Head Coach
Jeff Tesch
Moorhead State '77
13th Season at Bemidji State
career record: 78-51 / .604 (prior to 2008 season)

It begins in early October with the turning of the fall leaves. Students, proud alumni and families from surrounding communities file into a small, picturesque stadium by the lake with fevered expectations for the battles to come. Through the autumn combat, those watchful souls have been blessed to witness an unprecedented era of success. All-America honorees. School records falling by the wayside with an almost dazzling regularity. A stadium where victories occurred with the frequency of a bigfoot sighting just a few short years ago now hosts men with annual dreams of championship and glory.

It’s an era of success and excitement that once might have seemed akin to the Christmas fantasies of youth. But under the masterful guidance of 13th-year head coach Jeff Tesch, the Bemidji State football program has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis and gone from annual doormat to title contender.

Tesch has posted a 78-51 record at BSU and led the Beavers to a school-record streak of 10 consecutive winning seasons. During that historic streak he has posted four of the five eight-win seasons for a program now in its 83rd season of competition. He is the only coach in Bemidji State history to oversee back-to-back eight-win seasons, and his 2000 and 2006 teams matching school-record totals of nine wins.

Tesch’s success at BSU has been remarkable. Upon being named BSU’s 15th field general in May 1996, he inherited a program which had won just 16 games in its previous eight seasons, suffering losing streaks of nine, 11 and 18 games in that time. Today, his 62 wins represent more than 22 percent of the program’s all-time victories. He has averaged six wins a season at a program which in 70 years prior to his arrival averaged barely three victories each fall. In fact, Tesch’s 62 wins in 10 years are more than the number of victories garnered by the Bemidji State program in the 22 full seasons prior to his arrival — 61.

Tesch has further cemented his legendary status by becoming Bemidji State’s all-time leader in coaching victories. He posted his 53rd win at BSU with a 28-20 victory over Minnesota Crookston on Oct. 16, 2004, moving him past H. “Jolly” Erickson, who won 52 games during a 17-year career at BSU from 1938-54.

Tesch’s growing list of achievements at Bemidji State has him amongst the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s coaching deans as well. Now entering his 11th season at the Bemidji State helm, Tesch is the second-longest tenured coach in the conference, trailing only Winona State’s Mark Mauer who enters his 13th year with the Warriors.

Growing Pains
Tesch’s rebuilding efforts came about slowly, as BSU finished 2-8 in each of his first two seasons. His inaugural 1996 squad closed out an eight-game losing skid dating back to the 1995 season before Tesch picked up his first win as a head coach in a 19-15 win against Minn.-Morris. The Beavers would later close 1996 with a 28-14 win over Southwest State in the Metrodome Classic, BSU’s first win in the ‘Dome since downing Augsburg, 23-7, in 1983. That victory capped a 2-8 campaign and helped set the table for the turnaround to come.

BSU built upon the momentum of its season-ending win in 1996, picking up a 25-21 win over St. John’s (Minn.) in its 1997 opener. That win, highlighted by “The Catch” – a 47-yard Hail Mary from Pat O’Connor to Ty Houglum as time expired – gave the Beavers back-to-back wins for just the second time in the 1990s and marked the team’s first win in a season opener since 1990. BSU would later pick up a 25-22 home win over NSIC rival Northern State before dropping its final two contests to finish the 1997 season at 2-8.

BSU Turns the Corner
Tesch’s resurrection of the BSU program began in earnest in 1998, as he led it to a 6-4 overall record and a third-place finish in the NSIC. BSU won three consecutive games after a season-opening loss, marking just the team’s second three-game winning streak since 1985. The Beavers later posted a 48-13 over Minn.-Morris and a 48-18 win over Minn.-Duluth to mark their first 40-point scoring contests since 1991.

BSU’s six wins not only helped elevate Tesch to NSIC Coach of the Year honors, they marked the most wins for the program since John Peterson’s 1986 squad finished 6-4-1. BSU finished 4-2 against the NSIC, marking the first time since Peterson’s 1984 team (4-2) the Beavers won as many as four league games.

