UND Football: Head Coach Schweigert Receives Contract Extension

Schweigert receives four-year contract extension

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — (UND Athletics) University of North Dakota Athletics Director Bill Chaves announced on Monday that head football coach Bubba Schweigert has been extended for four seasons, starting at $215,000 and escalating to $245,000 per year, which will keep him on the Fighting Hawks sideline through the 2023 season.

“I want to thank current UND president Dr. Joshua Wynne, incoming UND president Dr. Andrew Armacost and Athletics Director Bill Chaves for having the confidence in me as the leader of this program,” said Schweigert. “I am looking forward to working with the football staff and administration at North Dakota to keep moving the Fighting Hawks in a positive direction. We are extremely excited to be a full member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and look forward to the challenges ahead as we build UND football into a national championship contender.”

Over his previous six seasons as the head coach, Schweigert has navigated the Fighting Hawks through a successful transition from the Big Sky Conference to the Missouri Valley Football Conference by registering back-to-back winning seasons as Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Independents, highlighted by a FCS playoff appearance last season, to accumulate a 37-32 record at UND and a 59-53 overall mark.

“I am happy to announce that we have extended Coach Schweigert’s contract by an additional two years,” said Chaves. “We are only one of 25 FCS programs in the country that have qualified for the playoff field twice during the past four seasons, and with us now heading to the most difficult conference in the country, having stability at the helm was incredibly important. I look forward to working with Bubba [Schweigert] in all aspects of the program moving forward.”

Four winning records, two postseason appearances and the 2016 Big Sky Conference title all happened under Schweigert’s six-season tutelage, with the Zeeland, N.D., native earning the Big Sky and FCS Region 5 Coach of the Year awards in 2016.

UND has also produced multiple all-conference and All-America performers under Schweigert, highlighted by a program Division I record four All-American selections in 2016.

In the classroom, the Fighting Hawks shattered record after record by placing a DI program mark 19 players on the All-Big Sky Academic Team in 2016. This came after notching previous records of 16 and 18 student-athletes on the team in 2014 and 2015, respectively, before repeating the mark of 18 in 2017, UND’s final year as a Big Sky member.

On a national scale, UND saw 17 student-athletes named to the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame Hampshire Honor Society, two earn FCS Athletic Directors Association Academic All-Star Team nods and linebacker Dayo Idowu selected to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.

Schweigert began his coaching career at his alma mater, now the University of Jamestown, from 1985-1988. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Jamestown and a master’s degree from UND. In 2002, he was honored with Jamestown’s Rollie Greeno Award for outstanding commitment in the field of education and coaching.

Schweigert and his wife, Laura, have two sons, Alex and Cooper.