Chris Nugai is in his sixth
season on Norries Wilson's Columbia football staff. Nugai came to
Morningside Heights with head coach Norries Wilson from the Connecticut staff.
Nugai coaches the running backs
and serves as special teams coordinator in his second tour of duty with the Lions;
he was Columbia's quarterbacks coach during the 2002 season.
Columbia is one of three Ivy
League institutions at which Nugai has coached. He served as offensive
assistant under Carm Cozza at Yale in 1995 and coached the running backs at
Harvard in 2003 and 2004, following his season at Columbia. He also was
Harvard's Director of Football Operations.
A three-year letterwinner at
quarterback for Worcester State, Nugai began coaching shortly after graduation
as an intern assistant at King's College. One-year stints at Maine and Yale
followed.
In 1996, he became head coach
at Fitchburg State in Fitchburg, Mass., spending two years there and rewriting
Fitchburg's offensive record book. He served as offensive coordinator, and
coached the quarterbacks and receivers, at Coast Guard in 1998 and Tufts from
1999 through 2001.
At Columbia, Nugai was credited
with developing Steve Hunsberger into one of the Ivy League's leading passers.
At Harvard, he coached Clifton Dawson, the Crimson's all-time rushing leader
and an All-American. Harvard went 10-0 and won the Ivy League championship in
2004, Nugai's second season in Cambridge. He then joined the Connecticut staff
as offensive graduate assistant.
Nugai's extensive coaching
career includes three years as a guest coach in the Canadian Football League,
two with the Toronto Argonauts and one, in 2005, with the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
A native of Waterbury, Conn.,
Nugai attended Sacred Heart High. He earned a B.A. in history/secondary
education from Worcester State in 1992, and a master's in educational
leadership and management from Fitchburg State in 2001. He lives on Morningside
Heights, near the Columbia campus.
Nugai has a son, Martin Louis
Nugai, born in September 2008.
Recruiting Areas
Northern California, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nevada
