Robin Pflugrad was elevated to assistant head coach prior to the 2019 campaign and handles oversight of the tight ends for the Lumberjacks.

Tight end Matthew Kempton returned from an injury suffered in the first game of the 2019 season to earn All-Big Sky Second Team honors following the five-game spring schedule in 2021.

Pflugrad originally joined the NAU staff in 2018 as the wide receivers coach and brought with him more than three decades of coaching experience, including many previous seasons within the Big Sky Conference.

Prior to his arrival at NAU, Pflugrad was most recently the head coach at Phoenix College after being initially hired as the offensive coordinator for the Bears in April 2015. Prior to his time at Phoenix, Pflugrad served as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Weber State in 2013. 
 
He was formerly the head coach at the University of Montana during the 2010 and 2011 seasons where he led the Grizzlies to an 18-7 record over two seasons.  Pflugrad was also recognized as a semifinalist for the Eddie Robinson Award in 2011, which is presented annually to the national top FCS Football coach.
 
Pflugrad started his extensive collegiate coaching career at Portland State in 1980 as an assistant and also spent time at Arizona State (wide receivers/recruiting coordinator/1995-00), Washington State (tight ends/assistant head coach/recruiting coordinator/2001-05) and Oregon (wide receivers/2006-08).

He also had an earlier stint in Missoula where he was an assistant for the Grizzlies from 1986-94 and worked with the quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers.  He was promoted to assistant head coach in 1994.