Head football coach Bernie Anderson is causing a little bit of a staff shakeup for NMU this off-season. He recently announced that Joe Ballard has been promoted to a full-time assistant coach, while former Michigan Tech quarterback Dan Mettlach has been added as the quarterbacks coach. Mettlach replaces Matt LaFleur who accepted a position at Ashland University earlier this off-season.

Ballard will coach the wide receivers and assist with the special teams.

Mettlach was the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Player of the Year for the 2004 season while quarterbacking Michigan Tech to a 9-2 record and a first-place tie in the conference.

He was also named a 2004 D2Football.com All-America honorable mention and was a Daktronics All-Region second team and an All-GLIAC first team selection.

During his senior campaign at MTU, Mettlach guided the offense to top-10 national rankings in scoring, rushing and total offense. He threw for 16 touchdowns with just six interceptions and took fewer sacks than any starter in the league.

Mettlach completed 102 of 196 passing attempts for 1,683 yards and accounted for 302 rushing yards and five touchdowns on the ground. He is MTU’s school record holder with 50 career touchdown passes.

For his career with the Huskies, Mettlach ranks fourth on the all-time passing career list with 5,261 yards on 358-726-17 with 50 touchdowns. He ran for another 1,087 yards with 16 touchdowns.

Mettlach is also a 2000 graduate of Gwinn High School where he was a three-time selection to the All-Mid-Peninsula Conference Team. As a senior he was all-state, All-U.P. Dream Team and the Mid-Peninsula Conference Offensive Player of the Year. Mettlach threw for 3,479 yards and 42 touchdowns and ran for 1,173 yards and 25 touchdowns for his high school career.

-NMU Sports Information