Ed Lamb to become head coach at Northern Colorado

(Photo: Deseret News, Scott G. Winterton)

Brady Hull of Colorado radio’s 103.1 FM and 1310 AM is reporting today that BYU’s Ed Lamb is poised to become the next head coach of Northern Colorado. Lamb has been with BYU since Kalani Sitake took over as the head coach of the program prior to the 2016 season.

I’m hearing Ed Lamb (currently with BYU) is going to be the next @UNC_BearsFB coach. Lamb was the HC at Southern Utah from 08 to 15. Loads of college football coaching experience …including a Big Sky Conference title and NCAA playoffs appearance.

— Brady Hull (@Hullshow) December 6, 2022

Prior to his time at BYU, Lamb had built Southern Utah University into a very successful football program. He won his conference and competed for playoff berths nearly every year towards the end of his tenure in Cedar City. He made the jump from the FCS ranks to the FBS ranks in 2016 where he was Sitake’s Assistant Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator for several years.

Lamb has an eye for talent, something that will be very important for him in Greely, CO. At BYU, he identified players like Chris Wilcox as a young, raw cornerback with excellent measurables and turned him into an NFL draft pick. He was also the coach primarily responsible for seeing a young quarterback at Herriman High School and believing that he could be an All-American offensive tackle at BYU. Now, Blake Freeland is poised to get drafted in next year’s NFL Draft. Lamb’s knack for being able to project physical development in players and find positions for them on the football field is something that will bode well for him at the FCS level.

Lamb is a proven leader. Whether he was at SUU or at BYU, he was a leader. Getting back into a head coaching role suits his strengths well. The way that Lamb sees the game and wants to run a program requires buy-in at all levels. As the head coach, he will be able to get that level of buy-in from his staff.

His job at Northern Colorado will not be easy. The Bears are coming off of back-to-back 3-8 seasons. Worse than the losses is that the team hasn’t been particularly competitive in Big Sky play. Lamb will be starting from the ground floor in Greely and building a program back up to a level that compete in the Big Sky Conference.

For BYU, they will actively look to replace their assistant head coach and names have already been swirling with potential candidates. The most frequently mentioned name is Jay Hill, also from the Big Sky Conference. The current Weber State head coach has built a proud program in Ogden and it’s unclear whether or not he would go back to being an assistant coach even if it is at the FBS level.

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