NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State head football coach Brock Spack announced Wednesday that assistant coach Luke Huard has been promoted to offensive coordinator for the Redbirds. Huard, who will continue to mentor the Redbird quarterbacks, fills the vacancy left by Steve Farmer, who accepted a similar role at Louisiana-Monroe earlier in the month.
"We had several great candidates on the staff to fill this role, but in the end Luke stood out," Spack said. "He has a great football pedigree and has worked with a long line of successful coaches who have spent years working in the spread offense. He did a tremendous job with our quarterbacks last season, not only by helping Matt Brown become the Valley Freshman of the Year, but also in his work with Drew Kiel and Matt Lancaster. That showed me he was ready to take the next step and I look forward to seeing what he can do."
In his first season with the Redbirds in 2009, Huard helped mold Brown into one of the top quarterbacks in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Brown started the final 10 games for the Redbirds and went on to set new ISU freshman records for completions (226), attempts (352) and passing yards (2,369) in a season. For those efforts, Brown earned second-team all-league honors and became the third Redbird to be named the MVFC Freshman of the Year, along with quarterback Dusty Burk (1999) and safety Tom Nelson (2005).
"I'm very excited to be a part of the program Coach Spack is building here at Illinois State," Huard said. "This is a great opportunity for me and I look forward to working with the other members of our offensive coaching staff in putting together a potent offensive system at Illinois State. We did some good things on the offensive side of the ball in 2009, but we will continue to evaluate our talent and improve on the scheme to make our production even better in 2010." Huard came to Illinois State following a two-year stint as a graduate assistant on the Washington coaching staff. While with the Huskies, Huard worked primarily with UW's quarterbacks and in 2007, he helped tutor Pac-10 Conference Newcomer of the Year Jake Locker.
Huard began his coaching career as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tacoma's Washington High School following graduation from North Carolina in 2002. He then spent four seasons as the head coach at Interlake High School (Wash.), where he led the program to its first winning season in 10 years in 2004. He also spent the 2004 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Eastside Hawks, a semi-professional football team that went 10-0 and won the Northwest Football League title.
Huard was a three-year member of the North Carolina football team, where he was a quarterback under former Tar Heel head coach Carl Torbush. Huard played in seven games for UNC and started four as a freshman in 1999. Huard comes from a family full of college and professional football stars. Both of his older brothers, Brock and Damon, were standout quarterbacks at Washington and went on to play professionally in the NFL. Huard's father, Mike, coached all three at Puyallup High School (Wash.), and also coached former NFL quarterback Billy Joe Hobart.
As a high school quarterback at Puyallup High School, Huard was the Gatorade Washington Player of the Year as a senior and twice earned conference player of the year honors. He was an all-state selection and an honorable mention All-America selection. As a senior, he led Puyallup to a 12-1 record and the state 4-A semifinals while throwing for 2,650 yards and 39 touchdowns.
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