football, just getting to know him and the man that he is \u2014 when you\u2019re looking for a leader of young men for your football program, that sold it for me,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cX\u2019s and O\u2019s, Van just kept sticking out, with not only his plan for the program but who he is as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malone also made it clear he understands the importance of recruiting locally and tapping into the rich talent of the 757.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very fertile area for recruiting, and we\u2019ll take advantage of that,\u201d Malone said. \u201cBut relationships are part of that success. The players who will play for us are players who understand the legacy and the tradition of this university.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a proven background at the Power 4 level and a clear vision for Hampton football, Malone now takes the reins as he begins building the next chapter for the Pirates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Kansas State assistant head coach brings culture-building reputation and Big 12 pedigree to Pirate Nation. HAMPTON,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-350816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}