Quick Facts
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Biography
Brian Stewart Polian (born December 22, 1974) is an American college football coach and former player. He is the special teams coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. He is the former head coach of the Nevada Wolf Pack football team. He is the son of former National Football League (NFL) executive Bill Polian.
Early life
Born in The Bronx, Polian graduated from Saint Francis High School in Athol Springs, New York, near Buffalo, in 1993. He attended John Carroll University near Cleveland, where he played on the football team as a linebacker from 1993 to 1996. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1997.
Coaching career
Early coaching career
Polian began his coaching career in 1997 as a graduate assistant at Michigan State. In 1998, he was the tight ends and offensive line assistant at the University at Buffalo. In 1999 and 2000, Polian was a defensive graduate assistant at Baylor under Kevin Steele. Polian graduated from Baylor with a master's degree in 2000.
Polian returned to Buffalo in 2001 as running backs coach and special teams coordinator, serving until 2003 all under coach Jim Hofher. In 2004, he was assistant coach at the same positions at UCF under George O'Leary. From 2005 to 2009, Polian was special teams coordinator at Notre Dame under Charlie Weis. He also served as defensive backs coach in 2005, linebackers coach in 2006, and inside linebackers coach in 2007. Notre Dame made three bowl appearances during Polian's tenure, including a win in the 2008 Hawaii Bowl.
He then was special teams coordinator and safeties coach at Stanford from 2010 to 2011 and was also recruiting coordinator in 2011. Part of Jim Harbaugh's staff in 2010, Polian remained at Stanford under succeeding coach David Shaw. Stanford won the 2011 Orange Bowl after the 2010 season. In 2012, Polian was special teams coordinator and tight ends coach under Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M, which won the 2013 Cotton Bowl Classic that season.
Nevada
On January 11, 2013, the University of Nevada, Reno hired Polian as football head coach. On November 27, 2016, Nevada and Polian agreed to part ways.
Notre Dame
On December 16, 2016, Polian was hired to return to Notre Dame once again as special teams coordinator, this time under Brian Kelly.
Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada Wolf Pack (Mountain West Conference) | |||||||||
| 2013 | Nevada | 4–8 | 3–5 | 5th (West) | |||||
| 2014 | Nevada | 7–6 | 4–4 | 3rd (West) | L New Orleans | ||||
| 2015 | Nevada | 7–6 | 4–4 | T–2nd (West) | W Arizona | ||||
| 2016 | Nevada | 5–7 | 3–5 | T–3rd (West) | |||||
| Nevada: | 23–27 | 14–18 | |||||||
| Total: | 23–27 | ||||||||
