Being a coach wasn't Kenny Evans' chosen profession.

"I wanted to be a lawyer," he said.

Growing up in Warner, and the son of a small-town coach, Evans "knew both sides" to coaching in a high school.

Yet, the 1978 high school graduate couldn't escape the family business, the path paved by father, Pete Evans, a long-time high school coach.

While playing football at Northeastern A&M College, an injury curtailed his playing days. When he transferred to Northeastern State University, his focus switched from the court room to the classroom.

How he became a college football coach was a stroke of professional luck.

In the fall of 1981, Evans did his student teaching at Miami High School and was coaching the Wardogs' defensive line, anchored by highly recruited Mike Mantle.

Suddenly, Evans found himself surrounded by some of the biggest names in college coaching like Jimmy Johnson at Oklahoma State and John Cooper at Tulsa.

None was bigger than Barry Switzer at Oklahoma. The Sooner coach not only signed Mantle but hired Evans to be a graduate assistant at OU beginning the summer of 1982 after he graduated from Northeastern State.

"I really couldn't believe that was happening to me," Evans said.

Evans worked with the OU defensive backs and he career was being molded by Sooner assistants like Bobby Proctor and Galen Hall. The late Jon Lantz, long-time head coach at Southeastern State and Missouri Southern, was another.

Once he crossed that imaginary threshold into the college world, Evans never looked back.

"L.D. Bains (coach at Miami High School in 1981) told me once he wished he had tried college coaching, just to see if he liked it," Evans said. "I have been very fortunate to have had great role models and mentors in my career. I have been very lucky."

Prior to being hired as Northeastern State's head coach in 2008, Evans compiled an impressive resume as an assistant.

Evans has played roles in eight conference championships - four Sun Belt (North Texas); Big 8 (Oklahoma), two runner-up finishes in the  Southeastern Conference (Florida); Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (Missouri Southern); and Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference (Southeastern Oklahoma State).

Evans has coached in the Fiesta, Orange and New Orleans bowls and has helped NAIA and NCAA Division II teams to the playoffs.

In 2005, Evans was the All-American Football Foundation National Assistant Coach of the Year when he assistant head coach at UNT.

Before coming to NSU, Evans coached linebackers at Louisiana Tech one season after coaching at UNT 1998 through 2006.

He was a graduate assistant at OU from 1982-84 and was a wide receivers coach at Florida in 1986.

From there, Evans was defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator for Southeastern State from 1986-88 before hold similar posts at Missouri Southern from 1988-97.

Evans is a member of the American Football Coaches Association, Coaches Associations in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He has one son, Elliott, age 10.

Mike Knoll, a previous head coach and assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level, joined the Northeastern State University football staff as the assistant head coach in January 2010.

Knoll, the former head coach at New Mexico State University and assistant coach on staffs at the University of Tulsa, Iowa State, and the University of Miami, also serves as the RiverHawks' defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.

Knoll has also coached on the Division II level and NAIA level, and comes to Northeastern State after serving as the head football coach at Upper Iowa University (NCAA Division II) for four seasons.

Knoll said he was excited to join the RiverHawks' staff and sees great things ahead for the program.

"A lot of what brought me here to Northeastern State was my previous coaching experience in Northeastern Oklahoma, the area itself and Green Country," said Knoll. "The nine years I spent at the University of Tulsa, I always had a great amount of respect for Northeastern State.

"I knew the program was run well, there were good coaches and they were successful during those times. I see this as an opportunity to help the football program get better, through recruiting as much as anything else. When I was at TU under (John) Cooper he said you look for players that are better than you coach. So, it's all about recruiting and having the opportunity to work with this staff and coach Evans. The timing and opportunity just worked out."

Knoll said he sees a challenge ahead for the RiverHawks entering the 2010 season, but it is one that he and the RiverHawks will not back away from this fall.

Knoll says he is was happy to get back to Oklahoma to continue his coaching career.

"My last stop was at Upper Iowa University," said Knoll. "I was born and raised in Iowa and I always said it was a good place to be, from not at.  This area is a special place and it's good to be back.

"I consider this area to be as much a home for me as anyplace I've ever been.  I see a bright future for Northeastern State football and what we are going to experience."

