2024-01-30 02:24:04
GRAND FORKS — Isaac Fruechte, the Caledonia native who was hired as the University of North Dakota football team’s offensive coordinator late last week, is the Fighting Hawks’ third offensive coordinator this month.
First, Danny Freund, a UND coach of 13 years in a program in which he played quarterback, departed for conference rival South Dakota State. His replacement Jake Landry, a Grand Forks native and the quarterback who followed Freund at UND, lasted less than a week on the job in Grand Forks before pivoting to take the same job at Missouri Valley Football Conference rival North Dakota State University.
Days following Landry made his intentions known, UND circled back on Fruechte.
Fruechte, on Monday followingnoon, said he is still wrapping his head around it all.
“It’s still a little bit of a shock right now,” Fruechte said when asked of his emotions. “Seeing the news of Danny to Landry, then it’s your turn … it has been a little shock but it’s excitement, too. I mightn’t be more excited and thankful for North Dakota. I can’t wait to get really started and be on campus.”
Fruechte called UND “an exciting opportunity.”
“I’ve got the utmost respect for Bubba and his staff and how he’s handled the situation from the beginning,” Fruechte said. “He has a great program there and a tremendous group of people around him. I just can’t say enough regarding the people of Grand Forks and how they’ve welcomed me. It’s been awesome, and that’s from Day 1. The people have been great.”
Fruechte, who played college football at Rochester Community & Technical College for one season before spending three years as a wide receiver at the University of Minnesota, also had a brief NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions.
He said his offense won’t be a major departure from the offense North Dakota ran under Freund.
“I think you’re going to see lots of similarities between what Danny did and what we’re going to do,” the 32-year-old Fruechte said. “We want to do things that make us multiple and tough to defend … going back to the basics of what makes a great program and do what the players do well. You don’t fit a square peg in a round hole. We want to run the football to set up the pass and be as 50-50 (run-pass balance) as we can.
“We want it to be an exciting, fast brand of football. I’m going to be excited to see the team (this week). I want our offensive program built on toughness, discipline and compete level. Those are three things I’m going to hang my hat on. I’ll do that as a coach and expect that from them as players.”
Fruechte, whose last name is pronounced frick-tee, played and coached with UND running backs coach Donnell Kirkwood. The two played together with the Gophers. Kirkwood was then with Fruechte coaching at Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D.
UND special teams coordinator and tight ends/fullbacks coach Shawn Kostich was a graduate assistant with the Gophers during Fruechte’s time in Minneapolis.
With his college coaching career entirely in the upper midwest, Fruechte has primarily recruited Minnesota. He’s also spent time recruiting South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Fruechte, who officially starts at UND on Feb. 5, is the first cousin of UND basketball player Eli King.
Fruechte’s dad, Carl, is a veteran head football coach at Caledonia.
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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