GRAND FORKS – The UND football program has an open football head coaching position for the first time since 2013.
On Saturday, UND announced that head coach Bubba Schweigert is resigning from his position in the university’s athletic department.
Here’s a look at the candidates you should consider. The list is arranged alphabetically.
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Beau Baldwin, Calgary Stampede quarterbacks coach: UND athletic director Bill Chaves came to Grand Forks from Eastern Washington, where he once hired Baldwin to build the brand in Cheney. Baldwin brought Chaves a national title in 2010, winning 85-32 in Cheney. Baldwin rose to offensive coordinator at Cal before taking the head job at Cal Poly and struggling to find his footing in 2020-22. He then became the offensive coordinator at Arizona State before moving to the CFL.
Brent Bolte, Bemidji State head coach: The 47-year-old Iowa native broke new ground for the Beavers after earning a second-round playoff victory for the first time on Saturday. Bemidji State has won at least seven games in the eight years Bolte has been head coach in Bemidji.
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Isaac Fruechte, UND offensive coordinator: Fruechte, who is new to UND, could be an unfortunate victim of the Schweigert move. In his first season in Grand Forks, Fruechte’s offense scored more than 30.0 points per game, ranking fifth in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Fruechte came to UND after playing at Winona State. He played college football at Minnesota and was a wide receiver in the NFL.
Danny Freund, South Dakota State co-offensive coordinator: Once the presumptive successor to Schweigert, the former UND standout quarterback left UND last offseason to take an offensive line job at South Dakota State. Freund found many allies in Grand Forks, but left in part to pursue career advancement. Has that itch been scratched? Has leaving made one side of the coin too bitter to return?
Travis Johansen, South Dakota defensive coordinator: The Coyotes’ associate head coach is an interesting candidate. USD has risen under his watch since 2019. The Blaine native is a young coach who graduated from Concordia-St. Paul in 2007. He has a track record at Grand View (Iowa) as an assistant coach in the NAIA, where the team went 61-11 and won a national title in 2013. USD’s defense gave up 14.9 points per game in 2024. UND’s defense gave up 30.9 points per game.
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Luke Schleusner, Idaho offensive coordinator: The UND alum is remembered for two key moves in Grand Forks: the game-winning catch-and-run that helped win the 2001 Division II national title and recruiting future NFL wide receiver Kenny Golladay to UND . After spending time at South Dakota State, the Wisconsin native leads an offense that averaged 28 points per game. In his first season in Moscow, he averaged 25.36 points per game on offense, and in 2022 it was 35.92.
Photo by Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald.
Eric Schmidt, San Diego State defensive coordinator: Could UND move its former defensive coordinator away from the FBS ranks? Schmidt left UND to join Kalen DeBoer’s staff at Fresno State, then accompanied the now-Alabama head coach in his promotion to Washington, where the Huskies posted a perfect 12-0 record in the 2023 regular season. The Mandan native took over as Diego State’s defensive coordinator in 2024, but the Aztecs gave up 29.58 points per game and finished 3-9 last season.
Tim Tibesar, Akron defensive coordinator: The former UND defensive player has been in the FBS for many years. Akron went 4-8 last season and gave up 32.0 points per game. The 52-year-old St. Paul native was UND’s defensive coordinator from 2004-05 and then was defensive coordinator at Kansas State from 2007-08. He also served as defensive coordinator at Purdue in 2012 and Oregon State (2018-21), including stints with Wisconsin, Northwestern, the CFL and the Chicago Bears (linebackers coach in 2013).
