Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech director of athletics Whit Babcock and head football coach Brent Pry announced a number of football support staff additions and changes on Thursday.
Jeron Gouveia-Winslow (Ashburn, Va. & Stone Bridge HS) has moved from player personnel into a new role as an analyst. He joins Brian Crist (senior analyst), Xavier Adibi (senior analyst), Jeff Carpenter (analyst), Jan Johnson, Jr. (analyst) and Kerry Webb (special teams analyst) as one of six analysts on Pry's staff for 2022.
Gouveia-Winslow played at Tech from 2008-12 and started at whip linebacker his final three seasons under head coach Frank Beamer and defensive coordinator Bud Foster. In 40 career games he posted 80 total tackles, three interceptions, three forced fumbles and two passes defensed. He returned an interception for a 24-yard TD in Tech's 44-33 win over Florida State in the 2010 ACC Championship Game and captained the defense and special teams as a senior in 2012.
He began his coaching career in 2014 at Stone Bridge HS where he was the defensive backs coach, before heading to the University of Hawaii the following year where he was a defensive line intern, coaching alongside his father, Kurt Gouveia, who earned a pair of Super Bowl rings as a linebacker with the then-Washington Redskins. Before returning to Tech in 2020, Gouveia-Winslow was a member of the coaching staff at Brevard College, serving as an assistant head coach and overseeing the safeties and special teams. He helped guide the Tornados to an 8-2 record in 2019, while three of his safeties were named team captains that season. Gouveia-Winslow and his wife, Amanda, are the parents of daughters Finley, Logan and Avery. Jan Johnson, Jr. (Mohton, Pa. & Governor Mifflin HS) begins his first season as an analyst at Virginia Tech. Johnson played linebacker for Pry at Penn State from 2015-19. A team captain as a senior in 2019, he started all 13 games. He earned honorable mention All-America honors from Pro Football Focus and also earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors from the coaches and media. In addition, Johnson served as a heavyweight on Penn State's national championship winning wrestling squad in 2015. He was a member of the Tennessee Titans practice squad in 2021 after originally entering the NFL as a free agent with the Houston Texans in 2020.
Johnson graduated from Penn State with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in management and organizational leadership.
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A.J. Hampton (Roanoke, Va. & Lord Botetourt HS) joined Tech this spring as a graduate assistant, working primarily with the defensive backs. He previously was the wide receivers coach at Morgan State and before that was the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at West Virginia State. He owns a diverse background in football working with both offensive and defensive positions groups that includes a stint at Florida State as wide receiver and tight ends student assistant.
Hampton earned his bachelor's degree in Sports Management from Emory & Henry (Va.) in 2018 and then went on to have a short stint as a professional athlete in the Arena League with the Carolina Energy. He was a two-year team captain and starter at Emory & Henry College. In his senior season, he led the Old Dominion Athletic Conference in yards per catch (19.2) as well yards per game (92.2) against conference opponents. The Wasps went 6-4 in each of his last two seasons. As a double major in Business and Sports Management, Hampton made the dean's list four times and was a four-time Academic All-Conference honoree.
Prior to transferring to Emory & Henry, Hampton attended Mount Union where he majored in civil engineering and played football under Head Coach Vince Kehres. The Purple Raiders competed for the NCAA Division III National Championship in both of the seasons that Hampton was there, but came up short in the title game each year.
In high school, Hampton earned varsity letters in four different sports and was a dual sport All-Region selection. Carrie Lynne Wolford (Wytheville, Va. & George Wythe HS) has moved into a new role as director of player engagement. In her new role, Wolford will lead the development and implementation of Tech's player development program for football. A familiar face for Hokies' student-athletes, she served as assistant director of football operations at Virginia Tech since August 2021. In that role, she communicated with the entire squad on a regular basis and assisted in coordinating a myriad of logistical tasks for the team, both at home and on the road.
Prior to joining Tech's football staff, Wolford spent four years as a member of Virginia Tech's Student-Athlete Support Services (SAASS) staff. She worked as an assistant director in that department, providing academic, personal and career support for members of the football team and Tech's spirit squads.
She native began her tenure with SAASS as an athletic academic advising intern in 2018. Wolford began working with football student-athletes on their academic progress in 2019 and also met with prospective athletes and their families during recruiting events. She later became a tutor coordinator for SAASS, where she hired, trained and supervised over 100 tutors in the program.
Wolford graduated from Tech with a degree in human development in 2017 and added a master's degree in counseling and human development from Radford University in 2019. She is a member of the National Association for Academic Advisors of Athletics. Alex Jones (Charleston, W.Va. & George Washington HS) begins his initial season as assistant director of player personnel for the Hokies in 2022. He served in that same capacity at Marshall since April 2019. He joined the Thundering Herd after spending the 2018 season as the director of football operations at Fairmont State University in Fairmont, West Virginia. Jones began his career as a football operations intern with the NFL's Cleveland Browns in 2016. He owns a bachelor's degree in sport management from Baldwin Wallace University and a master's degree in sport management from West Virginia.
Rob Branch (Baltimore, Md. & Gilman School) enters his first season as a player personnel assistant at Virginia Tech. Branch joins Pry's staff after spending four years at West Virginia state where he was the safeties and corners coach, managing his position rooms and developing all-conference athletes in addition to assisting on special teams. Branch also served as the head recruiter for athletics in the admissions department.
He won a national championship playing for James Madison in 2016 where he played safety for two seasons. Branch concluded his playing career at West Virginia State where he was a team captain and earned the program's MVP award. Serena Rodriguez (Lebanon, Pa. & Cedar Crest HS) embarks on her first year in Blacksburg as assistant director of creative media. In her role she will work with Zach Lantz, director of creative media, to meet the graphic design, photography and visual identity needs of the football program.
Rodriguez came to Blacksburg after spending a semester at the University of Colorado as a graphic designer where she worked closely with the creative director and senior graphic designer creating a wide variety of print and digital design work for the Buffaloes' 17 varsity sports and internal departments.
As a student at the University of Colorado, Rodriguez was a recruiting assistant intern, working with the director of player personnel coordinating with prospective student-athletes when they visited campus for both official and unofficial visits. In that role she also did data entry, photography and helped coordinate phone calls for assistant coaches and prospective student-athletes.