Matt Franzen isn't leaving the Great Plains Athletic Conference. But the Doane athletic director is changing schools and job titles.
Franzen was named the new head football coach at Hastings College on Tuesday.
He replaces Tony Harper, who stepped down after 10 seasons and a 44-58 record with the Broncos.
"Shortly after I made the decision to take an administrative position, I realized that I still have a strong interest in coaching," Franzen said in a prepared statement. "I made the conscious decision to return to coaching when a good opportunity presented itself, and my true hope was to do this as a head coach."
Franzen, who was an All-America football player at Doane from 1990-93, was the Tigers' head football coach from 2007-17. During that time, he revived a struggling football program, leading it to NAIA playoff appearances in 2015 and 2016, finishing with a 65-49 record.
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He then took over as Doane's athletic director in the summer of 2018. He remained busy in that post, hiring head coaches in football, wrestling, volleyball, women's basketball, softball and tennis.
Before coaching at Doane, Franzen was an assistant football coach at Hastings for 11 seasons, and helped the Broncos to unbeaten regular seasons in 1998 and 1999.
"I believe this background, as well as his hunger to get back into coaching, puts our program on the right path to regain its competitiveness on the field," Hastings athletic director B.J. Pumroy said. "Our program is performing well in the classroom and on campus, and with Franzen's leadership we expect to perform better on gamedays."