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Phone: 712-274-5283
E-Mail: ryan@morningside.edu
 Steve Ryan has a 66-26 career record for a .717 winning percentage in eight seasons with the Mustangs to make him one of the most successful head football coaches in Morningside history. Ryan, who has led the Mustangs to six consecutive NAIA National Championship Series appearances, ranks third in school history in career victories and his .717 winning percentage is the highest victory rate in school history.
Ryan has directed Morningside to a 58-14 record for an .806 winning percentage over the past six campaigns to make the Mustangs one of the most successful programs in the NAIA.
Ryan was named the 2005 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division II Region 4 Coach of the Year and the 2005 Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Coach of the Year after he guided Morningside to its greatest football season in school history during the 2005 campaign.
The Mustangs posted a 12-1 record and were ranked third nationally in the final 2005 regular season NAIA poll. Morningside, the GPAC champion with a perfect 10-0 record, advanced to the semifinals of the NAIA National Playoffs before it lost 42-14 against second-ranked University of Saint Francis. The Mustangs toppled No. 14 St. Ambrose University 58-7 and No. 10 Evangel University 54-21 in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
He led the Mustangs to records of 9-3 and the quarterfinals of the NAIA Playoffs in both the 2006 and 2007 campaigns and his 2008 and 2009 teams returned to the quarterfinals and finished with records of 10-2 for the second highest victory totals in Morningside history.
Ryan was named the GPAC Coach of the Year in 2004 as well as the 2004 NAIA Football.net National Coach of the Year after he guided the Mustangs to an 8-3 record and their first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Playoffs. The Mustangs reached the second round of the 2006 NAIA Playoffs en route to a 9-3 finish.
Ryan guided Morningside to a 5-5 record in 2002 in his first season with the Mustangs to snap a streak of 15 consecutive losing seasons. The five wins were the college's most victories since the 1985 campaign. Included
among the victories was a stunning 24-21 double overtime upset
of Wayne State College in the season's opener. Ryan also led
the Mustangs to a 28-25 upset win against 2002 GPAC runner-up
Doane College, a loss that helped knock the Tigers out of
the NAIA National Playoffs.
He was previously an assistant coach at Ottawa University. Ottawa posted a 32-9 record for
an .821 winning percentage and twice qualified for the NAIA
National Playoffs during Ryan's tenure there.
Ryan is a 1989 graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, where he was a four-year letterwinner and a three-year starter as a linebacker.
Ryan received his master’s degree from National-Louis University in 1997.
Assistant Coach Jay Christensen
Phone: 712-274-5328
E-Mail: christensen@morningside.edu
 Jay Christensen will begin his third season as the Mustangs’ defensive coordinator in 2010.
Christensen molded a Morningside defense that ranked seventh nationally in the NAIA in both the 2009 and 2008 seasons by allowing averages of only 17.0 points per game in 2009 and 15.4 points per game in 2008.
He comes to Morningside from the University of Nebraska-Kearney, where he was an assistant coach for the past four seasons. Christensen was a graduate assistant coach in charge of inside linebackers in 2004. He was a full-time assistant coach in charge of the Lopers’ defensive backs during his final three seasons at Nebraska-Kearney.
Christensen helped lead the Lopers to a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) championship and a NCAA Division II Playoff appearance in 2005. Nebraska-Kearney ranked second nationally in team scoring defense with an average of 11.5 points per game in 2006. Christensen’s expertise helped the Lopers garner four first-team All-RMAC defensive back selections from 2005-07.
Christensen’s first coaching position came as an assistant coach at Ravenna High School in Nebraska in 2003.
Christensen is a 1999 graduate of Nebraska-Kearney, where he was a defensive back and linebacker for the Lopers from 1994-98. He was a two-year starter and a team co-captain as a senior. Christensen amassed 146 tackles during his Nebraska-Kearney career.
Assistant Coach Ryan Nourse
Phone: 712-274-5326
E-Mail: nourse@morningside.edu
 Ryan Nourse has returned to the Mustangs’ coaching staff and will serve as the team’s offensive coordinator. Nourse was an assistant coach with the Mustangs from 2001 to 2008 before he spent two seasons on the coaching staff at NCAA Division II Truman State University.
