Former Colorado assistant coach John Wristen was hired Tuesday to coach the revived football program at Colorado State-Pueblo, school president Joseph Garcia said.
Wristen, who last season was special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at UCLA, was an assistant coach on Gary Barnett’s coaching staff at CU from 1999 to 2006.
CSU-Pueblo will field an NCAA Division II team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference beginning in 2008, the school’s first football team since disbanding the program after the 1984 season.
Wristen, 45, is just the fourth ThunderWolves football coach since the school became a four-year college in 1963.
“Coach Wristen will run a clean, successful and competitive program,” Garcia said.
Wristen coached in Division I-A for 17 years, including as a graduate assistant on Bill McCartney’s CU coaching staff from 1990-91. He followed Barnett from Northwestern to CU in 1999.
Wristen was a star quarterback at CSU-Pueblo, setting career records for passing yards (3,283) and touchdown passes (26) when the school was in the NAIA.
He also graduated from Pueblo South High School.
In addition to football, CSU-Pueblo is reinstating wrestling and women’s track and field next year.
