FARGO — It seems fitting that Tyler Roehl, a football coach who built his career on intensity and blue collar effort, landed in Detroit, a city built by those very traits. The former North Dakota State player and coach felt right at home wtih the Detroit Lions from Day 1.
It’s been quite the journey since the day he left NDSU in January 2024 for a position at Tennessee State. That lasted a month and in a matter of almost a calendar year, he went from the FCS Tigers to Iowa State to an NFL tight ends job.
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That’s a rather remarkable job climb.
“Honestly, it truly hasn’t struck me yet,” Roehl said. “When is that going to happen? Is it going to be the first game? The first preseason game? Because once you get in the building it’s football and everyone is on the mission to do things better than they’ve ever been done before. I don’t know when it’s going to hit, I’m just working and striving daily to help this organization move in a positive direction.”
No longer does he have to be concerned with recruiting calls, players being eligible or, in this day and age, keeping starters from entering the transfer portal. That’s been traded in for evaluating the draft and free agent players.
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Tyler Roehl and his wife Mary along with their children (from left) Evelyn, Maxwell and Gabby at a Detroit Tigers baseball game.
Submitted photo
“It’s just all football,” Roehl said. “It’s all ball. That gives you a lot more attention to detail, evaluating schemes, being curious to see how you can improve the teaching of certain schemes, teaching of certain techniques or techniques for certain opponents. It is truly all football and none of the extra stuff that comes with college football right, wrong or indifferent, positive or negative.”
Roehl is the latest in a line of former Bison coaches or players to reach the NFL in the Division I era. The list includes Gus Bradley, Todd Wash, Scottie Hazelton, Bob Babich, Bobby Babich, Connor Senger and Conor Riley.
Roehl has always stayed in touch with Bradley, who was an NDSU assistant when Roehl was a Bison running back. Bradley recruited him out of West Fargo High School. He talked with Senger, who had a short stint at NDSU in 2020-21, and Riley, who was hired as the Dallas Cowboys offensive line coach in early February.
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North Dakota State offensive coordinator Tyler Roehl fires up his unit during warm ups before the NCAA FCS playoffs on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman, Montana.
David Samson/The Forum
“This whole staff has been so helpful with the transition,” Roehl said. “It’s not like, hey, you’re coming from primarily FCS football. It’s none of that. It’s not who’s right but what’s right.”
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Hank Fraley, the Lions’ offensive line coach and father of NDSU starting center Trent Fraley, has been a big help. Fraley and Roehl live only about a block apart.
“Hank has had a Bison shirt on here or there,” Roehl said. “Even talking through how Trent has evolved and developed the style of play, even the small things like how you go through a pregame warmup, the differences to what they’ve done here and what they do at NDSU.”
The foundation of the NFL coaches with NDSU connections is in the style of play, such as the West Coast offense that essentially is a pro style offense. Roehl noticed that almost immediately, making the transition to the pro level an easier one. The terminology and the drop back passing game, for instance, isn’t much different than what he coached at NDSU.
“There is so much carryover,” he said. “Yes it may be called something a little bit different but there is still quite a bit that is called the same.”
His hire was the second time he interviewed with the Lions staff in the last three years. Roehl said he’s studied the style of Detroit head coach Dan Campbell over the years. Include Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell in that mix.
“Now to see coach Dan Campbell do it the way he does it, it’s an unbelievable fit for me,” Roehl said. “There were other opportunities along the way for him but this was just the right fit for him.”
And for Roehl, a blue collar coach.
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[ Jeff Kolpack](https://www.inforum.com/Jeff Kolpack)
By [Jeff Kolpack](https://www.inforum.com/Jeff Kolpack)
Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.