Former Crookston Pirate teacher, football and girls basketball Coach Eric Schmidt has taken a job as the Defensive Ends Coach and Special Teams Coordinator for the Washington Huskies in the PAC 10 Conference. Schmidt has known about the move for several weeks, but had to wait until it was finalized and after Fresno State played in their bowl game. 
Schmidt was a captain and linebacker for UND where they won a National Championship in 2001. He graduated in 2002 and started his teaching and coaching career at Crookston High School where he led the Pirate Girls Basketball team to a state runner-up finish and the Football team to a Section 8AAA championship. He coached for three years before going to his alma mater to coach linebackers at UND from 2006-2007.
Schmidt followed Dale Lennon to Southern Illinois from 2008 to 2013 where he coached outside linebackers, defensive line, inside linebackers and was the special teams coordinator. Southern Illinois is where he crossed paths with Kalen DeBoer. DeBoer was Southern Illinois’ offensive coordinator for four of the six seasons that Schmidt spent at SIU. During the seasons DeBoer and Schmidt were both at SIU, Schmidt was its defensive line coach for two seasons (2010-11) and inside linebackers/special teams coordinator for two seasons (2012-13). In 2014 he followed Bubba Schweigert back to UND to be the defensive coordinator until 2019.
In 2020 and 2021 he was hired by good friend Kalen DeBoer to be the defensive line/special teams coordinator at Fresno State. He will now follow DeBoer to a power five school, Washington, in the PAC 10 with the likes of Oregon, USC, UCLA, Stanford, and others.
Schmidt married Crookston High School and UMC graduate Tiffany Hasbrouck and they have three children, Harrison, Kennedy, and Truman.
Tags:
