Van Malone

Van Buren Malone (born July 1, 1970) is an American football coach and former professional safety who is the head coach for the Hampton Pirates. He played college football for the Texas Longhorns from 1990 to 1993. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons, primarily with the Detroit Lions.

College career Malone was a four-year letterman (1990–93) at the Texas. As a freshman in 1990, Malone earned Sporting News Freshman All-America honors as he led the team in blocked kicks (with two) and Texas won the Southwest Conference Championship. He again led the team in blocked kicks in 1992. In his senior year he was honored as a Longhorn team captain in 1993 and was awarded the Darrell Royal Award for tenacity in 1993 as well. At the end of the season he was named All-SWC as a defensive back.

Malone played in the Blue-Gray All-Star Classic and the Hula Bowl following his senior year. When Chad Morris went to Arkansas, he didn't take Malone with him, and his replacement, Sonny Dykes, didn't retain him to the new SMU staff.

After being let go by SMU, Malone spent a year as the defensive quality control coach at Mississippi State, before going to Kansas State as the Cornerbacks coach in 2019. In 2020 he was promote to Assistant Head Coach and defensive passing game coordinator while retaining his job as cornerbacks coach. During his time at Kansas State, he was named Big 12 Cornerbacks Coach of the Year by Our Coaching Network and helped the Wildcats win the 2022 Big 12 Conference Championship.

In 2022 he was selected for the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches Coalition Academy and he and K-State quarterback Will Howard earned the Be the Match Champions Award from the Maxwell Football Club for spearheading the Wildcats’ effort for the Be the Match national bone marrow donor program.

Head coaching record