KEARNEY, NE — A man with deep Nebraska ties and vast head-coaching experience is the next person to lead the Nebraska Kearney football program.

Athletic Director Marc Bauer announced Tuesday that Ryan Held is UNK’s new head coach. He replaces Josh Lynn, who left last week for West Texas A&M after six seasons at the helm of the Lopers’ program.

“I can’t tell you how fired up I am to be the next head football coach at UNK. The opportunity to return to Nebraska and lead the Loper football program, which has tremendous tradition and is committed to winning championships, is something I can’t wait to take on,” Held said in a news release. “The MIAA is one of the toughest football conferences in the country, and UNK is right there at the top with a strong foundation in place.”

Bauer selected Held after a nationwide search. UNK is hosting a news conference at 11 a.m. on Jan. 3 at the Health and Sports Center. It will be televised live on News Channel Nebraska.

“Ryan has created a strong reputation for leading, recruiting and developing players,” Bauer said. “His focus goes beyond the game, aimed at elevating players to become the best version of themselves on and off the field. Equally important, Ryan believes in the Division II model. Not only does he have plans to guide and continue to elevate the program, but also create a culture driven by our mission, complemented by our core values and efforts to contribute to our campus and community.”

Held comes to Kearney already well-known in many football households in the Cornhusker state. The 48-year-old from Kansas City won two national championships as a player at Nebraska. He was a backup quarterback and wide receiver from 1993-1996.

Held returned to Lincoln in 2018 as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator under Scott Frost. He spent four seasons coaching the Huskers and twice earned designation as a Rivals Top 25 Recruiter of the Year.

Nebraska fired Held after the 2021 season and he landed as the offensive coordinator and associate head coach at Division 1 FCS North Alabama. He served as interim head coach for the Lions’ final three games, all losses.

Held takes over a Lopers program that has improved considerably after a rough start transition from the RMAC to the MIAA. Lynn took over in 2017 after UNK posted just one win over the previous two seasons. 

“We have a great opportunity to build on recent success,” Held said. “There are a lot of really good players returning. We’re going to add more moving forward and build on recent successes in the great MIAA conference. I look forward to meeting all the great alumni, boosters and community members who make it possible to build our program.”

Held’s experience as a head coach dates back to 2001 when he was hired at NAIA Peru State. At 26 years old, he was the youngest head football coach in the country. Held parlayed a second-place conference finish with the Bobcats into a three-year stint as head coach at Oklahoma Panhandle State. He took over a team that had won only two games in the previous three years and led them to consecutive winning seasons in 2003 and 2004. His next stop was as head coach at Division ll Southwestern Oklahoma State. After an initial one-win season, Held guided the Bulldogs to a pair of 6-5 seasons and a division title in 2007.

His next experience came at the junior college level. Held spent a pair of seasons each as head coach at Highland (KS) Community College and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College.

Frost gave Held his first entry into the Division l ranks when he hired his former teammate as running backs coach at Central Florida in 2016. The Knights piled up more than 2,500 rushing yards in 2017 on the way to an undefeated season.

Held has worked under three national coaches of the year (Tom Osborne, Phillip Fullmer and Frost) and won four total championships. After getting two titles as a player, he stayed on as an undergraduate assistant for Nebraska in 1997. Then, he won a ring at Tennessee as a defensive graduate assistant in 1998.

He has already revealed some of his recruiting strategy. Held says he will heavily recruit Nebraska high schools and players from across the Midwest and Florida, including junior colleges in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

“We will recruit impact players from winning programs who fill immediate needs – smart, tough, physical athletes who love to compete,” he said. “I look forward to working with all the great Nebraska coaches. We want Nebraska high school players to be Lopers. That will be paramount to our success.”

Held and his wife, Katie, have two sons, Jacob and Greyson, and one daughter, Rhylan.