WATCH: New UND football coach Eric Schmidt talks vision for team in 1-on-1 interview with WDAY's Cullen Holt

GRAND FORKS After being introduced as the newest head football coach at the University of North Dakota, former UND player and assistant coach Eric Schmidt spoke with Cullen Holt about his vision for the football program.

Watch the video below for the full feature from WDAY News, and read below for excerpts from the interview.

CH: Did you ever think that you would be back here doing this when you were a player? Was this even in the realm of possibility? ES: I always knew I wanted to coach.

It's probably a dream at that point.

You really don't know the nuts and bolts and what goes into it and how long it takes to be able to get to a place like this.

CH: Can you give us the CliffsNotes of your philosophy on the transfer portal? ES: The portal is what it is.

It's free agency.

I look at at the high school recruiting as the draft.

That's where you're going to get the heart and soul of your team.

And then if there are some spots where you feel like for whatever reason, injuries or transfers or whatever it is, that you feel like you have to go fill a hole, that's what the transfer (portal) is there for.

CH: When does it start, and what does the process look like for building your staff of assistant coaches? ES: Already started.

Obviously, there are some procedures that you have to go through with the with the university.

We got that stuff already in motion.

Guys are ready.

We're getting close to being able to announce some of these guys.

It will be probably a week to two-week process once you get through all the paperwork and all that kind of stuff.

But super excited about being able to to build this thing, getting the right guys in here.

CH: Do you know if that will involve much of the current staff? ES: We're still evaluating some of that too as well.

Definitely feel like there are some guys here that that did a good job that deserve at least interviews and the opportunity to be able to stay.

Still working with that with the current staff and then also having some conversations with some other prior relationships and guys that I want to bring in here as well that are outside the current guys.

CH: How did they get you to leave sunny San Diego to come back to Grand Forks, especially when you get welcomed with negative-degree weather? ES: I didn't bring any San Diego weather with me, but it's the people, right? It's bigger than the weather, you know? It's bigger than a lot of things that you can talk about that I think are out of your control.

It's the people, it's the place.

It's getting back to, like I said, a place where we really feel like our family was successful, where we want to raise our kids, and then get into a place where football is important here.

It's a tradition.

It's a program that people care deeply about.

To be able to go back and now lead this place and hopefully take it to a place that it hasn't been in a minute, I'm really excited to be able to get to work and start doing that..

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