Mayville State Football Hires

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Mayville State Football Hires

Postby cmplx6 » Sun Jun 14, 2020 8:51 pm

So the Nathan Chin thread is old. But I guess the new question will be who will be the next new head coach at Mayville State University? This new guy they hired is young and will last two seasons tops. Nate Gill would have been a good hire, they could have made history hiring the first black head football coach at a college in ND. Lets look at the look at the last 7 hires.
The trouble at Mayville started with Stan Rettew, who was also the AD and very corrupt.
Kelly Jeffrey lasted 4 years with a record of 6-34(Not Renewed).
Jody Ford was there for 2 years with a record of 3-17(Resigned on own accord).
Nathan Chin lasted 2 years with a record of 2-18(Resigned on own accord).
Derek Schlieve was there 3 seasons and had a record of 17-16(Resigned on own accord).
John Haines was there for 3 years and had a record of 12-19 (Not Renewed).
Sean Thom was there for 2 years and had a record of 1-20 (Resigned).
Jeff Larson was there for 1 year and had a record of 2-8 (Resigned).

Jeffrey was a good coach and inherited a mess from Rettew. He was young and did not even have coordinator experience, so he learned alot on the go. I think his fault was in spending too much money on academic red-shirts. Jeffrey was also not invested in the Weight Room. I think if he would have been retained he would have had a winning season in 2006 and been there for 4 more years before moving on. He went on to be very successful in Canada. Good hire that wasn't given enough time.

Jody Ford came in with an iron first and tried to instill some discipline that the program lacked under Jeffrey. He was Jeffries Defensive Coordinator. I don't think he had the offensive support he needed coaching-wise. He was fighting an uphill battle with the administration as they were making cuts to football. He moved to be closer to his family in Missouri. Average hire.

Nathan Chin was Ford's inexperienced OC. He was the easy hire. He spent two years in over his head and left to be a position coach at another NAIA school. Chin was bad hire.

Derek Schlieve worked under Ford as a GA, and served as Chin's Defensive Coordinator. He was the first coach to build a weight room culture on the football team. Schlieve was the 3rd straight in house hire, and the first Alumni to be hired as the head coach. He played under Rettew and missed out on Jeffrey. He had success and would have stayed if the Administration would have given him a few concessions with the program, contracts to be discussed in December and not July, more benefits for the assistant coaches. He left to coach high school football in Texas. Schlieve was the best hire of the 7 coaches.

John Haines was the second straight alumni to be hired. He played under Rettew Coached a year under Jeffrey. He came in with the most impressive resume as the only coach with college head coaching experience. He was also Fords OC at CMU, where Ford was the HC. He was hired with days to get started on the season in the fall. He had one bad year and two 5-5 seasons. His problem was program image. Schlieve had a no swearing policy, and Haines had a mandatory swearing policy. He rubbed too many people the wrong was and was not the political type. Good hire, but I think the administration should have laid out clear goals and standards.

Sean Thom was a college GA for two years and a HS DC for 3 years all at programs that were not very good, and then became a college head football coach. He was vastly under-qualified and it showed in the first year as they went winless for the first time in 11 years. Later Jamestown was forced to forfeit a game. He got a win in year two and the team was not competitive in most games. He also ruined many ties with alumni in the process. This was the worst hire, maybe in college football history. He went back to coach high school football in the south. This hire might have set the program back further than Stan Rettew did.

Jeff Larson was a D2 Coordinator. He was the second hire that had zero connections to the program in a row, starting a new trend. I think once he came in he saw how truly behind the 8 ball he was. He left to be the DC at his D2 alma mater. I think he was an average hire because he wasn't going to stick around long enough to clean up Thom's mess.

Rocky Larson is the new hire. He is another young coach with little experience. I think he is a cross between Thom and Jeff Larson. This is another average hire. If he doesn't see the program support he has seen at other programs he has been a part of, I think he will leave for a lower position, like Chin did.

