ISU football promotes Huard to coordinator

NORMAL, IL - 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.

"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."