Coaching Staff

Head Coach Wes Meier

Wes Meier will be entering his fourth campaign as Southern Utah’s head football coach – and his fifth overall in the program – this fall.

Coach Meier took the helm of the Thunderbird football program in 2004 after serving as assistant head coach, special teams coordinator and defensive line coach in 2003.

A former student-athlete at SUU, Coach Meier returned to the Thunderbirds in 2003 after a long career in the Utah high school ranks as both a football and track and field coach.

In his first season at the helm Coach Meier oversaw a program which notched its first winning season in four years as well as one which re-wrote many of the school’s record books.

Meier guided SUU to a 6-5 finish in 2004, the program’s first winning campaign since the 2000 squad posted a 7-4 mark. The Thunderbirds opened the season by downing in-state rival Weber State, 34-31, and finished with a 45-31 win over Idaho State. In between were wins over two ranked teams, a 56-14 road win over then-No. 23 McNeese State and a 19-15 home triumph over then-No. 25 UC Davis. Four of the Thunderbirds’ five losses were by a touchdown or less, including a three-point loss at then-No. 4 Stephen F. Austin and a seven-point loss to then-No. 13 Cal Poly.

Under Meier’s guidance the 2004 Thunderbirds set five individual and three team records, including watermarks for passes completed, passing yards and passing touchdowns. SUU was also well-represented in the post-season, as 14 T-Birds earned all-Great West Football Conference recognition and two more, linebackers Nick DiPadova and Marques Harris, were named all-Americans.

Although the team dipped to 1-9 in 2005, SUU was still well represented on the Great West Football Confefrence post-season squads, with 11 players earning recognition as well as four earning academic all-GWFC honors.

The 2006 team prospered early before finishing 3-8 but the schedule was one of the nation’s toughest. In 2006, SUU played seven games against teams which were ranked either at the time they played the Thunderbirds or at year’s end. Five of those, in addition to a road game at Bowl Subdivision Florida Atlantic, were among the schedule’s last seven games and the other was a 30-21 win over Texas State, a national semi-finalist a year earlier. The 2006 squad also had 11 players who earned all-conference recognition and eight more who were named acdemic All-Conference, with a pair of acadmic all-district selections.

Prior to taking the reins of the program Coach Meier served as defensive line coach/special teams coordinator and under his direction SUU had two defensive linemen named to the I-AA all-independent squad his first year: first-teamer Sitiveni Tuivai and second-team selection Major Salanoa. SUU also had considerable success in special teams in 2003, with one kickoff returned for a touchdown and Justin Walterschied finishing third on the SUU single-season punt return yardage list.

Coach Meier, who played at SUU in 1987 before leaving to explore his options in the Arena Football League, spent 11 years on the staff at Murray High School, including the 2002 season as head football coach. While at Murray Meier worked with all phases of the football program, sending countless players on to the collegiate ranks. Meier also served nine years as track & field coach at MHS, earning Utah’s Coach of the Year honors in 1998.

A 1991 graduate of the University of Utah, Meier also served on the staff at Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho). Meier also attended Ricks, where he earned all-Western States Football League recognition following the 1986 campaign.

Away from the field, Coach Meier has also been involved in private business, developing and marketing protective football gear for use at the professional, collegiate and high school levels.

Coach Meier is married to the former Lynn Winterrose. They are the parents of three sons, Weston (15), Jantzen (14) and Chase (12).