Stopczynski, Elliott join football support staff
Head football coach Dan Mullen announced two new additions to the Mississippi State University football support staff last Wednesday: Niel Stopczynski and Brett Elliott. Stopczynski will serve as assistant recruiting coordinator, and Elliott will be the graduate assistant for offense.
Stopczynski comes to Mississippi State after performing multiple roles in the football office at Northwestern University.
A 2006 graduate of Ball State University, Stopczynski worked as a recruiting assistant at his alma mater from 2005-2007. From 2007-2009, he worked as a recruiting assistant at Northwestern before switching into a video operations role for the 2009 season. He was assistant director of football operations in 2010-11 before spending the past season as assistant director of video operations.
Elliott joins the Bulldog staff after a four-year stint as the quarterbacks coach at Linfield College.
A native of Lake Oswego, Ore., Elliott played for Mullen during his redshirt freshman year at the University of Utah before transferring to Linfield. In 2005 at Linfield, he won the Gagliardi Trophy and Melberger Award, given to the top player in Division III. Elliott was twice named an All-American and led Linfield to the 2004 NCAA Division III national championship. During his playing career he set Linfield and Northwest Small College single-game, single-season and career passing records and broke the all-divisions record for most touchdown passes in one season -- throwing for 61 scores in 2004.
After earning his bachelor's degree in mass communication, Elliott signed a free agent contract with the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. He also played for the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe and was under contract with the San Jose SaberCats when the league halted operations in late 2008. Elliott also played in the Arena League as a member of the Utah Blaze and Georgia Force.
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