Belk to clash with former fellow graduate assistant against Tennessee
Saturday’s season-opener in Charlotte will not only feature the first-ever matchup between West Virginia and Tennessee, but also the first clash between two former Alabama graduate assistants.
West Virginia cornerbacks coach Doug Belk will coach against former fellow Alabama graduate assistant and current Tennessee tight ends coach, Brian Niedermeyer, who’s entering his first year with the Volunteers.
The two both served as defensive graduate assistants during Alabama’s 2016 season which ended in a narrow 35-31 loss to Clemson in the National Championship game.
Since then, the two have gone their separate ways. Belk joined the West Virginia program after the loss to Clemson, but Niedermeyer remained with the Crimson Tide and was promoted to assistant director of recruiting operations for the 2017 season before following Jeremy Pruitt to Knoxville.
Belk and Niedermeyer developed a close friendship during their time at Alabama and it continues to this day with the two talking on the phone to each other about twice a week.
“We’re still very close,” Belk said. “(He’s) a good friend of mine. (He’s) a good coach, good recruiter. He’s going to do well there.”
“We spent a lot of time together (and) worked really hard. I had chance to be part of a special program with some good people, learn a lot and grow together,” he later added.
Niedermeyer has an interesting background and journey hailing from Eagle River, Alaska.
The now 29-year old coach began his college football career as a player with stints at Glendale Community College in Arizona and Butte Junior College in California before winding up at Arkansas Pine Bluff, nearly 4,000 miles away from his hometown in Alaska.
Arkansas Pine Bluff is also where he would begin his coaching career as he worked as a student assistant during the 2012 season. From there he would move on to Miami as a volunteer analyst for one season, then to East Texas Baptist University as a wide receivers coach and Georgia as a graduate assistant before entering Tuscaloosa.
Like Belk, Niedermeyer is earning the reputation for being an effective recruiter and has been able to land numerous tight ends for Tennessee’s pro-style offense, including two in Tennessee’s current 2019 class. Niedermeyer also played a role in landing top JUCO tight end, Dominick Wood-Anderson, in the 2018 class.
Belk has created a pipeline from Morgantown to his home state of Georgia with five total pledges so far from the Peach State in the team’s 2019 class, the latest coming from Cedartown running back Tony Mathis.
Their successes can attributed to both how they are as people and coaches as well as what they’ve learned along throughout their coaching careers, especially under Nick Saban’s regime at Alabama.
“I think there’s a high standard there that everybody’s going to recruit, everybody’s going to coach hard,” Belk said. “We had both had prior experiences before getting there with recruiting and where we coached football, so I think it’s a combination of just who you are and how you’ve been trained, too.”
On the field, Niedermeyer brings energy and a fiery personality fueled by his passion for the game which also translates into his success as a recruiter.
“He gets fired up and gets after it pretty good and players really like him and he’s young and energetic and puts a lot into it, obviously you see the success he’s having on the road and recruiting,” Belk said. “I think he’s only going to continue to see that from him as he gets more experience and continues to coach.”
There hasn’t been a whole lot of trash talk between Belk and Niedermeyer leading up to the season-opener according to Belk, but chances are the game will be a topic of conversation between the two friends when it’s all said and done.
“I haven’t seen him in awhile, but we stay in touch and we run into each other on the road and so on and so forth. He’s going to do a good job and I know between him, Coach Pruitt and all the coaches, they got a great coaching staff,” Belk said. “They’re ready to play. I’m sure we’ll talk more after we play.”
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