Feb. 17—VERMILLION, S.D. — In the constant turnover that is college football these days, stability is often preached but rarely practiced.
For the University of South Dakota, however, stability hasn’t just been a talking point — it’s been a strategy.
For the second straight season, USD Athletic Director Jon Schemmel has opted to stay in-house when faced with a head coaching vacancy. And for the second-straight time, the timing of that vacancy all but forced his hand.
“If there’s an answer within your staff, you always want to go that route,” Schemmel said following the introductory press conference of USD’s new head coach Matt Vitzthum. “In today’s day and age, the continuity within your roster, continuity of a championship culture, that’s where you want to go to keep sustaining the success that we have had here. If we went 4-8 last year, you know, who knows what would happen. But we have established a winning culture, and that continuity is something we want to continue.”
When longtime Coyote head coach Bob Nielson stepped down after nine seasons, Schemmel didn’t conduct a national search. He didn’t test the waters or reach out to possible candidates. On Jan. 16, 2025 — the very day the news broke — defensive coordinator Travis Johansen was promoted to head coach.
Johansen had spent six seasons running USD’s defense. He was respected in the program, familiar with the roster and aligned with the culture Nielson built. He wasn’t was a former head coach at any collegiate level. Still, the move made sense.
It was mid-January. The transfer portal was active. Recruiting cycles were in full swing. Spring football was looming. Any prolonged head coaching search risked roster instability and missing out on potential recruits. Promoting Johansen provided immediate clarity for the South Dakota football program. And in Year 1, the results validated the decision.
Johansen and USD stayed among the FCS’ top programs. Continuity mattered. Relationships, which are very critical in today’s transfer-heavy era, were preserved. But just as quickly as stability settled in, change returned.
After one season at the helm, Johansen departed to become defensive coordinator at Rutgers, jumping to the Big Ten and returning to the role he knows best. Once again, the calendar left little room for maneuvering. It was Feb. 6, 2026, when the news broke. And once again, Schemmel stayed in-house. Vitzthum got the call this time after two years in Vermillion.
“I think it shows what we have here. They’ve built, and we’ve built something bigger than one or two people, or a head coach, or a strength coach or a quarterback, whatever the case may be,” Vitzthum said. “It’s about a group and a collection of people on the same page to try to achieve the same thing. And when you stay in-house, you’re also saying that we have the belief that we know where things are going and we want to continue to go that way.”
Like Johansen before him, Vitzthum had never been a head coach. And like before, the timing missed the mark for Schemmel to try for a larger search.
February is even later in the hiring cycle. Most established head coaching candidates are already settled. This time, the transfer portal was already closed. Recruiting classes are largely signed. Staffs across the country are typically finalized. Conducting an extensive national search at that stage risks not only missing out on top candidates that have already signed somewhere, but also creating uncertainty within your own locker room.
So, what did USD and Schemmel do? They doubled down on continuity.
And there are undeniable benefits to that approach. For players, especially veterans who’ve helped build this program into a national contender, familiarity matters. They know Vitzthum and trust already exists.
It’s a credit to Schemmel, as well. He was prepared, which is what a fan of every mid-major college program wants from their AD.
“While it seems quick and it is quick when it does happen the way it did. For me, it has been an ongoing process for 12 months,” Schemmel said. “But with Matt, it’s an opportunity he has earned and one I am more than comfortable with. By the time we got to the decision to hire Matt, we were very confident in what we were doing. If I wasn’t 100% confident in him, I wouldn’t have done it because I’m never going to race against the clock. I need to be convinced, and he hammered it shut for me over the body of work he has put in these last couple of years.”
Let’s point out that USD is hardly alone in college football in needing to make this choice quickly. In the FCS, South Dakota State has done it with its last two coaching hires, promoting Jimmy Rogers and bringing back former coach Dan Jackson when they had openings. North Dakota State promoted Chris Klieman and Matt Entz from within their coaching tree and then brought back longtime Craig Bohl assistant Tim Polasek to run the show last time. Some of those had full searches, some of them did not.
Even in the FBS, when Lane Kiffin was making the coaching situation messy in November at Ole Miss, the Rebels promoted Pete Golding simultaneously to full-time head coach while telling Kiffin to move to LSU.
“When you look at the programs that have done this like North Dakota State and South Dakota State, they have gone internal every time that they can,” Schemmel said. “At our level, you look at the ones that have not only done it but done it over a long period of time, they have kept it in the family one way or another. It’s not that you wouldn’t go out if you had to, but ultimately, if you have the right person in your building that understands your culture that’s always going to be a winning recipe, not only for the success in the short term but the sustainability of it long term.”
USD’s rise into a perennial FCS program didn’t happen overnight. It was built on consistency, scheme, and lately, expectations. By promoting from within twice, Schemmel has signaled that the blueprint remains intact.
To be fair, there are risks, and they shouldn’t be ignored. First, limited time restricts true evaluation. When coaching changes occur in mid-January and early February, the opportunity to thoroughly find other candidates shrinks. You may miss innovative minds outside your program. You may overlook experienced head coaches looking for the right fit. A broader search can spark new ideas and energy — something an internal hire, by definition, is less likely to provide.
Second, promoting first-time head coaches carries uncertainty. Johansen proved capable in his lone season, but Vitzthum now faces the same trial. Helping coordinate an offense or managing a position group is vastly different from overseeing an entire program — game management, staff leadership, team development, and the thousand small decisions that define a head coach’s day-to-day operations is a heck of a challenge for a first-year head coach.
These weren’t December departures with months to plan. They were reactive moments in the heart of the offseason. In both cases, Schemmel opted to prioritize stability over any sort of new spark. And so far, so good for South Dakota.
“While it’s going to change and be different, this isn’t an overhaul,” Schemmel said. “As I had people kind of asking around about him on my behalf quietly over the last several months, the football acumen and everything people kept saying about him is that he is an elite football mind. While we always talk about winning and that’s critical to what we do, our ultimate responsibility is to graduate great young men and women, and Matt is going to do that.”
