Marty Gordon
Former Radford Bobcat and Wake Forest assistant coach Wayne Lineburg is headed to a new assignment. This past week, he was named the assistant head coach at Rice University.
First-year Rice Head Coach Scott Abell officially announced on Tuesday the addition of Lineburg who will also coach the Owls’ tight ends.
Lineburg comes to Houston after coaching tight ends and coordinating special teams at Wake Forest for the last eight seasons. He had four players earn first-team All-ACC honors in his eight years as the Deacons, including tight end Cam Serigne, who earned first-team All-ACC honors in 2017 and set the conference record for receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown catches by a tight end in a career.
He tutored kicker Nick Sciba during his NCAA-record streak of converting 34 consecutive field goal tries over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Sciba concluded his career as the Deacons’ all-time leading scorer.
Rice University, officially William Marsh Rice University, is a private research university in Houston, Texas,
Rice plays in NCAA Division I athletics and has been a member of the American Athletic Conference since 2023.
Abell was named the head coach at Rice on Nov. 26, 2024, becoming the 20th head football coach in school history. He came to Rice from Davidson, where he was the winningest coach in school history, having compiled a 47-28 record in seven seasons (35-18 in the Pioneer Football League).
Lineburg brings nearly 30 years of college coaching experience to South Main. After graduating from Virginia in 1996, where he was a quarterback on three bowl teams and one AAC championship squad, he began his career as an assistant at William and Mary in the fall of 1996. He has been a part of eight bowl teams and a pair of runs to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.
He started his coaching career in 1996 as an assistant coach at William & Mary before returning to Virginia in 1998 as a graduate assistant coach. He rejoined William & Mary as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator in 2000 before joining Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson’s staff at Richmond in 2004.
Lineburg was named the wide receiver coach at Virginia in 2007 and moved to running backs coach in 2009. He returned to Richmond in 2010 for a four-year stint in several positions including offensive coordinator, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator while also coaching, at different times, quarterbacks and running backs. In 2011, Lineburg served as the interim head coach at Richmond.
In 2014, he was hired at Connecticut where he served as special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach in his first season before taking over the quarterbacks the last two seasons.
Lineburg’s father, Norm, was the long-time coach at Radford High School and is a member of the Virginia High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Wayne was an all-district quarterback while playing high school football for his father.
Lineburg’s brother, Robert, is the athletic director at Radford University, his brother Mark is the superintendent of schools in Halifax County, Va. and his brother Paul is the principal at Northside Middle School in Roanoke. Wayne’s cousin, Mike Young, is the head basketball coach at Virginia Tech.
