Southern Oregon University Athletics

Having already delivered on his promise of bringing Southern Oregon football a national championship and nearly doing it twice over, Craig Howard begins his sixth season as the Raiders' head coach in 2016.

With a 45-17 record, Howard is the school's all-time leader in winning percentage and ranks fourth on the career wins list. His teams are also 22-3 at home.

When he was named SOU's 15th head coach in 2011, Howard posited that he would bring the program its first NAIA title, and, four seasons in, he did just that in 2014. For his efforts, he was named the Rawlings NAIA Coach of the Year.

His Raiders set a school record for wins in 2014 by going 13-2, the last one being a 55-31 triumph over Marian in the NAIA title game that gave the program its first-ever No. 1 ranking. They entered the NAIA Championships Series as the No. 8 seed, having never been past the second round in program history, and pulled off three straight upsets (including two on the road) to earn their hardware. The Raiders became the first team in NAIA Championship Series history to wins its last three games away from home. They averaged 51.5 points in four playoff games, an NAIA postseason record, and upset the Nos. 1, 3 and 7 teams in the rankings. SOU had previously never advanced past the quarterfinal round.

A year later in 2015, Howard took the program on another captivating ride: As the No. 7 seed, the Raiders opened the NAIA Championships Series with a first-round rout of Kansas Wesleyan at home before upsetting the second-ranked (Baker) and top-ranked (Morningside) teams on the road in consecutive weeks to reach the final. They were pitted against Marian again and lost, 31-14.

Howard took over as head coach at Southern Oregon in February 2011. That year he led the Raiders to a record of 5-5, and the next year they made their first appearance in the NAIA quarterfinals in a decade.

Within two years of being hired at SOU, Howard made the Raiders Frontier Conference champions in their first year as part of the circuit.

Under Howard, the Raiders led the NAIA in offense in 2012 and '13 and were second in ‘14.

Raised in Grants Pass, Howard returned to the Rogue Valley after a highly successful high school football coaching career in Florida.

Prior to SOU, Howard went 76-23 over his last eight years as head coach at Nease High School (2003-07) and Columbia High School (2008-10) in Florida. At Nease High School he led the squad to the state title game three times, winning a state championship in 2005. His star pupil during his run at Nease was Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. Over his last three years at Columbia High School, Howard's teams broke 30 school records.

Howard also has a background in college coaching and served as the head coach at Oregon Tech from 1991-92, where he compiled an 8-13 record and was undefeated against Southern Oregon. He served as defensive coordinator for the Owls from 1978-81 and again from 1987-89 and was defensive coordinator at Portland State from 1982-83.

Howard grew up in Grants Pass and played football for the Cavemen and at Linfield College.