Pepe Pearson (born December 11, 1975) is a former
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
tailback, starting in college for the
Ohio State
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
Buckeyes, and is currently the running backs coach for the
Tennessee State
Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...
Tigers
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...
.
Playing career
A four-year letterwinner at Ohio State, Pearson is the Buckeye’s ninth all-time leading rusher with 3,121 yards). trailing only
Archie Griffin,
Ezekiel Elliott
Ezekiel Elijah Elliott (born July 22, 1995) is an American football running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State, where he earned second-team All-America honors in 2015. Ell ...
,
Eddie George
Edward Nathan George Jr. (born September 24, 1973) is an American football coach and former player who is the current head coach at Tennessee State. He played as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, primarily f ...
,
Tim Spencer,
Beanie Wells
Christopher Michael Wells (born August 7, 1988), known as Chris Wells or Beanie Wells, is a former American football running back. He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the first round (31st overall pick) of the 2009 NFL Draft out of Ohi ...
,
Braxton Miller
Braxton Marcellus Miller (born November 30, 1992) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes and was their starting quarterback from 2011 to 2013, before moving to the wide receiver posit ...
,
Keith Byars, and
Carlos Hyde. His 1,484 rushing yards as a junior is the tenth highest season total in team history. Pearson's had a 173-yard rushing performance in Ohio State's 1996 victory over
Notre Dame.
As a player, Pearson helped Ohio State to four straight bowl appearances from 1994–97, including a 1997 Rose Bowl victory. As a junior, Pearson gained 1,484 yards and scored 17 touchdowns on 299 carries. He was selected All-Big Ten and team Most Valuable Player (MVP) for his efforts.
After completing his college career, Pearson spent time in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
with the
Chicago Bears and
Pittsburgh Steelers. His greatest professional success came in
NFL Europe where he scored the game-winning touchdown for the
Rhein Fire
Rhein may refer to:
Places
* Rhine, a major river in Europe (german: Rhein, link=no)
* Rhein, a village in the municipality of Morsbach in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
* Rhein (Ostpreussen), a former name of the town Ryn in Poland
Ships
* SM ...
to win the 2000
World Bowl
The World Bowl was the annual American football championship game of the World League of American Football/NFL Europe. The World Bowl was played each year from 1991 to 2007 (except 1993 and 1994).
The game was conceived as the final of the NFL-r ...
Championship. He later spent time with the
Dayton Warbirds, an expansion team in the
National Indoor Football League
The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, ...
.
Coaching career
After his playing career ended, Pearson began a career in coaching. From 2004-2015 he was the running backs coach for
Ohio Dominican University
Ohio Dominican University is a private Dominican liberal arts university in Columbus, Ohio. The university has approximately 1,700 students and offers undergraduate degrees in 40 majors as well as nine graduate degree programs.
History
The Co ...
. In 2005, he was also the head coach of the
Daytona Beach Hawgs of the NIFL,
leading them to a playoff berth just before the team was disbanded. He was also the head coach for the now defunct
Marion Mayhem
The Marion Mayhem were a professional indoor football team based in Marion, Ohio. The team was a charter member of the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLIFL), later renamed the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL), joining in 2006 as an ...
of the
Continental Indoor Football League
The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLIF ...
(CIFL). In 2015, he joined
Bo Pelini at
Youngstown State to be their running backs coach, having a successful first year with his team accumulating more than 2,000 rushing yards. In 2016, he left Youngstown and joined
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Islands
* Marshall Islands, an i ...
in
Huntington, WV
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A ...
.
Pepe Pearson was hired as running backs coach at
Tennessee State University
Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...
in May 2021 after spending five seasons in the same position at Marshall.
Multiple running backs gained notoriety under Pearson at Marshall. In 2019, Brenden Knox was named Conference USA’s Most Valuable Player after rushing for 1,387 yards and 11 touchdowns. Keion Davis earned Gasparilla Bowl MVP honors with his 94 yard rushing, two touchdown performance in 2018.
Pearson helped guide Marshall to bowl victories in the
2017 New Mexico Bowl
The 2017 New Mexico Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game played at Dreamstyle Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico on December 16, 2017. The game was the 12th edition of the New Mexico Bowl and featured the 2017 ...
, and the
2018 Gasparilla Bowl. He also helped the Thundering Herd win the 2020 Conference USA East Division Championship, helping Marshall reach the
2020 Conference USA Football Championship Game
The 2020 Conference USA Football Championship Game was a college football game played on Friday, December 18, 2020, to determine the 2020 champion of Conference USA (C–USA). The game featured the East division champions Marshall Thundering Her ...
, before falling to
UAB 13-22.
Pearson joined the Thundering Herd after one season in the same position at Youngstown State after spending 10 seasons at Ohio Dominican.
In his final season with the Panthers, ODU finished 11-2 and advanced to the third round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. Pearson helped running back Brandon Schoen earn multiple receive All-GLIAC honors on his way to becoming the programs all-time leading rusher.
Pearson produced two 1,000 yard rushers in 2013 for the first time in school history and mentored Mike Noffsinger to become a Harlon Hill Trophy semifinalist, honoring the best Division II players in the country.
In his final four seasons with the Panthers, Pearson took over the special teams duties in addition to coaching the running backs.
References
External links
Tennessee State profileMarshall profileYoungstown State profileOhio Dominican profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Pepe
1975 births
Living people
American football running backs
Chicago Bears players
Cleveland Browns players
Detroit Lions players
Jacksonville Jaguars players
Las Vegas Outlaws (XFL) players
Marshall Thundering Herd football coaches
Ohio Dominican Panthers football coaches
Ohio State Buckeyes football players
Rhein Fire players
San Francisco 49ers players
Tampa Bay Buccaneers players
Tennessee State Tigers football coaches
Youngstown State Penguins football coaches
People from Euclid, Ohio
Coaches of American football from Ohio
Players of American football from Ohio
African-American coaches of American football
African-American players of American football
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople