Taylor: Bohl has no interest in NIU

By Jeff Kolpack

December 10, 2007 11:00 PM

Craig Bohl is on the recruiting trail, not some road leading to DeKalb, Ill. North Dakota State athletic director Gene Taylor said Monday his head football coach has no interest in becoming the next head coach at Northern Illinois University.

The Chicago Tribune reported last week Bohl met with NIU athletic director Jim Phillips, who is looking for a replacement for the retired Joe Novak.

Taylor said Bohl did not interview with the Huskies. He also said he

didn't know whether there were any conversations between Bohl and Phillips.

Bohl has a policy of not commenting on anything related to another coaching position.

"Now, whether a search firm contacted him, I don't know that," Taylor said. "It wouldn't surprise me if a search firm did make initial contact with him."

Taylor said he is surprised no other school with a head coaching opening has contacted him. Another administrator, however, has no contractual obligation to get Taylor's approval even if it is interested in talking to Bohl. Taylor said it's more of a courtesy than anything else.

"I thought with a couple of these jobs that his name would come up," he said. "That's a good thing."

The fact Bohl is labeled as an attractive candidate is a result of the Bison going 20-2 over the last two years. NDSU was ranked No. 1 in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision coaches poll for several weeks this season.

Bohl's name has also been associated with the NIU opening on a couple of popular football coaching Web sites.

With signing day looming on the first week of February, it doesn't make it any easier to recruit players, Taylor said.

"He's out there in the homes and recruits are asking him if he's going to Northern Illinois, Nebraska or wherever," Taylor said. "It's an issue he has to keep having to fight and that's what frustrates him. He doesn't have an interest in Northern Illinois and it makes it look like he does because somebody wrote that he interviewed."

NDSU adds Iowa State to schedule in 2014

By Jeff Kolpack

jkolpack@forumcomm.com

Already set to play in 2009, North Dakota State and Iowa State finalized another contract Monday to play a football game in 2014.

Both games will be in Ames, Iowa, where the Cyclones play in 55,000-seat Jack Trice Stadium. NDSU will receive a $350,000 guarantee for the 2014 game, said Bison athletic director Gene Taylor.

The Iowa State games are the only Football Bowl Subdivision games on NDSU's future schedules. Taylor said he would like to play regional FBS teams like Iowa State, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin on an annual basis.

"We want to continue to be on their schedule," Taylor said of Iowa State. "I didn't want to lose it."

NDSU, a Football Championship Subdivision team, is 3-1 in the last two years against FBS teams. It beat Ball State last year and Minnesota

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546.

Kolpack's NDSU media blog can be found at www.areavoices.com

Taylor: Bohl has no interest in NIU Jeff Kolpack 20071211

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.