Jim Criner (born March 30, 1940) is a former American football player and coach. He was the head coach at Boise State University from 1976 to 1982 and at Iowa State University from 1983 to 1986, compiling a career record of as a college football head coach. Criner was also the head coach of the NFL Europe's Scottish Claymores from 1995 to 2000, and the short-lived XFL's Las Vegas Outlaws in 2001. Criner has also been head coach in the French league Ligue Élite de Football Américain. Criner's 1980 Boise State team won the NCAA Division I-AA Championship and his Scottish Claymores squad won World Bowl IV in 1996. He was later a scout for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL) under head coach Dick Vermeil, whom he assisted at UCLA from 1974 to 1975. Early life and playing career Born in Lurton, Arkansas, Criner was a four-sport athlete in California at Coachella Valley High School in Thermal. He attended Palo Verde Junior College, then transferred to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, where he played fullback. Coaching career High school football and college assistant coaching Criner began his career as an assistant to Jim Hanifan at Charter Oak High School (1963), and then was an assistant under head coach Leonard Cohn at Claremont High School (1964) and then was head coach at Clovis High School. He became a college assistant coach in 1967 at Utah, serving two seasons as the offensive line coach. In 1969, he became the defensive coordinator at Cal State Hayward. In 1970, he became the secondary coach at California for two seasons, and in 1972 moved to BYU for a season. He was the offensive line coach in 1973 at UCLA under Pepper Rodgers and continued under Dick Vermeil in 1974; he moved to linebackers coach in 1975, when UCLA won the Pac-8 title and upset top-ranked Ohio State 23–10 in the Rose Bowl. Boise State Following UCLA's Rose Bowl victory over Ohio State in January 1976, Criner was hired as the head coach at replacing Tony Knap, who had departed At the time, Boise State was a strong Division II program in the Big Sky Conference, and had won three consecutive conference titles. Criner's first contract at BSU was for one year at $24,200. The Broncos won the conference title again in his second season in 1977, and the conference