NDSU

Steve Stanard starts his second season as the linebackers coach at North Dakota State. He joined the Bison staff in March 2012.

NDSU boasted the nation’s top scoring defense (11.53 ppg) in 2012, and also led the country in total defense (234.47 avg/g) and first downs allowed (12.67 avg/g). The Bison ranked 2nd in pass defense (140.6 avg/g), 4th in rush defense (93.87 avg/g), 9th in turnover margin (+1.00 avg/g) and 17th in pass efficiency defense (113.67). The Bison defense allowed only 43 points in four FCS playoff games.

Stanard worked with all-Missouri Valley Football Conference first-team linebacker Grant Olson, who set a school record with 29 tackles in NDSU's 14-7 win over Wofford College in the NCAA FCS quarterfinals. Olson was also named to the College Sporting News Fabulous Fifty.

North Dakota State won the program’s second NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national championship on Jan. 5, 2013, with a 39-13 win over Sam Houston State. The Bison completed the season with a 14-1 record including a 7-1 ledger in winning the Missouri Valley Football Conference title.

Stanard brings 22 years of defensive experience to the Bison program, including 18 years as a defensive coordinator at Tulane, Colorado State, New Mexico State, South Dakota and Nebraska Wesleyan. He has been a part of nine bowl games as a player or coach.

Stanard was the defensive coordinator at Tulane University the past three seasons. The Green Wave's defensive unit led Conference USA in pass defense two years in a row. In 2010, Tulane forced 23 turnovers, an increase of 13 from 2009, and he coached seven all-conference players including a pair earning all-freshman team honors.

Stanard spent the 2008 campaign as a member of the Bobcat coaching staff at Ohio University. He served as the defensive line coach and was responsible for the PAT and field goal block unit. During his lone season with the Bobcats, Stanard helped mentor defensive tackle Jameson Hartke, who was named second-team All-Mid American Conference, Academic All-MAC and Academic All-Region, and he helped lead a defense that finished in the top six in the MAC in: scoring defense, passing defense, rushing defense, total defense, pass efficiency defense, opponent first downs, sacks and opponent fourth down conversions.

Prior to Ohio, Stanard spent five seasons as the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach for Colorado State University, where he helped the Rams to two bowl appearances and mentored four student-athletes who collected All-Mountain West Conference honors, three of whom were defensive linemen. Two of Stanard's prized pupils were CSU linebackers Jeff Horinek and Eric Pauly. Horinek led the Rams with 94 tackles and earned honorable mention All-MWC honors, while boasting Academic All-District honors from CoSIDA. Pauly was a three-time Academic All-American.

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 that category in four of his five seasons in Fort Collins, Colorado.

From 1997-2002, Stanard coached at New Mexico State University for six seasons, where he was defensive ends/outside linebackers 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-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 his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, alongside Coach Osborne and became a graduate assistant a year later. During his time with the Huskers, Stanard was also a part of seven bowl bids as either a student-athlete or coach. 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 of his tenure.

He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Nebraska in 1989 and received his Master's degree in 1995.