Northern Illinois University Athletics

Brett Diersen enters his fifth year as Northern Illinois University’s defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator in 2017 and is the Huskies’ longest-tenured coach on the defensive side of the ball.

In his four seasons at NIU, Diersen has coached five All-MAC selections, including two-time selection Perez Ford (2014-15), Jason Meehan (2014), and Ken Bishop and Joe Windsor (2013). Since Diersen’s arrival, Huskie defensive linemen have been responsible for 98 sacks for losses of 645 yards.

Huskie defensive linemen accounted for 15 of the Huskies 22 sacks in 2016, and the Huskies’ defensive line played a big role in NIU’s Mid-American Conference title in 2014 as the NIU defense amassed 32 sacks, forced 24 fumbles and held opposing rushers to 4.2 yards per carry.

Under Diersen’s tutelage in 2013, senior nose guard Ken Bishop made 70 tackles, including seven tackles for loss, and two interceptions, on the way to becoming a seventh-round draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2014 NFL Draft.  

After playing for the Cowboys in 2014, Bishop is spending his second season playing for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League, while 2016 senior defensive end Ladell Fleming is in preseason camp with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns after signing as a free agent. 

Diersen spent the 2012 season at Florida Atlantic University where he coached the Owls’ defensive line and served as special teams coordinator. In 2011, he was the defensive ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Indiana after spending the 2008-10 seasons on the University of Nebraska coaching staff, where he assisted in working with special teams and a defensive line that featured Ndamukong Suh, who was named the Associated Press National Player of the Year and won the Bronko Nagurski, Rotary Lombardi, Outland and Chuck Bednarik awards.

The connection between Carey and Diersen dates back to 2000 when Carey took over as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Wisconsin-Stout, where Diersen was a graduate assistant on a Blue Devils team that went into the Division III playoffs undefeated. After coaching the defensive line, outside linebackers and special teams at the University of Dubuque from 2001-03, Diersen returned to UW-Stout as defensive coordinator in 2004. The two remained with the Blue Devils through 2006.

A native of Appleton, Wis., Diersen spent the 2007 campaign as defensive line coach at Minnesota State-Mankato before going to Nebraska the next season.

As a player, Diersen was a three-time all-conference defensive end at Huron (S.D.) University from 1994-98, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1998. He added a master’s degree in education from UW-Stout in 2005.

Diersen and his wife, Jenna, have two sons, Brody and Hudson, and a newborn daughter, Mila.
 

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