Healy named new coach at Charlotte

Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant coach Will Healy was named the new head football coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Tuesday.

Healy, a Boyd Buchanan School graduate, had been the head coach at Austin Peay the previous three seasons and was the 2017 Eddie Robinson Award winner as the Football Championship Subdivision national coach of the year.

“We are thrilled that Will and his family will be joining Niner Nation,” 49ers athletic director Mike Hill said in a news release. “When we set out to hire a coach, our goal was to find someone who will energize and transform the 49ers into a championship program. Will is that man. Across the country he is recognized as one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the nation.”

Healy took over at Austin Peay after the 2015 season and signed the nation’s No. 1 FCS recruiting class the following February. With a young roster made up mostly of those signees, Austin Peay went 8-4 in 2016, Healy’s second season, including 7-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Governors had gone 1-45 the previous four seasons, including a 29-game losing streak that was the longest in the nation.

Healy spent seven years as an assistant coach at UTC before taking over at Austin Peay.

The 49ers, who play in Conference USA, will hold a news conference today at 2:30 to introduce Healy officially.

“In my first conversation with Mike Hill, I told him that I would walk to Charlotte to talk to him about this job,” Healy said in the school news release. “This is a special place — a young football program with tremendous university leadership located in a first-class city.

“We can recruit and develop excellent student-athletes here, and we can compete at a very high level. We’re thrilled to be part of this university and community. I can’t wait to get started.”