Rod Carey is now in his third season as North Dakota's offensive line coach. He joined the Fighting Sioux coaching staff in 2008 and brought with him a decade of collegiate coaching experience.
For the second year in a row, Carey's offensive line paved the way for UND's run-game. Last year, Mitch Sutton ranked second in the Great West Conference (687 yards) and was named the GWC Rookie of the Year. The year before, Josh Murray led the conference with 1,146 rushing yards.
The offensive line was crucial to UND's passing game as well as quarterback Jake Landry tallied a career high 1,968 yards (178.9/game).
Senior lineman Kyle Bondy was named to the GWC all-conference second team.
In 2008, center Mitch Braegelmann was named one of five Laureates by Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering society and was a member of the GWC all-conference team. A member of the 2008 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America football team, he became the second player in UND history to earn back-to-back first team honors.
Along with Braeglemann, fellow lineman Brian Troen was also named GWC all-conference.
Carey spent the 2007 season as the offensive line coach at Illinois State University, a Division I-Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) program, where he coached an offensive line that paved the way for three 100-yard rushers in single game (vs. Murray St.) that year. On that line, he coached Brandon Joyce (St. Loius Rams; 2010), Jonathan St. Pierre (Toronto Argonauts; 2010) and Isaiah Wiggins (Baltimore Ravens; 2008).
Prior to his stint at Illinois State, Carey was a member of the coaching staff at the University of Wisconsin-Stout from 2000-06, where he served as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Carey's offensive units averaged nearly 400 yards per game during his seven seasons, while setting 14 school records.
Some of those records include Luke Bungaard who broke the all-time conference rushing record in the WIAC (2003) and Nick Ohman, who became only the second All-America quarterback in school history (2004).
Carey also coached offensive lineman Ben Knepper the most decorated player ever to come through UW-Stout, earning a multitude of All-American and all-conference honors.
While at UW-Stout, Carey coached 26 all-conference members and seven All-Americans.
Carey, a native of Wayzata, Minn., also spent time as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Minnesota (1998-99), where he was a part of the first bowl game (Sun Bowl '99) in over a decade for the Gophers. Prior to that, he was the offensive line coach at Wayzata (Minn.) High School (1994-97).
A 1994 graduate of Indiana University with a bachelor's degree, Carey was a three-year starter at center for the Hoosiers from 1989 to 1993. He served as a team captain and earned the team's Corby Davis Outstanding Offensive Player award as a senior.
Carey's family includes his wife, Tonya, and their two children: daughter Kennedi (6) and son Charlie (3).
- Go Sioux -
