Rich Duncan, the former head football coach at Aurora University in Illinois, has been named offensive coordinator at Berry College.

Duncan was the head coach at Aurora from 2005-2011, leading the Spartans to the NCAA Division III national playoffs in 2008.

That season, Duncan was named the Northern Athletics Conference’s Coach of the Year after guiding Aurora to a 9-2 overall record, including an undefeated mark in conference play. He owns a 38-33 career record as a head coach.

“We’re so fortunate to have a coach with his experience and history of success available to us,” said Berry head coach Tony Kunczewski. “He is a proven winner as both a head coach and assistant, and his expertise on offense made him very attractive. His offensive philosophy matched what we wanted.

“Most importantly he is a winner off the field, who comes highly recommended by many in the way he prepares his players for life outside of football.”

For Duncan, the opportunity to work with Kunczewski was a major factor in his decision to join the Vikings’ staff.

“The opportunity to work with Tony, who is a bright young coach and an up-and-coming guy in our business, was a big part of why I decided to come here,” Duncan said.

“We have many common people in our coaching tree, and everyone has great things to say about him. But, also, I’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to be a part of a startup football program at a place like Berry College, with its academic tradition and its overall excitement surrounding football. It’s been a dream of mine to help start a program and the traditions that come along with it at a place like Berry that has a lot of its own traditions already.”

Duncan, who spent this past spring as the offensive line coach at the University of St. Francis (Ill.), coached 80 All-Conference players during his tenure at Aurora, including 15 who went on to become All-Region selections and five who became All-Americans. Four Spartans earned Academic All-Region honors while being coached by Duncan.

He came to Aurora after spending four seasons as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Loras College, where he coached seven All-Conference linemen.

Duncan served as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1997 and 1998, before moving to the other side of the ball as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach the following two seasons. He coached a total of 12 All-Conference players at UWP, including seven on the offensive side of the ball.

Duncan was also the head baseball coach at Wisconsin-Platteville.

Prior to his stint at UWP, Duncan was the offensive line coach and special teams coordinator, as well as an assistant athletics director, at Capital University from 1995-97, and the offensive line coach at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell from 1992-95.

He began his coaching career as an intern at Manchester College in 1991, where he served as the team’s offensive line coach, and was also an assistant baseball coach.

Duncan and his wife, Karen, have two children, Molly and Jake.

Berry will play its first football game in 2013.