What many had speculated could be happening – happened. UND head coach Bubba Schweigert announced Monday that OC Paul Rudolph will not return next season. OL coach Luke Knauf will also not be returning.
It does appear however, that TE/ST coach Shawn Kostich, RB coach Malcolm Agnew and WR coach Danny Freund are staying on staff.
The following quote was provided by Schweigert about the moves made yesterday:
“I’d like to thank both Paul Rudolph and Luke Knauf for their time in our program,” Schweigert said. “There are always tough decisions because they involve families. But, I felt a change was needed in the program at this time. When I was hired, I made a commitment to doing what was in the best interests for North Dakota Football and the University of North Dakota.”
When Rudolph was announced as the offensive coordinator back in early 2014, it was due to his history of operating a run-first, pro-style offense that would chew up clock and try to wear down the opponent. He was a head coach at Upper Iowa (1992-2000) and Minot State (2007-2013) and was the OC at St. Cloud State from 2000-2006. At SCSU, Rudolph’s offense broke 26 single-season school records and 21 more single-game records.
Knauf, a former University of Wisconsin offensive lineman, spent three years at Western New Mexico as the offensive line coach and eventually as the OC his last year there.
When we reflect on the last five years of UND football and specifically the offense it’s kind of a mixed bag of emotions/thoughts. The run-first scheme was sound in theory and worked when all the pieces were in place, like back in 2016 during their playoff run or even the last few games of 2015.
When UND had a deep threat, like Clive Georges, it made the offense much more dangerous and loosened some things up for the front seven blockers. But players like Georges were few and far between often resulting in the opponent playing the typical Big Sky Cover 1/man-to-man. UND’s bigger WR’s struggled to get open or create separation, which made it tough on the quarterbacks.
In our opinion, the downfall of this offense was the need for a dominant offensive line, as we have written about before. Rudolph wanted to line up man-on-man and bang heads with the defense, eventually imposing his will on them and wearing them out. This idea sounds great but to actually execute it proved to be unfeasible based on a number of factors. The defense you are going against might be better than you and injuries could take away your best offensive lineman. But first and foremost, it is the necessity of having better offensive lineman than your opponent has defensive lineman.
UND’s recruiting along the offensive line was a mixed bag over the years. They lost several key players that would have made the team better, including Elijah Grady, Justus Merz, Demon Taylor, Brendan Slaight (juco that never showed), Jacob Francis (injury). But, if you want an honest opinion they did not have enough depth and enough dominant, ass-kicking type of linemen that are needed for this offense on a consistent basis. They developed some guys that were very good players (Brandon Anderson–Sean Meehan) but there weren’t enough of them and depth issues arose. A few current lineman like Ryan Tobin and Noah Mortel are on the right track but are only sophomores.
The loss of Travis Toivonen and deep threat Izzy Adeoti certainly hurt the offense’s production this year, no doubt. At the end of the Idaho loss UND was down to it’s #5-6-7 WR’s. This led to QB Nate Ketteringham not having anybody to throw to as the oncoming rushers were quickly approaching.
The running back stable was obviously outstanding over the past four years with All-American John Santiago and All-Big Sky Brady Oliveira spearheading the attack. Credit needs to be give to the offensive staff for sniffing out those two workhorses, who will go down as two of the best ever to play at UND.
This day and age it is a necessity to spread teams out and attack that way. Defenses are used to being spread out and matched up 1-on-1 so when a team bunches it up with TE/FB’s it actually is a nice break for them. They reduce down and come straight ahead vs. worrying about left and right action all game.
UND can still run the ball effectively out of a spread look, much like Eastern Washington and many other teams do. You could also argue that being in the spread would have benefited Ketteringham better given his past experience. EWU’s offensive line is not dominant but they are effective because of tempo, downfield threats, and getting the linebackers to look left and right all while running it right at them. We’re not saying UND should run EWU’s offense, or even could given the current roster, rather pointing out a different approach that seems to work fairly consistently.
All in all, it’s really pretty simple – the best teams in the country have the best overall offensive and defensive lines.
Paul Rudolph and Luke Knauf are good people. We thank them for their years and contributions to the UND Football program and wish them and their families the best.
