Coaches

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Steve Briggs, Head Coach
(570) 372-4123 - briggs@susqu.edu

Steve Briggs continues to collect accolades and victories at Susquehanna University.

Briggs, 46, who enters his 19th season as head coach of the Crusaders football team in 2008, has accumulated a 98-84 record during his tenure to stand as the winningest coach in school history.

He has also earned the respect of his peers, as he has served on both the NCAA Division III South Region Advisory Committee and as chair of the Middle Atlantic Conference football coaches committee.

Briggs has compiled 12 non-losing seasons in his 18 years from 1990 to 2007, including each of his first 11 seasons. In addition, Briggs has coached 182 games at Susquehanna, more than any coach in program history, while his 18 seasons at the helm of the Crusaders passed the 17 years coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg, Jr. from 1935 through 1954. (SU did not field a team from 1943 to 1945.)

In 1999, Briggs was honored as the Middle Atlantic Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year for the first time after guiding the Crusaders to their first outright Commonwealth championship in school history.

Briggs guided his 1991 team to the NCAA Division III South Region championship and the program’s first-ever berth in the national semifinals before settling for an 11-2 record which tied the school record for wins in a season. He followed that up with a 9-1 campaign in 1992, coming up just four points short of a perfect season and another NCAA playoffs berth.

A sign of the impact that Briggs has had on his teams is the fact that a number of his former players have gone on to become successful high school coaches over the last several years.

Before becoming the 29th head coach in Susquehanna history in 1990, Briggs served as the chief defensive assistant for his predecessor, William “Rocky” Rees. Prior to joining the Susquehanna staff, Briggs coached the outside linebackers and strong safeties as an assistant coach at Division I Lehigh University in 1987.

He was also a graduate assistant for two years at Division I University of Richmond, coaching the inside linebackers in 1985 and the tight ends the following year.

Briggs also coached the receivers as an assistant at Division III Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1984. He coached the secondary of the freshman squad as an undergraduate assistant at Springfield College in 1982.

Briggs earned a Bachelor of Science degree in health and fitness from Springfield in 1984 and lettered in varsity football all four years. He earned his Master of Science degree in sports management from Richmond in 1987.

In addition to coaching, Briggs is an assistant director of athletics at Susquehanna -- a title he added in the fall of 2003.

He and his wife, Christina, reside in Selinsgrove, Pa., with their son, Cory, and daughter, Casey.

2008 Assistant Coaches

 Dan Alderson, Defensive Backs
Shane Arce, Split Ends
Brad Fordyce, Defensive Coordinator/LB
 Bob Jazwinski, Defensive Line
Scott Knapp, Running Backs
 Andy Kolak, Offensive Line
Jack Lydic, Quarterbacks
 Dan Mehleisen, Defensive Backs
 Nate Milne, Offensive Coordinator/OL
 Bob Pittello, Offensive Line
 John Salvatore, Linebackers