Matt Vitzthum called his shot early in his "Hello, World" press conference introducing and celebrating him as South Dakota's new head football coach. He called it and he immediately delivered. "If you don't like to see a grown man cry," Vitzthum said, "you might want to leave the room." Laughter ensued. Nobody left. And Vitzthum cried, almost on cue. Looking at his wife Alyssa and two young children — son Hayden and daughter Emery — Vitzthum's eyes welled and voice cracked as he began to thank them for their support. "Vitz," as most people in USD circles call him, choked up a few more times throughout his speech as he thanked his predecessor Travis Johansen, Bob Nielson — the retired Coyote head coach who hired Vitzthum to be the wide receivers coach two years ago — the school's administration, athletic department leaders, his football staff, the Vermillion and USD communities, and his players. Oh, the players. At least a dozen of them in the packed DakotaDome Club conference room that sits between the DakotaDome and the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Zoom back to last Friday. Athletic director Jon Schemmel said "the room exploded" when he told the entire team that Vitzthum was the new man in charge. The words "player-driven" and "relationships" were uttered a lot by Vitzthum and Schemmel several times on Friday. The same rhetoric was abundant from former USD quarterback Aidan Bouman in his Monday "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" interview about "Vitz" and in Sioux Falls Live profile about the coach earlier this week. The connection the Algona, Iowa, native has made with his players is as strong a reason as any why Schemmel had Vitzthum's name atop his list as potential Johansen replacements well before Johansen told Schemmel he was departing to take the defensive coordinator job at Rutgers. In his nearly half-hour one-on-one Happy Hour conversation following the press conference, Schemmel also dug into how Vitzthum takes instant command of a room and is a natural leader of young men. Emotional player-driven leader of men. So, where does it come from? Like most humans, parents played a major role. His mother, a teacher. His father, a farmer. In his first 15-minute Happy Hour conversation, Vitzthum sat down with the host for a flashback to growing up in Algona — two hours north of Des Moines and with a population of 5,487. He walks through when and how it dawned on him he'd pursue a career in coaching. Then, there's Vitzthum's affinity for Nielson and how Vitzthum landed the wide receivers coach position under Nielson two years ago. If it weren't for Nielson, Vitzthum is likely not in Vermillion. Why? What makes Nielson a "legend" in the coaching circles of this region? Vitzthum walked through this past season as Johansen's co-offensive coordinator and how Johansen showed him some head coaching ropes during the season. Also, does Vitzthum plan on having a different offensive approach and holistic philosophy from Johansen, a defensive coordinator by trade and unapologetically a "defensive-minded coach?" Jon Schemmel Meanwhile, in his Happy Hour chat, Schemmel goes deep in walking through the 72 hours after Johansen broke Schemmel the news of his new job. This included turning his basement into a head coaching search bunker, but it wasn't much of a search. Schemmel's account includes the emotional meetings with Johansen, Vitzthum, and both together before Johansen took off for New Jersey. Both of the head coaches Schemmel has hired in the last 13 months are young up-and-comers (Johansen is in his early 40's and Vitzthum is 39) who have had offers from schools at higher levels for much higher salaries the last couple years. Did Johansen's leaving after one season make Schemmel pause to hire another "rising star" and make him consider more of a "Bob Nielson type" — older and more likely to spend several seasons in Vermillion (Nielson spent nine before retiring)? How much did the swift hiring of a USD assistant to replace Johansen have to do with the special 15-day transfer portal window that is now open for Coyotes players due to Johansen's departure? And what about the football program, in general? Since arriving at USD in December 2023, the Madison native has aggressively worked to bring that operation's budget to as close to the top of the FCS as possible. The Coyotes have reached the FCS quarterfinals three seasons in a row — the only team in the nation to do so. But they have yet to play in an FCS Championship game, and both Schemmel and Vitzthum were not shy to use the words "national championship" multiple times both in front of the masses and in their Happy Hour chats. So, what goes into that? And how big is USD thinking for football? Schemmel has remarked that the $17.5 million North Dakota State paid to leave the FCS and join the Mountain West Conference in the FBS is a pill that USD ...
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