New Lights' leader excited to get to work

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind for new Montana State University-Northern head football coach Aaron Christensen. But it's nothing compared to what the next few weeks, and the coming months, will be like as Christensen settles in to his new job.

The now former Missouri Valley College offensive coordinator formally interviewed for the Northern job in Havre on Dec. 18. He headed back to Marshall, Missouri, but it wasn't long after arriving in Marshall that Christensen got the phone call he was waiting for. And on Christmas Eve, MSU-N Athletic Director Christian Oberquell announced that Christensen had accepted an offer to become Northern's third head coach in the modern era, following the late Walt Currie and Mark Samson.

"First, I'd like to say this is an excellent opportunity," Christensen said from Marshall, Missouri, Wednesday night. "My wife and I are very excited to get there and be a part of the Havre community. And I'm very excited to get to work."

In Christensen, Northern has found a coach who will continue the physical, hard-nosed brand of football Lights' have become accustomed to seeing. At MVC, Christensen helped the Vikings to a lot of offensive success under head coach Paul Troth, who he also played tight end for at Huron University. The Vikings have won four straight HAAC championships, and have been to the NAIA playoffs four straight times as well. Two years ago, MVC reached the NAIA semifinals before losing at Carroll College, and this past season, the Vikings reached the quarterfinals. MSU-N has also found someone with a successful recruiting model, as Christensen has recruited players to MVC, which is not much different from Northern's campus, the town of Havre and Northern's football program.

And that familiarity with the NAIA, the playoffs and even with the Frontier Conference and recruiting will give Christensen a comfort level as he takes over an MSU-N program coming off not just a 3-8 season and two wins in the Frontier, but one of the most tumultuous season's in school history.

"I have a pretty good familiarity with the NAIA and with the Frontier Conference," Christensen said. "We played Carroll in the playoffs last year. I played against Carroll when I was at Huron (University). I know the Frontier is one of the top conferences in the NAIA. If you win a Frontier championship, you are going to go deep into the playoffs. You can't say that about every conference in the country."

But being familiar with the landscape is just part of what made Christensen the right man for the job.

He will inherit one of the top returning offenses in the NAIA at Northern, led by junior running back Zach McKinley, and a stout offensive line. And that should be a perfect combo for what Christensen does best, and that's coach offense. This past season, Christensen's Vikings led the HAAC in scoring at 34 points per outing. The Vikings were balanced throwing for 250 yards and rushing for nearly 200 per game as they went 8-1 in conference play.

However, as much experience as Christensen brings to the table, he knows there's plenty of work to do at Northern, and his first priority when he gets to campus in early January will be to solidify the current Northern team. The returning Lights have spent the last month in limbo, not knowing who the next head coach will be, and overall, they've gone through a lot of adversity the last five months, and Christensen wants to stabilize things as soon as he arrives in Havre.

"The very first thing I've got to do is meet with the team," said Christensen. "We have to let them know that we're here for them now. We have to show them that we're moving forward. That's really important right now."

Moving forward also involves recruiting and that's time critical for Christensen. The current Northern staff has been recruiting all season, but Christensen said that's also a big step when he arrives.

"We'll be a little bit behind in recruiting," he said. "So we've got to get out there and get in the high schools, and get with those coaches, building those relationships. We'll have to catch up, but we'll work hard to do that."

While Northern may be somewhat behind in recruiting, Christensen will lean on the current Northern staff, including defensive coordinator Jake Eldridge, who spent the 2014 season as interim head coach. Christensen said he won't be making any immediate changes to the coaching staff.

"We're going to keep the staff the way it is though the spring," he said. "Right now, the staff will be the guys that are already here. And after spring ball is over, we'll go from there as far as the staff goes."

And spring ball is a mere two months away, which doesn't give Christensen much time to prepare, especially with winter conditioning, recruiting and everything else that comes in the offseason, and everything that comes with being a head coach for the first time. And while he admits, it's a big undertaking, he's excited for the challenges, and excited to get to work.

"It's all a little bit overwhelming right now," he said. "But we're going to take it one day at a time and one step at a time. And everything will take care of itself in time.

"It's going to be a big change, coming from Missouri up to this part of the country and Havre, Montana," he added. "But it's a change we're very excited about. We can't wait to get up there and get to work."

That simple philosophy has served Christensen well over the years, and has made him ready for the transition he is about to face. In fact, his message to the current Northern team will be clear and simple. He says that the process will be one step at a time, but the focus will solely be on Northern winning its next game, which will be the Lights' season-opener in August of 2015.

"All we're going to do from the very beginning is worry about winning our next game," he said. "Not worry about the past or even the future. Just focus on winning the next game we play. In the offseason, we'll recruit as hard as we can and work as hard as we can, but we're going to take out all of the complicated stuff, and just focus on winning the next game that we'll play."

And make no mistake, Christensen knows how to win. As a player, and the last 10 years as an assistant coach at MVC, Christensen has had plenty of experience with winning. And now he's excited to bring his brand of winning football, winning in the classroom and winning in the community to Northern.

"My wife and I are very excited," he said. "This is a very exciting time for us, and I'm really looking forward to all that lies ahead with this great opportunity at MSU-Northern and in the community of Havre."