2023-12-16 17:43:19
Matt Entz is leaving North Dakota State to be the LB coach at USC football.
Matt Entz has been the head coach of the North Dakota State football team since the 2018 season, and he’s been with the Bison for 10 years. He has seen a lot of success at North Dakota State, but he will be moving on after this season to be the linebackers coach for USC football. Going from the Bison to the Trojans is a big move for Entz.
Being able to coach at a program like USC football isn’t an opportunity that comes around often. Matt Entz had to jump on the opportunity, but it will be hard for him to leave North Dakota State.
“Been here for 10 years,” Entz said, according to an article from On3. “This place has been unbelievable to Team Entz. The number of friends and colleagues that I have — really good friends that I have — here in Fargo, within our administration, within our coaching staff, in the community, is second to none. So, this will always be a home away from home.”
Entz is going to miss the Bison community, but he couldn’t turn the chance to coach at USC.
“Just an opportunity for me to continue to grow and develop,” Entz continued. “I wouldn’t leave NDSU for just anything. I’ve had other opportunities along the way and they just didn’t maybe spark my interest, or the timing wasn’t right. This was a unique opportunity for me and my wife.”
The USC football team struggled a little bit this year as they finished the regular season 7-5, and their big issues were on defense. Entz is coming in to try to fix those issues. Despite this year’s struggles, Entz thinks very highly of the Trojans.
“To me, it’s a top-five program in the country,” Entz said in regards to the Trojans. “And you know, when USC is playing good football, college football is a better sport.”
One reason that USC football’s future looks bright is because of head coach Lincoln Riley. Entz has heard great things about him.
“They speak very highly of him,” Entz said. “He’s a West Texas native. Kind of blue-collar. That was one of the things I wanted to associate myself with, people that are like-minded like myself.”
Not only was Entz brought in to help this defense, but he could also be a valuable tool for recruiting. USC is moving to the Big Ten next year, and Entz has a footprint in Big Ten country after his time with North Dakota State.
“I anticipate there’s probably some correlation there with them wanting to have — the footprint is the Midwest now,” Entz continued. “What does that look like moving forward and recruiting? What does it look like moving forward with just how the conferences have realigned to this date? So I’m sure that that helps, having a footprint. My footprint is in the Midwest, and having recruited the majority, really the bigger scope of it, hopefully that’ll be an asset to them.”
Lastly, this is Entz’ first experience with FBS football. He has had a lot of success with the Bison, but USC and the Big Ten will be much different. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it.
“Betting on myself a little bit,” Entz concluded. “I have head coaching experience and that’s not something that anyone can take away from me at this time. But, to be transparent, I’ve had some people telling me, ‘Well, you don’t have FBS recruiting experience. You haven’t really dove into NIL.’ And so those have been kind of marks against me, if you will. And so I saw this as an opportunity — One, continue to further and broaden my circle of people. Still gonna have some relevance here in the Midwest, which was comforting, because our footprint is the Big 10 now. And hopefully, this will lead to some other opportunities down there. Would I like to be a head coach again? Of course I would.”
Entz still has to wrap up his career with North Dakota State before he focuses on USC. The Bison are in the FCS semifinals against Montana on Saturday. Entz wants one more national title before he moves on to the Trojans.
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