WKU has named three additional members of its coaching staff, Head Coach Willie Taggart announced Sunday. Terry Obee will serve as Wide Receivers coach, Mike Sanford will work as quarterbacks' coach/passing game coordinator, and Raymond Woodie was named defensive ends coach.
Obee worked last season on the Stanford staff as an offensive and strength and conditioning assistant, Sanford worked as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Yale in 2009, and Woodie has served as the head football coach at two Tampa area high schools the last 13 years.
"We have taken a major step forward by adding these three coaches to the WKU football program," Head Coach Willie Taggart said. "Each of these three individuals brings high character, great leadership qualities and has a history of success. Their dedication to helping our players excel on and off the field will help all of us reach the highest level."
Taggart, who previously announced that Eric Mathies and Walt Wells would be retained, named Mathies Defensive Tackles Coach/Recruiting Coordinator and Wells Offensive Guards/Centers Coach.
Biographies on Obee, Sanford and Woodie are below:
TERRY OBEE - Wide Receivers
Terry Obee, who worked last season on the Stanford staff as an offensive and strength and conditioning assistant, has been named WKU's wide receivers coach. With the Cardinal staff, he was also responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive off-season program for Stanford's wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends.
Following an eight year career in the National Football League, Obee went into private business from 1998-2008. He owned and operated Go Pro Fitness, a training center for athletes and non-athletes.
Obee spent eight years in the National Football League as a wide receiver with the Seattle Seahawks (1990-91), Minnesota Vikings (1991-93) and Chicago Bears (1993-97). While with the Seahawks, he played under Chuck Knox and played alongside Hall of Fame receiver Steve Largent. As a member of the Vikings, he played under Dennis Green and played with standout receiver Cris Carter. As a Chicago Bear, he started under head coach Dave Wannstedt on a receiving unit that also included Wendell Davis and Tom Waddle. He saw action in all 16 games for the Bears in 1993, totaling 26-351, three TDs receiving while also returning 35 punts for 289 yards and nine kickoffs for 159 yards. A dislocated ankle limited his playing time and shortened his career.
Obee was a standout receiver and punt returner at Oregon from 1986-89 while playing under head coach Rich Brooks and still ranks among the Ducks all-time leaders in numerous categories. His career totals rank second all-time in punt return yardage (1,182), seventh in receiving yards (2,233), eighth in receiving touchdowns (16), ninth in receptions (122) and ninth in all-purpose yards (3,530). He helped the Ducks to an 8-4 record and Independence Bowl win over Tulsa as a senior and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing/management in 1990.
MIKE SANFORD - Quarterbacks Coach/Passing Game Coordinator
Mike Sanford, who worked as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Yale in 2009, has been named WKU's quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator. He helped the Bulldogs rank second in the Ivy League and 33rd in the 118 member Football Championship Subdivision in passing offense (220.0 ypg.).
Yale quarterback Patrick Witt, a transfer from Nebraska, ranked fourth in the conference in passing efficiency (110.1 rating) and total offense (175.4 ypg.). H-Back John Sheffield earned consensus first-team All-Ivy League honors after ranking third in the conference in receptions per game (6.1) and fourth in receiving yards per game (61.2). At Yale, Sanford recruited northern California (San Francisco to Monterey), Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia.
A quarterback at Boise State, Sanford was an offensive assistant at Stanford in 2007-08. Sanford worked alongside Cardinal head coach Jim Harbaugh in tutoring the Stanford signal-callers. He was instrumental in the development of Tavita Pritchard, who made his first career start against USC in 2007, a 24-23 upset for the Cardinal.
Sanford is a former Boise State quarterback who played on four bowl teams during his five-year career at Boise State. With Sanford, the Broncos compiled a 54-9 record. He was a two-year letterman at quarterback, helping the Broncos to a 13-1 record in 2003, an 11-1 mark in 2004 and the WAC championship each season. After his playing career, Sanford was a student assistant for the Broncos the following spring, assisting his former position coach and current head coach, Chris Petersen, with the quarterbacks.
Before coaching in the Pac-10, Sanford served as an offensive graduate assistant at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) for two seasons (2005-06). While at UNLV, Sanford worked with his father, Mike, the Rebels' head coach and a longtime veteran of the collegiate and professional coaching ranks who currently is the Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator at Louisville. The younger Sanford worked primarily with the Rebel quarterbacks and served as the specialists coach.
Sanford received his bachelor's degree in political science from Boise State in 2005.
RAYMOND WOODIE - Defensive Ends
Raymond Woodie, who has served as the head football coach at two Tampa area high schools the last 13 years, has been named WKU's defensive ends coach. Woodie has been head coach at Palmetto High School since 2006, also serving as the school's Director of Athletics since 2008. He also served as head coach at Bayshore High School from 1997-2006.
Woodie helped Palmetto High School capture a district championship in 2008 after leading Bayshore High School to the district playoffs seven times in his 10 seasons as head coach. He also served as the defensive coordinator at Palmetto in 1996. Woodie was the youngest high school head coach in the state of Florida when he was named Bayshore's head coach in 1997 at the age of 23. Woodie also served as linebacker coach at collegiate football camps at Florida (2004-06), Michigan State (2004-06), Nebraska (2002) and Auburn (2001).
As a high school coach and athletic director, Woodie developed 43 student athletes who signed full athletic scholarships, 10 of whom went to Football Bowl Subdivision (I-A) programs. Notable among these is Bayshore's Fabian Washington, who started at cornerback for three seasons at Nebraska (2002-04) before being selected as the 23rd overall player in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft.
Woodie was also named Defensive Coordinator for Florida's 2009 North-South High School Football All Star Classic. At Palmetto, Woodie directed a Division 3A sports program and designed a multi-million dollar field house for the football team which is scheduled to open in 2010. He also developed a Character Athletics Handbook for all sports and was the winner of the State Farm/Fred E. Rozelle Sportsmanship Award in 2007.
Woodie lettered as an outside linebacker and strong safety at Bethune Cookman from 1992-95. A National Football top Scholar Athlete who received a $25,000 Scholar Athlete Award from Burger King, Woodie also was named a GTE Academic All-American and earned I-AA All-American and first-team MEAC Conference honors at outside linebacker as a junior and at defensive end as a senior. His 14.5 sacks as a junior set a school record. He also played for the Canadian Football League's British Columbia Lions in 1996.
A native of Palmetto, Fla., and a graduate of Palmetto High School, Woodie holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Bethune Cookman (1996) and a master's degree in education from National St. Louis University (2003).