The Arrival
The Beavers opened strong in 1999, serving notice that the successes of 1998 would not be a one-season flash-in-the-pan. BSU won its first three games, its best start since also opening 3-0 in 1985, en route to what would become just the second eight-win season in school history.

BSU set a school record in 1999 with three 50-point scoring games. The first of BSU’s three half-century efforts came in a 52-38 win over Wayne State, BSU’s first 50-point game since 1986. BSU would top the 50-point barrier twice more in ‘99 with a 54-7 win over Concordia-St. Paul and a 53-20 win over Minn.-Morris.

Then in 2000, a record-setting offense helped propel BSU to arguably the finest single-season performance in school history. Tesch’s 2000 squad became just the third team in school history - and first since 1944 - to open a season 4-0. The hot start propelled the Beavers to a school-record nine-win season, breaking the previous mark of eight wins set in 1984 and equaled in 1999.

Behind first-team All-NSIC and honorable mention All-America running back Eddie Acosta and honorable mention all-league quarterback Geoff Martinson, the BSU offense established 10 school season records and set its single-game scoring mark in a 70-0 blitzkrieg over Minn.-Morris. The 70-point effort tied for the fifth-highest scoring performance in all of Division II and joined with an historic 65-63, quadruple-overtime Homecoming win over Southwest State, BSU joined Northwest Missouri State as the only Division II programs to top 65 points twice in 2000. BSU also closed strong, becoming one of just six teams in school history, and first in 36 years, to finish with three consecutive wins.

BSU’s achievements did not go unnoticed on the national scene. The Beavers finished ninth in the NCAA Midwest Regional Poll, used to select participants in the 16-team Division II national playoffs, and were 28th in the final AFCA Coaches Poll.

Championship Expectations
The 2000 season set the stage for a 21st century Bemidji State program which has established itself as a legitimate annual contender for the NSIC title, a crown the Beavers have not worn since 1959.

BSU’s breakout 2000 season sent it into 2001 as a favorite for the NSIC championship, and with expectations also came national attention. The Beavers were ranked 23rd in Lindy’s pre-season Division II national poll, and running back Eddie Acosta was named NSIC Pre-Season Offensive Player of the Year.

While the 2001 edition of the Beavers may not have lived up to the pre-season expectations, BSU finished 7-4 and led the NSIC in both total offense and passing offense. Along the way, BSU shattered 16 team single-season records while 13 individual season records and more than two dozen career marks fell by the wayside.

When it was all said and done, BSU had seven players named First-Team All-NSIC—the largest group in school history and equal to BSU’s total of First-Team All-NSIC players in 1999 and 2000. Acosta was named NSIC Offensive Player of the Year, and Jason Leden earned a school-record fifth All-NSIC honor.

An 0-3 start and a season-ending injury to Acosta, a consensus pre-season All-America pick, derailed BSU’s plans for the 2002 season early on, but Tesch rallied the troops with perhaps his finest coaching job since coming to Bemidji. No longer chasing conference titles or post-season glory, BSU instead looked inward and chose to play for the pride of the program. The Beavers rallied to go 6-2 in their final eight games and finished the season with sole possession of fourth place in the NSIC.

WR Ryan Welle was named First-Team All-NSIC, leading BSU’s largest group of All-Conference selections since 1998, and also earned a spot on an All-Midwest Region team. LB Jon Aamot earned second-team league honors and was named to two post-season All-Midwest Region teams.

BSU opened the 2003 season 2-0, including a season-opening win over Minn. State-Mankato which marked its first victory over a North Central Conference opponent since 1976. But three losses in four games again would make the team’s quest for an NSIC championship an uphill battle. The Beavers rebounded and won four times in their final five starts. BSU’s late-season surge also included a thrilling 48-42 win at Northern State which saw BSU rally from a 21-point first-quarter deficit.

