College Football Playoff

Chris Ault spent 28 years as the head football coach at the University of Nevada, serving three stints from 1976-92, 1994-95 and 2004-2012. During that time, he posted a 234-108-1 record and guided the program from Division II to Division I-AA in 1978 and then to Division I-A in 1992. Ault also served as the athletics director at Nevada from 1986-2004. Following his retirement from Nevada in 2012, Ault spent two seasons as a consultant with the Kansas City Chiefs and then two years coaching in the Italian Football League.

As head coach, Nevada captured or shared 10 conference championships across the Big Sky, Big West and WAC. He was a six-time conference coach of the year, the 1978 NCAA Division I-AA Coach of the Year and the 1991 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year. Ault is regarded as the inventor of the “Pistol Offense," which he instituted in Nevada in 2005. Ault was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Ault spent the first five years of his coaching career at the high school level in Nevada before landing an assistant coaching position at UNLV. In 1976, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Nevada, as head coach. The starting quarterback at Nevada as a student-athlete, Ault earned both a bachelor's and master's degree during his time on campus.