THE KNOLL EXPERIENCE

• 1975-77 Linebacker coach Missouri Western State College
• 1978 Outside linebacker coach New Mexico State
• 1979 Defensive line coach University of Tulsa
• 1980-82 Defensive coordinator University of Tulsa
• 1983 Defensive coordinator Iowa State
• 1984 Defensive backfield University of Miami
• 1985 Linebacker coach University of Miami
• 1986-89 New Mexico State head coach
• 1990-1992 Northwestern University. Assistant head coach/defensive coordinator
• 1993-97 University of Tulsa, Defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, defensive line
• 2004 Bacone College, defensive coordinator/assistant head coach
• 2005-2008 Upper Iowa University, head football coach

Matt Hodgson's association with Northeastern State University began before he moved to Tahlequah.

In the mid-1990s, Hodgson's football eligibility at Northwestern State in Alva had expired and "I really didn't have any idea what I wanted to do."

Football was an option "because I just liked it." The son of the United Methodist preacher was about to graduate from NWOSU without a game plan.

Tim Albin and Garin Higgins, former assistants at Northeastern State, were coaching at NWOSU and "let me help out."

Obviously, Albin and Higgins uncovered the proverbial diamond in the rough "because they let me stick around," he said.

As Hodgson delved into coaching, his responsibilities with the Rangers deepened.

When Hodgson graduated in 1996, Albin lobbied with then-Northeastern State coach Tom Eckert to hire Hodgson as a graduate assistant.

"He (Albin) made the contact with coach Eckert," Hodgson said. "They gave me a chance to coach."

Once Hodgson arrived at Northeastern State, he's stayed. Two years later, after being a graduate assistant coaching the offensive line, Hodgson was hired full-time by coach John Horner as defensive line coach and has been the RiverHawks' recruiting coordinator the last three seasons.

Perhaps from his personnel experience, Hodgson's coaching skills aren't confined to the playing field. He's a got a passion for seeing RiverHawk players succeed in the classroom.

"Football is great and it's fun," Hodgson said. "But that degree is lasting. I want to give a player the best chance to graduate and excel in life."

An avid cat fisherman ("Bass fishing, with all the rod flayling, wears me out," he said, laughing), Hodgson and wife, Kristy, have sons, 3-year-old Greg, 3, and infant Wyatt.

When it comes to coaching, Brad Cornelsen knows his business.

It's a family tradition where his father and two uncles have coached football in Oklahoma and Kansas.

When it comes to winning, Cornelsen knows how to get the job done. From high school in tiny Texhoma in the Oklahoma panhandle to the Big 12 Conference, success has followed.

He quarterbacked Texhoma - which sets between Guymon and New Mexico - to three straight state finals appearances.

As a player, Cornelsen proved the biggest surprise isn't always wrapped in the biggest box.

In four years at Missouri Southern State University, Cornelsen never got taller than 5-foot-10 and never weighed more than 175 pounds, only 15 pounds more than he did in high school.

But, his impact was gigantic. He passed for more than 4,000 yards and ran for more than 2,000 yards between 1995 and 1998.

Cornelsen became the first player in NCAA Division II to post those numbers and only the ninth in any division.

"I always had other good players around me," he said.

Cornelsen's coaching career includes five years as quarterbacks-wide receivers coach at Illinois State University from 2003-2008.

That was sandwiched around two graduate assistantships at Oklahoma State. In 2008, he helped the Cowboys' Zac Robinson and part of OSU's Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.

Cornelsen was a student assistant at Missouri Southern (1999) and Northeastern A&M (2000) before being a graduate assistant at Northwest Missouri State (2001) and OSU (2002-03).

Nobody can accuse David Morgan of not heeding advice.

When University of North Texas' Spencer Leftwich summoned Morgan into his office in 2001, the Mean Green coach was interested in Morgan's future.

Morgan had a marketing degree from UNT. The Euless, Texas, native had been a graduate assistant coach at UNT for two seasons and was at a crossroads.

He couldn't decide whether to enter the business world. Then two events changed his career path.

Leftwich encouraged Morgan to pursue coaching.

"Coach told me if I went into business, 10 years would pass in a hurry and it probably would be too late," he recalled.

When Morgan probed into the real world, he made a startling discovery.

"The only jobs in marketing I could find were in sales," he said. "I knew that wasn't me."

A three-year letterman and two year starter at UNT, Morgan helped the Mean Green transition into NCAA Division I. As a senior, UNT won only two games - Texas Tech and Boise State.

As a graduate coach at his alma mater, Leftwich's projection for the aspiring coach came true. In two seasons, UNT went the New Orleans bowl, the first for North Texas in 42 years.

Morgan was an assistant coach at West and Wylie high schools from 2004-08. At West, he was defensive coordinator for three seasons and helped that school end a 10-year drought in the playoffs.

He spent the 2008 season at Wylie as assistant line coach before his hiring at Northeastern State.