Which brings us to the next hire at Mayville State for football in 2021 or 2022.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Big Blue » Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:15 am

Great post cmplx6. I do, however, have a little more hope for the current coach than you seem to. 1. I like that he is a midwest guy that could potentially tap into a good recruiting area of Wisconsin and Minnesota. 2. While very young, he has been around the college game as a coach for the past 10 years and has four years under his belt as a coordinator. 3. He built a staff quickly and got to work within a week of his hiring. While it was disappointing Jeff Larson left after one season, I think he left the program in much better position than he found it. So, I am cautiously optimistic that Rocky Larson will last for longer than the last two coaches.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby ndlionsfan » Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:14 am

I think Schlieve had the program going in the right direction and if the administration/AD/whoever would have invested into the program at that time, he would have stuck around and it would be a completely different situation than lately.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Big Blue » Mon Jun 15, 2020 10:54 am

I am not as sold on the fact that the program was in such a great place when Schlieve left as many thought. I thought he was a good coach and I respected the discipline he instilled in the program. However, his record was greatly inflated with Trinity Bible College, Cole College, Haskell and Dakota College at Bottineau. It is a luxury that no future MSU coach will get again as none of those schools have programs. The addition of Presentation was also an annual win at the time for the Comets.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby ndlionsfan » Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:07 pm

Big Blue wrote:I am not as sold on the fact that the program was in such a great place when Schlieve left as many thought. I thought he was a good coach and I respected the discipline he instilled in the program. However, his record was greatly inflated with Trinity Bible College, Cole College, Haskell and Dakota College at Bottineau. It is a luxury that no future MSU coach will get again as none of those schools have programs. The addition of Presentation was also an annual win at the time for the Comets.


Oh, I agree completely and was going to mention that in my post, too. The record was definitely inflated, but I believe he had made some changes to get the program going in the right direction.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Big Blue » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:09 pm

I definitely agree. I think one thing Chin and Schlieve did was build huge rosters. That was a huge factor when the college was going through enrollment/financial issues. It is a big challenge for the current staff to try build up roster size again.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby cmplx6 » Mon Jun 15, 2020 3:51 pm

Sometimes to get a program going you need a few wins to start it off. Very hard to recruit to a team that is 1-9 and 2-8 every year. You get a few cupcake wins, establish a winning culture, then you can recruit the talent you need to sustain that winning culture against tough competition. I would have been curious to see how Coach Ford would have done if he would have stayed, he had some success at CMU. After a 7 win season, there is no doubt Coach Schlieve would have kept that going. He had established good recruiting relationships with local high schools. He had some good pipelines with out of state talent. Schlieve started the fundraising for the turf field, Haines continued it, and the school finished it when Thom was there. Haines over saw a new weight room. Thom came into the program with a clean slate, new field, new weight room, new Locker rooms, new training rooms, and literally recruited some of the worst classes ever. He hired the local coaching "god", which didn't help him one bit.
I agree Jeff Larson started cleaning it ups. But the program took about 5 steps forward under Coach Schlieve, one back under Haines, and 10 back under Thom. Larson took a few steps in the right direction, but the new Larson still has a long ways to go to get back to 7 wins.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Flip » Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:31 am

If you're administration at Mayville what type of HC are you looking for?
Any specific names that would be a "good hire?"
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby cmplx6 » Wed Jun 17, 2020 6:56 am

You want somebody with a Masters degree, because they are going to need to teach t least one class at Mayville.
You want somebody with high school teaching and coaching experience, because you will face some of the same fundraising problems, team logistical problems that a high school coach faces. There are high schools in North Dakota with a larger budget than Mayville State Football.
You want somebody with college coaching experience, preferably head coaching experience, but coordinator experience at the least. At Mayville the HC will need to be heavily involved in one side of the ball, if not calling plays.
You want somebody with a proven track record of recruiting.
You want somebody with extensive knowledge in off-season strength training and conditioning.
You want somebody that can demonstrate the ability and knowledge to develop local recruiting ties, as well as somebody that has a working knowledge and experience recruiting California, Texas, and Florida. You can’t win with out a few players from those regions.
You want somebody that will surround themselves with loyal assistant coaches.
You want somebody that has a blueprint laid out for how they will build their own unique team culture. And get specific.
You want somebody that has an innovative football mind. That is willing to try new things. They need to have something that will set Mayville State apart from not only other small colleges, but from NDSU and UND. There is a ton of North Dakota talent that would rather not play football and go to NDSU or UND than play small college ball. Whoever is the head coach needs to have a plan on how to get them to Mayville.
You want to hire somebody who is politically savvy. Small town politics will ruin a coach if they don’t stroke the right egos.
You want to hire somebody with sound morals. At Mayville State, it is crucial that the head coach is somebody the players can look to for guidance and leadership.
You want to hire somebody that has a clear plan for team leadership.
You want to hire somebody who has a plan to place academics above athletics. Many good players recruited to Mayville were lost to academics because they though they were playing at Alabama and would just get passed. Every player at Mayville State needs to get their degree. They need to have a plan on how to get out of any student debt they obtain while at school. The head coach needs to understand this and have a clear plan in place for this.
The next head coach does not have to be a graduate of Mayville State, but that would help. They do not have to be from North Dakota, but that would also help. Ideally they would be well traveled with solid connections in North Dakota and around the country.

