2024-01-28 21:56:15
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The University of North Dakota football program has finally found its next play-caller.
The Fighting Hawks have hired Caledonia native and Winona State University offensive coordinator Isaac Fruechte to be UND’s offensive coordinator, following a strange, short stint as offensive coordinator for Grand Forks native Jake Landry, who accepted the role at UND before pivoting to take the same job at North Dakota State.
The job at UND opened originally after Danny Freund left after five seasons calling plays to join two-time defending national champion South Dakota State.
Fruechte, 32, has coaching stops at Wisconsin-La Crosse, Northern Iowa, Northern State and Winona State.
Fruechte was offensive coordinator at Division III Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2018, then wide receivers coach at UNI in 2019. He was offensive coordinator at Northern State from 2019 to 2021 before taking the job at Winona State.
Fruechte, a native of Caledonia, Minn., played junior college football at Rochester Community and Technical College for one season before spending three seasons playing for the University of Minnesota. In his three-year Gophers career, Fruechte started 18 games, caught 50 passes for 702 yards and three touchdowns.
I. Fruechte
He was on the practice squad and a special teams performer for the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings in 2015 and 2016.
A handful of southeastern Minnesota natives are on the North Dakota roster. Goodhue’s Adam Poncelet was a freshman wide receiver last fall, Pine Island’s Josh Navratil was a senior linebacker (he has announced he’s coming back for his fifth year of eligibility in 2024), and Caledonia’s Casey Schultz was a sophomore defensive lineman in 2023.
North Dakota plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, which is the home to six of the past seven national champions (four by North Dakota State, the past two by South Dakota State). North Dakota tied for third in the MVC in 2023 and went 7-5 overall, losing a first-round home playoff game to Sacramento State, 42-35.
UND is expected to start spring ball at the end of February.
Winona State averaged 25.4 points per game last season. The Warriors, of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in NCAA Division II, finished 5-6 in 2023.
UND moved quickly to fill the position vacated by Landry. The Herald reported Landry’s in-state move on Friday night.
Miller has covered sports at the Grand Forks Herald since 2004 and was the state sportswriter of the year in 2019 and 2022.
His primary beat is UND football but also reports on a variety of UND sports and local preps.
He can be reached at (701) 780-1121, [email protected] or on Twitter at @tommillergf.
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