UND-FB-FAN

Whoa…

No to Caruso and Bolte, yes to Baldwin #1 Beau Baldwin - issues are age, perhaps, and poor performances his past few seasons (Arizona State, Cal Poly) haven’t been good, but he did excellent as a head coach at EWU and did quite well as OC at Cal. He’s my #1 because of proven track record as a head coach. My #2 is … #2 Luke Schleusner - 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 UND to new heights on that journey upward. As for defense, he could bring defensive assistant coach Hunter Hughes (2011 Football Scoop Division II Coordinator of the Year and Former West Texas A&M Head Coach) with him from Idaho.

There are so many other good, if not better, candidates. Remains to been seen if they’ll apply, but I really do think we have to caution ourselves against wanting the guy the players want to get the job. These players did not accomplish much in 2024 and may just be looking out for themselves. We all know an outside coach is going to be more aggressive in bringing in “their guys”. Advocating strongly for Fruechte at this juncture is actually settling, because we’re not considering the overall field of potential applicants at all if we do that.

I don’t disagree one bit. Priority needs to be coaches who are proven winners, specifically as coordinators or head coach, and not as a position coach or player.

The wish list just keeps growing longer and longer. Bottom line is let’s just get somebody who knows how to win. Winners win. Losers lose. (DeBoer uses that line) Let’s see who applies, and take the winner amongst them; and hopefully UND does not screw it up by releasing numerous names (finalists) when they don’t have to.

Definitely a lot of success as head coach of NAIA school for Joe Woodley. He should be considered (strongly) if he applies.

I agree. The players like him. He has a lot of support from former Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Golden Gophers, and I get it, he’s a nice guy. But we need to consider the entire pool, and there will undoubtedly be candidates with more experience and more coaching success that should get the job before Fruechte. I like Fruechte - I hope he stays on staff as a coordinator or position coach, though.

There may be better choices available though for coordinator spots. Let not anoint coordinators quite yet until we know head coach …

Travis Johansen is a fine candidate but what about USD’s offensive coordinator Josh Davis? https://goyotes.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/josh-davis/1540 Looks like USD really turned around two seasons ago after they hired Davis from SDSU. Johansen has been apart of a couple dud seasons at USD to be honest. Any reason we ain’t considering Davis here?

Just hire the best candidate and let them decide on their staff. Ideally, the head coach would hire his own staff, and to be frank, all the current assistant coaches probably should be and will be go. Fruechte may be held onto based on his popularity and connection with the current players, but he may need to settle for a position coach spot and not be the coordinator, which I think is reasonable if the new head coach has a more preferred offensive coordinator candidate. You definitely do not want to force the new head coach into hiring Fruechte, especially at OC, if he doesn’t want to. Despite getting a lot of heat on here, I still like Beau Baldwin, but I definitely like others as well. Hoffner and Bolte jump out (and ironically play each other this weekend). Who cares about ties. Who cares about age. Just get the best coach that’s most likely to win the University of North Dakota a championship. **None of us will care about UND ties or age if the new coach wins a championship.

We’ll take the winning head coach …

One extreme to the next; throw away modern quarterback play with that offense. Not a good idea in my opinion. With that said, most offenses nowadays have some triple option (albeit maybe spread option) concepts included. Even Fruechte ran some variations in 2024 for UND, although mostly RPO.

Schmidt hasn’t won a national championship as a head coach, but I understand your concerns. No perfect candidate, just need to get the best one.

Not sure, but he’s been a coach for a while, and been at FBS programs. I’m sure he’s networked and worked with several other coaches who know the Midwest and are from the Midwest.

I’m not this guy’s biggest cheerleader by any means, and there are definitely other potential candidates out there just as good and perhaps even better, but: - he coached the QBs and was OC at EWU from 2003-2006. He coached QB Erik Meyer who won the 2005 Walter Payton Award (for most outstanding player in FCS). - he then was head coach at EWU starting in 2008, and coached Bo Levi Mitchell, who won the national championship in 2010 and also the Walter Payton Award in 2011. - then coached Vernon Adam afterwards, an undersized , under-recruited quarterback (sound familiar to UND’s QBs?) to freshman of the year honors in 2012. Adams also was coached well by Baldwin and beat #25 Oregon State in 2014. A lot less accolades over the past 10 years unfortunately.

He’d have a much better OL/DL recruiting pipeline here in the Midwest compared to the West Coast … And he knows how to recruit and coach the quarterbacks, which last I checked is still a pretty damn important position.

It’s the right thing to do, football has never been more popular than it currently is

I’m okay with the others successful as a DII head coach or FCS/FBS coordinator. Need someone will proven track record and vision to elevate UND football to the next level.

A former FCS national champion head coach is pretty comical, huh? Okay then.

I am confident that the best candidate to apply, per our agreed upon criteria and the qualifications listed by the University, will not have UND connections. Let’s see if that’s who they ultimately select though.

Excuse me?

I’d be most excited for Beau Baldwin given what he accomplished at Eastern Washington, but I’m okay with one of the proven DII head coaches: - Bolte (Bemidji State) - Olszewski (Augustana) - Hoffner (Minnesota State) Pipe-dreams: - Tony Annese (Ferris State) - heck, why not Paul Simmons (Harding)