MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University head football coach candidate Todd Hoffner believes building a championship team starts with thinking like a champion.

"We need to look, act, and feel like champions even though recently we may not have experienced that," he said. "We need to believe that we can do anything we put our minds to and believe that you can be a conference champion, you can have a winning record, you can beat the University of Mary and you can compete and win the North Division championship."

The power of positive thinking and moving forward – both on a personal level as a football program – were two key talking points for Hoffner during a 45-minute press conference at Minot State's Christensen Room at the Minot State Dome. Hoffner was the second of three finalists to conduct an on-campus interview for the vacant position after former head coach Paul Rudolph resigned earlier in the month to take the offensive coordinator position at the University of North Dakota.

Hoffner fielded multiple questions from media and community members during the open forum ranging from his coaching and recruiting philosophies, his North Dakota roots and family.

"One of my focuses and goals has been to reestablish myself," he said. "With all the adversity my family and I have faced, we are looking to dust ourselves off, move forward. We need to move on and move forward in our lives and hopefully this is a great opportunity for us to do that."

Hoffner spent four seasons from 2008-2012 as the head coach at Minnesota State, compiling a 34-13 record while winning both the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference title and the Mineral Water Bowl in 2011. He coached the Mavericks to three NSIC South Division Championships in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

While he had plenty of success in terms of wins, he made sure that wins and losses wasn't the only indicator of success.

"I very rarely will talk about winning or losing because I believe that success can be measured in a number of different ways and I am all about trying to raise the baseline and the level of excellence to a higher standing," he said. "It's all about trying to push people to be better than they could potentially be themselves, and that's what coaching and teaching is.

"We will measure success one day at a time and it will take some time, but from what I've learned and what I've heard this university is committed to enhancing all of the athletics programs here at Minot State including the football program. That excites me."

Hoffner earned a Bachelor of Science in education at Valley City State where he was a member of the football team. He holds a Master of Science degree in pedagogy from the University of North Dakota. Getting closer to his home of Esmond, N.D. was a big reason he chose to apply at Minot State.

"This is a position that has a particular interest to me," Hoffner said. "My parents are still alive and I've learned a lot of great valuable lessons from them about hard work and perseverance, and only being 90 miles away from them would be very exciting for me."

Minot State finishes its on-campus interviews as Mike Aldrich is scheduled to be at the university Tuesday. Athletic Director Rick Hedberg will announce the 19th head coach in school history by the end of the week.