That’s is where I would start.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Sportsrube » Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:05 pm

cmplx6 - great post, but with Mayville's budget it would take a miracle for them to find someone who even checked off a majority of those boxes. Mayville's biggest problem (in my opinion) is their FB budget and being in a small town. (But then again that doesn't seem to affect their other sports programs.) Hopefully this new coach can at least make them competitive.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby The Schwab » Wed Aug 19, 2020 3:13 pm

cmplx6 has the plan laid out. I will piggy back off of his and give my opinions.

Mayville is an extremely tough place to win and recruit for football. For basketball it is a little easier (need less athletes).

Things that make it tough to recruit in Mayville are the tradition of the program as well as the influence of some boosters.
When I was around the area more, the facilities were not good and were another huge obstacle. Now, it seems like the facilities have improved tremendously.

Mayville has a unique opportunity this year (if the Northstar still plays football) to gain more of a fan base. They are the close to two huge fan bases of college football fans who are going to want to go watch football games. If they are able to put a competitive, fun product on the field , they will have a chance to gain some new fans and boosters for the program.

I've always said that the most successful coach at Mayville would be an alumnus of the college because you have to understand the dynamics of college life in Mayville. The ideal coach would try to build a foundation of local kids which will bring more fans to games and create a buzz in the area. There will still have to be kids from out of state, skill position players and a few studs would be ideal.

I realize it will NOT be easy for Mayville to get talented local kids to go to school there, but you can do it with gold old fashion recruiting. You can't expect them to go there just because it's close, you have to sell them on a dream and a belief. The ideal coach will have to have the ability to sell ice to eskimos.

I wish the new coach all of the best, he seems to have some fire for recruiting. I just fear that a job in Wisconsin will open up and in 2 years Mayville will be looking for a new coach.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Sportsrube » Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:00 am

To early to tell as far as talent, but the numbers for Mayville's FB program are way up. If nothing else, that should increase the competition for playing time and hopefully get the program moving in the right direction.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby The Schwab » Fri Sep 18, 2020 3:49 pm

Mayville looked to be pretty competitive against Waldorf. Offensively they were able to move the ball, defensively it sounded pretty rough. Definitely a step in the right direction losing 50-40 as opposed to 63-0 last season. Time will tell with the direction of the program. Judging by the coaching staff page they all seem to be fairly young coaches who seem to have some fire. The freshman WR had himself a ball game on Saturday. Hopefully they can remain competitive this year and get the kids excited to build the program. I'm cautiously optimistic!!
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Sportsrube » Sat Sep 19, 2020 6:40 pm

The Schwab wrote:Mayville looked to be pretty competitive against Waldorf. Offensively they were able to move the ball, defensively it sounded pretty rough. Definitely a step in the right direction losing 50-40 as opposed to 63-0 last season. Time will tell with the direction of the program. Judging by the coaching staff page they all seem to be fairly young coaches who seem to have some fire. The freshman WR had himself a ball game on Saturday. Hopefully they can remain competitive this year and get the kids excited to build the program. I'm cautiously optimistic!!


