Well, lets take another shot at this. We gathered up some names of potential candidates for the defensive line job that was recently vacated by Jordan Gigli. Gigli took a similar position at Northern Illinois.
Some of these are corroborated names, while others have been researched on our own. Let’s take a look at some possibilities, in no particular order.
Issendorf is currently the head coach at NDSCS (Wahpeton) leading them to a 9-2 record this past season. Prior to that he spent three years coaching defensive line at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. Issendorf also spent 10 years at Fargo South High School as the defensive line coach/defensive coordinator.
Former UND linebacker great Tim Tibesar is the connection here. Tibesar is currently the defensive coordinator at Oregon State University. Lose is currently a defensive quality control assistant at OSU. He also coached at Washington State for six years and was the defensive line coach at Portland State in 2017.
The former UND linebacker and Dickinson, ND native is currently the defensive coordinator at the University of Mary in Bismarck. Prior to that, he coached at Winona State as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach (2015-2017). He’s also served on Glenn Caruso’s staff at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN. Holinka worked on staff with Rutgers (Big 10) for two seasons (2013-2014).
Dickinson is currently the defensive line coach at Mankato State after being on the UND staff as offensive quality control during the 2017 season. Prior to that, Dickinson served on the Buena Vista University and Minot State staff’s as an assistant.
Admittedly, at face value, this is a stretch. Dosch has done an admirable job in Aberdeen at Northern State in the NSIC recently as a head coach for the last 8 years. However, Dosch was the D-line coach at UND during its years of defensive dominance at UND in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Dosch and Bubba Schweigert are very close friends to this day. And it’s hard to deny the Strasbourg, ND and Zeeland, ND connection. Dosch was also the defensive line coach at Southern Illinois for Bubba Schweigert’s Defense.
Flyger is an Augustana (Sioux Falls, SD) football alum and served on Dale Lennon’s staff at Southern Illinois as a GA and eventually defensive line coach under Bubba Schweigert’s at SIU. He’s also worked alongside current UND defensive coordinator Eric Schmidt in Carbondale. He is currently the defensive line coach for Tom Dosch at Northern State in Aberdeen, SD.
Dill is currently the outside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator for UM-Duluth. However, the seven years prior he worked with the Bulldogs defensive line. Dill played linebacker in college at St. Cloud State.
Kuchinski has led some dominant defenses at St. Thomas during his tenure there under Glenn Caruso over the last decade. Because he is a 3-4 defensive scheme guy at heart, it’s hard to not take a look at him as a potential candidate. Has some existing relationships with current UND staffers and has ‘clinic’d’ with them a few times over the years.
The current Western Illinois DL coach played college ball at Bowling Green. Since then he’s had stops at Toledo, Ohio U, Colorado School of Mines, and served as quality control at Mississippi State. In his first season at WIU this year, had the opportunity to work with future NFL DL stud Khalen Saunders.
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