FARGO — Nick Goeser spent a good chunk of Wednesday in Wisconsin with his wife, Vicky, looking at houses. It’s time for the long-time North Dakota State assistant football coach to do something else.
He resigned his position this week after 15 years with the Bison, saying the desire to be around his family more often took precedence over leading college football players. It was something Goeser and head coach Tim Polasek, friends forever from the same small town in Wisconsin, have been talking about for about a month.
“Football is full-time 365 days a year,” Goeser said. “It kind of hit me smack in the face. I love coaching football but I love being around my kids and my family more.”
Like the state of college football these days, NDSU didn’t mess around in hiring the replacement by bringing back a familiar face. Former NDSU assistant Kody Morgan is returning to the program where he spent seven seasons from 2016-22. Defensive coordinator Grant Olson said Morgan easily meets three prime criteria starting with a trust with Olson and Polasek.
“No. 2, somebody who has understanding and expectations and standards at NDSU,” Olson said. “And No. 3 somebody that is a really good defensive coach and specifically knows D-line play.”
Morgan comes to NDSU after two seasons at Kent State, where last year he was the defensive coordinator. Morgan was a part of four national championships with the Bison assuming roles as an assistant with cornerbacks, safeties and special teams coordinator. Kent State is currently operating under an interim head coach, Mark Carney, after Kenni Burns, a former Bison assistant, was fired for violations of his contract.
New North Dakota State defensive assistant Kody Morgan.
DAN KOECK
Morgan takes the place of Goeser, who is moving on to another profession after one of the more historic tenures in program history. He leaves with 10 FCS national title rings, coming to the school in 2010.
Goeser and his wife Vicki have two boys, Jaxon and Brady.
“The boys were getting older and just was starting to miss a lot more baseball games, football games and things like that,” Olson said. “It just got to the point that, yeah, he wanted to be around a little bit more.”
Olson can relate. He and his wife Amy Olson have two young daughters.
“I completely understand and it’s one of those things that in 10 to 15 years I could easily see myself getting to that point,” he said.
Olson said he initially was surprised Goeser was leaving football — until he explained the reasons why.
“Him and I have incredibly similar values in being family-centered people,” he said. “When he said, ‘Grant, it’s what’s best for my family,’ it made perfect sense.”
Goeser is the second longtime Bison coach to leave since the national title win over Montana State in January. Quarterbacks coach Randy Hedberg retired last winter after 45 years in the business, the last 11 at NDSU.
Losing that kind of experience is one of Olson’s biggest concerns heading into this season.
“It’s a challenge for myself and all the other young coaches,” he said. “We have to step up and we have to be veterans. We can’t be making dumb mistakes that young coaches do and I’m pointing at myself on that. We need to step up and replace veteran leadership and that’s a big deal. We can’t step back.”
Morgan coached the defensive line as a graduate assistant at the University of Mary in 2013 and was the defensive line coach at Wisconsin-Stout in 2013 and 2014 before coming to NDSU.
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.