USD football coach Matt Vitzthum on his journey, stamp he'll put on USD football

Matt Vitzthum called his shot early in his "Hello, World" press conference introducing and celebrating him as South Dakota's new head football coach.   He called it and he immediately delivered.   "If you don't like to see a grown man cry," Vitzthum said, "you might want to leave the room."   Laughter ensued. Nobody left. And Vitzthum cried, almost on cue.  Looking at his wife Alyssa and two young children — son Hayden and daughter Emery — Vitzthum's eyes welled and voice cracked as he began to thank them for their support.   "Vitz," as most people in USD circles call him, choked up a few more times throughout his speech as he thanked his predecessor Travis Johansen, Bob Nielson — the retired Coyote head coach who hired Vitzthum to be the wide receivers coach two years ago — the school's administration, athletic department leaders, his football staff, the Vermillion and USD communities, and his players.   Oh, the players. At least a dozen of them in the packed DakotaDome Club conference room that sits between the DakotaDome and the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.    Zoom back to last Friday. Athletic director Jon Schemmel said "the room exploded" when he told the entire team that Vitzthum was the new man in charge.    The words "player-driven" and "relationships" were uttered a lot by Vitzthum and Schemmel several times on Friday.    The same rhetoric was abundant from former USD quarterback Aidan Bouman in his Monday "Happy Hour with John Gaskins" interview about "Vitz" and in Sioux Falls Live profile about the coach earlier this week.    The connection the Algona, Iowa, native has made with his players is as strong a reason as any why Schemmel had Vitzthum's name atop his list as potential Johansen replacements well before Johansen told Schemmel he was departing to take the defensive coordinator job at Rutgers.   In his nearly half-hour one-on-one Happy Hour conversation following the press conference, Schemmel also dug into how Vitzthum takes instant command of a room and is a natural leader of young men.   Emotional player-driven leader of men.   So, where does it come from?  Like most humans, parents played a major role. His mother, a teacher. His father, a farmer.   In his first 15-minute Happy Hour conversation, Vitzthum sat down with the host for a flashback to growing up in Algona — two hours north of Des Moines and with a population of 5,487. He walks through when and how it dawned on him he'd pursue a career in coaching.   Then, there's Vitzthum's affinity for Nielson and how Vitzthum landed the wide receivers coach position under Nielson two years ago. If it weren't for Nielson, Vitzthum is likely not in Vermillion. Why? What makes Nielson a "legend" in the coaching circles of this region?   Vitzthum walked through this past season as Johansen's co-offensive coordinator and how Johansen showed him some head coaching ropes during the season.   Also, does Vitzthum plan on having a different offensive approach and holistic philosophy from Johansen, a defensive coordinator by trade and unapologetically a "defensive-minded coach?"