Its very clear, at this moment, that Harley is not the guy. Maybe he rips out 6-8 wins in conference and cements himself as the guy but i highly doubt that. So here is my list of guys I think we should be going after. These are all FCS head coaches because in my opinion, we need someone's who built a program before, whos looking to make the jump to FBS, and can come in a give us the reset we need, hopefully relatively quickly. We gave Hammock almost 800k a year and I think you need to offer that or more to these guys to make us a good financial destination.


Brent Vigen- current Montana State Head coach. 66-12 overall record since 2021. FCS National champion in 2025. The guy is a proven winner. his base salary is 295k. We could easily 3x that.

Kevin Cahill- Current Yale head coach. Was previously at Leigh university(23-14 overall record) where he took a bottom of the barrel patriot league team and won two straight conference titles. proven to be able to rebuild programs.

Dan Jackson- current South Dakota State coach. 12-6 record overall as a head coach. only been there 1 year, currently in his second. This guy was on NIUs staff in 2020 and 2021 so there is some connection there. well see how the season shakes out for the Jackrabbits but if he finishes with another winning record I think hes worth a shot.

Brock Spack- Current Illinois state head coach. This guys been at the school for 18 years. 127-79 overall record. lost to Brent in the national championship last year. Maybe he wants to reconnect with his former OC at a FBS school in the same state he currently coaches? Guy recruits Illinois and surrounding states well and is only making 395k. We could easily 2.5x his salary if he wants to move up.

(09-27-2026 09:00 AM)AnnieGliddenDawg Wrote:  Its very clear, at this moment, that Harley is not the guy. Maybe he rips out 6-8 wins in conference and cements himself as the guy but i highly doubt that. So here is my list of guys I think we should be going after. These are all FCS head coaches because in my opinion, we need someone's who built a program before, whos looking to make the jump to FBS, and can come in a give us the reset we need, hopefully relatively quickly. We gave Hammock almost 800k a year and I think you need to offer that or more to these guys to make us a good financial destination.


Brent Vigen- current Montana State Head coach. 66-12 overall record since 2021. FCS National champion in 2025. The guy is a proven winner. his base salary is 295k. We could easily 3x that.

Kevin Cahill- Current Yale head coach. Was previously at Leigh university(23-14 overall record) where he took a bottom of the barrel patriot league team and won two straight conference titles. proven to be able to rebuild programs.

Dan Jackson- current South Dakota State coach. 12-6 record overall as a head coach. only been there 1 year, currently in his second. This guy was on NIUs staff in 2020 and 2021 so there is some connection there. well see how the season shakes out for the Jackrabbits but if he finishes with another winning record I think hes worth a shot.

Brock Spack- Current Illinois state head coach. This guys been at the school for 18 years. 127-79 overall record. lost to Brent in the national championship last year. Maybe he wants to reconnect with his former OC at a FBS school in the same state he currently coaches? Guy recruits Illinois and surrounding states well and is only making 395k. We could easily 2.5x his salary if he wants to move up.

First off, great list!

I'd be excited for Dan Jackson or Brent Vigen

Yes, a successful current FCS head coach.

No to anyone that hasn't had success as a head coach (aka no career assistants).

We need a proven program builder at the college level. We can't risk it on another assistant head coach or we could be looking at 13 straight years of mostly terrible NIU football, especially when you have a career athletic director that doesn't fire unsuccessful head coaches.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4568079...s-fbs-fcs/ - Sorry paywall (If someone can post I would love to read it)

successful from FCS to P4 or G6:

Jim Tressel Ohio State
Paul Johnson Navy/GA Tech
Willie Fretz Tulane/Houston

Hard to name any others.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard to name others?!? How about Curt Google Me Cignetti! (Elon to JMU to IU). I think that’s worked out just fine.

(09-27-2026 10:42 AM)pantone1935 Wrote:  https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4568079...s-fbs-fcs/ - Sorry paywall (If someone can post I would love to read it)

successful from FCS to P4 or G6:

Jim Tressel Ohio State
Paul Johnson Navy/GA Tech
Willie Fretz Tulane/Houston

Hard to name any others.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a short resume but you can add the new Toledo FCS head coach. Toledo was 132nd in returning experience this year, lost most of their roster, recruits, and entire coaching staff after last season. He is already 3-1.

Jerry Kill has been successful everywhere. Even gave a terrible New Mexico St program their best two-year stretch in the last 30 years in his very short career there.

(09-27-2026 10:42 AM)pantone1935 Wrote:  https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4568079...s-fbs-fcs/ - Sorry paywall (If someone can post I would love to read it)

Here is a portion of it. I'm not pasting the whole thing because it is way too long.

Quote:And then there’s Klieman, Paul Johnson, Dave Clawson, Jeff Monken, Lance Leipold and the reigning Cotton Bowl champion, Tulane’s Willie Fritz.

Still, FBS schools are five times more likely to hire a first-time head coach from the college or NFL assistant ranks than they are a sitting head coach from a lower division.

