Larry Porter

Larry Porter (born April 28, 1972) is an American college football coach.

He currently serves as special teams coordinator and running backs coach and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Porter is a former head coach of the Memphis Tigers football team.

Porter lettered four years (1990–93) at Memphis, serving as co-captain of the 1993 Tiger squad.

He closed out his career with 2,194 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns, ranking seventh in school history in yardage and tied for fifth in touchdowns.

As a freshman in 1990, Porter rushed for 206 yards against Arkansas State University, the highest single-game total for a freshman in school history.

In his first game, he replaced injured starting tailback Marvin Cox and raced 53 yards for a touchdown against Arkansas State on his first college carry.

Porter had a total of six 100-yard games during his career, a figure that ranks tied for fifth in Memphis history.

Porter graduated in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in education.

Porter began his coaching career at Wooddale High School in Memphis, Tennessee, serving as head track and field coach, while assisting with the running backs and secondary on the football squad.

After two years at Wooddale, Porter moved to the collegiate ranks, coaching the running backs at Tennessee-Martin in 1998.

Porter then spent three years at Arkansas State, where he coached Jonathan Adams to back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

Adams rushed for 1,004 yards and six touchdowns in 2000 and followed that with another 1,004 yards and five scores in 2001.

Under Porter's tutelage, Adams capped his career as the second-leading rusher in Arkansas State history.

In 2002, Porter was hired by Oklahoma State coach Les Miles as Running Backs coach.

At OSU, Porter's stable of running backs continued the tradition of "Tailback U.", as he coached 1,000-yard rushers for three straight seasons.

Bell and Morency combined for 2,204 yards and 24 touchdowns for the Cowboys in 2003.

In 2004, Vernand Morency earned second-team All-Big 12 honors after rushing for 1,474 yards, which ranked eighth in the nation, and 12 touchdowns.

Bell then went on to become a second round draft pick by the Denver Broncos in the 2004 NFL Draft.

In his first season at OSU, Porter guided Bell to a 1,096-yard, 11-touchdown season for 8–5 Oklahoma State.

Morency was a third round pick of the Houston Texans in 2005.

A year earlier, Tatum Bell earned first-team All-Big 12 honors with 1,286 yards and 16 touchdowns.

In 2005, Porter joined coach Miles at LSU.

He has coached LSU running backs while also holding two key roles on staff – assistant head coach and chief recruiter.

From 2005–08, the Tigers totaled 108 rushing touchdowns, including 35 in 2007.

As LSU's running backs coach, Porter has helped developed some of the finest players at that position in LSU's history.

From 2005–08, LSU produced a 1,000-yard rusher twice – Jacob Hester 1,103 yards in 2007 and Charles Scott 1,174 yards in 2008 – as well as having two players (Hester and Joseph Addai) selected in the NFL Draft.

Porter was elevated to the position of assistant head coach during the spring of 2006.

In three of the last four seasons (2006–09 included), the LSU rushing unit has averaged over 165 yards a game, including a high of 214 yards per game in 2007.

He was twice (2007 and 2009) named as the National Recruiter of the Year by Rivals.com making him one of the top all-around assistant coaches in college football.

Porter and the Tigers had a running back-by-committee approach during the national championship season in 2007 with Hester leading all rushers with a career-best 1,103 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Hester, who was a second-team All-SEC selection, had four 100-yard rushing games, including a 120-yard effort against Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game.

Williams was second on the squad with 478 yards and six scores, while Trindon Holliday was third with 364 yards and two touchdowns.

As a unit, LSU rushed for 214.1 yards per game and 35 touchdowns.

In 2008, LSU again had one of the top running games in the SEC as the Tigers rushed for 166.8 yards per game with Scott getting the bulk of the carries (1,174 yards on 217 attempts).

Scott, who earned first-team All-SEC in 2008, and Keiland Williams (417 yards, 2 touchdowns on 83 attempts) gave the Tigers one of the top 1–2 rushing punches in the league last year.

He was named to the position on November 29, 2009, replacing Tommy West.

A former running back for the school when it was known as Memphis State University, Porter was formerly an assistant head coach, chief recruiter, and running backs coach at Louisiana State University under Les Miles.

On November 27, 2011, Porter was fired after completing a 2–10 season with only having won three games during his two-year tenure.

That squad closed out the season ranked 11th nationally in rushing.