Spitballing (Hopefully Unnecessary) Minnesota Head Coach Candidates

Every athletic director in the country has a list. If they love their coach, if they hate their coach, if their feelings are somewhere in between, if their coach faces a scandal, if their coach is approaching retirement age, if the coach has health problems, or if the coach just does not like this job much anymore, the athletic director always needs to have possible replacements in mind. If an AD does not have a list, they are not doing their job. Right now, Minnesota's Mark Coyle has a list.

With how many FBS head coaching jobs are open, this is an important year to have a list. Auburn or Florida will not hire P.J. Fleck, but maybe a school that loses their coach to a bigger job is willing to beat what the U of M is paying him. Maybe Fleck thinks he has done all he can at Minnesota, and he uses a potentially wild hiring cycle as his chance to move laterally. Maybe he just tried lutefisk for the first time, and it convinced him to get out of town immediately. Coyle should not be thinking of firing Fleck, and he is certainly not, but he needs to be prepared to replace him anyway.

This post covers coaches Minnesota should consider in the short term, if they need to find someone immediately, as well as those they should monitor for the future. Some are obvious fits. Some could make more sense a year from now. Some need way more on their résumé to hire any time soon. But all have arguments to succeed Fleck, whether directly or years down the line.

(In case it does not go without saying: This is not reporting. I have no sources in the coaching industry. This is meant purely as prognostication.)

First Calls

Matt Campbell, Iowa State head coach

I do not expect Matt Campbell will ever be Minnesota's head coach. He has been picky about his next job for long enough that it is fair to guess that this program does not reach whatever standard (or salary demand) he has. Penn State, who should be trying to bring him to Happy Valley right now, is likely the level of job for which he would leave.

This is not the best year to sell a fan base on Campbell, of course, but Iowa State's underwhelming record is easy to explain with injuries. The secondary the Cyclones started the year with is not the one they are fielding right now, and that is killing them. Sometimes, a program in good shape has a rotten season. If they do not achieve bowl eligibility against TCU or Kansas, they will against a woeful Oklahoma State.

There is zero doubting Campbell's bona fides as a program builder. Whenever he is done in Ames, he will be the school's first head coach since Earle Bruce to have a winning record for his tenure. The reason ISU has realistic expectations to be near the top of the new Big 12, the reason they have even played in big enough games to hold against their head coach for losing them, and the reason they will be able to sell candidates on the job when it next opens is Matt Campbell. He raised the floor and the ceiling on one of the historically worst programs in college football. He is the dream coach for a school like Minnesota. If Campbell is still at Iowa State when the Gophers enter the market for a new head coach, Coyle has to at least gauge his interest.

Chris Klieman, Kansas State head coach

Since a weird opening to 2025, where they went 1-4 in one-score games, Kansas State's season is more or less back on track. While the Wildcats' likely 6-6 finish would be Chris Klieman's worst full season in Manhattan, it is a sign of program health to rebound from such a difficult start.

Iowa and Wisconsin likely have Klieman on their own lists, and it is easy to see why. Three years ago, Klieman won the Big 12, and he has gone 8-5 or better in five of his seven seasons. As Ron Prince (and even Bill Snyder) showed, fielding a consistent winner at K-State is not a given. Klieman won four FCS titles in five seasons at North Dakota State, and he worked for years at his alma mater, Northern Iowa. He is a proven head coach who knows this part of the country very well. Though in years past, Minnesota would not have been a better job Kansas State, Klieman might want to move to the Big Ten for its greater television revenue and number of bids to the Playoff.

Lance Leipold, Kansas head coach

Right now, Lance Leipold's stock is admittedly pretty low. After a 9-4 season in 2023, the Jayhawks have dropped back to the bottom half of the Big 12. Leipold is 0-5 against Kansas State and lost his first meeting with Missouri this September, which has not landed him on the hot seat but is starting to frustrate fans.

That said, if the other candidates in this category do not want the Minnesota job, you could do worse than Leipold. The former Wisconsin-Whitewater quarterback won six Division III national championships coaching his alma mater, turned Buffalo into a winner, and has reset Kansas' floor to something respectable after more than a decade of woeful football. His teams have run complex and entertaining run-first offenses. Though I want to see Leipold pick things back up, you don't have to squint to see how he would fit at the U of M.

Tim Polasek, North Dakota State head coach

It may seem like the North Dakota State machine runs automatically, but the Matt Entz era showed it's not quite that simple. NDSU has their relative highs and lows like any other program. Currently, Tim Polasek's Bison are far and away the best team in FCS. They recently beat then-No.2 South Dakota State, the only team in the Missouri Valley that typically can beat them, by 31 points, the largest margin in the Dakota Marker rivalry since 1992. NDSU looks certain to repeat as national champions.

