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ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) -- Former Ricks College football coach Ron Haun has been picked to coach Dixie State College as the Rebels enter NCAA Division II competition this fall.
Haun, a Dixie alumnus, was offensive coordinator at Weber State last season, but is best known for his two decades as head coach at Ricks College, now called BYU-Idaho.
"I'm really excited to be named head coach of Dixie State College. It's a job I've coveted ever since I attended Dixie," Haun said Tuesday. "I have Dixie blood in me, and that's hard to get rid of."
He said the program will be taking a different direction as it goes from junior college to NCAA competition.
"We're going to go out and actively recruit the best young men that we can get our hands on that people will be proud of," he said. "We will be well coached, and well trained, and our athletes will be contributing members of the community. I can't wait to get started."
The need to go a new direction for NCAA competition was cited by Dixie officials last month when they fired coach Greg Croshaw, whose teams over 24 seasons had a record of 214-56-1 with 17 conference wins and two national runner-up finishes.
Athletic director Dexter Irvin said at the time that the academic performance of the team has been of concern for several years, and administrators felt it was time to make a change, in part because of changes in academic standards and recruiting policies as the school prepares to move to the NCAA Division II.
Between 1982 and 2001, Haun's Ricks College teams had a record of 178-40-2 with 17 postseason bowl appearances, eight league championships and two undefeated seasons in 1992 and 1994. Ricks twice was the National Junior College runner-up. He was the winningest coach in the NJCAA during his tenure with Ricks.
Academically, his teams at Ricks consistently achieved a GPA of 3.0 or higher and were National Academic Football Champions in 1995 and from 1997 to 2001. More than 40 of his players were named Academic All-Americans.
Haun attended Dixie College in 1964 where he was quarterback and team captain. He completed his career at Weber, where he played quarterback and was team captain as well.
Haun said many of his former players are now coaches at Utah colleges and high schools, and he expects to draw on those resources.
"We have to go after the Utah kids, and that's where I think I have an advantage," Haun continued. "I've recruited Utah kids for 20 years. We'll have a broad net, but I think our base will be Utah."
He drew a comparison between Dixie State and Boise State, which went through a similar transition from the JUCO ranks to the NCAA.
"(Boise State) is going to be our model, and that's what I envision," Haun said. "Boise State made a great transition from a junior college to a powerful NCAA program, and they always won along the way. It's going to take a while, and it's at a different level, but Dixie has always won, and I'm going to uphold that tradition."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-03-29-06 0921MST
