About Tim Polasek
Tim Polasek is the head football coach at North Dakota State University, where he became the 32nd head coach in program history in December 2023. A Wisconsin native, Polasek played quarterback at Concordia University Wisconsin before moving into coaching. He began his coaching career at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, taking on multiple roles early in his tenure— including work with quarterbacks and the passing game— before joining the NDSU staff in 2006. Polasek spent several years helping build the Bison’s modern era success as an assistant under Craig Bohl, coaching positions that included running backs, tight ends/fullbacks, and contributing on special teams and recruiting. After a season at Northern Illinois, he returned to Fargo and served as NDSU’s offensive coordinator and running backs coach from 2014–2016, continuing the program’s championship standard and reputation for physical, efficient offense. His path then took him to the FBS level: Polasek coached the offensive line at Iowa beginning in 2017, then joined Wyoming in 2021 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under former NDSU head coach Craig Bohl. He returned to NDSU to lead the program, bringing a blend of Bison tradition and top-level experience back to the sideline in Fargo and has helped NDSU win two conference championships and one FCS national championship during his first two seasons with the program.
Q & A
Q: What excites you most about this opportunity?
A: That’s a good question. You kind of have to separate “me” from the program. The competition excites me, sure. But you’ve got to remove yourself, right? This wasn’t a selfish decision. This was a decision made by a university, an outstanding university, that looked at every angle of improvement. How can this help? Why do this now?
So the most exciting part for us as an athletic department and football program is that we really feel like we can be impactful, not only for the football team, but for the university, for Fargo. I’m excited to see if Bison Nation responds. I’m excited to see the Climb the Mountain campaign gets supported-because we need that help. Those challenges excite me. And obviously, seeing new faces and uniforms in a different conference is exciting.
Q: Can you tell me more about why now and how this helps the university?
A: From a university standpoint, it’s about enrollment. Does this attract a different level of faculty member? Does this attract a different type of student? Do we get into some areas where we become attractive to students we weren’t before?
And from a fan standpoint, I think about the game day environment. How exciting is it for a fan base to know you could have a JMU, Sam Houston State, Georgia Southern back on the schedule as home-and-homes? We could potentially play some of those teams that have moved up and renew some classic big games.
And with Fargo, to me, this is a holistic positive move for all of us… We feel this helps the whole ecosystem.
Q: I know you said it isn’t selfish, but personally, what does it mean to you to be trusted to lead this under your watch?
A: In the back of my mind, I’ve always thought, whether it was this year or next year, what great challenge it would be to compete at the highest level.
To be the guy with the opportunity to push the program forward to the next step, I really wanted to do that. And for me and my wife, Jill, it means we get to do that here, without being tested every offseason by “the next job,” “the next jump,” “the next move.” We can be intentionally focused on what it takes to move forward as a program, without offseason distractions. That’s exciting.
Q: What did the fundraising process look like for you?
I’ve always been extremely involved in pushing our story, our vision, our mission, and giving updates on where the team is at. I take pride in being out in front at public events, events like basketball games, softball game, getting to those things to keep pushing the program.
Fundraising is community engagement. It’s about true connection. It’s about the real passion with the fan base. Even something like our radio show, those people have become real friends. We’ll have 40 to 50 people there and that’s been enjoyable.
But with the Climb the Mountain campaign, and trying to get 12,000 season ticket holders back, we’ve got to put a good product out there. That’s the role. Then it’s about building great connectivity with the community and supporters.
Third is the vision. What are the needs inside this campaign? People need to understand where their money is going.
And another big role of ours is being good stewards of the money. We don’t want to be sloppy. We need to refrain from overpaying in the NIL world and not getting productivity.
Q: For team makers and people invested in bison athletics, where is that money going? Why is it needed?
A: It’s really about four areas.
Scholarships.
We’ve got 85 guys on scholarship, but that’s 63 split up. We need to get to 85 full scholarships. That’s 22 more scholarships right away.
Facilities.
There are facility plans that are needed if we want to recruit at the level we want. There are beautiful facilities in this conference. We need more office space for coaching staff and personnel. And the goal would be to upgrade our meeting rooms.
Football operations.
This is the part I don’t love talking about, but it’s reality. Coaching salaries have to increase. We’ve learned that because of how many coaches have left this place for more money. We want to be competitive and keep people around. And with travel and recruiting footprint, we likely need a couple of additional staff members.
NIL/roster retention.
We aren’t trying to get to the revenue-sharing numbers you read about, but we have to be competitive within this league. Through Green and Gold Fund members, we’re probably looking at needing to double what we were doing last year at some point to be competitive, and keep our best players here as long as we can.
Q: What does this do for you immediately, recruiting-wise?
A: Regionally, there will still be good universities, and we’ll still be in those fights. But there’s a significant opportunity.
We’re Group of Six now, not Power Four, but Group of Six. Regionally, you look around with Northern Illinois to the east, Wyoming to the west, Tulsa… maybe Missouri State. The point is, there’s a lot less in that gap that you’re competing against for players.
So I’m excited to sell our brand harder. In St. Louis, is there another level of player there? In Omaha, can we deepen what we already have? In Wisconsin and Chicago, we should be more attractive.
We don’t want to change everything, but there are a few areas we’ll invest in more.
Q: How have you leaned on mentors to prepare for the transition?
A: I paid close attention at Iowa to the recruiting differences, recruiting calendar, what’s accelerated, what we can do better, and how we present our vision to student-athletes. I grew a lot under Kirk Ferentz and his staff. And I’m grateful for my time at Wyoming-we aren’t going in blind. We understand conference travel. Coach Bohl has been there for me over the phone the last two years to help provide insight on what felt different early, advice, and experience. Having those guys ready to answer questions has been really good.
Q: What’s the sentiment from the players? Anything you’re hearing repeatedly?
A: They’ve had opportunities since the announcement to knock on my door and talk if there’s any negative fallout, which there hasn’t been. It’s been positive and energetic. The offseason work has always been intentional here and the Bison pride has been here all along, but since the decision, there’s been an uptick in connection, energy, and enthusiasm.
Q: Is there anything you want to make sure you say to the readers?
A: These are exciting times. We’re in this together Bison Nation. I think there’s hunger from the community. They wanted to do this.
So now it’s about Climbing the Mountain, together, to position us for the first five, six years of this transition. And there’s opportunity with other revenue streams too.
But more than anything, let’s go do this. Let’s do it together. Let’s enjoy the competition. Saturdays in the Dome, we’re coming with intent. We’re going to put the ball in the air, and this is going to be competition. I don’t see any layups. It’s a competitive league.
