McFeely's Tip Sheet: Relaxed Entz reiterates to L.A. media he wants to be head coach again

The first thing that stood out watching Matt Entz's first interaction with the Los Angeles media was that the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. The former North Dakota State football head coach, now linebackers coach at USC, looked like a relaxed version of the Entz we knew here in Fargo.

The stress of having to win 15 games and a national championship every year or risk being told you suck is real. Maybe there's a lesson there for Bison fans and, yes, we the media.

Entz, too, was able to expand a bit on his aspirations to again be a head coach and how taking the USC job fits into those plans. As he said in Fargo during his exit interviews with local media, Entz said lack of FBS experience on his resume hurt his chances at the next level.

Sources have told the Tip Sheet that over the last few years Entz was offered the head coaching job at Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference but decided to stay at NDSU, was close to getting the job at South Florida of the American Athletic Conference after the 2022 season and was a finalist at Boise State of the Mountain West Conference in 2023. We don't know whether there were other, perhaps bigger, jobs in play.

"I interviewed for an FBS head job and some of the feedback coming back was 'no FBS experience,'" Entz said during his first interaction with L.A. media last week. "Football is football, in my mind. Just the pieces I get to work with are bigger, faster and stronger than a Division III coach. But there are still 11 guys on both sides of the ball and we're both still diagramming plays, it's just the speed at which they are executed is different. That was probably the last straw for me. If I see myself ascending in the profession, do I need to take a chance on myself?"

Entz made a comparison between the brands of USC and NDSU at their respective levels. He said at both places, it's about the logo being bigger than any individual. He referred to USC multiple times as one of the top "blue bloods" of college football.

"One of the times when I talked to coach (Lincoln) Riley he asked me, 'What is your vision?'" Entz said. "Being transparent, I said, 'Coach, I want to sit in a seat like you do someday.' I think that probably took him aback a little bit. I don't think many people answer questions like that, but I'm going to be brutally honest. I want to be the best linebacker coach I can, but in the background I want to be preparing to be another head football coach."

As for the Relaxed Matt angle, it was clear during the 2023 season that the stress of having a "down" season by NDSU standards and a thumping at the hands of North Dakota in Grand Forks was weighing on Entz. Combine that with the transfer portal and NIL becoming major factors even at NDSU and Entz's frustration level seemed to reach all-time highs.

Going to USC allowed Entz to reset at the highest level of the college game, with a plan of trying to become a head coach again.

"I loved my time at NDSU," Entz told the L.A. media. "It was an unbelievable 10 years. Had an opportunity to compete for seven national championships. I have a son that still plays there and it'll probably always be home to my two boys.

"That fan base there has an unbelievable standard and that's what makes that place so great. It's not about being 7-5. It's about winning championships. It's about winning national championships and doing it with the right people, the right way. And I think this place can be the exact same thing."

Something that likely won't happen, but if it does I'll look like a genius:

The Tip Sheet offered recently that North Dakota's Tyree Inhenacho would be the Summit League men's basketball player of the year. And that's still a possibility. But after the last six games or so, maybe it's time to throw NDSU's Andrew Morgan in the mix for that award, too. He's become a dominant scorer in the post and can knock down the 3-pointer. If the Bison somehow crawl to the top of the league, Morgan could be the POY.

Odd choice by Summit League commissioner Josh Fenton to have UND hockey announcer Alex Heinert call the Bison-Fighting Hawks men's basketball game for the conference's nationally televised game on CBS Sports Network last weekend. Heinert doesn't call UND or NDSU basketball games, yet Fenton gave him the assignment to do a showcase game.

Nothing against Heinert, who is a talented announcer who will someday land a national gig and who shows his commitment to UND by commuting from Sioux Falls regularly to do the hockey games, but wouldn't it have made more sense to have UND basketball play-by-play man Brian Shawn of Midco or NDSU guy Dom Izzo of WDAY do the national game? How about rewarding the local guys who actually grind it out all season for the local teams?

It was weak for the league to take the in-state rivalry game away from local partners Midco and Forum Communications in the first place and put it on a national network that's not readily available across North Dakota. To ice out Izzo and Shawn who admittedly are longtime friends of the Tip Sheet was a slap in the face to those guys and the local broadcast entities who pay big bucks to NDSU and UND to be "partners."

Moorhead's Sam Haiby, who played college basketball at Nebraska, has signed with the Mackay Meteorettes of the Australian semi-professional National Basketball League, according to her X account. ... Former NDSU punter Ben LeCompte has been hired as the new Senior Associate Athletic Director and Chief Revenue Officer for University of South Dakota athletics. LeCompte was Director of Development for athletics at Kansas State. ... Lauren Reardon became the all-time leading scorer for Grand Forks Central girls basketball, passing Caitlin Farroh. According to Central social media, Reardon also broke the school record for points in a game by scoring 61 points in a recent game. That broke the old mark of 49 points by Alys Seay. ... UND's women's basketball team has given up more than 100 points four times this season, including its last two games. Oral Roberts scored 102 points against the Fighting Hawks on Thursday and the Bison scored 107 on Saturday.