Nourse, who was previously the Mustangs’ associate head coach and defensive coordinator, was the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) 2007 NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year.
Nourse was the architect of a Morningside defense that limited its opposition to averages of 13.2 points and 249.9 yards total offense per game in 2007 to rank among the NAIA national leaders. The Mustangs allowed an average of only 2.3 yards per rushing attempt and intercepted a school-record 31 passes. Morningside held five of its 12 opponents to single-digit scoring totals. The Mustangs’ defensive success that season was a carryover from 2006 when Morningside limited its opposition to averages of 15.8 points and 249.1 yards total offense per game and had three shutouts for its most shutouts in one season since 1952.
Nourse was previously a defensive backs coach at Western State College and Western Montana College before he came to Morningside.
He graduated from Western Montana in 1997, where he was a two-year starter and helped lead the team to a pair of Frontier Conference championships. He played his first two seasons at Dickinson State University, where he played for teams that twice reached the semifinals of the NAIA National Playoffs.
Assistant Coach Keenan Ganz
Phone: 712-274-5311
E-Mail: ganz@morningside.edu
 Keenan Ganz will be in his third season with the Mustangs in 2010 and will coach the team’s wide receivers.
Ganz was an assistant coach at Avila University in Kansas City for the past two seasons, where he served as the Eagles’ wide receivers coach and passing coordinator. Avila had a pass completion rate of 59.4 percent and averaged 213.9 yards passing per game during the 2007 campaign.
He served on the coaching staff at the 2006 and 2007 Tim Dwight Camps.
Ganz is a 2005 graduate of Baker University, where he earned All-Heart of America Conference honors as a wide receiver and was a three-year captain for the Wildcats’ football team. He caught 35 passes for 582 yards and five touchdowns and led Baker’s receivers with an average of 16.6 yards per catch as a senior.
Assistant
Coach Casey Jacobsen
Phone: 712-274-5281
E-Mail: jacobsen@morningside.edu
 Casey
Jacobsen will be in his seventh season with the Mustangs in 2010. He is the
team's special teams and linebackers coach, as well as the athletic department's equipment manager.
Jacobsen previously
coached at Buena Vista University, where he was the Beavers'
defensive line coach during the 2003 season and an assistant
offensive line coach during the 2002 campaign.
He is a 2002 graduate of Buena Vista,
where he was a four-year letterwinner and a three-year starter
as an offensive center.
Assistant Coach Nathan Turner
Phone: 712-274-5359
 Nathan Turner will be in his third season with the Mustangs in 2010. Turner is the Mustangs' outside linebackers coach.
He was previously the running backs coach and video coordinator at Eastern Oregon University.
Turner graduated from Eastern Oregon in 2004. He was one of the Mountaineers' team captains in 2003. That season he was the recipient of Eastern Oregon's Iron Man Strength and Big Team Little Me awards.
Assistant Coach Andy Poulosky
Andy Poulosky is in his first season with the Mustangs and will coach the team’s defensive linemen.
He was an assistant coach at Sioux City West High School during the 2009 season.
Poulosky is a 2008 graduate of the University of Nebraska, where he was a defensive end and played on special teams for the Huskers from 2004-07. He saw action in 11 of the Huskers’ 12 games during his senior season. He had a season’s high four tackles in a start against Oklahoma State and had a quarterback sack against Texas.
After Nebraska, Poulosky played for the Tri-Cities Fever of the Arena Football Development League (AF2) and the Sioux City Bandits of the Indoor Football League. Poulosky led the Bandits with 3.5 quarterback sacks and had eight tackles for losses during the 2008 campaign.
Assistant Coach Dave Nelson
Dave Nelson is in his first season with the Mustangs and will serve as the team’s running backs coach.
Nelson was previously the offensive line coach at Wayne State College. He has also been an assistant coach at the University of South Dakota and was the head football coach at Newcastle High School in Nebraska from 2005-07. Nelson had a 30-15 career record as Newcastle’s head coach.
He is a 2002 graduate of Chadron State College, where he was a tailback and special team starter and played for two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) championship teams. Nelson later played for the Sioux City Bandits in 2003 and 2005.
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