Feb. 5, 2008

ATHENS, Ohio-Ohio head football coach Frank Solich announced Tuesday that Steve Stanard has been hired as the school's defensive line coach. Stanard fills the position vacated by Carl Pelini who became Nebraska's defensive coordinator/defensive line coach.

"My previous background with Steve, first as a student-athlete and then as a coach, played into this hire," said Solich. "I also received a strong recommendation from (former Colorado State head coach) Sonny Lubick, who I have great respect for in the coaching profession. It all seemed to fit for us. Steve's five years as a defensive coordinator at Colorado State will also serve him well as he becomes an important asset to our coaching staff."

Stanard has been the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach for Colorado State University for the past five seasons where he mentored four student-athletes who collected All-Mountain West Conference honors, three of whom were defensive linemen. One of Stanard's prized pupils has been CSU linebacker Jeff Horinek, who led the Rams with 94 tackles and earned honorable mention All-MWC honors, while boasting Academic All-District honors from CoSIDA.

In 2006, CSU finished among the MWC's top four schools in scoring defense, pass defense, pass defense efficiency, sacks, opponent first downs and opponent third down conversions. That year, the Rams also had the distinction of being the only school in the conference to boast three tacklers (Mike Pagnotta, Klint Kubiak and Luke Adkins) in the MWC's top 10.

His Rams led the conference in pass defense in 2004 and 2005 and finished in the top half of the league in the category in four of his five seasons in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Prior to his stint at CSU, Stanard coached at New Mexico State University for six seasons (1997-2002), where he was defensive ends coach for three years and defensive coordinator the latter three. While at NMSU, Stanard had the pleasure of coaching linebackers Dwayne Taylor and Jimmy Cottrell. Taylor earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors three times and amassed 364 tackles, 40 tackles for loss and four interceptions. He went on to play in the Canadian Football League for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes. Cottrell set a WAC record in 2005 with 179 tackles on his way to earning honorable mention All-America honors from SI.com and became the first Aggie to lead his team in tackles all four seasons.

Stanard began his career in 1988 as a student assistant coach at the University of Nebraska alongside Coach Solich and became a Graduate Assistant a year later. From there, he coached at Nebraska Wesleyan University for five years, where he served as the school's defensive coordinator, head coach and an assistant athletic director over the course his tenure. During his time with the Huskers, Stanard was also a part of seven bowl bids as either a student-athlete or coach.

"I'm just tremendously excited to work with Coach Solich and his staff," Stanard said. "I've been friends with a number of the members of this staff and have a lot of respect for the job they've done."

He earned his degree in Business Administration from Nebraska in 1989 and claimed his Master's degree in 1995.

Stanard and his wife Jennifer have three children, Austin, Paige and Max.

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Prominent Players Coached

• Linebacker Eric Pauly was a first team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2002, and earned second team honors in 2003.

• Linebacker Drew Wood was named CoSIDA Academic All-District award winner in 2003.

• Linebackers Pauly, Wood, and Adam Wade all ranked among the MWC leaders in total tackles in 2002.

• Wood and teammate Jeff Flora ranked among the conference leaders in total tackles in 2003.

Coaching Experience

• 2007               Ohio University; Defensive Line Coach

• 2003-2007      Colorado State University; Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach

• 1999-2002      New Mexico State University; Defensive Coordinator

• 1997-1999      New Mexico State University; Defensive Ends Coach

• 1995-1996      University of South Dakota; Defensive Coordinator

• 1995               Nebraska Wesleyan University; Assistant Athletic Director

• 1994-1995      Nebraska Wesleyan University; Head Football Coach

• 1991-1995      Nebraska Wesleyan University; Defensive Coordinator

• 1989-1990      University of Nebraska; Graduate Assistant Coach

• 1988-1989      University of Nebraska; Student Assistant Coach

Birthdate: June 13, 1966 - Lincoln, Neb.

Education: B.S., Business Administration, Nebraska, `89; M.S., Nebraska, `95