Northern Arizona has hired Brian Wright as their next head coach. Wright will replace Chris Ball who spent 5 years in Flagstaff but his contract was not renewed by the school.
Wright was most recently the head coach at NCAA Division II Pittsburg State where he led the Gorillas to three straight winning seasons including back-to-back Division II playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023. Pittsburg State won the 2022 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics title outright in 2022 and shared the 2023 MIAA conference title with Central Missouri with PSU winning the head-to-head matchup. In his four seasons, Wright went 33-8 overall and 28-4 in MIAA games. Wright was also the interim head coach of Florida Atlantic at the FBS level leading the Owls to a 4-0 record in the final four games of the 2013 season.
Wright spent one of his graduate assistant years with Youngstown State in 1997 and later returned to the Penguins as the quarterbacks coach from 2001 through 2004. He was given the offensive coordinator role as well in 2005 through 2009. He later took the same OC/QB roles at Montana State for two years in 2010 and 2011 before leaving for the FBS through 2019.
The Lumberjacks will hope that he can lead them back to the FCS Playoffs for the first time since 2017. Northern Arizona went 20-30 under Ball and had only one winning season during his five years.
Photo Credit to Northern Arizona University Athletics
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