Entering his sixth season as the head coach at his alma mater, Brad Laird has the Northwestern State eyeing the continued improvement his team shown in Year Five of his tenure.
In Laird’s fifth season, his Demons finished 4-2 in Southland Conference play, recording the program’s first winning season in conference play since 2010, and played for at least a share of the conference title in the final two weeks of the season.
Included in the conference schedule was Northwestern State’s first 4-0 start in Southland play since a perfect 6-0 league campaign in 1988. The four wins also pushed the Demons’ Southland win streak to five games dating to a win at McNeese in the 2021 season finale — the longest conference win streak since NSU won eight straight games across the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
The first four seasons of Laird’s tenure as the head coach at his alma mater produced record-setting offenses, turnover-happy defenses and arguably the most challenging set of circumstances faced by a Northwestern State football team that led to an abbreviated five-game schedule in the spring of 2021.
Laird’s head coaching career also has seen the end of a pair of long streaks against longtime rival McNeese. Northwestern State’s 24-20 win in the 2021 season finale at Cowboy Stadium gave the Demons their first win in Lake Charles since 1988.
Three years earlier, Northwestern State snapped a 13-game overall losing streak to McNeese with a thrilling 37-34 overtime win in Turpin Stadium.
In Laird’s first three seasons, the Demon offense rewrote the school passing record book, including seeing Shelton Eppler overwrite Laird’s career passing yardage mark of 6,037 yards which stood since 1995.
Despite playing just six games during the 2021 spring season, the Demons saw quarterback Bryce Rivers become the first Demon to surpass 400 yards passing in a game more than once, doing so in each of the final two games.
Individual honors have found their way to Natchitoches as NSU has produced three All-Americans, a pair of HERO Sports Sophomore All-Americans and two Freshman All-Americans under Laird.
Away from the field, offensive lineman Chris Zirkle was a Campbell Trophy semifinalist, a nominee for the American Football Coaches Association Allstate Good Works Team and a semifinalist for the Doris Robinson Award in 2019.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, wide receiver Gavin Landry was a two-time Campbell Trophy semifinalist, earning the distinction in 2020 and 2021.
Laird’s first Northwestern State team in 2018 posted a one-win improvement from the 2017 season, but the feel around the program was one of effective nostalgia.
There was a record-setting offense that would have made Laird the quarterback smile. Making Laird equally happy were the strides the NSU defense made in his first season as the head coach.
A three-time defensive coordinator for a total of eight seasons at Northwestern State, Laird saw the Purple Swarm regain that moniker in 2018, collecting 32 sacks (its highest total since 2002) and forcing 26 turnovers. The Demons forced another 24 turnovers in 2019. Counting the 2017 season when Laird was the defensive coordinator, the Demons enter 2020 having forced 67 turnovers in their past 34 games.
From 2013-16, Laird was in charge at his high school alma mater, Ruston, where he averaged more than seven wins in four playoff seasons as head coach.
In 2017, Laird restored the “Purple Swarm” brand for the NSU defense, which had struggled in the past two seasons but showed flashes of brilliance, especially down the stretch. In the final month of the season, the Demons twice recorded 13 tackles for loss in wins over Houston Baptist and Abilene Christian, and staged a series of goal-line stands, two in the season-ending victory over Stephen F. Austin.
Linebacker Peyton Guidry was named the national FCS Defensive Player of the Week after making 18 tackles against the Lumberjacks.
Laird was running the Purple Swarm defense when NSU was second nationally in total defense (2004, 274.7 yards allowed per game) and ninth (2003, 287.3 ypg) and produced 75 turnovers from 2003-05. The Demons set three NCAA records and led the Southland Conference in total defense and rushing defense, also ranking highly in pass defense each season. The Demons won their most recent Southland championship and made their last FCS playoff appearance in 2004.
In 2004, the Demons tied an NCAA FCS record by notching two safeties vs. Texas Southern. A year earlier, his defense set FCS records by allowing only 1 first down and a net of minus 1-yard offense to Oklahoma Panhandle.
After a record-setting playing career at NSU, Laird joined coach Sam Goodwin’s Demon staff in 1996, serving as the defensive graduate assistant coach working for then Demon defensive coordinator Peveto. He then worked for coach Don Shows at West Monroe High School in 1997, going on to coach at Ouachita High, Longview (Texas) High (under former FCS national champion coach Pat Collins) and Nashville (Ark.) High (under his father, Billy Laird) before joining Stoker’s staff as defensive coordinator prior to spring practice in 2003 (Collins and Shows are in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame).
From 2005-06, Laird served as the director of Northwestern State’s alumni office.
The Demons’ former all-time career passing leader (6,037 yards, 1991-95), he was a 2015 inductee in the N-Club Hall of Fame, the university’s highest athletic honor.
An all-state quarterback in the state’s largest classification at Ruston, Laird was the 1990 Superdome Classic MVP for the Bearcats’ unbeaten team that finished ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Today. He was inducted in the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Brad and his wife, Renee, are both Northwestern State graduates and the parents of Brianna (20) and Brock (16).