They were competitive against Dickinson State today also. The offense is putting up enough points to win games, they just need to get the defense up to snuff. Are they playing a lot of the new guys?
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby NDPREP » Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:21 am

I think Pfauf has been a key component, first competent quarterback they have had in a while, finally found some young pieces to put around him. Big question will come if they can replace him...
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Sportsrube » Fri Sep 25, 2020 8:13 pm

And now Mayville State has shut down their FB program for 2 weeks due to Covid.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Big Blue » Wed Feb 03, 2021 5:20 pm

A nice crop of ND recruits have signed to MSU for 2021. 19 ND guys (it says 20, but one from Blaine, Minnesota is identified as from North Dakota) including quite a few All-Staters, and a nice mix from around the state from different levels. Very promising start to the recruiting season for head coach Rocky Larson. Other than 31 recruits from MN/ND, my favorite part of this class is the signing of 22 lineman (13 ol and 9 ol) and hey even a kicker! https://msucomets.com/news/2021/2/3/Nat ... g_Day.aspx
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Sportsrube » Thu Feb 04, 2021 3:00 pm

Big Blue wrote:A nice crop of ND recruits have signed to MSU for 2021. 19 ND guys (it says 20, but one from Blaine, Minnesota is identified as from North Dakota) including quite a few All-Staters, and a nice mix from around the state from different levels. Very promising start to the recruiting season for head coach Rocky Larson. Other than 31 recruits from MN/ND, my favorite part of this class is the signing of 22 lineman (13 ol and 9 ol) and hey even a kicker! https://msucomets.com/news/2021/2/3/Nat ... g_Day.aspx


Just the size of this recruiting class should help. (50+ new bodies)
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby The Schwab » Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:02 pm

We are now almost 2 years into the Rocky Larson era at Mayville State. I think they will beat Iowa Wesleyan in their final game after getting trounced by Dickinson this week. They were 2-7 last season and this year their record is 1-8. Currently, the only team they have beat in the Larson era is Presentation (hasn't won a game in the past 3 seasons). Three of their four leading rushers are Freshman. Their QB is a Freshman as well as their two leading receivers. Maybe the future will be bright.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Big Blue » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:28 pm

It is also important to note that other than Valley City and Dickinson, MSU was extremely competitive in the conference this year. The Comets were so close to beating Waldorf and Dakota State (who were both very solid teams). Mayville State took another step forward this season. I think Rocky is in the right direction and as close as anyone has been in a really long time. He has built a staff of guys (the base of it being colleagues he had coached with) that has been with him over the last two years. It seems like they have done some positive things to build the culture. IF he can start winning the recruiting battle on some key local kids over Valley and improve the lines I think the Comets will be a winning football team. And yes, I understand those are big ifs.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby The Schwab » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:49 pm

I will agree with you that Mayville was far more competitive with most of the teams in the NorthStar. I don't think that makes them a good college football team. I think the NorthStar is one of the weaker conferences in NAIA football. However, winning 3-4 games year in and year out would be a vast improvement over the past 30 years of MSU football.

When I think about ways that Mayville State could improve and build something I can't help but think about what Grinnell College has done in basketball. They sped the game way up and average 120 plus points a game. It's definately a gimmick, but it works for them. They've been so successful with it. I would love to see Mayville State take a chance on an offensive coordinator with unique formations and styles. Find something that will end up on TikTok or Youtube that's funky and different.

Maybe that's the answer, or maybe it would crash and burn.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Big Blue » Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:32 pm

I like it. Right now, every college team does the exact same thing on offense. Doing something outside of this would make it so much harder to gameplan for week in and week out.
While this wouldn't be viral, I have said for years that MSU should go to a wishbone/triple option attack. I think this would make it so much easier to recruit the weather map. With this style of offense, having 240-250 pound linemen is not a problem. There are a lot more North Dakota kids that fit that system than the college no-huddle spread.
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby Flip » Sat Jan 14, 2023 11:32 am

Hillsboro Banner


Hillsboro-Central Valley football coach Scott Olsen announced today that he was stepping down to take an assistant coaching position at Mayville State. More to come in Friday’s paper. #ndpreps
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Re: Mayville State Football Hires

Postby NDPREP » Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:36 pm

Flip wrote:Hillsboro Banner


Hillsboro-Central Valley football coach Scott Olsen announced today that he was stepping down to take an assistant coaching position at Mayville State. More to come in Friday’s paper. #ndpreps


Defensive assistant, if they utilize him correctly and tap into that recruiting potential and his connections its a really good hire
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