SUU extends Lamb’s contract

SUU

Lamb

Southern Utah Athletics

CEDAR CITY, Utah — After watching him turn Southern Utah University’s football fortunes around in the past three years SUU’s administration has come to an agreement that will keep head football coach Ed Lamb on the SUU sidelines for the foreseeable future, extending his contract through the 2015 season.

In the three seasons since inheriting a team that went 0-11 in 2007 Lamb has overseen the resurgence of Thunderbird football, guiding the team to progressvely better seasons each year. This year he led the Thunderbirds to the Great West Conference championship, the program’s first out-right conference championship since it made the move to NCAA competition in 1986. That feat helped ut him on the Eddie Robinson Award list, making him SUU’s first candidate for the prestigious award in the school’s history.

“I feel very fortunate that SUU has deemed me worthy of a contract extension,” Lamb said. “[SUU Director of Athletics] Ken Beazer and President Michael Benson have a clear vision of future success for SUU football, and I’m so grateful to be a part of that plan.”

Lamb’s first team went 4-7, and although the win total was modest that team broke a 19-game losing streak, picked up its first road win in four years and placed 11 players on the all-Great West Conference squad. In 2009, his second at the helm, the Thunderbirds improved to 5-6, the team’s best mark in five seasons, had two all-Americans, 12 all-conference performers and was ranked among the nation’s leaders in six major statistical categories. Last year, in addition to winning the GWC crown with a perfect 4-0 mark (and an overall 6-5 record), SUU had its first consensus NCAA Division I all-American, ranked among the nation’s leaders in 10 major statistical categories and dominated the all-GWC team, with 17 representatives, including 10 first-team selections.

“I couldn’t be happier with Coach Lamb’s leadership and the current direction of our football program,” Beazer said. “Under Coach Lamb and his staff’s leadership, Thunderbird Football has made substantial improvements both on the field and in the classroom, winning the University’s first outright football conference championship and academic improvement award in the same calendar year.”

Lamb’s original contract was for five seasons. The three-year extension will renew that five-year commitment.