Donn Landholm

Biography

A veteran of more than 40 years in the coaching ranks, Donn Landholm joined University of Houston Football in January 2024 as its Special Assistant to the Head Coach. The 2025 season will be his second with the Cougars following eight seasons as Director of Player Development at Tulane (2016-23). Landholm helped transform Tulane into a national power as the Green Wave won 10-plus games in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history and spent 19 weeks ranked inside the AP Top 25 in 2022-23, including topping out at #9 following a thrilling 46-45 Cotton Bowl victory against #8 USC on Jan. 10, 2023. Tulane's 23 wins between 2022-23 ranked fourth nationally while the program's 15 conference wins are fifth in the country in that timeframe. Prior to Tulane, Landholm spent three seasons at Tennessee Tech as the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach. He was the defensive coordinator at Purdue in 2009, when the Boilermakers defeated Michigan and Ohio State in the same season for the first time since 1966. He coached the outside linebackers at Purdue for three seasons (2010-12) and was part of teams that went to back-to-back bowl games in 2011 and 2012. Those defenses included future NFL players Ryan Kerrigan, Kawann Short and Ricardo Allen. He moved to Purdue in 2009 from Eastern Kentucky, where he coached from 1997-2008. A native of Bristow, Nebraska, Landholm played outside linebacker at Wayne State College and earned a bachelor's degree in physical educati