Wildcat Football Adds Defensive Coordinator

Weeks after Scott Power left the program, Central Washington football has finally added a man to lead the defense. Ivan Cordova has packed his bags and is leaving New Mexico for Ellensburg.

Cordova brings Division-I experience after being an assistant defensive line coach at the University of New Mexico in 2015 and 2016.

"His background at New Mexico and UNLV as an assistant coach was highly interesting to us," CWU head coach Ian Shoe said.

Hired for his position at Eastern New Mexico University in early 2017, the Greyhounds found success, going 8-2 on the season. The only two losses came at the hands of eventual national champion Texas A&M Commerce and Midwestern State, which made it into the second round of the NCAA Playoff Tournament.

That added to Coach Shoemaker's enthusiasm about Cordova. "What he did at Eastern New Mexico as far as having their best year that they've had defensively shows a lot of positives," Shoemaker said.

The Wildcats are coming off of an 11-1 season, and being ranked the seventh best team in the nation.

Central was third in the nation in total defense last season (259.9 YPG), while also leading the country in rushing defense (44.6 YPG).

"Lot of [his] structure is similar to what we do with a lot of one-high safeties stuff, and aggressive run defense," Shoemaker said of how Cordova will fit into the system already in place.

Coach Power created a great mold in his time at CWU, and now Coach Cordova has some big shoes to fill.