Michael Conrad is in his second season as a quality control coach working with the Razorbacks’ defense.
The 2014 Arkansas defense was one of the program’s best in recent memory. The unit finished in the top 10 nationally in both scoring and total defense for the first time since joining the SEC in 1992. The Razorbacks also became the first unranked team in college football history to post back-to-back shutouts of ranked opponents when they blanked No. 20 LSU and No. 8 Ole Miss. Arkansas capped off the year with a dominant 31-7 win over Texas in the AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl.
Conrad spent the 2012 and 2013 seasons as a defensive graduate assistant at Iowa State. The Cyclones ranked third in the Big 12 in scoring defense in 2012 and capped the season in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Iowa State returned three interceptions for touchdowns that year, the team’s highest total since 2004. In his time in Ames, Conrad helped produce three All-Big 12 defensive backs.
Conrad spent the 2011 season as assistant secondary coach at West Texas A&M. The team capped an 8-3 season with a victory in the Kanza Bowl and produced four all-conference defensive backs off a defense that led the conference in scoring defense, total defense and pass efficiency defense. In 2010, he coached outside linebackers at Aldine Senior High School in Houston.
The Dyersville, Iowa, native began his coaching career as a student assistant and manager at Iowa State, helping the Cyclones to the 2009 Insight Bowl. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2010 and maintained a 4.0 grade-point average while earning his master’s degree in higher education in 2013 from Iowa State. Prior to attending Iowa State, Conrad played defensive back at Simpson College.
