North Dakota State Has Named Steve Crutchley Its New Wide Receivers Coach

     On Tuesday, Feb. 7 North Dakota State head football coach Matt Entz announced the hiring of Steve Crutchley as the wide receivers coach. Crutchley is replacing Noah Pauley, who accepted a job at Iowa State of the Big 12 Conference.

     Crutchley played wide receiver at Wisconsin-Eau Claire from 1996-99. In 1998 he was a captain on the conference championship football team. Crutchley was a two-sport athlete also competing in track and field. He was a two-time national qualifier in the 4x100-meter relay, along with being a conference indoor champion in the 200-meter dash. Crutchley was named the most valuable track athlete in 1998 and 1999 at Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

     He began his coaching career in 2002 at St. Cloud State where he would spend six seasons as the wide receivers coach. He then became the running backs coach at Southern Illinois from 2008-12. Crutchley headed to Western Illinois from 2013-15 to coach running backs. In 2017 he started a five year stint coaching at the FBS level. He was the wide receivers coach at Northern Illinois in 2017 and 2018, then an offensive analyst at Temple from 2019-21. Crutchley came back to the FCS last season where he was the running backs coach at the University of North Dakota.

     Coach Entz had high praise for Crutchley saying,  “Coach Crutchley is an excellent teacher, mentor and recruiter, and will be an excellent addition to the NDSU football staff.”

     The Bison will open the 2023 campaign on Saturday, Sept. 2 against Eastern Washington at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn.