Athletic Director Mike Zapolski said he is focusing on recruiting and finding a replacement for Rob Cushman, who resigned from his position as head coach for Augustana’s football program Tuesday.
As a head coach for the Vikings, Cushman accumulated an overall record of 17-23 with a 5-5 record this season.
Zapolski said a job announcement went out Tuesday.
Zapolski said the remaining staff will focus on recruiting events in the Chicago suburbs in the next few weeks.
Zapolski said the players and the remaining staff will help select the new coach.
“Whenever we have coaching changes here we always make an effort to include our student athletes when it comes time to meet perspective candidates,” Zapolski said.
Knowing the team will have the opportunity to help choose their new coach, starting quarterback Sam Frasco said the opportunity will be an interesting one.
“It’ll be good to see how other coaches view our past traditions with the national championships back in the 80’s and even the conference championships in the early 2000s,”said Frasco. “We’ve had rich tradition here, and we just want to get back on the right track.”
According to Augustana’s athletic website, the team’s longest unbeaten streak in NCAA Division III history ended with the team’s loss to Dayton in 1987.
“The past few years we have not been up to par where we should be, and sometimes to reach the goals you have planned, you have to make a change,” said defensive end LaSalle Smith.  “I guess this was the change we needed to make, and that’s just the nature of college football. ”