mksioux

It seemed a bit odd that he'd turn down Montana State while UND was DII, then accept a position at SIU after UND announced it was moving up to DI. It seemed to me, especially in hindsight, that he took the SIU position because he knew UND football was going to experience some turbulence during the transition, not so much that SIU was a great fit for him.

I don't think Faison is going to go down the good ole boy track. It just doesn't seem like his style. So I don't think it will be Bubba. I also don't think it will be Pflugrad (even though he's my choice right now). I just have a feeling Faison will go out on his own and hire someone else. Obviously based on nothing other than a hunch. Should be a very interesting few days.

I think so. It appears Hoffner was a grad assistant at UND from 1989 to 1991. I think Bubba started at UND in 1989, according to his SIU bio that says he was an assistant at UND for 15 seasons before he took the head coaching job at UMD in 2004.

Isn't Hoffner an offensive guy? He was South Dakota's offensive coordinator before he became Mankato's head coach.

This would be a good argument that past several years. It's not nearly as convincing this year unfortunately.

Here is the list so far. Wayne Nelson also raises some concerns that I share about N.D.'s open record laws applying to coaching hires. http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/279957/

I agree. What happened to Todd Hoffner was beyond a travesty. He deserves to coach again and I hope he gets a chance.

I don't think there's any requirement for there to be finalists. Personally, I hope Faison doesn't narrow it down to a list of finalists. I hope he has found "the guy" and acts quickly and decisively on it as soon as the law allows.

Aren't you the guy that always says "follow the money?" Of course it's not an emergency in that it's not a life or death situation, but dollars are at stake. For a business, that could be considered an emergency. Will it be for the State of North Dakota? I have no idea. Maybe not. I just like the idea that Taylor is exploring all options and ideas that might benefit NDSU.

Good point. I forgot about NCAA rules. Maybe Taylor will apply for an NCAA waiver. Say what you want about the guy, but he strikes me as someone who will try to do whatever it takes to make sure this transition is as smooth as possible. If that means declaring this an emergency hire under North Dakota law and getting NCAA approval to have two coaches at the same time, he'll probably try to do it.

Personally, I think the posting requirement is quite stupid for high-profile coaching positions. This isn't some assistant Geology professor position. UND and NDSU should be afforded as much flexibility on hiring decisions as possible. If that means declaring it an emergency hire, then so be it. Who gets to make the determination whether something is an emergency hire? The Chancellor? In my opinion, there is a decent argument that an emergency hire is needed because of recruiting. Bohl is going to stay on as coach, but he's not going to be recruiting for NDSU from here on out. NDSU needs to get a guy in there as soon as possible to continue recruiting efforts. This applies to UND's situation as well. To take a month off of recruiting during prime recruiting season could be considered an emergency - that is, if you consider the success of your football program to be important to the overall health of your University. Clearly Taylor thinks of it that way. Perhaps UND should have thought about the emergency exception as well. Treating the hiring of a head football coach as a run-of-the-mill University hire is not realistic and it does not offend me to try to get it pulled from the ordinary hiring process. On the other hand, maybe Faison is a really deliberate guy and would have wanted to take this much time regardless of the law. I'm just saying the law shouldn't hamstring him and prevent a quick hire (if that is what he was inclined to do).

I thought there was an internal posting requirement as well. IIRC, Hakstol was hired during this internal posting period and UND didn't post externally for that position. But UND posted the football head coach position externally the day after Mussman was fired. Maybe there is an exception when there are no internal candidates remaining in the relevant department? The external posting must be 21 days. This position was posted on November 19. I can't imagine Faison would create a posting period any longer than legally required. It'll be interesting to see what NDSU does with respect to posting. I can't imagine Taylor wants to post for 3 weeks before being able to hire someone.

Is the two-week posting requirement state law or a UND policy? I thought it was state law, which would mean NDSU's search will have to proceed along the same timeline. But I believe Taylor was quoted as saying a hire could come at any time. Anyone know if NDSU is subject to the same posting requirement?

I wonder if it was because he was told he wasn't going to get the job, or if he wasn't interested in it. My thought all along is that of the people Faison is seriously considering, only the one that ends up getting the job will formally apply.

The Big Sky opened the door to that with UC-Davis and Cal Poly, but honestly, I can't see UND wanting to do that even if it were an option. I don't think UND would give any consideration to the Summit unless a MVFC was a part of the invitation. Personally, I'd rather be in the Big Sky in all sports than Summit/Big Sky football.

