Northern Michigan University head football coach Kyle Nystrom yells out instructions to his team in the second quarter of a game played against Michigan Tech at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Oct. 16, 2021. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

MARQUETTE — Kyle Nystrom has announced his resignation as head football coach of the Northern Michigan University football team, effective immediately.

NMU Athletic Director Rick Comley made the public announcement after Nystrom informed his team on Monday afternoon, two days after the Wildcats ended their season with a 33-11 victory in Painesville, Ohio, against Lake Erie College.

Northern finished this season with 4-7 overall and 1-5 GLIAC records, the overall mark matching its best in Nystrom’s tenure that began in the 2017 season.

In five seasons — NMU didn’t play football in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic — he had a record of 13-40 overall and 5-33 in the league.

“I want to thank Northern Michigan University for giving me my first head coaching position,” Nystrom said in a university press release announcing his resignation. “It was an honor to lead this program. While I and the other Wildcat coaches wish there had been more wins than losses, there have been a lot of accomplishments during our time here that we can take pride in.

“I wish the current and incoming players and coaches, as well as the university overall, great success in the future.”

Under Nystrom, 30 players earned All-GLIAC recognition a total of 38 times, with Jake Mayon named the GLIAC Offensive Back of the Year in 2017 and 2018, along with him being a 2018 Don Hansen All-Super Region 3 First Team pick. This total doesn’t include any players who may earn recognition this season as conference awards have yet to be announced.

“On behalf of Northern Michigan University, I thank Kyle for his dedication to Wildcat football and the work he put into the program,” Comley said in the news release. “I know this was a difficult decision. We wish Kyle and his family the very best in all of their future football and personal endeavors.”

The athletic director said a national search for Nystrom’s replacement will begin soon as the position will be posted on the NMU career site, workatnmu.nmu.edu, with a review of applications beginning in December.

Comley added that he will begin to work on a search advisory committee. He said that current and incoming players, football alumni and Wildcat football fans will have ample opportunity to meet and give input on the finalists during the interviewing period.

“While we won’t rush the hiring process, we will be intent on selecting a new coach in an expedient manner, knowing that our current and incoming players need that information in order to make decisions about their own football futures,” Comley said. “Ideally, we hope we can have the new coach in place prior to national letter of intent signing day in February.”

Nystrom became the 22nd head coach of the NMU football program on Dec. 20, 2016. He grew up around the Wildcats program, since he was in the fifth grade when his late father, Carl “Buck” Nystrom, began his first stint as an NMU assistant football coach in 1975.

Since those days on the sidelines at the former Memorial Field, which sat near the site of the current PEIF and Berry Events Center in Marquette, Nystrom amassed close to 30 years of coaching experience, including a season as co-defensive coordinator at Ferris State before coming to NMU.

That 2016 season at Ferris was when the Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA Division II semifinals, and the season before that in Big Rapids, when Nystrom was defensive backs coach, FSU was undefeated in the regular season and won an NCAA playoff game for the first time in 19 years.

From 2010-14, Nystrom was an assistant coach at Central Michigan and served as interim head coach when Dan Enos departed after the end of the 2014 regular season, coaching the Chippewas in the inaugural Bahamas Bowl. Nystrom also helped CMU win the 2012 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

A 1988 graduate of Michigan State University, he began his coaching career as a student assistant for the Spartans in 1983. Nystrom was also a graduate assistant at NMU in 1988, when he worked with his father, then went to coaching jobs at Western Michigan, Texas Christian, DePauw, North Dakota State and Fort Hays State.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.