Is it too early to hire Polasek, just in his second year as head coach? Very possibly. He has experience coaching in FBS, though, having served as Iowa's offensive line coach for four years and Wyoming's offensive coordinator for three before going back to Fargo. Polasek would not be my first choice but is probably worth a call.

Will Stein, Oregon offensive coordinator

Will Stein is one of just a few external coordinators in this entire post. I am admittedly biased toward sitting head coaches, and probably overly deferential to geographical fit, because they feel like safer bets. A coordinator needs to be well-established in his job for me to believe in him as a head coach candidate, and there are not a lot of those at the moment with Midwest ties. (We'll touch on one later.)

Will Stein is worth considering in part because, ironically, he does not have a specific regional fit. Unlike, say, Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, Stein is not tied to one part of the country. He's been everywhere, and he works for a program that recruits nationally. He was a low-level assistant at Louisville (his alma mater) and Texas before calling plays at powerhouse Lake Travis High School (Texas). That got UTSA's attention, and his three years at UTSA got Oregon's attention.

Stein is now in his third season calling the Ducks' prolific offense, which is enough to start thinking about what he can do with more responsibility. While it is up to Stein to explain in the interview process how to make up for his relative lack of experience and unfamiliarity with the Midwest, those two concerns should not disqualify him if he has an adequate plan.

Brent Vigen, Montana State head coach

This is the last time a current or former North Dakota State coach will appear on this list. Brent Vigen played for the Bison in the 90s and moved straight onto Bob Babich's coaching staff, where he stayed until following Craig Bohl to Wyoming. When NDSU picked Matt Entz over Vigen as Chris Klieman's successor, Vigen moved to Bozeman and took over another big-time program. In 2024, Montana State came up just 3 points short of their first national title in four decades.

The arguments against Vigen are that he has not been an FBS head coach yet, and on multiple levels, winning at Montana State would not be analogous to winning at Minnesota. But he has taken the Bobcats to another level, holding an .818 winning percentage that is comfortably the best in program history. Vigen is indisputably a good coach that could make sense at the U of M.

LeVar Woods, Iowa special teams coordinator

Iowa has been one of the best special teams programs in college football since LaVar Woods took the coordinator job in 2012. A player under Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz at the turn of the century, Woods has for some time been considered a possible successor to Ferentz as the Hawkeyes' head coach. He has coached multiple positions and headed an elite unit for a long time in Minnesota's conference and region. Even if Woods would never even consider coming north of the border, Coyle would have to reach out and ask. He's too good a candidate to not seriously have the conversation.

Ones to Monitor in 2026

Jake Dickert, Wake Forest head coach

A Wisconsinite with tons of experience at the lower levels of Upper Midwest college football, Jake Dickert maintained a respectable record at Washington State as the athletic department faced huge deficits exacerbated by the pandemic. With the Cougs' relegation from power-conference status, Dickert left for Wake Forest and already has the Demon Deacons one win (North Carolina or Delaware) away from a bowl.

If Minnesota needed to replace Fleck last cycle, Dickert would not have been an unreasonable hire. The same would go for this cycle as well. I would be more sure about his qualifications after seeing more of his career play out, however.

Jason Eck, New Mexico head coach

I have been an admirer of Jason Eck since he was South Dakota State's offensive coordinator. Eck never won a national title in Brookings but ran one of the best offenses in FCS while he was there, a varied run-based spread. A Wisconsin grad, he took Idaho to the FCS playoffs three straight times as their head coach, and he is putting together a respectable season in his first year at New Mexico.

It is too early for Eck to make the jump to a power conference. I want to see him maintain a winning program at the FBS level. But he will make that jump sometime soon. Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin — among many other schools — should all have him on their minds.

Jimmy Rogers, Washington State head coach

I am going to talk out of both sides of my mouth about South Dakota State, the program I used earlier to talk up Tim Polasek's North Dakota State. This is admittedly intellectually dishonest. Forgive me.

But did you see what the Jackrabbits did this past weekend? Their 24-12 home loss to Indiana State, even while shorthanded, is a truly embarrassing defeat and a sign that they might be slipping from their place as one of the top programs in FCS.

Such a decline could have happened after John Stiegelmeier retired. Instead, Jimmy Rogers followed up the school's first national championship with a second, then took the Jacks to the national semifinal. It is well worth watching how Rogers' Washington State tenure goes.

Familiar Faces (Who Aren't Ready Yet)

Winston DeLattiboudere III, Arizona Cardinals defensive line coach

Winston DeLattiboudere III is a beloved alumnus building an increasingly strong résumé, having coached all over America already, picking up an assistant head coach title at the U of M in 2024, and recently joining an NFL coaching staff. He has been fantastic in front of a camera since his playing days and would excel at the forward-facing aspects of head coaching.

