Jon Carpenter joined Northern Colorado's football coaching staff as an assistant coach in February 2012, and he will coach the Bears defensive ends under coach Earnest Collins.

Carpenter, who's played in or coached in seven bowl games, came to Greeley after spending two seasons as a defensive assistant at Notre Dame for Irish coach Brian Kelly. Before that Carpenter spent two seasons as a graduate assistant on the defensive coaching staff at Cincinnati, where he was a linebacker and helped lead the Bearcats to an 18-8 record during his junior and senior seasons and victories in the 2007 International Bowl and the 2007 PapaJohns.com Bowl.

Carpenter, who also played with Cincinnati in the 2004 Fort Worth Bowl, was selected to the Big East all-academic team three times, and he graduated from Cincinnati in spring 2008 with a degree in industrial management. He then earned from Cincinnati in summer 2010 his master's degree in educational leadership.

In 2007 Carpenter was the recipient of the Jim Kelly Spirit award, presented annually to the Cincinnati football player who best displays dedication, teamwork and loyalty to the program, and in 2006 he earned the Bearcats' Iron Man Award for his intensity and enthusiam in offseason preperation.

As a member of Kelly's staff Carpenter assisted in recruiting for one of the country's most storied programs and was key in the recruitment of Notre Dame's 2011 defensive line recruiting class, which was rated as the nation's best by Rivals.com

The Irish finished 16-10 during his time in South Bend and earned spots in the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl and the 2010 Sun Bowl.

He coached the interior defensive line in Notre Dame's 3-4 defensive scheme and worked with standout defensive guard Ian Williams, who is on the San Francisco 49ers' active roster.

As a coach at Cincinnati Carpenter was part of a program that went 23-3 and won a pair of Big East championships in 2009 and 2008 and earned a spot in the 2009 Sugar Bowl and the 2008 Orange Bowl. He coached the Bearcats' interior defensive line in their 4-3 and 3-4 defensive schemes, working with Ricardo Mathews, who was later drafted by and still plays with the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.

Carpenter's father, Rob, played in the NFL for 11 seasons with the New York Giants and Houston Oilers, while his older brother, Bobby, was a first-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft and is a linebacker for the New England Patriots.

Carpenter's younger brother George was a standout linebacker at Marshall University in fall 2011, and his youngest brother, Nathan, will be a sophomore safety at Ohio University in fall 2012.