MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University Athletic Director Rick Hedberg announced Thursday that Todd Hoffner will serve as the Beavers head football coach.

Hoffner becomes the 19th head football coach in school history.

 "We are extremely excited to bring Todd Hoffner onboard as our next head football coach," Hedberg said. "To get someone with his experience and success at the Division II level is really a plus for our program and our entire athletic department."

Hoffner comes to Minot State after four very successful seasons at Minnesota State, sporting an impressive 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 titles, winning in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

"The biggest thing for me was there needed to be a mutual want for both parties, Minot State needed to want me to be their next head coach and I needed to want to be the coach here," he said. "I really think that happened here. It was important for me to get closer to my roots, my family is only 90 miles away and I wanted to stay at the scholarship level that we are at. Those were all important factors for me."

The announcement came four weeks after former head coach Paul Rudolph resigned to take the offensive coordinator position at the University of North Dakota. Hoffner said the progression from the time he submitted his application to Thursday was very quick – and needed to be with the timetable of the season – but was handled very well.

"It was a fast process – probably not as fast as some people think it should be – but it moved quickly," he said. "But it was very thorough and it was a fair process. I started out just submitting my information and Mr. Hedberg called me and asked if I was serious about the position and if I wanted to be the next coach and that fired me up."

Hedberg feels that Hoffner separated himself before the eyes of the search committee.

"Todd did a wonderful job in our search process and was extremely impressive in his presentation," Hedberg said. "He has a solid plan to move our football program forward and I look forward to working with him. It is very exciting for Beaver Athletics."

The hiring also gives Hoffner a chance to get back into coaching after nearly a year away from the game.

"It's a good feeling to put the hat and whistle on again,"Hoffner said. "I was able to watch conditioning this morning and one of the coaches gave me a whistle and I told him, 'you don't know how that feels.'

"Life is about second chances and I feel I've given some coaches and student-athletes those chances and now I get that chance. That is refreshing."

Hoffner hit the ground running Thursday with the impromptu conditioning drill session and said there will be plenty of evaluations of current and future staff and student-athletes between now and the start of the 2014 season.

"I have a lot to do of course," he said. "I will begin to evaluate the current staff and new coaching positions for future, and we will be chasing a lot of student-athletes (in the recruiting process) until the start of practice this fall. This upcoming signing day will probably not be a big focal point, but we will continue to work on getting high quality young men all the way up to fall practices.

"And I want to get acclimated to Minot and get as visible in the community as possible. I believe that will be important for me."