UND-FB-FAN

I’m sorry for again another personal connection you may or may not have here clouding your judgement, but Eric Schmidt has NEVER been a collegiate head coach and as a defensive coordinator his defenses have been mediocre to poor. His defenses at UND didn’t yield any playoff wins and his defense this year at San Diego State was awful. So, the facts are with Eric Schmidt: - never been a collegiate head coach - never been a defensive coordinator and produced; that is, did not win a playoff game or consistently have greater than 0.60 win percentage with his defenses. - UND only won 53% of their games when Schmidt was DC here from 2014-2019.

Let’s also not forget about Jerry Olszewski at Augustana. I mentioned his name about a month back, and would be worth mentioning since the job listing is heading towards division II head coach …

That’s the concern here on the forum, but doesn’t sound like that is being selected against per the job listing preferences. Historically, Chaves has hired current head coaches at the division II ranks, so the preferred qualifications are not surprising. This makes me think we will hire a current Division II head coach …

Brent Bolte, yes, but not much experience beyond Bemidji State. What about Todd Hoffner (his winning percentage at a Minnesota State is even more impressive)?

18-16 head coaching record is not good enough, but his record at South Dakota State as an assistant if factored in would raise the winning percentage.

Fair criticism, but did he not recruit central time zone when he was at EWU? Probably not, so you’re likely right.

That is sub-60 percent, so we’re raising the bar. I’d call that a win.

Would be my choice. No other candidate listed can claim to have won an FCS championship as a head coach, he knows what it takes, and he did it with inferior facilities to what he’d have here at UND. Plus, plenty, plenty of connections and experience (including FBS).

Both, they are not mutually exclusive. Coaching football is a bit more complicated than just recruiting the best players. You need to develop, communicate and put them in the best position to succeed (scheme) also, and make adjustments in real-time.

Better than less than 60%? Bubba wasn’t able to reach 60%, so this would suggest we’re raising the bar ….

I hope so, he’d be a slam dunk in my opinion. He would recruit and develop the championship-level quarterback play everyone at UND yearns for.

Impressive

Schmidt’s defenses as a coordinator have been suspect (porous, perhaps) to say the least. There are better candidates.

This is incredibly important, so important. Do it right. You can always sacrifice one recruiting cycle for the subsequent numerous beneficial cycles you get in return with the right hire.

Amen

The “next DeBoer” would have not gone 5-7 this season or been apart of a 5-6 (record) division II program. When you say the next head coach needs to be the best person for the job, that is incredibly ambiguous and unclear. When you say fortunately no one with that philosophy will be making that decision, then that is both an unjustified and uninformed jab at me but also failed insight on your part into the track record of UND’s recent hires. Since you may actually have UND’s attention with all of this, I would just say getting the best person is getting the person who best can a) recruit, b) retain, c) develop and d) coach student-athletes in real-time (need to be a good in-game head coach), and thus produce the most competitive teams possible for UND football, hopefully championship caliber, while also e) fostering positive growth and mentorship. In my opinion, someone who has been a successful head coach previously should be held in high regard, but certainly interviewing a good coordinator and selecting one who projects to be a good recruiter, developer, and in-game strategist is appropriate, we just DON’T want UND leadership to settle for someone who has UND ties only because they have UND ties. I would like to think you can at least appreciate that perspective and the possibility of it (based on the past), @iramurphy. Hopefully the leadership sees through that potential distraction.

I definitely understand your point, but in the past, UND connection it seems was preference over other prospects and considerations. Nobody wants that to happen again, especially since we missed on Kalen DeBoer. i’m quite confident this is going to head the direction of Eric Schmidt, but we’ll see who is interested and the degree of completeness the athletic department actually does with this “national search”.

Followed up with an embarrassing 27-0 loss the next week at Northern Iowa, to forfeit all momentum, and a 41-17 shellacking at NDSU in follow up in 2024. A lot went downhill in a hurry following that 2023 victory against NDSU, albeit that specific game was a good time.

The entire staff should take responsibility for the 2024 implosion and 5-game losing streak (that includes the popular interim head coach and recent OC Isaac Fruechte). Next head coach should be and needs to be someone external and without previous UND ties, but I’m feeling unsure that will be the case, unfortunately.

The overall body of work for UND as a playoff eligible division I program - from 2012 to 2024 - has been overall disappointing. Is it so hard to hire a head coach that has not been apart of these years of mediocrity? No to Schmidt. No to Freund. No to Fruechte. No to Luke Schleusner. Bring someone new to this region and give them a chance to elevate UND to unprecedented heights. Give UND football a fresh new chance. Let’s see what happens, but even this forum is a microcosm of how folks from UND and Grand Forks have a hard thinking outside the box (program).

Hope so, and hope a true national search is still performed, with the adequate preferred criteria for a championship-caliber hire.

Yeah, that definitely would be the easy button approach. But, again, why even lie to everyone and say a national search? Because hiring Fruechte and coming to conclusion this soon would not exactly be a national search and hire.

I’m not confident we’re going to operate like a 1st class athletic department with this critical hire…. The press release yesterday saying Bubba was going to act as head coach until a hire was made and then now a release saying Fruechte is the interim head coach is already a early red flag… I hope it is something as simple as the players told Chaves they want Fruechte over Bubba as the interim head guy until the new hire is made.

National search …. Yeah, we will see.

Tibesar’s 2024 defense at Akron was even worse than Schmidt’s 2024 defense at San Diego State. Not to mention, for those worried about age on here, Tibesar is older than Schmidt.