He is also just 27 years old. There is ample time for DeLattiboudere to pick up the experience he needs, at the pro and college levels, and come home to lead the Gophers if he wants.

Greg Harbaugh Jr., Minnesota co-offensive coordinator

Greg Harbaugh Jr. has completely shifted the Gophers' offensive approach from Kirk Ciarrocca's RPO-heavy spread to a modern West Coast offense, featuring frequent pre-snap motion and greater schematic variety. It just hasn't come together because the Gophers' offensive line has lost its effectiveness and neutered the run game. Even if he is a talented playcaller who has made necessary and positive stylistic changes, no one should make Harbaugh their next head coach until he gets better results. I believe those are coming, but it is up to him (and offensive line coach Brian Callahan) to actually make it happen.

Joe Harasymiak, Massachusetts head coach

Joe Harasymiak first became a Division I head coach at 30 years old. At 32, he won 10 games and became the first coach to take Maine to the FCS semifinals, which he parlayed into... coaching safeties at Minnnesota. While it was a surprising choice, Harasymiak did a great job, and after three years, he got to call a capable defense at Rutgers. Last offseason, UMass made Harasymiak a head coach again. He has yet to win a game.

Harasymiak's path has not been conventional. Still just 39, failing at an unwinnable job will not tank his long-term head coaching prospects. Turning the Minutemen into something competent, though, would be the sort of feat to make him worth evaluating as a candidate for the Minnesota job.

Nick Rallis, Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator

A linebacker under Jerry Kill and Tracy Claeys, Nick Rallis has coached in the NFL since 2018 and currently heads a Cardinals defense that, in his three years in Arizona, has improved from appalling to basically average. I would not hire Rallis until he gains substantial college coaching experience, and a guy as young as him probably has realistic aspirations of being an NFL head coach. Maybe one day, it will make sense on each side.

Joe Rossi, Michigan State defensive coordinator

Look: Joe Rossi's two years at Michigan State have not gone well. Even if that has largely to do with longstanding personnel problems in the secondary, you cannot dispute the results. The Spartans have lost every conference game this season and rank 104th in yards per play allowed.

Rossi remains the best assistant hire of Fleck's tenure. If he rebounds and becomes a lower-level head coach or the defensive coordinator at a bigger school, bringing Rossi back to the Twin Cities should not be out of the question. That is a long ways away, however.

Not Now, But Maybe Later

Andrew Aurich, Harvard head coach

Under Tim Murphy, Harvard was typically one of the top teams in the Ivy League, so I don't want to give Andrew Aurich too much credit for just sustaining their level. But the Woodbury native has led one of the best teams in all of FCS in his second season, trouncing all seven of their opponents so far and climbing to 2nd in the subdivision in SP+. With the Ivy League joining the FCS playoffs this season, we will get to see how the Crimson fare against national powers. If Harvard advances in the tournament and continues this success into future seasons, someone in FBS will give Aurich a chance.

Brian Hartline, Ohio State offensive coordinator

I need to see Brian Hartline run an offense for more than one season before I believe he can be an effective head coach. In fact, I might need to see him be a head coach before I believe it. His entire coaching career has been at his alma mater, which also happens to be the Big Ten's perennial buzzsaw. How much of Hartline's success as a recruiter as been him, and how much has been a program that sells itself? Are the Buckeyes elite on offense again because Hartline has the same talent that Ryan Day and Chip Kelly did as playcaller, or is it because the players are better than everyone else's? Can his skills apply at schools with fewer resources, or does he need to gain experience outside of Columbus to know what it's like to work anywhere else?

You cannot satisfyingly separate Hartline's selling points from his context. I would let a lower-conference team give him a shot before considering him for a place in the Big Ten.

Eric Schmidt, North Dakota head coach

This season, North Dakota alumnus Eric Schmidt took over a capable program and has so far produced a perfectly solid season. The Fighting Hawks have blown out most opponents and lost by a combined 9 points to Kansas State, Montana, and South Dakota. They are on track for the playoffs, which was a regular but not annual occurrence under Schmidt's predecessor, Bubba Schweigert.

Before taking the top job in Grand Forks, Schmidt had ample experience as an assistant in the Missouri Valley and actually started his coaching career at Crookston High School. But he has coached in FBS, spending four years as Kalen DeBoer's special teams coordinator at Fresno State and Washington, as well as one as San Diego State's defensive coordinator. If Schmidt can raise UND's stature, he might be a viable candidate at Minnesota down the line.