BSU had three First-Team All-NSIC picks in 2003, most since 2001, and in total had nine players named to the All-Conference team.

Tesch’s successes at Bemidji State continued in 2004, as he led the team to the third eight-win season under his watch and the fourth in school history. BSU tied for second in the NSIC standings, its highest finish since 2000, and went into the final weekend of the season in position to earn the first post-season berth in school history.

BSU grabbed national attention by scoring 40 or more points in each of its first five games, running its streak of 40-point scoring games to seven dating back to the 2003 season.

The Beaver offense was back in form, breaking school season records for scoring (422), rushing yardage (2,519) and rushing touchdowns (33) while becoming just the second team in school history to average better than 440 yards of offense per game.

At season’s end, nine Beavers earned All-NSIC honors, OT Blaine Thomas was named All-Northwest Region and WR/KR Michael Nordyke received an invitation to a free-agent minicamp tryout with the Minnesota Vikings.

The Beavers erupted to a 3-0 start in 2005, highlighted by a 42-17 win at Minot State which saw quarterback Nathan Sannes set a school record with six touchdown passes and a 28-23 home victory over Minnesota State. In Week 4, BSU set a school record for combined points scored in regulation (96) in a 55-48 single-overtime loss at Concordia-St. Paul, and from that point forward injuries to key players on both sides of the ball would hamper BSU’s efforts the remainder of the season.

That loss and a setback at Winona State two weeks later left the Beavers at 1-2 in NSIC play and out of title contention. However, the Beaver rallied to win their next three starts following the loss to Winona State, including a 45-33 win over Northern State and the program’s school-record sixth consecutive victory over MSU-Moorhead in the “Battle for the Axe” rivalry series.

Tesch led the Beavers to a 7-3 finish in 2006, extending his school-record streak of consecutive winning seasons to eight, and saw a school-record 11 players earn some form of All-NSIC honor. James Midboe earned First-Team All-NSIC honors, and Nathan Sannes tied BSU’s career record for touchdown passes. Both earned All-Region honors.

Chart-Topping Career
Tesch’s 13-year run at Bemidji State has him at or near the top in nearly every category for coaching achievement.

Despite a slow start, victories have come quickly. He won his first 30 games at BSU in 57 career starts, reaching the plateau two games faster than Chet Anderson (59), and he won his 40th game in Year 6. The other men to reach that plateau at BSU did so in careers of 10 and 17 years. And when Tesch became BSU’s all-time winningest head coach in 2004, his ninth year at the helm, he reached the 53-win plateau eight years faster than Erickson.

In addition, Tesch established a school single-season record for conference wins with an 8-0 NSIC mark in 2006 while leading the Beavers to their first league title in more than 40 years. Prior to Tesch’s arrival, no BSU team had ever won more than five conference games.

In 2002, Tesch toppled two significant coaching milestones at Bemidji State, becoming just the third BSU mentor to win 40 career games and becoming the program’s all-time leader in victories over conference opponents.

Prior to Bemidji State
Before being named Bemidji State’s 15th head coach, Tesch spent 11 years as an assistant for annual NCAA Division II playoff contender North Dakota. There, he assumed assistant head coaching duties in 1995. The Fighting Sioux captured at least a share of the North Central Conference championship three consecutive seasons before Tesch’s departure in 1996. In addition to coaching duties, Tesch helped the Sioux achieve a 92 percent graduation rate while serving as academic advisor.

Prior to his UND appointment, Tesch spent one year as an assistant at Montana State, followed by a two-year stint as offensive coordinator at Central Missouri State.

A graduate of Moorhead State (Minn.) University who was a free-agent signee with the Atlanta Falcons, Tesch was inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame in the spring of 1998. In 1977, Tesch was the NCAA Division II receiving champion and still holds Dragon single-game and single-season records for receptions.

In 23 years of coaching, Tesch has produced 12 All-America selections and five NFL draft picks.

Jeff and his wife Susan have two children — daughter Tara and son Vincent.