UND92,96

Tom Dosch?

Schmidt presumably sees the writing on the wall in Carbondale. Hypothetically, even if his loyalties to Lennon and Bubba are roughly equal, the lure of going home and getting a fresh start (as opposed to the situation at SIU--win now or else) should make the better and wiser choice fairly clear.

DeBoer reportedly is going to be OC at Eastern Michigan. Who is going to be left at SIU next year? And does this open the door for Muss to go to Carbondale (which saves UND buyout money)?

Yeah sorry, totally forgot about the 12-game schedule next year.

Not yet.

I think it's really difficult to predict. Weber has been down for awhile, although who knows what a coaching change may do for them. PSU certainly didn't look good last year, and they are now under the threat of not even having football anymore. It won't be easy to recruit with that kind of shadow hanging over a program. NAU may really fall back down to earth with the loss of Bauman and most of their best defensive players. And of course UNC is still UNC. I don't expect this year's recruiting class to be great for obvious reasons, but despite some defections I am at least somewhat optimistic that the young talent from the past two classes should receive better coaching and hopefully develop far more quickly than they otherwise would have. I really wouldn't be surprised with anything from 2-9 to 5-6.

We shouldn't be comparing somebody's qualifications as OC based upon what they later did as head coaches. I suspect Rudolph would have done well in the NSIC with Mankato's resources, too. And Hoffner would have had all kinds of trouble trying to win at Minot. The fact of the matter is that Rudolph has a longer track record as a successful OC than does Hoffner. With that said, I think it would be great if Hoffner gets a shot as a position coach at UND.

I would think so. He spent a number of years at St. Cloud, so would presumably be very familiar with the twin cities metro area, and would definitely have good connections in ND (as would Bubba and Schmidt).

The SFI guys are hearing Rudolph's name being mentioned, too. I would guess there's something to it.

I'm not sure it's even possible for a school like Minot St. to succeed at the dII level. However, while he and Hedberg were at SCSU, they had a fair amount of success despite operating with fewer scholies than most other NCC schools. When SCSU had players like Keith Heckendorf and Matt Birkel, they were a formidable offense. I think he'd be the most experienced and proven OC UND has had in many years.

SFI just tweeted that they are also hearing rumors of Rudolph being UND's new OC.

I just saw on footballscoop that UND applicant Mike Cummings is going to be OC at UConn.

I think he was referring to Bill Bleil applying for the football job.

I believe Jones is only under contract through next season. Does anybody know for certain?

I would be fine with Rudolph. He was in charge of some pretty good offenses while at St. Cloud St. He could also be an asset in recruiting given his ties to western ND (from Stanley and has coached at Minot St. for several years) and also his time in St. Cloud.

McFeely had a blog a few weeks ago on this subject: http://kfgo.com/blog...sters-blunders/

Hoffner was hired at Mankato at essentially the same time Lennon, Bubba, etc. went to SIU and Muss was promoted at UND. Ironically, Muss was considered somewhat of the favorite for the Mankato job had Lennon not left UND when he did.

How many scholarship corners are left on the roster right now? Possibly as few as one depending upon the status of Konowalski? Aside from Chris Brown, I'm not sure there are any others who have ever seen the field. I assume this is one position Bubba is going to have dip into the juco ranks pretty hard.

I think you can look at Southern Utah as an example of a program that was actually far lower than where UND has been, and how Ed Lamb fairly quickly got them to respectability when he took over after the 2007 season. As many recall, then dII UND played at and dominated SUU in 2007. SUU was 0-11 that season. Lamb took over and got them to 4-7, then 5-6, 6-5 and eventually to the playoffs in 2013.

I think that depends on who you ask. I will say this--with Bubba and probably Schmidt, I feel like UND is in its best position to recruit within the state of ND since 2005 (the Chappell, Stroup, etc. class). Obviously there were some other factors at play in recent years as well, but Muss vs. Bohl was a blowout recruiting-wise for the most part. I would look for things to change significantly with the mostly new staffs in the coming years.

I have no opinion either way on Freund as a coach, because I have no idea. But Faison did keep him around, at least temporarily, and Bubba knows him well. Usually even if it's a new coach with no connections whatsoever to the school you see two or three assistants retained. And since Bubba is far from new to the school, it stands to reason to think maybe guys he actually knows would have the best shot to stick. Pure speculation on my part, however.

Does this mean Freund is likely retained? I also wonder whether Schleusner might be kept, although presumably not as OC? It would be nice to have him continue his Illinois recruiting prowess.

Unless Faison really does make an announcement today or tomorrow, which would be pretty classless IMO, this process looks like it will take at least 38 days to complete. If somebody can find an example of a division I school in a state other than North Dakota where a similar search took anything close to this long, I'd love to hear about it. The longest search I'm aware of was Western Illinois when Nielson was hired, which took 30 days.

The list of grievances just grew again...and there will be no Festivus Miracle this year.

Todd Bakken.