Terry Bodnar

Assistant Football Coach - Defensive Coordinator & Inside Linebackers

Terry Bodnar is in his 28th year on the Carnegie Mellon staff and his 26th as defensive coordinator. He joined Carnegie Mellon as a graduate assistant in 1984, and one year later was appointed assistant outside linebackers coach. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in the spring of 1986.

Under Bodnar, Carnegie Mellon annually boasts one of the top defensive units in the University Athletic Association (UAA). Last season, five Tartan defensive players earned All-UAA honors while two earned Academic All-America honors. During the Tartans’ playoff run in 2006, the defense was ranked sixth nationally in scoring defense and eighth in interceptions.

Carnegie Mellon has built a tradition of strong linebacker units under Bodnar’s tutelage. Robert O’Toole, a stalwart on the 1990 NCAA playoff team, was named Academic All-American Player of the Year. Bodnar also molded one of the best linebackers in Carnegie Mellon history in Chad Wilson, who in 1993 was a first-team All-American and UAA Defensive Player of the Year. Ray Ardire was the 1995 UAA Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time first-team All-UAA selection.

In 2000, Nick Zitelli was named an American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) All-American and received the MVP award in the AFCA Aztec Bowl in Merida, Mexico. Aaron Lewis, in 2005 and 2006, was named second team All-American by D3football.com and third team by Don Hansen’s Football Gazette.  In January of 2011, Lewis was named to the D3football.com All-Decade Team and was the lone UAA player to land a spot on the team.  Lewis was also named an Academic All-American both years and played in the Aztec Bowl in 2006.

Bodnar earned his bachelor’s degree in education in 1976 from Marietta College, where he lettered as a linebacker and center. He earned his master’s degree in sports science in 1988 from Indiana University (Pa.)

Following his graduation from Marietta, Bodnar began his teaching and coaching career at Washington Junior High School in Parkersburg, W.Va., where he taught and coached football, wrestling and track. In 1978, he returned to Deer Lakes to teach math, science and computer science and to coach football, wrestling and track. He also served as Deer Lakes’ strength coach before leaving for Carnegie Mellon in 1984.

Bodnar has been a member of the AFCA since 1982. He served five years as a member of the AFCA Coach of the Year Committee.

Bodnar also has spoken at football coaching clinics throughout the country for the Clinics of Champions, Eastbay Football Clinics, Glazier Football Clinics and various county and state clinics. He is featured in four clinic videos marketed by USA Coaches Clinics with royalties benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2000, he created three videos on defensive strategy for Coaches Choice. In addition, Bodnar has written articles that have been published in the AFCA Summer Manual, the Athletic Journal and Football Clinic.

He and his wife, Joan, live in West Deer Township and have a son Jonathan who played for Carnegie Mellon from 2004-07.

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Rich Erdelyi

Assistant Football Coach - Offensive Coordinator & Quarterbacks

Rich Erdelyi enters his 27th year on Carnegie Mellon’s staff and 26th as the Tartans’ offensive coordinator. He came to Carnegie Mellon in 1985 as an assistant line coach and was promoted to offensive coordinator and running backs coach in 1986.

Powerful and prolific offenses during Erdelyi’s tenure have become synonymous with Carnegie Mellon football. In 1993, the Tartans set a school record for points in a season with 370 (37 points per game) and ranked 10th in NCAA Division III scoring offense. During the Tartans’ playoff run in 2006, the offense finished ranked eighth nationally in rushing offense (260.6) and set a school record with 3,127 yards rushing.

After coaching the running backs for 20 years, Erdelyi made the transition to quarterbacks coach in 2006.

As running backs coach, Erdelyi has tutored several of the finest backs ever to play at Carnegie Mellon and in the UAA. In 1990, Erdelyi coached All-American halfback Scott Barnyak, who led all NCAA divisions in scoring with 13.8 points per game and was the UAA Offensive Player of the Year. Barnyak finished his career as the Tartans’ all-time leading rusher (2,618 yards) and scorer (308 points). In 1994, fullback Jason Grusky earned first-team All-UAA honors while finishing as the school’s second all-time leading rusher with 1,913 yards. His 11 touchdowns in UAA play set a league record. In 2003, fullback Brad Stanley broke Barnyak’s record for single-season touchdowns and ranked fifth in Division III with 21.

