Ron Powlus

Ronald Lee Powlus (born July 16, 1974) is a former American football quarterback, former quarterbacks coach for the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, and current quarterbacks coach for the University of Kansas.

High school career
One of the most heavily-touted prospects in the history of high school football, he was an offensive standout at Berwick High School. Powlus was named Parade Magazine prep player of the year and USA Today offensive prep player of the year in 1992. After Powlus signed his letter of intent with Notre Dame that year, ESPN analyst Beano Cook predicted that Powlus would win the Heisman Trophy twice. This was extremely high praise considering that only one player in the history of college football, Archie Griffin, had won the trophy twice.

College career
He never came close to matching the hype surrounding him in high school, though he had a few solid years for the Fighting Irish. Powlus was a two-time Irish captain who, before the ascent of Brady Quinn in 2005, held 20 school records. He started 42 of 44 regular-season games (Thomas Krug started in place of injured Ron Powlus during the end of the 1995 season plus the 1996 Orange bowl) in which he played for the Irish (plus two bowl games) and finished with 558 career completions on 969 attempts for 7,602 yards and 52 touchdowns. He set the Irish single-game mark for TD passes in a game with four (three times) and at one point completed 14 straight passes. He set single-season marks in 1997 as a senior with his 182 completions and 298 attempts.

Powlus rebounded from a broken collarbone suffered in the preseason of what would have been his freshman season in 1993 and then broke a bone in his upper left arm late in the 1995 season.

Bowl games

 * 1995 Fiesta Bowl - Colorado 41, Notre Dame 24
 * 1996 Orange Bowl - Florida State 31, Notre Dame 26 (*Powlus did not play in this game after suffering a season-ending arm injury against Navy)
 * 1997 Independence Bowl - LSU 27, Notre Dame 9

Professional career
After Powlus received his undergraduate degree from the Notre Dame College of Business Administration in 1997, he signed as a free agent in 1998 with the Tennessee Oilers of the National Football League and then was on the Detroit Lions' preseason roster in 1999 and the Philadelphia Eagles' roster in 2000. He played with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe in the spring of 2000.

He also spent two years as executive assistant to the Democratic Policy Committee of the Pennsylvania State Senate where he worked alongside another former Northeastern Pennsylvania sports hero, Bishop Hannan sharpshooter TJ McNulty. He was later employed in the banking and pharmaceutical industries.

Coaching career
On March 1, 2005, Powlus returned to Notre Dame as the football team's director of personnel development under head coach Charlie Weis. Following the termination of Peter Vaas' contract, Powlus assumed Vaas' position as the team's quarterbacks coach. After the 2009 season, Powlus was fired along with the rest of the Notre Dame staff by head coach Brian Kelly. After his departure from Notre Dame he reunited with another former Notre Dame coach, Rob Ianello, as the quarterbacks coach at the University of Akron. After being hired as the head coach at Kansas, Charlie Weis named Powlus his quarterbacks coach.