UND Athletic Director Bill Chaves announced today that he has extended Bubba Schweigert, once again. This latest two-year extension will take Bubba through the 2027 season.
Schweigert’s pay will be very similar throughout – increasing only $10,000 per year to a max of $285,000. That salary still keeps him in the bottom half of MVFC coaches.
AD Bill Chaves from the Grand Forks Herald article by Tom Miller:
“I look forward to continuing to work with Coach Schweigert to achieve our ultimate goal of winning an FCS championship,” UND athletic director Bill Chaves said. “Bubba has led our program to the playoffs four of the past five seasons which makes us one of only seven (of 128) teams in the country to do so. With our facility upgrades occurring in real-time, I am excited for the next steps programmatically. Finally, and aside from the football performance piece, Coach Schweigert is a tremendous ambassador for the University of North Dakota.”
The fact is UND has made the playoffs four of the last five seasons. There is consistency and there is ‘high-quality’ to the program. This should not be taken for granted as it can go away real quick and then we have 3 to 5 win seasons.
This extension isn’t a great surprise in hindsight, as I’m pretty sure Isaac Fruechte isn’t coming to Grand Forks without assurances that Bubba will be around for multiple years.
Bubba is a great ambassador for the UND Football program. He has built a strong program that graduates players and keeps them out of trouble. They represent Grand Forks well. Hard to find anybody that has a bad thing to say about the man. I know that isn’t the case for myself!
I believe the extension came to keep continuity in the program and reward the successes of being a playoff team in the toughest conference in the land.
Basically, the two years keep Bubba as the coach through the 2025 season for sure – then we are back to the same situation we are in now. Do they extend him again or head into the second to last year of the contract (2026)? The last year doesn’t count as no coach in America coaches during his last year unless there is a plan in place. Recruits want to know who the coach is going to be. So do the current players and assistant coaches.
Bubba is 60-51 as the head coach at UND. Here are the wins per season:
- 2014 = 5
- 2015 = 7
- 2016 = 9 (playoffs – lost in second round after bye)
- 2017 = 3
- 2018 = 6
- 2019 = 7 (playoffs – lost in first round to Nicholls)
- 2020 = 5 (playoffs – shortened spring season – won first round vs Missouri State)
- 2021 = 5
- 2022 = 7 (playoffs – lost in first round to Weber State)
- 2023 = 7 (playoffs – lost in first round to Sac State)
As you can see there is a great amount of consistency. The issue that so many Hawks fans have is two-fold: UND cannot get past the first round (in a full season) and 7 wins seems to be the ceiling now.
I have stated prior that to go anything better than 8-3 the Hawks would have to do the following: not lose to anyone they shouldn’t – beat either NDSU, SDSU or FBS opponent. Before the season starts they are 8-3 on paper. It’s just a fact based on statistical models. Sure they may be dogs to some other teams also, but for sake of argument let’s say UND can beat those other 8 teams.
Knowing that is what you are up against should make a coach try to change up recruiting, first of all. Do I have players that can beat NDSU and SDSU? If not where are they cause I need to get them now. It starts in summer recruiting and ends in the portal. Body types need to matchup. Development is huge, of course, but you gotta get some animals if you want to have a circus.
The ugly truth is we are in the same state as the team with the most national championships in FCS history. Our fans know that and want a national championship of our own, like we got in 2001 after battling so many years. Now SDSU has TWO. The standard is different. This isn’t the Big Sky or CAA or SoCon. The standard is in our conference and in our face every year.
I am certain that Chaves expects more than 7 wins and third/fourth place. I know the coaches want more than that so at this point my only comment is to ask: What is being done to get UND over the hump?
Human nature expects progression and to see successes – a slow build up in life. Some failures, yes, but then more successes, rinse repeat. I am an insurance agent – I see ‘failure’ often. But that is the nature of the business. At the same time I am expected to keep producing at ever-improving levels. So successes ultimately need to outdo the failures for me to succeed. A slow build up.
This is what the die-hard fans want. They want to see a first round playoff victory. They want to see progression and the past five seasons have not shown that, but they have shown glimpses (NDSU win) and 6-7 win consistency.
The fact is the pieces are in place institutionally to see 8 wins, maybe 9. It’s more than possible.
To sum it up here are my thoughts: I am fine with the extension. I am also fine with it because I am assuming conversations have taken place about “how do we get over the hump?” – “What needs to change?” Chaves brought in Derek Stein to take over the strength and conditioning program. The football program has consistently peaked mid-season only to be playing average football when it mattered most. Does a new approach in training help with that? We will see.