Courtney Messingham was the offensive coordinator and running backs coach for North Dakota State's 2017 and 2018 national championship football teams.
Messingham directed an explosive offense in 2018 that set new school records for points (622), touchdowns (85), total yards (7,076), rushing yards (4,293) and rushing TDs (54). The Bison ranked in the top three of the FCS in each category.
North Dakota State's prolific scoring was as impressive in the postseason as in the regular season. The Bison averaged 40.1 points per game in eight FCS playoff victories under Messingham.
NDSU rushed for a school-record 4,083 yards in 2017 led by All-American Bruce Anderson's 1,216 yards. The Bison broke that rushing mark again in 2018 going for 4,293 yards behind Anderson and Lance Dunn, who each were named to the All-Missouri Valley Football Conference second team.
Messingham came to NDSU from Montana State, where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016. He was the offensive and special teams quality control coach at Indiana in 2014 and 2015 after spending five seasons at Iowa State from 2009-2013 coaching tight ends (2009-2010), wide receivers (2011) and two years as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach (2012-2013).
No stranger to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, Messingham was a four-year letterman and teammate of NDSU head coach Chris Klieman at Northern Iowa from 1986-1989, and the two coached together at Missouri State in 1999. Messingham spent five years at Missouri State in various roles with wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, quarterbacks and special teams from 1999-2002 and again in 2008.
Messingham was part of seven bowl appearances, including three at Southern Mississippi, where he coached wide receivers (2005-2006) and running backs (2007) after two years as the head coach of a Division II reclassifying Upper Iowa program from 2003-2004. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at St. Ambrose (1990-1992) before moving on to Iowa Lakes CC (1993-1994) and Truman State (1995-1998).
A native of Waterloo, Iowa, Messingham graduated from UNI with a bachelor's degree in manufacturing and mechanical design in 1990 and earned a master’s degree in business administration from St. Ambrose in 1992.
