FARGO, N.D. – North Dakota State head football coach Matt Entz on Monday, Feb. 27, announced the hiring of defensive tackles coach Jeff Phelps to round out the Bison coaching staff for the 2023 season.
Phelps, a veteran college coach with 23 years of experience, spent the last three seasons at Mississippi State after coaching at Washington State (2017-2019), Minnesota (2011-2016) and Northern Illinois (2006-2010).
“We are extremely excited for Jeff and his family to be joining Bison football,” Entz said. “I first met Coach 10 years ago while he was at Minnesota. I have always been extremely impressed with the product he has put on the field and his impact with young people.”
Among his career highlights, Phelps has been part of 15 bowl games and coached two-time Mid-American Conference MVP Larry English, a first-round draft pick in 2009. He was part of a Minnesota team in 2016 that ranked 12th in the nation in tackles for loss, and his 2018 Washington State team led the Pac-12 with 38 sacks.
Phelps was an All-MAC outside linebacker for Ball State, where he graduated in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ball State in 1999 before moving on to DePauw as a linebackers and running backs coach (2000-2002) and Hillsdale as a defensive line coach (2003-2005).
Phelps fills an opening on the NDSU staff previously held by Kody Morgan, who spent seven seasons with the Bison and was the special teams coordinator and safeties coach in 2022.
Phelps will work alongside longtime NDSU assistant coach Nick Goeser, who was the Bison defensive tackles coach from 2010 to 2021 before assuming additional duties as the defensive line coach in 2022.
Entz also announced that Grant Olson, entering his fifth full-time season as the NDSU linebackers coach in 2023, will add the role of special teams coordinator. New Bison defensive coordinator Jason Petrino will coach the safeties.
NDSU has also added Tucker Meyer in the defensive quality control position. Meyer was a defensive analyst at Charlotte in 2022 after three years as a defensive graduate assistant with Phelps at Mississippi State (2020-2021) and at the FCS level with Montana (2019).
A 2017 graduate of Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont., Meyer began his coaching career at Dickinson State as linebackers coach and special teams coordinator in 2017 before working on Petrino’s staff in 2018 at Rocky Mountain as secondary coach and special teams coordinator.
Meyer replaces Brett Watson, who is the new defensive ends coach at Stephen F. Austin after one season in NDSU’s defensive quality control position.
Comments