The six-time national champion University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team has a new head coach. Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Amy Edmonds named Kevin Bullis, a defensive assistant for the Warhawk football team for seven seasons. Bullis, who has served as interim head coach, took over on Monday.
“We are thrilled to promote Kevin to the position of head football coach at UW-Whitewater,” Edmonds said. “His passion, integrity and understanding of the holistic student-athlete experience stood out during the search and screen process. Kevin understands the rich history of Warhawk football and the entire university, and we are confident in his ability to continue our tradition of excellence both on and off the field.”
“It is truly an honor to serve UW-Whitewater as head football coach,” Bullis said. “Following the legacies left by Forrest Perkins, Bob Berezowitz and Lance Leipold is humbling and exciting. I’d like to thank Chancellor (Richard) Telfer, Amy Edmonds, (Associate Director of Athletics) Bob Lanza and the entire search committee for having the faith in me to take the lead.”
Bullis will become the 21st head coach in the 121-year history of UW-Whitewater football and the fourth in the last 60 years. He served as defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach during the 2014 season. He replaces Lance Leipold, who became head coach at the University at Buffalo.
“Our players have started their preparations for next season in the weight room,” Bullis said. “We’ll look to finalize our staff in relatively quick order.”
Bullis was formally introduced as head coach at a press conference Wednesday in the Williams Center.
The Warhawks reached the Stagg Bowl, the NCAA Division III championship game, six times in Bullis’ seven years as an assistant coach, winning five national championships. The team has also collected six Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles over that span.
Under Bullis’ tutelage, UW-Whitewater led the WIAC and placed 17th in NCAA Division III in sacks per game (3.07) and rushing defense (99.5 yards per game allowed). Defensive linemen Zach Franz and Mykaell Bratchett earned all-conference honors, and Franz later collected first team All-America accolades from D3football.com.
Over the last six years, the Warhawks have finished among the nation’s top 20 in rushing defense and scoring defense.
In addition to coaching the defensive line and coordinating the run defense, Bullis assisted on special teams, recruited prospective defensive linemen in Wisconsin and Illinois, instructed courses and was an academic advisor to a number of student-athletes at UW-Whitewater.
Prior to joining the Warhawks, Bullis served as defensive coordinator at UW-River Falls from 1995-2007, including four seasons as assistant head football coach. During his 13 seasons with the Falcons, Bullis headed the defensive staff, coordinated recruiting efforts in Minnesota andassisted on special teams.
Bullis’ other roles included defensive coordinator at Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) College (1993-95), linebackers coach at UW-River Falls (1990-93) and linebackers coach at the University of Minnesota Morris (1988-89).
Bullis earned his bachelor’s degree in social science and secondary education from Minnesota Morris in 1989, and received his master’s degree in history from UW-River Falls in 1992. He and his wife, Kathy, reside in Whitewater and have three children, Jack, Jojo and Emme.
Bullis inherits a UW-Whitewater program that has won six of the last eight NCAA Division III national championships, nine of the last 10 WIAC titles and a college football-best 32 consecutive games.
*Photo by Tapan Shah, UW-Whitewater Athletics