I can't read that thread. It's too frustrating. I stand by my posts in #26 and #28 of that thread and wish more of my fellow UND fans would have felt the same way as I did.

Yea, I agree that's a likely scenario to what happened. Also, the fact that he may still have been impaired is probably the reason he didn't stop and report the incident. Question - is it normal for a Division I volleyball coach to be a chauffeur for the players while on the road? I realize volleyball isn't football or hockey, but it still seems a bit strange that professional transportation wasn't provided for the team.

Unless alcohol was involved. If he was driving impaired with five players in the vehicle, that would justify a termination. We'll see if that was the case.

That article doesn't bother me. Admittedly, I'm not the one that matters. But if Faison thinks Pflugrad is the best choice, I don't think these off the field issues justify not hiring him.

Emails, sure. But you'd have to be quite the sleuth to figure out what was going on based on phone records. The initial contact could easily be through an intermediary with subsequent communication in person, plus nobody would know what exactly was said in the telephone conversations. Phone calls are an entirely different thing than a formal application being submitted.

I think Phlugrad has to be considered a serious candidate. The plus is that he has head coaching experience at the FCS level, no less with the Big Sky conference's premier team, with pretty good results, and was a positions coach at a BCS school prior to that. By all accounts, he is a good coach. The negatives are that he may not have great contacts in UND's primary recruiting area, and some question the fit of his offensive scheme to UND. Is Bollinger, with only two years of BCS position coaching under his belt (and no college head coaching experience), preferable to the more-proven Phlugrad, due to his connection to the program and supposed recruiting ties to more traditional areas? It seems to me Bollinger would have to blow Faison away to be considered a better candidate than Phlugrad. And, for me personally, his involvement in the NCAA issues at Montana was quite minimal to the point of being a non-factor. Maybe if he knew about the free legal advice (like the A.D. did), that might be different. But I don't think it was a fire-able offense that he didn't know it was an NCAA violation where a teammates' relative bailed a player out of jail and was re-paid. That seems like a President looking for an excuse to fire someone for public relations reasons.

I'm sure you're right. I'm sure people hiring high-profile positions have found ways around the open record laws, and for good reasons. I hope Faison is out there talking to people who are interested in the job, but don't want to formally apply unless they know they will get the job. But that process kind of defeats the purpose of the open records laws. But I guess the present system is working in the sense that people can feel good about themselves and the "openness" of their government, even it's largely just an illusion (in this case).

I think North Dakota ought to think about changing the law to allow an exception for job applications to remain confidential. I know I wouldn't apply for a job if I knew my name would appear in the newspaper, unless my boss at my current job knew I was looking and was okay with it, or the person hiring had already told me I have the job. I know it's expected for coaches to seek better jobs, but there might be a few highly qualified candidates that are thinking about a parallel move that won't apply because they don't want their current school to know they are looking/not happy in their current position. Anyone know how other states handle this? I live in Minnesota and don't recall the newspapers publishing everyone that applied for the head football coaching position at the University of Minnesota a few years ago. It just doesn't feel right to me. Hopefully Faison is allowed under the law to talk to and interview people that have not formally applied. That way, maybe the applicants that are in a sensitive situation can place a telephone call and still explore the opportunity without their names being printed in a newspaper. But if that's the case, then what's the point of the law in the first place? Of the people that the A.D. is going to seriously consider, only the guy who is ultimately chosen is likely to formally apply. So people still aren't going to have a complete list of the people that were considered for the job, despite the open records laws. It seems to me that they ought to just cut the pretense and allow applications to remain confidential.

It's not just you. You can put me in the same camp. I liked following the hockey team to the point of springing for the sports tier and watching them on FCS. But I'm not willing to pay money to watch the webcasts. Call me a fair weather fan if you want, but it is what it is. And I find myself caring less about the hockey team since I don't see their games as often. If you can't regularly and easily watch games, it will be "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" for a certain percentage of people outside the Midco footprint that used to follow the team. Nobody knows what that percentage will be, but it's not zero.

Welcome to the internet! The reality is that siouxsports.com may be the most civil forum I've seen when it comes to anonymous posting on the internet. Have you ever read a political forum, or even the comments posted in an ordinary newspaper article?