Ryan Held (born November 23, 1974) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach who is the head football coach at the

University of Nebraska at Kearney The University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) is a campus of the public University of Nebraska system and located in Kearney, Nebraska. It was founded in 1905 as the Nebraska State Normal School at Kearney. History In March 1903 the Nebraska Stat ...

. He was previously the running backs coach at

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

and was hired in that role in December 2017, after serving in that same position at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

since 2016. Prior to that, he had served as the head coach at Peru State as well as several college and teams in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Early life and playing career

Held was a two-time national champion himself as a Husker from 1993 to 1996.

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

posted a 47-3 record during Held’s career with three conference titles. At Nebraska, Held was a teammate of

Scott Frost Scott Andrew Frost (born January 4, 1975) is a former American football coach and player. He was the head football coach at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from 2018 to 2022. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Frost played college football as a qu ...

during the 1995 and 1996 seasons.

Coaching career

First stint at Nebraska

As a senior at Nebraska, Held coached the Huskers as a student assistant in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, helping them to a 13−0 record and a national title.

Tennessee

As a defensive graduate assistant at

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

in 1998 and 1999, he was a part the Volunteers staff that won the 1998 national championship.

Peru State

In 2001, Held became the youngest head football coach in the country (age 26), and he led the Peru State Bobcats to a 5−5 record and a second-place league finish in his only season.

Oklahoma Pandhandle

In 2002, Held took over an

Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggies The Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggies (or OPSU Aggies) are the athletic teams that represent Oklahoma Panhandle State University, located in Goodwell, Oklahoma, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate A ...

program that had only won two games in the previous three years. He led them to back-to-back winning seasons in 2003 and 2004.

SW Oklahoma State

Held led the Southwestern Oklahoma State program for four seasons, from 2005 to 2008, guiding the team to a share of the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in Tex ...

North Division title in 2007, one year after he was named the division coach of the year.

Butler Community College

In 2011, Held was the offensive coordinator at

Butler Community College Butler Community College (BCC) is a public community college in El Dorado, Kansas. Campus There are a number of branch campuses throughout the area, in Andover, Council Grove, Marion, McConnell, Rose Hill, and a number of distance-learning ...

where he led the team to an 11-1 record and finished as the #2 ranked offense in the country.

Highland Community College

In 2012, he took over a

Highland Community College (Kansas) Highland Community College (HCC) is a public community college in Highland, Kansas. History The college considers Highland University the precursor to Highland Community College, making it the first college in Kansas. Founding In November 18 ...

team that hadn't had a winning season since before 2000. In 2013, Highland made it to the playoffs for the first time in the modern era.

Northeast Oklahoma A&M

Held was the head coach for two seasons at

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

(2014–2015), where he coached 22 all-conference selections in his final season.

UCF

Held coached the running backs at UCF under head coach

. He was part of a staff that led the nation’s most improved team in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

and posted the first perfect regular season in UCF and

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

history in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. With help from Held’s running backs, the Knights’ offense showed dramatic improvement, increasing their scoring production by more than 35 points per game from 2015 to 2017 and their total offense output by more than 270 yards per game. Held’s running backs helped UCF rush for nearly 2,500 yards during its undefeated regular season and run to the American Athletic Conference title in 2017. Adrian Killins Jr. averaged 6.8 yards per carry en route to earning all-conference accolades as a sophomore. Killins added 10 rushing touchdowns, including a 96-yard score in the regular-season matchup with Memphis, the longest rush and longest play from scrimmage in both UCF and AAC history. As a unit, Held’s running backs combined for 24 rushing touchdowns in 2017, including scores by six different backs. As a team, UCF ranked sixth nationally with 38 rushing touchdowns. In Held’s first season at UCF in 2016, the Knights rushed for nearly 2,000 yards and three running backs, including more than 800 yards from freshmen. Killins averaged 6.5 yards per carry, while senior Dontravious Wilson scored eight rushing touchdowns after scoring only three times in his first three seasons combined.

Return to Nebraska

Held returned to his alma mater, Nebraska, in December 2017, when he was one of the first hires on Scott Frost's Husker staff. He was one of four offensive assistants dismissed on November 8, 2021, in a major reshuffle of the offensive staff.

North Alabama

In 2022, Held joined the staff at

North Alabama North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...

as the associate head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Head coaching record

College

Junior college

References

External links

Nebraska–Kearney profile

North Alabama profile

Nebraska player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Held, Ryan 1974 births Living people American football quarterbacks American football wide receivers Butler Grizzlies football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football players Nebraska–Kearney Lopers football coaches North Alabama Lions football coaches Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggies football coaches Peru State Bobcats football coaches Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs football coaches UCF Knights football coaches Junior college football coaches in the United States Sportspeople from Overland Park, Kansas Coaches of American football from Kansas Players of American football from Kansas