TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — In Northeastern State head football coach Kenny Evans’ first season, the RiverHawks struggled offensively and finished last in the Lone Star Conference in total offense at just 259 yards per game.

In an effort to jump start the offense, Evans decided to bring in someone he was familiar with in the offseason.

That is why in January, Oklahoma State graduate assistant Brad Cornelsen was hired to take over the position of offensive coordinator.

Cornelsen and Evans have ties that reach back to 1995 when Evans was the defensive coordinator at Missouri Southern State and was involved in the recruiting of Cornelson.

“He was involved in my recruiting trips,” said Cornelson.

Cornelsen ended up being a good recruit as he became the first Division II player in history to pass for over 4,000 yards and run for more than 2,000. After his eligibility ran out after the 1998 season, Cornelsen knew he wanted to become a coach.

“I knew college would be where it ended for me because of my size,” Cornelsen said.

The next season, in 1999, Cornelsen began the first stop in his coaching career as a student assistant at Missouri Southern. After the season, he accepted a similar role at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M; Junior College.

He then took a job as a graduate assistant at Northwest Missouri State in January 2001 before going for the same position at Oklahoma State University in July of the same year. Les Miles was the head coach at OSU at the time.

At OSU, he was involved in coaching quarterbacks, receivers and special teams from July of 2001 to June 2003. During this time, Cornelsen got valuable experience running the scout team in practice.

“It was kind of where I learned the fundamentals of football X’s and O’s,” said Cornelsen. “When you have to break down film and run the scout team you learn schemes of the game.”

After his stint at OSU, Cornelsen got his first job as an assistant coach at Illinois State University. With the Redbirds, he coached quarterbacks and receivers from July 2003 to May 2008.

“I had my own guys and recruited,” Cornelson said.

Last season, Cornelsen returned to OSU as a graduate assistant under head coach Mike Gundy. As a coach of quarterbacks and special teams, he helped lead the Cowboys to a 9-4 record and Holiday Bowl berth.

Under Gundy, he got exposed to a different kind of offense in the spread attack that OSU used to average 41 points a game.

“I learned a different style of offense,” said Cornelsen.

Now that he is in charge of the RiverHawks offense, Cornelsen says this year’s attack will be based around the talent the team has in place.

“You have to mold the offense to the guys that are playing for you,” said Cornelsen. “My biggest thing right now is that we’re simple in what we do and go out and execute our plays.”

Though he would like for his offenses to put up big numbers, Cornelsen says the major goal is to keep the amount of turnovers to a minimum.

“The most important part of this game is to take care of the football,” Cornelsen said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball, we can’t make mistakes. I want to be consistent. I want to get out there and take of the ball and have a chance to win.

If we get beat by a better team with better talent, that’s how it goes. I don’t want to lose a game because we made too many mistakes on offense.”

Despite winning just four games the past few seasons, Cornelsen believes in time NSU can return to the winning tradition the school enjoyed in the 80’s and 90’s.

“There’s no question about it,” Cornelsen said. “There’s no magic formula, it’s just going to take hard work and we have to continue to do things the right way and be consistent.”

Northeastern State opens their season on August 27 at Gable Field against Arkansas Tech.