Nick Forde is in his first season on the HCU coaching staff as the Huskies’ safeties coach for his second stint as an assistant under head coach Jason Bachtel.
Forde spent the 2025 season as a defensive quality control coach on Dave Aranda’s staff at Baylor. Prior to joining the Bears, Forde spent four years at Howard Payne. He served as HPU’s co-defensive coordinator in 2023 and 2024 while also serving as secondary coach and co-special teams coordinator. In 2023, HPU’s defense led the ASC in interceptions, turnovers, opponent third-down conversion rate and opponent QB completion percentage.
In 2022, Forde coached the Yellow Jackets’ secondary and was co-special teams coordinator after serving as a part-time assistant in 2021 on Bachtel’s staff.
Forde played collegiately within the Southland Conference at Northwestern State where he was a four-year starter and two-year team captain from 2015 through 2019. In 2020, he received NSU’s Heart of a Demon award. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern State in 2019.