In 1999, fullback Mike Campie moved into first place on Carnegie Mellon’s all-time rushing list. Campie, a two-time All-UAA fullback, rushed for 1,569 yards and scored 15 touchdowns in two years. His 764 yards as a freshman set a new Carnegie Mellon mark. Campie also owns the freshman single-game rushing mark of 173 yards. In 2004, fullback Travis Sivek became Carnegie Mellon’s first freshman to rush for 100 or more yards in back-to-back games en route to earning UAA and ECAC Southwest Rookie of the Year accolades. Sivek, a two-time UAA Offensive Player of the Year honoree, broke the all-time rushing record after three years and ended his career with 4,183 yards. He finished the 2006 campaign with 1,326 yards, the highest single-season total in school history. During his four-year career, Sivek recorded 59 touchdowns to become the school’s all-time leader in scoring with 354 points and rank 18th on the NCAA Division III scoring list. Sivek’s teammate for four years, Robert Gimson, moved into third place on the school’s all-time rushing list after passing Barnyak in 2007. Gimson finished his career with 2,712 yards.

Prior to joining the Carnegie Mellon staff, Erdelyi was an administrative assistant and scout for the Pittsburgh Maulers of the United States Football League during the 1983 and 1984 seasons. Before working for the Maulers he was head coach at Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic High School from 1977-82. Under Erdelyi, the Vikings captured the West Penn Conference Championship in 1978 and advanced to the WPIAL Quad A Championship Playoffs in 1978 and 1981. During his tenure at Central, Erdelyi coached former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino.
 
A native of Highland Park, N.J., Erdelyi earned seven varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball at Highland Park High School. An all-county and All-Central New Jersey selection as a senior center and linebacker, Erdelyi was a recipient of Highland Park’s Dr. Robert Weiss Memorial Trophy for devotion to athletics. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1970 from the University of Pittsburgh.

A member of the AFCA, Erdelyi served a four-year term on the AFCA’s Assistant Coaches Committee. Erdelyi has three clinic videos on the Wing-T offense marketed by USA Coaches Clinics with royalties benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He is also the featured speaker of the Frank Glazier Football Clinic on the Wing-T offense and speaks at eight clinics annually around the country located in Denver, Kansas City, Baltimore, Boston, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Orlando and Newark.

In addition to his football duties, Erdelyi is Carnegie Mellon’s head golf coach as well as a physical education instructor. He was the 1998, 2006 and 2009 UAA Golf Coach of the Year.

Erdelyi and his wife, Judy, reside in Pittsburgh. He has three daughters: Jennifer, Hollie and Julie. All three are graduates of Carnegie Mellon.

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Jeff Simmons

Assistant Football Coach - Running Backs

Jeff Simmons begins his second season as a full-time assistant on the Carnegie Mellon staff in 2011 as the running backs coach.  Simmons is also responsible for running the offensive special teams. He was promoted to running backs coach before the 2010 season after spending four seasons as the part-time wide receivers coach.

As a receiver coach, Simmons developed Brendan Howe into Carnegie Mellon's single-season leader in receptions.  Now as running backs coach, Simmons helped the Tartans finish the 2010 season ranked 12th in Division III in total rushing with 253 yards per game.  That year, the Tartans set a school record, as they rushed for a single-game high of 585 yards against Hiram College.

Prior to his promotion in 2010, Simmons was a sales representative for Gilman Gear, selling football field equipment throughout the Pennsylvania and West Virginia region.  His resume includes tenures as a high school quarterbacks and defensive secondary coach at Kiski Prep, and quarterbacks coach at Seneca Valley, Gateway and Shaler High Schools.

Simmons played his collegiate career at Slippery Rock University from 1994-1997 as a quarterback before finishing his Bachelor of Arts degree in human resources at Geneva College.

Simmons is the grandson of former Carnegie Mellon head football coach Chuck Klausing, who later coached at Kiski Prep with Simmons as his quarterback. Kiski Prep won the Inter-Scholastic Prep School League during Simmons’ senior year.

Since 1994, Simmons has coached at the Team Klausing Wing-T Football Camps each summer throughout the United States, a camp that his grandfather started in 1964. Over the past few years, Simmons has taken over running the on-field coordination of the camp. The camp promotes team skills, life skills and team leadership. Simmons has also co-authored two books with his grandfather.

Notable high school teams that have been a part of the camp are: South Parkersburg in West Virginia, Lewis Cass in Indiana, Christiansburg in Virginia, Arch Bishop Spalding in Maryland and Maryland School for the Deaf.

Simmons, who was part of the Carnegie Mellon 2006 University Athletic Association Coaching Staff of the year, was also an instructor at the West Virginia Classic Quarterback Skills Clinic from 2007-09 and 2011 as well as an instructor at the Quarterback / Wide Receiver in the Bubble Elite Camp from 2009-2011.

Simmons and his wife, Colleen, reside in Penn Hills and have a four-year-old daughter Hayden and three-year-old son Luc.

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