Football
Els, Ross
vs
BYU
Sep 27 (Sat)
8:15 PM
Ross Els
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Inside Linebackers & Special Teams
- Email:
- cufb@colorado.edu
- Phone:
- 303-492-3214
Ross Els is in his third season coaching Colorado’s inside linebackers, as he joined the Buffalo staff on February 24, 2017, also bringing extensive special teams coaching experience to the program. When Mel Tucker was hired as head coach, he added the title of special teams coordinator officially to his duties.
Els, 53, is a 29-year veteran in the collegiate coaching ranks (he coached his 200th game on the FBS level in 2017), and arrived on campus in time for the team’s second spring practice. He came to Colorado from Purdue University, where he served as the Boilermakers’ defensive coordinator in 2016 under head coach Darrell Hazell.
Els has the bulk of his experience as an assistant coach working with the linebackers, and all but one of his 28 years devoted on the defensive side of the ball. He spent four years at the University of Nebraska from 2011-14 under coach Bo Pellini, his first season as linebackers coach with the responsibilities of coordinating both special teams and recruiting added to his duties for the last three years. One of his top players while he was with the Huskers was Lavonte David, a finalist for the Butkus Award and the 2011 Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, as well as a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Lott Trophy. He was a second round selection by Tampa Bay in the 2012 National Football League Draft.
In 2017, he coached CU’s top two tacklers, Drew Lewis (119 tackles) and Rick Gamboa (117), the school’s first pair to make 100-plus stops since 2006 and just the second linebacker due to accomplish the feat since 1994.
In 2012, he coached Nebraska’s leading tackler, Will Compton, who record 110 total stops, six of which were for losses including three quarterback sacks. That aided a 10-win season and a berth in the Big Ten’s championship game.
Nebraska was 37-16 in his four years on its staff, including four bowl appearances: Capital One (2012 and 2013), TaxSlayer Gator (2014) and Holiday (2014). In-between his Nebraska and Purdue appointments, he spent the 2015 season as an assistant coach at his son’s high school, Lincoln (Neb.) Southwest.
Prior to Nebraska, he was the linebackers coach for six seasons, working under a former NU graduate in Frank Solich. In his third season there, he was named the Bobcats’ special teams coordinator, and in his final year there (2010), Solich promoted him to assistant head coach. He coached four All-Mid-American Conference linebackers, in addition helping OU to two MAC East Division titles and three bowl appearances:
In 2010, Ohio’s defense ranked 20th nationally and second in the MAC in rushing defense. Els’ special teams were also a key part of Ohio’s 8-5 season that culminated with a trip to the New Orleans Bowl. The Bobcats ranked first in the 14-team MAC in net punting, third in punt returns and fifth in kickoff returns. In 2009, he tutored linebacker Noah Keller, who led the MAC with 155 tackles en route to earning honorable mention All-America honors. He also coached punt returner LaVon Brazil to second-team All-America honors that season, while placekicker Matt Weller was named a Freshman All-American after kicking a school record 21 field goals.
He coached in Division I (now the FBS) for the first time when he spent four years at New Mexico State University, first tutoring the safeties and special teams for the 2001 and 2002 seasons, and then the linebackers along with a promotion to defensive coordinator in 2003 and 2004. He worked under Tony Samuel, another former Nebraska player and assistant coach, during his time in Las Cruces.
Els was the head coach at Hastings (Neb.) College from 1997-2000, where he was the quarterbacks coach in 1995 and the defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996. As Hastings’ head coach, Els compiled a 32-9 record, including NAIA playoff appearances in 1998 and 1999.
A 1988 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where he majored in Management Information Systems and lettered four years as a safety. He got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Northern Iowa, where he earned his Master’s degree in Physical Education in 1999; that’s where he began his coaching career a decade earlier as a graduate assistant (in 1989), working with the linebackers and secondary.
He then returned to his alma mater, UNO, for his first full-time position in the ranks, coaching the secondary for four seasons (1990-93).
He was born August 14, 1965 in Lincoln, Neb., and graduated from Lincoln Northeast High where he lettered in football, basketball and baseball. He is married to the former Jane Ketterer, and the couple has two daughters, Julie and Taylor (a junior on the volleyball team at Northern Colorado), and a son, Bo (a junior wide receiver at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa).
AT-A-GLANCE—He has coached in 212 Division I-A (FBS) games as a full-time coach, and has coached in seven bowl games (2006 GMAC, 2009 Little Caesars, 2010 New Orleans, 2012 Capital One, 2013 Capital One, 2014 Gator/TaxSlayer, 2014 Holiday).
COACHING EXPERIENCE
(Note: he is NOT related to Ernie Els, but "would love to have his golf swing.")
Els, 53, is a 29-year veteran in the collegiate coaching ranks (he coached his 200th game on the FBS level in 2017), and arrived on campus in time for the team’s second spring practice. He came to Colorado from Purdue University, where he served as the Boilermakers’ defensive coordinator in 2016 under head coach Darrell Hazell.
