Former Super Bowl champion and
Long Beach Poly (Long Beach, Calif.) head coach Antonio Pierce was named the interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders after Josh McDaniels was relieved of his duties Tuesday.
Pierce has been coaching since 2014 after a nine-year NFL career with Washington and the New York Giants. His crowning moment as a player came in Super Bowl XLII when he recorded 11 tackles as the Giants took down the Patriots 17-14.
The former linebacker played under a number of notable coaches. At
Paramount (Calif.), he was led by famed Southern Section coach Ken Hutch. At the University of Arizona it was Dick Tomey. And in the NFL it was Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, Joe Gibbs, Marvin Lewis, Tom Coughlin and Steve Spagnuolo.
Antonio Pierce poses for pictures with 2015 Long Beach Poly signees Iman Marshall (left) and Joseph Wicker. (Photo: David Hood)
In 2014 he was named head coach at Long Beach Poly and won 31 games in four years.
Pierce departed to become the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator under Herm Edwards at Arizona State. In his four seasons with the Sun Devils, Pierce signed more than a dozen four-star athletes including Jayden Daniels (now at LSU) and Rachaad White, who went on to be drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022.
By the end of his tenure in Tempe, Pierce had been elevated to defensive coordinator in 2021. The following season the former Pro Bowler made the short trip north to Las Vegas, where he was the linebackers coach for the Raiders, a position he held until Monday when he was named interim head coach.
One of Pierce's Poly players was his son DeAndre, who signed with Boise State before transferring to play for his father again at Arizona State. DeAndre is continuing the Pierce coaching legacy as a defensive quality control coach at Cal Poly.
