VIDEO: Chuck Petersen Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman head football coach Ashley Ingram has announced the hiring of former Air Force offensive coordinator Chuck Petersen to be Carson-Newman's new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

"We are thankful that Chuck has decided to join us here at Carson-Newman," Ingram said. "Chuck is a great football coach, but he's an even better person.  We are fortunate to have a coach with the caliber of his experiences and background.  Our players are going to love him. We are blessed to have Chuck."

Petersen was an assistant at the Air Force Academy for 17 years coaching the running backs (1990), wide receivers (1991-96) and quarterbacks/fullbacks (1997-06).  He was the primary play caller at Air Force from 1997-06 and served as the offensive coordinator from 2000-06.

He has spent the last two seasons as an offensive assistant at the Naval Academy. 

Petersen won 12 Commander-In-Chief's Trophies, went to nine bowl games, won three conference championships and owned a 16-2 record against Army while an assistant at Air Force.

"I'm very blessed to be here," Petersen said. "I'm excited to get started and work with Coach Ingram. Offensively, I love what a triple option offense can do and the excitement that it can bring both to Carson-Newman and a national stage. We will try to do everything we can in the context of the offense to win games. We'll throw the ball a lot, it just might be sideways at times. Our offense will be flexible enough to do a lot of different things."

Since leaving Air Force, Petersen has served as the safeties coach at North Texas from 2007-10 and was the head coach at Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, Calif. from 2012-16 and at Hyde Park High School in Austin, Texas from 2017-21.

Petersen is a 1985 graduate of the Air Force Academy where he was a four-year letterwinner at cornerback and served as a team captain his senior year.  As a player, Petersen won the first two Commander-In-Chief's Trophies in school history and helped lead Air Force to its first two bowl wins in school history (Vanderbilt in the 1982 Hall of Fame Bowl and Ole Miss in the 1983 Independence Bowl). He was 3-1 against Army and was a member of two Air Force teams that beat Notre Dame.

Petersen served seven years active duty in the United States Air Force and was honorably discharged as a Captain.  He served in the Air Force Space Command at Eglin Air Force Base in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. and was a Space Operations Crew Commander and Director of Standardization and Evaluation.

Petersen and his wife, Roya, have three children: Chase, Brady and Natalie. Brady is a 2019 graduate of the Naval Academy and played football for four years.