Els has the bulk of his experience as an assistant coach working with the linebackers, and all but one of his 28 years devoted on the defensive side of the ball. He spent four years at the University of Nebraska from 2011-14 under coach Bo Pellini, his first season as linebackers coach with the responsibilities of coordinating both special teams and recruiting added to his duties for the last three years. One of his top players while he was with the Huskers was Lavonte David, a finalist for the Butkus Award and the 2011 Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, as well as a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Lott Trophy. He was a second round selection by Tampa Bay in the 2012 National Football League Draft.
In 2017, he coached CU’s top two tacklers, Drew Lewis (119 tackles) and Rick Gamboa (117), the school’s first pair to make 100-plus stops since 2006 and just the second linebacker due to accomplish the feat since 1994.
In 2012, he coached Nebraska’s leading tackler, Will Compton, who record 110 total stops, six of which were for losses including three quarterback sacks. That aided a 10-win season and a berth in the Big Ten’s championship game.
Nebraska was 37-16 in his four years on its staff, including four bowl appearances: Capital One (2012 and 2013), TaxSlayer Gator (2014) and Holiday (2014). In-between his Nebraska and Purdue appointments, he spent the 2015 season as an assistant coach at his son’s high school, Lincoln (Neb.) Southwest.
Prior to Nebraska, he was the linebackers coach for six seasons, working under a former NU graduate in Frank Solich. In his third season there, he was named the Bobcats’ special teams coordinator, and in his final year there (2010), Solich promoted him to assistant head coach. He coached four All-Mid-American Conference linebackers, in addition helping OU to two MAC East Division titles and three bowl appearances:
In 2010, Ohio’s defense ranked 20th nationally and second in the MAC in rushing defense. Els’ special teams were also a key part of Ohio’s 8-5 season that culminated with a trip to the New Orleans Bowl. The Bobcats ranked first in the 14-team MAC in net punting, third in punt returns and fifth in kickoff returns. In 2009, he tutored linebacker Noah Keller, who led the MAC with 155 tackles en route to earning honorable mention All-America honors. He also coached punt returner LaVon Brazil to second-team All-America honors that season, while placekicker Matt Weller was named a Freshman All-American after kicking a school record 21 field goals.
He coached in Division I (now the FBS) for the first time when he spent four years at New Mexico State University, first tutoring the safeties and special teams for the 2001 and 2002 seasons, and then the linebackers along with a promotion to defensive coordinator in 2003 and 2004. He worked under Tony Samuel, another former Nebraska player and assistant coach, during his time in Las Cruces.
Els was the head coach at Hastings (Neb.) College from 1997-2000, where he was the quarterbacks coach in 1995 and the defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996. As Hastings’ head coach, Els compiled a 32-9 record, including NAIA playoff appearances in 1998 and 1999.
A 1988 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where he majored in Management Information Systems and lettered four years as a safety. He got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Northern Iowa, where he earned his Master’s degree in Physical Education in 1999; that’s where he began his coaching career a decade earlier as a graduate assistant (in 1989), working with the linebackers and secondary.
He then returned to his alma mater, UNO, for his first full-time position in the ranks, coaching the secondary for four seasons (1990-93).
He was born August 14, 1965 in Lincoln, Neb., and graduated from Lincoln Northeast High where he lettered in football, basketball and baseball. He is married to the former Jane Ketterer, and the couple has two daughters, Julie and Taylor (a junior on the volleyball team at Northern Colorado), and a son, Bo (a junior wide receiver at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa).
AT-A-GLANCE—He has coached in 212 Division I-A (FBS) games as a full-time coach, and has coached in seven bowl games (2006 GMAC, 2009 Little Caesars, 2010 New Orleans, 2012 Capital One, 2013 Capital One, 2014 Gator/TaxSlayer, 2014 Holiday).
COACHING EXPERIENCE
| 1989 | Northern Iowa | Graduate Assistant (Defense) |
| 1990-93 | Nebraska-Omaha | Secondary |
| 1994 | Northern Iowa | Secondary |
| 1995 | Hastings College | Quarterbacks |
| 1996 | Hastings College | Defensive Coordinator / Secondary |
| 1997-00 | Hastings College | Head Coach |
| 2001-02 | New Mexico State | Safeties / Special Teams |
| 2003-04 | New Mexico State | Defensive Coordinator / Linebackers |
| 2005-06 | Ohio University | Linebackers |
| 2007-09 | Ohio University | Linebackers / Special Teams Coordinator |
| 2010 | Ohio University | Asst. Head Coach / Linebackers / Special Teams Coordinator |
| 2011 | Nebraska | Linebackers |
| 2012-14 | Nebraska | Linebackers / Special Teams Coordinator / Recruiting Coordinator |
| 2015 | Lincoln Southwest (H.S.) | Assistant / Defense, Linebackers |
| 2016 | Purdue | Defensive Coordinator / Safeties |
| 2017- | Colorado | Inside Linebackers / Special Teams |
(Note: he is NOT related to Ernie Els, but "would love to have his golf swing.")
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