This past weekend we predicted that Joe Pawlak would be named the new offensive line coach at UND. Today, Bubba Schweigert made it official.
Pawlak comes to UND from the University of Iowa where he spent the past three seasons (2016-2018) as an assistant offensive line coach under OC Brian Ferentz. At Iowa, Pawlak helped the Hawkeyes have what was widely regarded as one of the stronger offensive lines in college football on a yearly basis.
A graduate of Northern Illinois, Pawlak played for former UND OL coach Rod Carey and was a three year starter for the Huskies, garnering all-conference honors in 2010.
He then coached at Northern Illinois as a GA from 2014-2015.
Northern Illinois and Iowa both run some spread-based offensive stuff while the Hawkeyes also employ pro-style looks with the QB under center. This tells us that Pawlak should have a good cross-section of blocking schemes that he has worked with.
This will be important as UND is transitioning from a pro-style, QB under center, offense to more of a run-based spread look that will have zone blocking concepts.
Pawlak worked with former UND and Grand Forks Central QB Jake Landry during his time at Northern Illinois (2014-2015). Another interesting tidbit is that former UND wide receiver Luke Stanley’s brother, Nate, is the current quarterback of the Hawkeyes.
We presume that Pawlak’s recruiting area will be the Chicago-land area and parts of Iowa being he has extensive experience in both areas. A caveat to that is Pawlak is from Grayslake, IL, which is located just south of the Wisconsin/Illinois border, not too far from Milwaukee (which is a fertile recruiting area). Will be interesting to see where he ends up.
Pawlak will be arriving in Grand Forks on Friday, January 11th and begin coaching for the Fighting Hawks on Saturday.
Photo courtesy of University of Iowa Athletics – https://hawkeyesports.com/coaches.aspx?rc=1695&path=football
