The Virginia Union Panthers‘ remarkable ascent to championship contention has been a story of consistency, trust, and belief.
While many will rightfully credit head coach Dr. Alvin Parker, who was hired to take over the team in 2018, for the Panthers’ success, an unheralded name that has played a significant role is associate head coach Diego Ryland.
Ryland’s journey to Richmond was an unconventional one, as circumstances nearly ended his football career before it began.
Coming out of Lake Taylor High School, Ryland was preparing to walk on as a defensive back for the North Carolina State football team when real life intervened to take him down a different path.
During March of his senior year in high school, his first child was born, and he would learn months later that he had another on the way with his then-girlfriend.
As Ryland describes it, in addition to guidance from his mom, this time period led to a shift from football to becoming the best father he could be.
“With me, man, I grew rough, I grew up in the projects of Norfolk, Virginia,” said Ryland, discussing his mindset as he was tasked with fatherhood. “So, I wanted to break the generational curse. I was distraught, and I had given up. I started working three jobs. I was working at General Foam Plastics, I was working at the Jewish Mother restaurant, and I was working at Shooneys. I was working three jobs to try to take care of my [family], because I wanted to break that generational curse. So my focus fell off of football, and I had given up the dream.”
How Ryland got back into HBCU football
It took an endorsement from former Virginia State football coach Lou Anderson, an alumnus of Lake Taylor High School, to briefly bring him back to the game.
However, after being redshirted by the team and the birth of his second child, he left school and joined the military.
Coincidentally, this is where Ryland would receive his first coaching experience, being inspired by his former track and field coach at Lake Taylor High School, Floyd Conley, to pursue a career in the profession.
He began coaching in youth football in 1999 and also served as a coach for high school football teams worldwide.
After retiring from the military in 2016, Ryland had the opportunity to enter the collegiate coaching ranks when Connell Maynor hired him to join Hampton’s coaching staff in the fall of 2016, following his volunteer work with the team in the spring.
He would remain for two years until Maynor resigned to accept the head coaching job at Alabama A&M.
Constantly working to get better as a football coach. In 3 years of Coaching College football, my group has (Running Backs) 4,748 yds – 39 Rush TDS – 4 fumbles lost. 1 All-American & 2 All-Conference Performers. pic.twitter.com/LYpI2uNwqA
— DIEGO RYLAND (@dlryland) January 1, 2020
He found his way to Virginia Union when Joe Taylor, the athletic director at Hampton at the time Ryland was coming out of high school, introduced him to head coach Dr. Alvin Parker.
Making an impression on Coach Parker during their meeting, in which Ryland displayed his ability to draw up plays, he was offered a job on his staff as a running backs coach.
Ryland helped develop best backfield in the CIAA
During his first season at Virginia Union, he helped establish the Panthers’ identity in the run game, leading the CIAA in rushing (having ranked seventh the previous year).
This charge was led by then-sophomore running back Tabyus Taylor, posting a CIAA-leading 1,546 rushing yards, marking the second-most in school history at the time.
In his recollection of the first meeting, Dr. Parker, the coach, described the process of building trust, which eventually led to his advancement within his staff.
“The first two years, I was just a running back coach, and that was it. But after he saw that I was an initiative-driven guy, even though it’s not my team, it’s my team. I’m going to treat it like my team. The trust was earned and built through a level of discipline he saw that I displayed from my military background, and holding coaches and student-athletes alike accountable. So, he made me his associate head coach, and ever since then, as well as making me recruiting coordinator, that’s when things started to change.”
The Virginia Union Running Backs core where the standard will stay the standard. #play411 @VUU_Football @VUUPanthers pic.twitter.com/FU9AeDCBx7
— DIEGO RYLAND (@dlryland) April 14, 2025
However, his most tremendous success came in the development of star running back Jada Byers, who first took the CIAA by storm in 2022.
Byers set a school record with 1,920 rushing yards during the season before becoming the first player in school history to rush for over 2,000 yards two years later.
Now his primary backup, Curtis Allen, is carrying the torch, averaging 197.4 rushing yards per game through five games with 14 touchdowns.
Coach Ryland spoke on how the success of running backs like Taylor, Byers, and Allen is less about the individual, but rather the mentality and preparation of the entire running back unit.
“It’s not a personnel thing, it’s a room. It’s a mentality in the room; they hold each other accountable,” he said. “The development of the running backs in the room here is bigger than the individual, because you could put any running back out there and they’re going to perform.
The way we develop the running backs here is we prepare all of them as if they’re going to be the starter. Five running backs are going to get the same amount of reps. So the fifth running back is trained as if he were the starting running back, so if something happens, he is prepared.”
The goal now for Virginia Union, in addition to claiming its third straight CIAA championship, is a Division II national championship.
Last season, the Panthers had their deepest playoff run in school history, advancing to the Regional Final after claiming wins over Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne.
This success has prompted Ryland’s peers to take notice, as he has been selected to coach at the NFL Combine twice and has also received calls from FBS teams regarding his read packages.
In addition, he has also been interviewed and even been offered high-profile jobs, including head coach.
However, he affirms that he and his team are not looking ahead to what could be but rather focusing on the task at hand: the next game.
