Adam Gonzaga is the new leader of the Lawrence University football team.
Lawrence athletic director Jason Imperati announced today the hiring of Gonzaga as the 30th head coach in the program's long and storied history.
Gonzaga replaces Tony Aker, who spent four years as head coach before being let go sometime in the past 6-8 weeks. Lawrence has gone 3-36 since Aker was hired at the end of 2019. The previous coach, Rob McCarthy, was 9-40 in five seasons.
"We're excited to welcome Adam as our new head football coach," Imperati said. "Throughout the search process, Adam stood out with his professionalism, strong presence and clear vision for building a competitive and accountable program. With over 30 years of college coaching experience and a proven track record of success, he's a great fit for Lawrence and the future of Viking football."
Gonzaga comes to Lawrence from Midwest Conference rival Lake Forest where he served as the team's associate head coach and defensive coordinator this past season. The Foresters won the 2024 Midwest Conference championship and played in the NCAA Division III playoffs. Gonzaga had been an assistant coach at Division III Hanover the previous two seasons.
"I'm very excited about the opportunity," Gonzaga said. "When Lake Forest played at Lawrence last season, one of the thoughts that crossed my mind was, 'Could I coach here?' My next thought was this is pretty sharp."
Gonzaga loved the setting of the Banta Bowl and the atmosphere around the game on a crisp fall afternoon.
"I was kind of blown away by that," Gonzaga said. "When the job opened, I have a relationship with a couple of former football players at Lawrence. When I was talking about it with them, they said, 'You have the chance to come and do something special, flip the script.' Thinking about that and my experience here in October, I'm going to pursue this and share my vision."
Meeting with president Laurie Carter during the interview process also provided Gonzaga with added desire to make Lawrence his new football home.
"I'm very excited, very honored that President Carter and Jason (Imperati) took an interest in me and supported my vision," Gonzaga said. "My thinking was how I could change the landscape of Lawrence University football, get the spear pointed in the right direction."
A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Gonzaga brings three decades of college coaching experience to Lawrence.
Gonzaga started his college coaching career as a recruiting intern for the football recruiting department of legendary head coach Bill Walsh at Stanford in 1992.
After working as an assistant during the 1990s, Gonzaga moved up to the position of defensive coordinator at Greenville College in 1999. During his two seasons there, Greenville won the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in 1999 and made an appearance in the Victory Bowl in 2000. He then served as assistant linebackers coach at the United States Naval Academy for the 2001 season.
Gonzaga coached at the NCAA Division II level for five seasons at Northwood University where he served as defensive coordinator while the team enjoyed great success. During his time at Northwood, Gonzaga's teams went to the NCAA Division II playoffs for three consecutive seasons (2004, 2005 and 2006). Northwood won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title in 2004 and finished eighth in the final national rankings that year. Northwood was ranked 10th nationally at the end of the 2005 season. Gonzaga coached four defensive players at Northwood that went on to play professionally in either the NFL or CFL. He coached five All-Americans, 10 first-team all-conference players and three GLIAC Defensive Players of the Year.
Enjoying great success from the Division I to Division III level over the next few seasons, Gonzaga went back to NCAA Division II and coached at Saginaw Valley State from 2014-18. He served as defensive coordinator and also coached the secondary and linebackers. During his time with the Cardinals, he coached three All-Americans and one Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Gonzaga's defenses were among the nation's best in total defense at Saginaw Valley State.
Gonzaga later joined the staff at Lake Forest as associate head coach before being tabbed to guide the program at Lawrence.
"The first thing for me is constructing a culture, developing the core values of our football program," Gonzaga said. "Getting that definition of what is a Lawrence man and then defining the Viking way, the way we go about doing things. ... The goal is to be better tomorrow than we were the day before. We want to have a steady progression of development."
A defensive back during his playing days, Gonzaga competed at San Joaquin Delta College, the University of the Pacific and Asuza Pacific. He graduated from Asuza Pacific in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in physical education.