USD's Joe Glenn to retire

The Joe Glenn era for the University of South Dakota football team will end after four seasons on Monday with the Coyote alumnus announcing his retirement from coaching. A press conference will be held at 11 a.m. at USD.

Glenn, 66, completed his 28th season as a college head coach on Saturday in a 46-0 loss to Illinois State.

The loss to Illinois State notwithstanding, the 2015 season marked a resurgence of sorts for a program that has continually found the going rough in the Missouri Valley Conference, where the Coyotes went 6-26 during his tenure with an overall record of 12-34.

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This season included a signature win at North Dakota State, where the Coyotes shocked the four-time national champion Bison in Fargo for the first time in 37 years. There was a near-miss against South Dakota State at the DakotaDome and wins over UC Davis, Drake and conference wins over Missouri State and Southern Illinois.

He leaves with a career record of 200-134-1 with two NCAA Division II national championships earned at Northern Colorado and an FCS championship earned at Montana. He was twice named AFCA national coach of the year.

Glenn was in what he called "semi-retirement" after a six-year stint at Wyoming ended after the 2008 season, but was convinced to return to coaching in December of 2011 at his alma mater when approached by then-USD athletic director David Sayler, who had fired Ed Meierkort after the 2011 season.

He began his opening press conference with "How about them Yotes!" and followed with "Wow, somebody come up here and pinch me."

Glenn remained a passionate supporter of his university, his coaching staff and his players, but the move from the Great West Conference version of FCS football to the Missouri Valley version proved to be a battle for the coach and the program, though the Coyotes harbored playoff hopes into the last game of the season this year.

Glenn's 200th win took place three weeks ago at the Dome when the Coyotes defeated Southern Illinois 34-31. Glenn said at the time that the win for his team was a far more significant event that him winning 200 games, but did comment on his career that day in what now sounds like a portion of his retirement speech.

"You remember not so much the wins but the players," he said at the postgame press conference that day. "You remember the people who support you, the people who work with you to get the wins and help you so I have a lot of great memories. I'm a lucky man. I've been able to share most of it with my family. I'm one of 12 kids and my brothers and sisters have supported me like you can't believe. That's since I was a little kid playing for Leon's Fruit Market in fifth grade. They'd all come to my games and I didn't weigh 80 pounds. So it's been a fabulous life for me in this sport."

Glenn is a native of Lincoln, Neb., and began his association with USD as college freshman in 1967 playing for Joe Salem. After spending two years as an ROTC officer after graduating, he returned as a graduate assistant for Salem in 1974. By age 27, he was the head coach at Doane College in Crete, Neb. He was 5-5 in his first season and 21-18-1 in four

years with the Tigers before moving on as an assistant at higher levels. He was named head coach at Northern Colorado in 1989 and won 11 or more games there each of his final four seasons with the Golden Bears.

Glenn won three consecutive North Central Conference titles in 1997, 1998 and 1999 at UNC and won Big Sky Championships at Montana in 2000, 2001 and 2002. His tenure in Wyoming included a win over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl, the first bowl victory for the Cowboys in 38 years.