Tranquill has a diverse coaching background that includes 14 years of experience as an offensive coordinator at five different schools, three years as a defensive coordinator and five years as a Division I head coach. He has worked with some of the top quarterbacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference during two stints at Virginia, including All-ACC selections Scott Secules, Shawn Moore and Matt Blundin. In addition, he was the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach from 1991-93, where he worked with NFL standouts Bernie Kosar and Vinnie Testaverde.

In his four years at Carolina, the Tar Heels have set numerous passing records and quarterbacks Darian Durant and Ronald Curry established several individual records. Durant finished his career with 51 school records, including every major career passing mark. He finished first in career pass attempts, completions, touchdowns, passing yards and total offense. Last year, Carolina finished second in the league with 390.7 yards per game. The Tar Heels had a balanced attack, averaging 214 yards passing and 176 rushing.

In 2001, Tranquill designed an offense that took advantage of the skills of both quarterbacks Curry and Durant by rotating both QBs throughout the game. Carolina won all eight games in which the quarterbacks rotated and set a school record with 25 touchdown passes. UNC scored over 26 points per game for the first time since the 1997 season.

Tranquill was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Nick Saban's Michigan State Spartans from 1995-98. During those four seasons, Michigan State averaged 161.5 yards rushing, 220.9 yards passing and 27.6 points per game. The Spartans averaged nearly 30 points per game each of the last three seasons of Tranquill's tenure - its top scoring averages of the decade.

As Virginia's quarterbacks coach from 1987-90, Tranquill helped develop some of the best passers in conference history. Secules led the conference in passing as a senior in 1987, while Moore became the school's all-time leader in passing yards, finished fourth in the 1990 Heisman Trophy balloting, was a first-team All-America and the 1990 ACC Player of the Year. Tranquill helped coach the Cavaliers to a No. 1 ranking during the 1990 season - UVa's highest ever ranking.

Tranquill left Virginia for a three-year stint with the Cleveland Browns, then returned to college as Virginia Tech's offensive coordinator in 1994 before leaving for Michigan State in 1995.

A native of Avella, Pa., Tranquill began his coaching career at Wittenberg, his alma mater, where he coached from 1963-69. He was Ball State's secondary coach in 1970 before becoming the defensive coordinator for two seasons at Bowling Green State. In 1973, he served four years under George Welsh as Navy's quarterbacks and receivers coach. He would later return to Navy as Welsh's successor in 1982 as the head coach.

Tranquill also spent two years as an assistant coach at Ohio State (1977-78) under legendary coach Woody Hayes and was an assistant at West Virginia from 1979-81. At West Virginia, he spent one season as the defensive coordinator and two years as the offensive coordinator.

Tranquill is a 1962 graduate of Wittenberg, where he won four letters in football and baseball. He played on two Ohio Conference baseball championship teams and two NCAA regional winners in that sport. In 1960, he was the conference's top football player. He was inducted into Wittenberg's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.