Bill Bleil Named Tight Ends & Tackles Coach at Pittsburgh
2/18/2004
Bleil is a 22-year veteran of the collegiate coaching ranks.
Bill Bleil, a 22-year coaching veteran who helped Northern Illinois rank among college football?s biggest success stories last season, has been named tight ends and tackles coach at the University of Pittsburgh by Head Coach Walt Harris.
?We are very pleased to secure a person with the varied experiences that Bill has,? Harris said. ?He has tremendously diverse coaching experience on both sides of the ball and has also been a head coach. Bill?s assignment as tight ends and tackles coach makes us a stronger staff and enables our offensive coaches to be more specialized.?
?It is an exciting time to be associated with University of Pittsburgh athletics,? Bleil said. ?The strides the administration, Coach Harris and his staff have made to bring this program back to national prominence are widely known in the coaching ranks. I am thrilled to be a part of Coach Harris? program and look forward to the beginning of spring ball.?
Bleil (pronounced BLYGH-el) served as tight ends coach last year at Northern Illinois, where he helped the Huskies to a 10-2 mark, the winningest season in school history. NIU reached as high as No. 12 in the national polls, defeating Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State along the way. Prior to Northern Illinois, Bleil was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at South Dakota in 2002.
From 1997-2001 he served as head coach at Western Carolina, where he was named the Southern Conference Coach of the Year in his final season. Selected seventh in the preseason conference poll, Bleil guided the Catamounts to a 7-4 record and fourth-place league finish. It was only the 11th time in the program?s 69-year history that Western Carolina had won as many as seven games. Bleil coached four NCAA I-AA All-Americans at WCU, where he began as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 1996. His fullback, Brad Hoover, was a 1998 All-American who played an integral role for the Carolina Panthers? Super Bowl team this year.
Bleil coached the offensive line at the University of the Pacific from 1992-95. He additionally oversaw Pacific?s multiple offense his final three years. Under his guidance, the Tigers led the Big West Conference and ranked 11th nationally in passing.
From 1990-91, Bleil was the offensive line coach at Northwestern, where he tutored two NFL Draft choices (Darryl Ashmore and Matt Odwyer). In 1988-89 he was offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Eastern New Mexico University. He began his coaching career at New Mexico Highlands University, where he was the defensive coordinator from 1982-84. During the 1984 season he was the defensive coordinator at Dana College in Nebraska.
Bleil was a three-year starter at linebacker for Northwestern College in Iowa and twice earned NAIA All-District honors. He earned his bachelor?s degree in physical education from Northwestern in 1981. Bleil earned his master?s degree in 1984 from New Mexico Highlands.
Bleil is married to the former Laurel Tjernagel. The couple has two sons, Kevin (born March 31, 1987) and Tim (Feb. 5, 1989).
