Carl Torbush Position: Assistant Head Coach - Linebackers

"You can't go home again," Thomas Wolfe once wrote. Carl Torbush believes you can.

Carson-Newman head football coach Ken Sparks hosted a press conference at Burke-Tarr Stadium on Wednesday, July 12 to announce the hiring of former University of North Carolina head coach and Carson-Newman All-American as assistant head football coach and linebackers coach.

A Knoxville native, Torbush graduated from Carson-Newman in 1974 where he lettered in both football and baseball and earned first-team NAIA All-American honors in both sports that year. He has been inducted into the Carson-Newman and Knoxville Sports Halls of Fames. Torbush started his coaching career at Carter High School in Knoxville as an assistant football and head baseball coach before signing with the Kansas City Royals in 1975. After one season in the Royals organization, Torbush joined Grant Teaff's coaching staff at Baylor University as a graduate assistant. Torbush worked as an assistant coach at SE Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, and Ole Miss before earning his first head coaching job at Louisiana Tech in 1987.

After one season, Torbush joined North Carolina in 1988 as defensive coordinator. Torbush was named the National Defensive Coordinator of the Year in 1996 as the Tar Heels were the Atlantic Coast Conference's best defense in 1995, '96, and '97. Torbush was named the Tar Heels head coach in 1997 and led UNC to a Gator Bowl victory over Virginia Tech in 1998

In 2001, Torbush left Chapel Hill to be Alabama's defensive coordinator under then-head coach Dennis Franchione. That year, the Tide proved the SEC's best defense and third in the nation by allowing just 257.3 yards per game. Torbush followed Franchione to Texas A&M in 2002 where he served as defensive coordinator for the past three seasons.

Torbush and his wife Janet have one son, Trey.