Upper Iowa Head Football Coach Tom Shea announced today that Orv Otten will join the Peacock football program as Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator. He will also be responsible for the UIU linebackers.

“I have known Coach Otten since 1990 when I was at Peru State and we played Northwestern in the regular season,” said Coach Shea. “He’s a great for UIU and the football program because he’s been a successful head coach and defensive coordinator, he knows the state of Iowa, he knows small college football, he knows how to compete against bigger and better competition from his time at ISU, and he has a wealth of maturity and knowledge.”

Otten has served as a volunteer assistant coach with the Iowa State Cyclone football program the last two seasons. Prior to his time in Ames, he spent nineteen years (1990-2009) at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa; the first five years as the defensive coordinator and the remaining years at the helm of the Red Raiders.

“I am excited to be a part of the Upper Iowa Athletics Department and the Peacock football program,” said Otten. “To be the only NCAA Division II institution in the state of Iowa is a great distinction and opportunity to attract great student-athletes. This football program is on the cusp of having real success and the prospects of the program’s future are bright.” 

Under Otten’s leadership Northwestern posted a 105-45 record and qualified for the NAIA playoffs in 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2006. In 2000, the Red Raiders advanced to the national semifinals and he was named the Schutt Sports/American Football Monthly NAIA National Coach of the Year.

The Red Raiders accumulated the ninth most wins from 2000-2009 in NAIA and had the top-ranked defense in NAIA in 2004. Otten led NWC to the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference championship in 1996 and a share of the Great Plains Athletic Conference title in 2000. He was named the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference Football Coach of the Year in 1996 and the Great Plains Athletics Conference Football Coach of the Year in 2000. Thirty-six of his players have earned All-American recognition since 1995 and thirty-seven have been named NAIA Scholar-Athletes.

“It will be great to focus in on the X’s and O’s as defensive coordinator and get back to the nuts and bolts of technique when working with the linebackers,” said Otten. “I am looking forward to gameplanning with Coach Shea and the rest of the defensive staff.”

Otten, a 1979 Northwestern alumnus, earned all-conference and all-district honors as a middle linebacker under head coach Larry Korver. He worked alongside Korver as Northwestern's defensive coordinator from 1990 to 1994, and assumed head coaching responsibilities in 1995.

Otten earned master's and doctoral degrees in exercise science and physical education from the University of Iowa and was a professor of kinesiology at Northwestern.