GRAND FORKS -- The UND football program has a head football coaching opening for the first time since 2013.
On Saturday, UND announced head coach Bubba Schweigert was stepping down for an athletic department role at the university.
Here's a look at candidates to consider. The list is in alphabetical order.
Beau Baldwin, Calgary Stampede quarterbacks coach: UND athletic director Bill Chaves came to Grand Forks from Eastern Washington, where he once hired Baldwin to build the brand in Cheney. Baldwin brought Chaves a national title in 2010 and went 85-32 in Cheney. Baldwin rose to offensive coordinator at Cal before taking the head job at Cal Poly and struggling to gain traction from 2020-22. He then became the offensive coordinator at Arizona State before joining the CFL.
Brent Bolte, Bemidji State head coach: The 47-year-old Iowa native has the Beavers in new territory after picking up a second-round playoff win for the first time on Saturday. Bemidji State has won at least seven games in all of Bolte's eight years as head coach in Bemidji.
Isaac Freuchte, UND offensive coordinator: New to UND, Fruechte could be an unfortunate casualty of the Schweigert move. In his first season in Grand Forks, Fruechte's offense scored more than 30.0 points per game, ranking fifth in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Freuchte came to UND after callling plays at Winona State. He played college football at Minnesota and had a stint in the NFL at wide receiver.
Danny Freund, South Dakota State co-offensive coordinator: Once the assumed successor of Schweigert, the former UND standout quarterback left UND last offseason to take an offensive job at South Dakota State. Freund made many allies in Grand Forks but left, in part, to pursue a rise in the profession. Has that itch been scratched? Did the departure leave either side of the coin too bitter to return?
Travis Johansen, South Dakota defensive coordinator: The associate head coach of the Coyotes makes for an intriguing candidate. USD has risen under his watch, which started in 2019. The native of Blaine is a young coach who graduated from Concordia-St. Paul in 2007. He has a track record at Grand View (Iowa) as an assistant coach in the NAIA, where the team went 61-11 and won a national title in 2013. USD's defense gave up 14.9 points per game in 2024. UND's defense gave up 30.9 points per game.
Luke Schleusner, Idaho offensive coordinator: The UND alum is remembered for two important moves in Grand Forks: The key catch and run to help win the 2001 Division II national title and recruiting future NFL wide receiver Kenny Golladay to UND. After spending time at South Dakota State, the Wisconsin native is leading an offense that averaged 28 points per game. In his first season in Moscow, he took an offense that averaged 25.36 points per game to 35.92 in 2022.
Eric Schmidt, San Diego State defensive coordinator: Could UND pull away its former defensive coordinator from the FBS ranks? Schmidt left UND to join Kalen DeBoer's staff at Fresno State and then went with the now-Alabama head coach in his rise at Washington, where the Huskies were a perfect 12-0 in the regular season in 2023. The Mandan native took over as San Diego State's defensive coordinator in 2024 but the Aztecs gave up 29.58 points per game and finished 3-9 this past season.
Tim Tibesar, Akron defensive coordinator: The former UND defensive standout has been in the FBS for many years now. Akron went 4-8 this past season and gave up 32.0 points per game. The 52-year-old St. Paul native was UND's defensive coordinator in 2004-05, then was at Kansas State as defensive coordinator (2007-08). He was also defensive coordinator at Purdue in 2012 and Oregon State (2018-21), among other stops at Wisconsin, Northwestern, the CFL and the Chicago Bears (linebackers coach in 2013).