UND-FB-FAN

Have to have good players, number one, but development via strength/conditioning and coaching the fundamentals of pass coverage and tackling matters. Need to call a good game. Lots of pieces to come together but don’t take much to be better than the mess of a defense we had in 2024…

4-2-5

Time to go to work. Build the staff the right way and crush the portal. Time to ACTUALLY end the monopoly in the Dakotas. Get it done. Go Hawks.

Hope not … they haven’t performed. Performance grades matter.

Don’t know the full pool of candidates, but gimme Schmidt. Looked back at Schmidt’s last game at UND in 2019; playoff game lost by UND’s offense, only scored six points. If Schmidt gets the job, I’d like to see all those recent FBS connections be truthful and turned into a big-time new coaching staff here at UND. We’ll see …

Let’s not beat a dead horse. Bubba routinely lost games even when he had more talent than the other team, especially on the road. Not sure how much more successful the new facilities would’ve made him. Still need to be able to make good decisions on game day. Need a coach that can recruit, but also develop, gameplan, and make adjustments. Also a lot of it is who you know, not what you know - need to put together a better staff. To be honest, especially on the defensive side of the ball, the defensive staff as a whole was not getting the job done at all.

It’s really quite all over the place. That tends to mean that Chaves and the athletics department truthfully don’t know yet who they’re gonna hire. I’m quite confident they got a good pool of candidates… this is an attractive job with the new facilities…and opportunity to elevate over NDSU/SDSU and get an FBS coaching gig as a result as you’d be put on notice by ESPN, etc. Rarely lines up that you have a head coach job open on the same year that brand new facilities are also gonna open …

That’s what I heard.

Other than Baldwin, he actually is and was my favorite candidate, but doesn’t sound like he is being considered like Eric Schmidt (and I guess not applying will do that …) My take on Luke: successful runs as offensive staff member at SDSU, knows UND and the Midwest, and as of late, he’s been doing very well as OC at Idaho. No head coaching experience, which is negative compared to Baldwin, but he’s a good recruiter and teacher, really a young innovative offensive mind in college football with the age and future prospects to look to move up and bring a program up to new heights on that journey upward.

If Schmidt gets the job, I hope he does amazing with his first head coaching opportunity, and his experiences over the past five years help elevate UND to the next level. Bottomline is we need to start competing with, and beating, the likes of NDSU and SDSU.

Disagree. In college football, turnarounds can occur in 1-2 years when you get the hire correct. Also, UND has a foundation per Bubba, remember? Plus the excellent new facilities. I would hope to see UND ascend quickly in 1-2 years or else UND got the wrong guy.

I absolutely agree. It’s called bias. I would love to have a buddy / acquaintance get the job, but I also realize that such biases got us Bubba in 2013/14 as well. I think we need to make this decision separate from such biases. Do not hire someone because of acquaintance and bias, but because they’re the best candidate.

Everything works a bit slower in North Dakota (especially at UND for football) …

A lot remains to be seen. Don’t know who is in the applicant pool and what the options are, don’t know what the salary pool will be, don’t know which assistants will be kept and who will be replaced, and who are the eventual replacements. Gonna be a lot to unpack over the course of this month … get buckled up everyone.

I wouldn’t just hire someone who is confident … that’s not nearly enough to imply you’ll be a good or great DI head football coach.

He didn’t. This a rumor and not true. Bubba didn’t hold back Fruechte one bit.

Agree- the love affair with Fruechte is unjustified.

Nah, no success as a head coach anywhere (never even been a head coach). Vikings? Ha! He gonna recruit a professional athlete to play for UND? Good one …

Meh… no proven success. UND offense was fine this year but was a dud against good teams (Iowa State, NDSU, SDSU, and even Illinois State to a degree).

C’mon man, Schmidt could do well at UND, but let’s not act like he walks on water. His defenses choked away two playoff games in 2016 at home vs a CAA team and on the road in 2019 versus a Southland Conference team! Can’t blame either to injuries … And 2024 San Diego State roster was decimated by injuries also, was it? There are pros and cons, always are. Schmidt had a good run with DeBoer at Fresno and Washington, but those teams won cause of their offense, not their defense. Im weary on Schmidt’s ability to knockoff NDSU and SDSU, I think we may see more “Bubba Ball” with Schmidt as head coach but no one knows for sure.

Great way to look at it honestly.

No, sort of like Schmidt, lots of coaching stops, limited success, although Schmidt definitely got in on some winning with DeBoer at Fresno and Washington. Schmidt > Tibesar, but I’d hope there is a better applicant than both.

Amen

Think Deion Sanders and Colorado? Eddie George and Tennessee State …