Coaching Carousel: Who Replaces Ben Jacobson at Northern Iowa?

After twenty-seasons and 397 coaching victories, Ben Jacobson is leaving Northern Iowa to coach in the newly forming Pacific Twelve Conference. The reigning Missouri Valley Conference tournament champion coach signed a five-year contract with Utah State. 

So, who replaces Ben Jacobson at Northern Iowa? 

There is one major internal option and several others that make a ton of sense. 

Seth Tuttle – Assistant Coach – Northern Iowa Panthers

Tuttle was an all-American at UNI and joined Jacobson’s staff for the past eight years. The last five have been in an assistant coach capacity. He is the unofficial ‘offensive coordinator’. After playing professionally in Europe, he brought some European offensive concepts with him back to the States and Jacobson integrated them in to their scheme. 

In recent years, it has seemed that Tuttle was being groomed for this or some other head coaching position, as Jacobson would give him more and more responsibilities on the team and with the media. He is rumored to have great ties with some of the more important UNI financial boosters. 

Kyle Green – Assistant Coach Iowa State

Green was a long time assistant at UNI prior to his recent stint with the Cyclones. He was Jacobson’s right hand man for more than a decade. UNI has a recruiting pipe-line to Green’s home state of Minnnesota. Green has head coaching experience at Wisconsin Eau Claire and two other schools. 

Green's son, A.J. played for Jacobson and UNI and currently plays for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks.

Erik Crawford – Assistant Coach – Iowa State

Crawford played at UNI and spent several seasons on Jacobson’s staff. He too is from Minnesota, but has never played as prominent a role on a staff as Green. 

Drew Adams – Assistant Coach – Indiana

Adams spent seven seasons at Bradley and two with Wes Miller at Cincinnati before joining Darian DeVries at Indiana. He knows the Missouri Valley Conference. Prior to his time with Brian Wardle at Bradley, he worked at New Mexico with former MVC coach Steve Alford. Adams is from Bloomington, Indiana so he may not want to ‘leave home’, but with three MVC teams in that state, he has important recruiting ties to some prime Valley territory. 

Bryston Williams – Assistant Coach – Iowa 

Prior to joining Ben McCollum at Drake and moving with him to Iowa, Williams had labored in the NBA, Wyoming and at Indiana State. He’s from nearby St. Joseph, Missouri and he too, knows the Missouri Valley Conference. He played for and coached under McCollum at Northwest Missouri State before his time in the G-League and with the Detroit Pistons. 

Brooks McKowen – Head Coach Missouri Western University

McKowen played for both Greg McDermott and Jacobson at Northern Iowa. After graduation in 2009 he worked on Jacobson’s staff and helped the team to a Valley championship and an NCAA Tournament berth. He later became the head coach at Upper Iowa and just finished his second season at Division 2 Missouri Western University. His 13-year D2 coaching career includes a record of 226-148, with three trips to the D2 NCAA Tournament. 

Tuttle seems to be the favorite. Several other coaches on Jacobson’s current staff are rumored to be going with him to Utah State and Tuttle could be one of those coaches moving west. Current associate head coach P.J. Hogan just finished his twenty-third season at UNI. It’s likely that Jacobson wants his longest tenured lieutenant with him coordinating things in Logan, Utah.