“For my money, a person that’s been a successful head coach like Chris Klieman is infinitely more qualified to be the head coach at Kansas State than somebody’s offensive or defensive coordinator,” said Bob Bowlsby, who as AD at Stanford hired Harbaugh away from a non-scholarship FCS school. “There’s 100 little decisions that go into putting a staff together and putting a football team together, and if you haven’t done it before, it’s just not the same.”

There have certainly been FCS busts, like Washington State’s Paul Wulff (hired from Eastern Washington) and Virginia’s Mike London (Richmond). And there have been wildly spectacular former coordinators like Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley, Ryan Day and Kirby Smart. But of the 20 lower-level head coaches hired from 2010 to ’19, less than a third (six) were fired within four years. Most of the others either succeeded and moved up or remain in the same job years later. Over that same span, 42 percent of all first-time head coaches hired by FBS programs were fired within four years.

I think Vigen is the #1 candidate but I also wouldn’t limit the search to only sitting head coaches just because we hired a NFL RB coach and he didn’t work. Jackson doesn’t have enough of a track record of experience for me and his OC is Eidness. Spack is too old.

I am all good with an FCS head but I’m not trying to force it either. Brent Vigen absolutely is on the list, I’d have Nick Benedetto and Brad Spencer on there as well.

(09-27-2026 10:49 AM)jjprender Wrote:  Hard to name others?!? How about Curt Google Me Cignetti! (Elon to JMU to IU). I think that’s worked out just fine.

He was a long time asst coach in p4 and g6.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bryan Harsain needs to be on the list. Proven winner and knows the MW/style.

(09-27-2026 11:21 AM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Bryan Harsain needs to be on the list. Proven winner and knows the MW/style.

I don't think the school would touch him.

You pony up the $ for Vigen. Big Sky conference covers a lot of the Mountain West footprint. He's had sustained success in the new era. His roster now is 5th year heavy but you can still hopefully avoid a slow rebuild by jumpstarting the roster churn with a lot of Montana St guys that know his system and bring over the key coaches.

Brent Vigen would even be a cheap buyout for NIU.

https://herosports.com/fcs-coaching-cand...tate-ksks/

Quote:Vigen’s current contract runs through March 31, 2029, with a buyout structure that starts at $450,000 if either side ends the agreement before December 2025 and gradually scales down to $300,000 by the final year.

STF: Please give Jerry Kill a call to guage interest. While he was at NIU he did say he could see himself retiring at NIU. All he does is win wherever he goes. NIU football would be "back" to being a top G5 school.

(09-27-2026 12:31 PM)jjj Wrote:  STF: Please give Jerry Kill a call to guage interest. While he was at NIU he did say he could see himself retiring at NIU. All he does is win wherever he goes. NIU football would be "back" to being a top G5 school.

I thought Jerry Kill had health issues.

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk

(09-27-2026 01:03 PM)Trekker41 Wrote:  

(09-27-2026 12:31 PM)jjj Wrote:  STF: Please give Jerry Kill a call to guage interest. While he was at NIU he did say he could see himself retiring at NIU. All he does is win wherever he goes. NIU football would be "back" to being a top G5 school.

I thought Jerry Kill had health issues.

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk

He does have major health issues, plus he's 65.

We old timers remember the bad old days of the mid-90's.

Coach Novak came in and was 3-30 in his first three years, including a 23 game losing streak. But he slowly turned the program around and built it into a good program, with winning seasons starting in 2000 through 2006, including being ranked in 2003.
I'm afraid we're in the same position now as we were in 1996, need a coach who can turn things around. The FBS landscape has obviously changed with the advent of NIL, now it's a matter of buying players instead of developing them.
There is some talent here on the offense, but the defense and special teams will continue to lose games.

(09-27-2026 01:10 PM)niu16 Wrote:  

(09-27-2026 01:03 PM)Trekker41 Wrote:  

(09-27-2026 12:31 PM)jjj Wrote:  STF: Please give Jerry Kill a call to guage interest. While he was at NIU he did say he could see himself retiring at NIU. All he does is win wherever he goes. NIU football would be "back" to being a top G5 school.

I thought Jerry Kill had health issues.

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk

He does have major health issues, plus he's 65.

Kill knows how to turn around a program but he had his time at NIU and left with a bad taste lets get someone new ..

(09-27-2026 11:44 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Brent Vigen would even be a cheap buyout for NIU.

https://herosports.com/fcs-coaching-cand...tate-ksks/

Quote:Vigen’s current contract runs through March 31, 2029, with a buyout structure that starts at $450,000 if either side ends the agreement before December 2025 and gradually scales down to $300,000 by the final year.

Thanks for this

(09-27-2026 02:16 PM)7 Wrote:  

(09-27-2026 11:44 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Brent Vigen would even be a cheap buyout for NIU.

https://herosports.com/fcs-coaching-cand...tate-ksks/

Quote:Vigen’s current contract runs through March 31, 2029, with a buyout structure that starts at $450,000 if either side ends the agreement before December 2025 and gradually scales down to $300,000 by the final year.

Thanks for this

Seems like the least riskiest candidate

someone who understands the portal