Virginia Tech Football: ODU's Zohn Burden Hired as Hokies Wide Receivers Coach

Virginia Tech football has hired Old Dominion offensive pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach Zohn Burden as the Hokies new wide receivers coach. This is according to the Virginian-Pilot's Harry Minium.

Burden was to announce the move to ODU players this morning at a team meeting, sources said.

Burden was interviewed ten days ago in Blacksburg, then went back on the road recruiting for the Monarchs while Tech interviewed other candidates. Sources at Tech said a decision to hire Burden was made over the weekend.

On January 18, news broke that Aaron Moorehead, Tech's former wide receivers coach, would be joining Kevin Sumlin's staff at Texas A&M.

Burden reportedly formally interviewed at Tech on Friday (Jan. 23) after reported informal meet-and-great conversations with Scot Loeffler and Stacey Searels on Wednesday and Thursday (Jan. 21, Jan. 22, respectively).

In a recent interview with BeamerBall.com, Frank Beamer spoke about Moorehead's hire, "We had him on our radar and rolled the dice on him when he was a G.A. at Stanford because we thought he was a diamond in the rough."

This time around, Beamer hired a coach who has a few more bullet points on his resume. Zohn's coaching history is as follows:

2012 - 2014: Old Dominion University - Wide Receivers
2011: University of Richmond - Wide Receivers
2007 - 2010: Old Dominion University - Defensive Backs
2006: Fork Union Military Academy - Wide Receivers/Defensive Backs

Zohn is definitely more seasoned than Moorehead at the time of hiring, but that doesn't guarantee he will have the same success recruiting and coaching.

For this hire to be great Zohn will have to, among other things, mesh with the Hokies current offensive staff, understand/execute its vision, recruit like a beast and continue to develop Tech's young receiving corps.

It's wait and see on those first two objectives, and there's no historical data to draw a conclusion or speculate with.

As far as recruiting is concerned, Zohn, who will turn 31-years-old this February, primarily recruits Virginia Beach, Richmond and Atlanta (Clayton, Dekalb, Fulton) for ODU as well as Fork Union and Georgia Military. Burden is a Virginia Beach native and graduated from Salem High School. He's leveraged those 757 connections to become one of ODU's best recruiters.

He was the primary recruiter for 11 of the 27 players who have either enrolled at ODU or are committed to sign on Feb. 4. The top three players slated to sign in February, as rated by 247Sports, were primarily recruited by Burden.

He's among Conference USA's top recruiters according to 247Sports, and he's beaten Power 5 schools like Virginia, Duke, Wisconsin and West Virginia for the commitments of Virginia Beach recruits.

Quincy Watts, a 3-star prospect and highest rated recruited in ODU's 2015 class according to the 247Sports Composite, said, "Coach Burden didn't treat me like a recruit, he treated me like I was part of the family," after he committed to ODU over Virginia. That's a snug fit with Virginia Tech football's family ideology.

Even though Moorehead's recruiting territories were Washington D.C., Maryland along with spot assignments in the Midwest (think Indianapolis), Burden's recruiting experience and connections set up for success in the 757 as well as Richmond. Either Tech will put him out of his element in Moorehead's old turf, or reshuffle the staff's recruiting assignments. The latter is more logical, and Beamer Co. will have to develop a strategy to build on the positive momentum Moorehead created in D.C. and Maryland.

The million dollar question: can Burden be an effective wide receiver coach at Virginia Tech?

Old Dominion threw for 292.5 yards per game in 2015 (No. 16 nationally), and The Monarchs receiving production from cfbstats.com is below.

Antonio Vaughan's thousand-yard season probably caught your eye, but look closer at David Washington. Yes, he's listed as a quarterback. ODU Bleed Blue has an explanation.

Burden also has had some success when it comes to player development. Just look at David Washington who was converted from QB to WR in the offseason. By year's end, he was arguably the best receiver on the team. Zach Pascal, Antonio Vaughan and Larry Pinkard are other big names who have thrived under the coaching of Burden.

Being able to transition a quarterback into ODU's third leading receiver in receptions, yards and touchdowns is an encouraging sign for Burden's player development skills. Ultimately, his coaching ability in Blacksburg will be judged on whether or not he can keep Isaiah Ford, Cam Phillips and Bucky Hodges on an NFL-like trajectory.

My three criteria for this hire would have been: young, can recruit and coach well. On paper Zohn fits the bill, but ultimately time will tell how good or bad this hire was for Virginia Tech.