To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Obviously, it was always a possibility but wow.
UND offensive coordinator Danny Freund is leaving to be the Co-OC/QB Coach at South Dakota State. Not the offensive coordinator – the Co-Offensive Coordinator and he won’t even be calling plays. Interesting to say the least.
Freund did a good job at UND being the energy guy on the staff and bringing a new-age, fun offense to Grand Forks. They averaged over 30 points/game the last two seasons. UND QB Tommy Schuster broke most all the UND all-time records under Freund’s watch. He was a good recruiter and a UND alum, having been a standout QB himself for the Fighting Sioux.
That last line is what makes this move a bit peculiar. I am going to brain dump for you about what I think was going on over the last few weeks and led to this move.
Why would Danny leave so abruptly for SDSU of the MVFC when he was already the OC for a top program in the league?
Money. I guarantee he will be making more than whatever he was being paid at UND. Not a lot more but more. It’s not everything but like my old social studies teacher Gene Martin used to say, “love makes the world go round but money greases the wheels”.
Bubba’s contract status. Tough to be hanging around when a coach is nearing the end of his contract with no guarantee of an extension in sight. Bubba has two years left, which in the football terms means he has one year left. College coaches don’t enter their last year (death of recruiting, etc). My personal opinion is Bubba may be retiring after the season, which means 2024 is quite possibly his last season. He has earned the right to finish out his time the way he see’s fit and has led UND to the playoffs five times in his time in Grand Forks. The program is on solid footing and graduates players (the main reason these young men are on campus).
Now if you are Danny and have aspirations to be the head coach at your alma mater you are putting all your eggs in one basket. AD Bill Chaves either hires him or he is retained by the new head coach, or he is out of a job. The last two have a better chance of happening than the first if Chaves opens it up for a national search. Just never know who will apply.
Honestly, I think Danny got spooked it bit by Tyler Roehl not getting the head job at NDSU. Roehl then had to rely on his friend Tim Polasek getting the job to ensure he was hired again for the same position. If they hire somebody completely outside the Bison family then it may not have ended well for Roehl. Danny would be in the exact same position next November and may have said I don’t want to deal with that. Who knows.
Speaking of Polasek, he was in the exact same position at Wyoming as Roehl was at NDSU. Craig Bohl just retired and the Cowboys chose to hire in-house DC Jay Sawvel as the next head coach. Meaning Sawvel has full power to hire his own staff. There was a chance that Polasek was not going to be retained. Meaning he was potentially out of a job (temporarily) if the NDSU thing didn’t work out. To sum it up: two offensive coordinators going through the exact same thing Danny was possibly going to be going through next winter.
Another interesting tidbit is there’s no guarantee Jimmy Rogers is at SDSU very long. He was an extremely legit candidate for the Minnesota defensive coordinator position that was just filled yesterday (Rogers would’ve had the job if all requests were met is what I was told). That means he would’ve been gone from SDSU last week possibly and this whole thing doesn’t happen. Rumor? Maybe, but I like my sources. Rogers could leave next year for a P5 DC job and thus back to square one for Danny.
I am not sure I see Danny being in Brookings long. He has now shown he wants to move up the ladder and take a chance to do it. That means he could be moving on to be the main offensive coordinator somewhere in very near future. Once again, just my speculation but seems feasible.
We all know UND needs to pay more to their staff. No doubt. But this wasn’t about money. It was about advancing and self-preservation, which is something I can certainly understand being in the insurance world. Gotta keep things in line when you have a family to think about, as well.
I will miss Danny. He and his wife Ann were great ambassadors for the University and Grand Forks. Best of luck to them – I certainly appreciate all they did for my alma mater!
What does this mean for UND? Not sure, right now but it’s certainly a bad look. It taints the 2024 season greatly. IMO, it’s going to be tougher to get a candidate to come to Grand Forks and run the offense when they know they might be out of a job in 10 months. I am seeing an in-house promotion – perhaps Joe Pawlak getting his first shot at calling plays or a Sam King promotion from wide receiver coach (similar to what Danny Freund did in 2019).
The reality is this folks: UND needs to make up their mind what they want to be during this time of possible transition. Do they want to be the best program in the MVFC or not? The decisions that have been made over the last 15 years have been far from a “burn the boats” mentality. It’s been more of a “hope this is enough to do the trick in D1” mentality, with it never being enough.
Facilities: a non-issue now and are 100% a feather in their cap when it comes to recruiting & development. Kudos to all who have worked tirelessly to raise those funds and make it happen! Money: the staff is not funded as well as it needs to be, no doubt, but that certainly doesn’t mean they cannot win. UND has won games and entertained the masses but have zero (non-covid spring) playoff wins in their D1 history.
The unfortunate truth, or in my mind, the fortunate truth is that we are in the same conference and within 250 miles of the two best FCS programs in the country. There is no false hope heading into a season. No more Big Sky days of thinking your lines are good enough to compete nationally, only two find out they’re nowhere near good enough come playoff time. We know EXACTLY what we need to do to beat those two as we see it first-hand every single year. Is UND making decisions with that in mind? Are they recruiting players that can compete 1-on-1 with SDSU and NDSU? Burning the candle at both ends to find missing pieces that can make big plays and turn games in their favor? Bigtime players win tight games, all it takes is 3 or 4 of them. Ex – Clive Georges didn’t make a ton of plays in his short stint at UND but when he did it was sure fun to watch.
We all want UND to win. To beat the best and to make a playoff run – then do it again & again like the D2 days. The stakes have been raised, however, by their closest rivals and decisions have to be made across the board – do we want to catch them, plus surpass them periodically, because there are very few reasons why it cannot happen in my humble opinion.