Last Updated on January 14, 2019 5:56 pm
BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State head football coach Eliah Drinkwitz made another key hire to his first Mountaineer staff Friday with the addition of veteran administrator Andy Lutz as Assistant Athletics Director for Football Operations.
“Andy is detailed and organized and has great experience running all the organizational aspects of a football program,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re excited to welcome Andy and his wife and daughter to Boone.”
A college football athletics administrator since 1991, Lutz arrives in Boone after six seasons as a member of Georgia Tech’s football staff, including the last four as director of player personnel. The 2014 Yellow Jackets were ACC runners-up and won the Orange Bowl over Mississippi State.
No stranger to championship and postseason success, Lutz has been part of staffs that have won conference titles (Auburn – SEC, Nevada – Big West) and division titles (Georgia Tech – ACC Coastal, Auburn – SEC West). He has contributed to a total of eight bowl wins at three different schools, including wins in the Orange, Sugar and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
Lutz served as assistant athletics director for football operations at Texas Tech from 2010-12. In that role, he oversaw all facets of Texas Tech football’s recruiting efforts as well as the day-to-day operations of the Red Raider program. The 2010 squad won eight games and beat Northwestern in the Ticket City Bowl.
From 1998-2008, Lutz was the assistant to the head football coach at Auburn, where his duties included day-to-day operations for recruiting and personnel. During that time, he contributed to a 13-0 SEC Championship season in 2004 that finished with a win over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, as well as an 11-2 season in 2006 that culminated with a Cotton Bowl win over Nebraska.
Before his decade-long stint at Auburn, Lutz spent two years (1996-98) at Ole Miss as assistant to the athletics director for recruiting, helping coordinate the recruiting processes for all Rebels’ sports. Lutz was promoted to that position after a year as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss.
Lutz began his collegiate administration career in 1991 at his alma mater, the University of the Pacific. After three years at Pacific, he was a graduate assistant at Nevada in 1994.
From 1991-2001, Lutz also worked outside the college athletics’ arena as clinic director for the Frank Glazier Football Clinics.
Lutz holds bachelor’s (communications/public relations, 1991) and master’s (educational counseling, 1994) degrees from Pacific. He was a three-year football letterman for the Tigers from 1989-91 after beginning his collegiate career at San Joaquin Delta (Calif.) College, where he was a first-team all-conference and second-team all-state defensive back as a freshman in 1987.
He and his wife, Brandy, have one daughter, Aberle.
