UND92,96

Any guesses as to when the new coach will be announced? I am guessing one week from today--lucky Friday the 13th.

I feel like Nielson would have been the frontrunner last year.

Starkey seems like a great candidate. I'm quite surprised he's stayed at Concordia-St. Paul for 11 years given his incredible record. Is he just that happy there, or has he been up for other dI jobs in the past but not been hired? EDIT: This article from the Strib a few years ago addresses the question of whether he is interested in a dI job: http://www.startribu.../129275878.html While it would great to land him, it sounds like it might be tough to lure him away from the cities.

Not saying you have to be from this region to recruit it, but if you have no ties to it, count me as skeptical that you are going to be much of an improvement over the outgoing staff recruiting-wise. Personally I think there's almost no chance Faison even seriously considers Pflugrad, but I fully intend to support the decision regardless of who he hires. I just hope the Bollinger skeptics do the same if he is hired.

I feel like recruiting is the key to this rebuilding job. Even disregarding the off the field issues for a moment, what evidence is there that Pflugrad would be able to recruit well in this region? I keep using this example, but look at Lennon at SIU--a new geographical area can completely change whether a coach is perceived to be a good recruiter.

I think Rob is around 62. I have no idea whether he's interested in getting back into coaching in some capacity, but you would think this might be the one situation which may draw him back into it for a few years anyway.

I am still at the same point I've been for about three years--expect to beat everybody at home, and expect to lose to nearly everybody on the road/neutral court.

In terms of the coaches who have tweeted in the past week or so, the profiles of Kotelnicki, Schleusner and Freund still describe them as UND assistant coaches. Of course, it's possible at least one of them just hasn't bothered to update his profile yet.

One applicant who hasn't been mentioned much is Rob Ianello, the current wr coach at Kansas. Ianello is most notable for the fact that he was fired a couple of years ago as head coach at Akron by phone, on his way to his mother's funeral.

Bohl would probably give them the most bang for the buck. Pelini was making a little under $3 million/year. They could get Bohl for far less with similar or better results. But whether his past there precludes his consideration is the question? EDIT: Upon further review, the playing careers of Bohl and Cotton at Nebraska actually overlapped for a couple of years. In the event Bohl were to be hired, I suppose there's a decent chance Cotton might be retained?

He meets pretty much every criteria from the job announcement, AND Faison knows him from their days at New Mexico St. At 57, I don't know how much longer he plans to coach, but I agree he'll likely be getting a call from Faison if he hasn't already. http://en.wikipedia....i/Barney_Cotton

I don't foresee that being much of a deterrent to firing him. There will be alums with deep pockets who will pony up to get rid of him. Even the ABC/ESPN guys are saying how he's said and done all the wrong things.

I'd say today's debacle on senior day in Lincoln may be the last straw for Pelini at Nebraska. I still feel like the Nebraska situation could impact a lot of things regarding the coaching situations at UND and NDSU.

Take this for what it's worth given the source, but on the Bobcat board there is some speculation that Ash actually wants him to go. Maybe this is completely off base, and admittedly I'd probably be less skeptical if he'd waited until late in the game to apply like the other true contenders for the job are expected to do. Again, this is hardly proof of anything, but it doesn't seem like many on the Bobcat board would be disappointed if he left.

I guess. But it might be a tough sell to negotiate a raise at MSU given how this season played out. Regardless of the injuries, when a preseason consensus top five team doesn't make the playoffs...

Marshall's application is interesting to me. He's spent his entire career as an assistant to Rob Ash, first at Drake and now at MSU. Ash is 62. How much longer will he realistically coach? Marshall is quite young (36 I believe) and presumably would be Ash's heir apparent given the fact that he's assistant head coach. I guess I'm just a little surprised that he's looking to move on at this point.

Wouldn't you expect that other programs would be similarly affected? I would be interested to know whether there is another college basketball program in the country that has seen as many head/face injuries over a two-year period. In addition to Brekke's significant problems, and now Schuler, I can recall Anderson getting his bell rung after a hard screen and missing a little time a year or two ago, and Huff's broken jaw. I actually think it has been more of a problem at UND in basketball than football, which is hard to believe.

Unusual basketball injuries have really plagued this program for whatever reason in the past three or four years. I suppose a big part of it may be the increased awareness of concussions lately, but I honestly can't recall any concussions or broken jaws to UND basketball players before the last few years.

Perhaps the most ironic applicant is Robin Ross, who was Muss's o-line coach from back in his Iowa St. playing days.

I'm going to go way, way out on a limb and say that none of these people are going to be UND's next coach, but in case you want to know who actually has applied so far, here's the list: http://kfgo.com/blogs/so-many-opinions-so-little-time/953/montana-state-defensive-coordinator-among-those-whove-applied-for-und-head-coaching-job/

Agreed. And let's also not overlook how critical it is to hire the right person after a successful coach moves on or retires. Many once-great programs have experienced down periods because of one questionable hire. If it can happen at Alabama and USC and Michigan and Florida and Nebraska, anybody is potentially vulnerable.

My guess is that we will see a handful of players leave, and some were probably going to leave anyway for various reasons, such as homesickness or just not wanting to put in the time football requires. Anybody who leaves primarily out of loyalty to Muss and/or the staff without at least waiting to see who the new coach is, particularly considering that it may be announced within a few weeks, is not very smart IMO.

The one situation like this I can recall was when Durene Heisler transferred from Lake Region to UND after her freshman year. Of course, that was a pretty unique recruiting situation given Roebuck was making the same move at the same time.

Not that I've seen. I imagine there are probably a number of formerly big name FBS coaches out there who don't really need money after huge contract buyouts. But it seems rare that you ever see them attempt to resurrect their head coaching careers at lower levels. I see he was with Montreal in the CFL this past season, after being a broadcaster for awhile.