Feb. 10—VERMILLION, S.D. — When Matt Vitzthum graduated from his small-town Iowa high school 21 years ago, Marty Wadle saw a senior heading off to college and had one prevailing thought about his team captain.
That’s a natural leader, Wadle thought.
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The University of South Dakota agreed, making Vitzthum the school’s head football coach on Feb. 6 after former head coach Travis Johansen took the defensive coordinator job at Rutgers University in the Big Ten.
Vitzthum started with football in his hometown of Algona, Iowa, where he played for Bishop Garrigan High School under head coach Wadle. The veteran high school coach has led Bishop Garrigan’s team for 34 years and was an inductee into the Iowa High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2023.
“He has always been a great leader, and he has really grown to be a great man, a great father and a great husband,” Wadle said. “And those are things that we try to get out of our kids in our program, and Matt has been in that leadership role since he was young. He was a captain when he was a senior, and I see that still today and how he gets along with people. He has done such a great job, and the relationships he has built through what he does with players and other coaches — it’s just a tremendous credit to who he is and the kind of person he is.”
Wadle said it’s been Vitzthum’s work ethic and adaptability that have propelled him through the college coaching ranks, which started after he graduated from Division III Wartburg University in 2009 where he was a student assistant coach.
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“From my observation, he did what was ever asked of him and he has been able to work his way up because of that,” Wadle said. “When he first started out at Grand Valley State as the running backs coach, I think that might have been a little bit out of his niche, and maybe even with the receivers coach as he started at South Dakota. But he used those as things to make him a better coach, and I think he has done a really good job at it.”
After stops at Division III Wittenberg in Ohio and now-defunct Division II St. Cloud State, Vitzthum was at Grand Valley State in Michigan for 10 years, including four seasons as offensive coordinator. That span included seven trips to the NCAA Division II playoffs. It was from there that former USD coach Bob Nielson hired him to join USD as a receivers coach in 2024.
That was Carter Bell’s first chance to work with Vitzthum. Bell was a senior wideout who had been with the program since 2019, and Bell considers himself to be a proud supporter of the Coyotes’ recent promotion.
“Playing for coach Vitzthum was a great experience,” Bell said. “I wish I could have played for him a little longer because he gave myself and others in the wide receiver room a different view on the game. With him having offensive coordinator experience, he was able to give us a different perspective and ultimately that boosted our overall play as a group.”
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Under Vitzthum’s guidance, Bell tallied a team-best 806 receiving yards on 53 receptions and earned an honorable mention on the all-MVFC team in his final season with the Coyotes.
Vitzthum carries a reputation that blends passion for the game with an ability to connect with his players, former Coyote quarterback Aidan Bouman said.
“He makes everyone feel excited about football and excited to be in the building,” Bouman said on John Gaskins’ Happy Hour Show on Monday. “He makes everything fun, but he’s got that fine line where he pushes you and makes you better.”
Bouman got the chance to work with Vitzthum up close in 2025, when he took over as the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The veteran quarterback flourished under his guidance, breaking multiple South Dakota football all-time career records in yards (9,278), passing completions (695) and passing attempts (1,078) in his final season, while finishing just shy of the program record in career passing touchdowns with 68.
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“The dude is an unbelievable human being,” he said. “He is one of the few people, and this is what I gave him the most props on, he is incredibly passionate about football. He is in love with football, but he understands relationships and he loves to love people, too. It doesn’t matter who you are.”
Bouman also credits Vitzthum with helping the team recover from an early 0-2 start last season.
“I don’t think we probably have the turnaround that we had last year without him, truthfully, just from my personal perspective because the confidence that he instilled in me was something that I never had from a coach. So, that in itself was really special,” Bouman said.
Bell also highlighted Vitzthum’s unique balance of structure and reliability.
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“Coach Vitzthum’s coaching style and approach was one that I had been waiting for ever since becoming a Coyote,” Bell said. “As a football player, you spend so much time with your team, and he made every day enjoyable. There are times when football doesn’t have to be taken so seriously, but there are times when coaching needs to be done and he had that balance.”
Back in Algona, there’s a lot of pride in the recent news for Vitzthum’s former high school football coach. He said the Coyotes have a leader who will bring loyalty and leadership to the USD football program.
“He is 100% loyal, and I think he knows what loyalty is all about,” Wadle said. “And I think he learned that growing up as a young man, and he has integrity and all of the things that make a good leader. When all of those qualities combine together, they make a good football coach, and he will know how to get the pieces in the right places and do what he needs to do to accomplish that.”
