NATCHITOCHES – The 2026 Northwestern State football staff is complete.
 
Head coach Blaine McCorkle announced Thursday the additions of offensive line coach Brad Bustle and director of football operations Matt Grim, wrapping up the staff for McCorkle's third season at the helm of the Demon program.
 
"There is never a good time of year to have to look for new hires and the summer can be tricky," third-year head coach Blaine McCorkle said. "However, we found two very qualified and capable men to bolster our staff and add some great, new and fresh ideas to our program as we head into year three"
 
Bustle returns to Louisiana, a state where he played his high school and college football and coached previously, after a three-year stint at Hampton University where he served as the Pirates' offensive line coach and run game coordinator for the past two seasons after a season coaching offensive tackles and tight ends.
 
At Hampton, Bustle tutored three all-conference offensive linemen.
 
Bustle, a 2009 UL Lafayette graduate, spent the 2022 season at his alma mater as an offensive analyst where he worked with a pair of All-Sun Belt Conference tight ends.
 
In two seasons as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator at Valparaiso, Bustle's group helped the Beacons score the third-most rushing touchdowns in a single season in program history and had the fifth-highest single-season scoring mark in program history.
 
In two seasons as the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Holmes Community College in Mississippi, Bustle produced three all-conference linemen and helped Holmes lead the nation in rushing in 2019 and finish third in that category in 2018.
 
Bustle's full-time coaching career began at Cumberland University where he was the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach from 2013-17, building a line that helped Cumberland rank in the top 10 nationally in rushing and in fewest sacks allowed four times. He coached eight all-conference offensive linemen and an All-American at Cumberland.
 
Bustle began his coaching career as a defensive line graduate assistant at Virginia Tech in 2011, spending two seasons with the Hokies, who split two bowl game appearances with Bustle on staff. His father, Rickey, spent nine seasons as the head coach at UL Lafayette from 2002-10.
 
"Coach Bustle is a great young coach that I have followed and tracked his career for a few years now," McCorkle said. "We hated losing coach (Cade) Camp as he did a tremendous job for us the past two years and really helped us get off the ground in re-instituting football here at NSU. I did, however, know if that time ever came that Brad would be my first call. He has a wealth of experience at this level and has grown up in the game as a coach's kid and there is a lot of value in that as well. He has a strong desire to connect personally with his players, has strong roots here in state and I have no doubt he will help us build on the growth we've seen in the offensive line room the past two seasons."
 
Grim comes to Northwestern State after spending more than four years working with the University of Tennessee football program as both a student assistant and graduate assistant.
 
Grim began his career at Tennessee as a student assistant with the football program, serving in that role for two seasons before becoming a graduate assistant.
 
In both roles, Grim assisted the Volunteers' staff with team travel, daily operations, recruiting and camps. Grim was part of the staff that saw Tennessee reach the 2024 College Football Playoff.
 
A two-time Tennessee graduate with a bachelor's and master's degree in recreation and sport management, Grim also has volunteered with the Visit Knoxville Open, Tennessee football family event operations and with the sports information department at Lincoln Memorial University, where he pitched for one season.
 
"When we had an opening for a new DFO, we had over 70 applicants for the job and Matt stood above them all in the process," McCorkle said. "He is young but has great experience doing a lot of different jobs in a high-level program, which will allow him to bring a lot of fresh ideas to his role. He has great energy, and I believe will be a tireless worker for our program doing a ton of behind the scenes grunt work. Like coach Bustle, Matt grew up around college athletics as his dad worked in the Tennessee athletic department his entire life. Those experiences just bring something different to understanding the importance of what we are trying to do here and how invested you have to be. Matt is already off to a great start and I have a feeling the folks on campus in and Natchitoches are going to enjoy getting to know him and building a relationship with him."