MVFC Day: Kalen DeBoer stories & UND's open door to bust through with Eric Schmidt

"MVFC: Yotes team chat, plus UNI, SIU, plus Todd Stepsis (UNI coach) and Victor Edwards (Illinois State RB) with Zach Borg

Here is the first part of our 3-part Happy Hour today. We begin with our chat with the University of South Dakota football coach and players from Tuesday's MVFC media. You'll then hear from two other Missouri Valley teams before Zach Borg chats with UNI's coach and Illinois State's running back. Enjoy!

FULL SHOW: MVFC Media Day 1 - Gaskins 1-on-1 with coaches from USD, SDSU, UND, Illinois State, Indiana State, plus YSU QB Beau Brungard & Zach Borg interview with UND QB Jerry Kaminski and MVFC Commissioner Jeff Jackson

It is Mid-July, the Sahara Desert of the summer sports calendar. If you've had a deep thirst to hear about football, Tuesday in the Sioux Falls Pentagon was the time and day to quench it. Behold, Missouri Valley Football Conference Media Day 2026. All nine teams sent one coach and two players to talk about... well, whatever the media asked them. The men were sent through a car wash of reporters and recorders around Heritage Court, station-to-station. Sioux Falls Live's team of Matt Zimmer and Marcus Traxler sat down with the three representatives from each school simultaneously. Nine times. Yes, we're channeling Dean of Students Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Niiiiine times! Those chats were all approximately 10 minute overviews of the programs, with questions and answers focused their expectations, their improvements from last year, the gauntlet that still is the MVFC despite North Dakota State's exit to the FCS. Oh, yeah, almost every team was asked about the notable absence of the Bison. You can watch the full replay of all nine chats here [https://www.siouxfallslive.com/sports/college/mvfc-media-day-watch-the-replay-now] at Sioux Falls Live and the Midwest Sports Plus [https://www.midwestsportsplus.com/] app. Some of those same interview subjects were escorted a few feet away for 1-on-1 interviews with the Happy Hour host. These were not your standard program overviews. Which dark and raunchy sitcom starring a voice from The Simpsons did new USD coach Matt Vitzthum watch some evenings to escape his ever-consuming job? The all-time Big Ten GOATS — Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler — played major roles in the life of Indiana State head coach Curt Mallory, who turned down a scholarship offer from his own father at Indiana to play at Michigan. Mallory also coached for his father Bill, regarded as Indiana's best-ever coach until some guy named Curt Cignetti came along. So, what are Mallory's most vivid memories and lessons from all of these icons? How did another Big Ten legend, Joe Tiller, the coaching mentor of Illinois State coach and "dean of MVFC coaches" Brock Spack, use sarcasm as part of his ability to rescue Purdue from the abyss and take Boilermaker fans on their greatest 12-year journey while Spack was the defensive coordinator? North Dakota head coach Eric Schmidt had a front row seat to the coaching mastery of University of Sioux Falls legend and Milbank native Kalen DeBoer— first as a fellow assistant at Southern Illinois during DeBoer's first couple years after leaving USF following a 69-3 run, then again when head coach DeBoer hired Schmidt to Fresno State, then Washington. So what does Schmidt pluck for DeBoer, who has won 86 percent of his games as a head coach? How did the way DeBoer operate partly help Schmidt navigate a recent NCAA violation at UND involving a recruit [https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/ncaa-penalizes-und-football-for-tampering-violation]? How on earth was the 2025 Walter Payton Award winner Beau Brungard not plucked with seven-figure money by a Big Ten or SEC school after racking up 4,702 combined yards and 53 combined touchdowns last season? What was it like for Brungard to be a son of a quarterback on YSU's 1993 and '94 FCS national championship teams? We saved the best tease for last: How does SDSU coach Dan Jackson plan to beef up the rivalry with South Dakota now that North Dakota State has exited the league? Oh, yes: We asked Jackson about the "Little Brown Jug,"the trophy for the winner of State vs U until the Jacks took the FCS leap over 20 years ago. Where is it? Might it re-appear when the Jacks & Yotes square off on Oct. 31? Enjoy. Later in the episode, a couple of interviews from Midwest Sports+ reporter Zach Borg— MVFC commisioner Jeff Jackson and North Dakota quarterback Jerry Kaminski.

MVFC: Walter Payton Award winner Beau Brungard on his Youngstown roots, YSU legend father, and overcoming his height

The Youngstown State quarterback who racked up 4,702 total yards and 53 total touchdowns to win the "Heisman Trophy of the FCS" is a hometown kid (from 15 miles away). His father is the only QB in YSU history to direct the Penguins to two national titles. So, did Beau grow up always wanting be a QB? Did he always want to play for YSU? Is his allegiance to the town and college the main reason why he chose to play there, then stay after a dynamite junior season?

MVFC: USD's Matt Vitzthum confirms chip on Coyotes' shoulder, updates QB race & marvels about DT Chris Dixon

Being a college football coach can be all-consuming and time-absorbing. In their scant down times, different coaches find different ways to get away from it all. For USD's first year head coach Matt Vitzthum, one of his comfort outlets was a dark and raunchy comedy show from the late 2010's. Hint: The main character on the show about a baseball announcer had a signature sport jacket that looked a lot like Vitzthum's red-and-black plaid blazer at MVFC Media Day. There's more to this conversation than random situation comedies that Netflix, sadly, only makes available some of the time. Yeah, there's the only football program in the FCS that has reached the quarterfinals three years in a row, but has it's third coach in three years and three quarterbacks vying to fill the mammoth shoes of Aidan Bouman. There's a defense that was sneaky good last year, especially during the Coyotes' four-game winning streak to finish the regular season and clinch a playoff berth, not to mention sole second place in the MVFC... and that defense has at least one sneaky great player Vitz loves talking about. Yeah, you'll hear about that stuff, too. But you'll get to know the new boss a little better.

MVFC: Dan Jackson on growing rivalry with USD, Chase Mason's growth, socializing with MVFC coaches

Yes, SDSU is the favorite to win the MVFC, with 28 of 36 first place votes. Yes, the Jacks feel like the new kingpin of the league with NDSU gone. And yes, they'll miss the rivalry. But on Happy Hour, we're not here to talk to Dan Jackson about these things on MVFC Media Day. Others did. You'll hear those topics with Dan and the players he brought, Chase Mason and Logan Green. Let's have some fun with Dan, a chat about golfing and the alcoholic beverages of choice of fellow MVFC coaches, one of which he has found a closer connection than the others. That would be his in-state rival, Matt Vitzthum. Hear how Dan and Matt are working together on things to improve both programs, including a rivalry that has moved to front and center with the Dakota Marker out of play. For now. And then, there's Chase Mason. It's been a few months since we talked to Dan, so we always need a Chase update.