Leaving a place of employment is never an easy thing for college football coach Isaac Fruechte.

It’s emotional.

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Isaac Fruechte walks to afternoon workouts during training camp in Mankato, Minn. on Monday, July 27, 2015. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

The Caledonia, Minn., native and 34-year-old has had plenty of practice at it after stops at Wisconsin-La Crosse, Northern Iowa, Northern State, Winona State and, most recently, North Dakota, where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the fast-rising Division I program.

Last week, Fruechte was hired by his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, where he was once a standout receiver. Gophers coach P.J. Fleck is plugging him in as the team’s new receivers coach, replacing Matt Simon.

“Leaving UND was hard,” Fruechte said. “It always is when you leave a place. I told our players that you don’t see yourself leaving a place until you leave. And it sucks. You don’t want to leave those coaches and that community.”

But the opportunity to come back and coach at the place he once played, in the vaunted Big Ten Conference — and for a head coach he holds in high regard — there was no way that Fruechte was going to be able to say no.

“When the opportunity came to coach at my alma mater, at a position that I once played, it was too good,” Fruechte said. “I want to find out what I can do in the Big Ten and as a receivers coach. I’m going to try to learn as much as I can from coach Fleck and try to be the best version of myself. That is what I am here to do.

“But it is always hard to be 100% invested in a place and then up and leave.”

The feelings that Fruechte conjured up upon coming back to Minnesota for the job interview were familiar ones. That’s because so much about the U, where he was a player from 2012 until 2014, was the same. Fleck wasn’t the coach then, but some of the football support staff is still in place from those days, people that Fruechte had gotten to know well.

He says it is interesting to be back there now, as a 34-year-old as opposed to a not-so-wise 20-year-old.

“Those people who worked there then probably thought I was a knucklehead,” Fruechte said. “But there are a lot of great people there now and a lot of great new things. The vision, the plan, the facilities — I think there is great alignment there in coach Fleck’s staff and organization. And coach Fleck is awesome. He has been great to me. He knew my wife’s name and my three kids’ names. Things like that are just special. I just think it is a really exciting time right now to be at Minnesota.”

Fruechte, the son of Caledonia High School Hall of Fame football coach Carl Fruechte, has shown up at Minnesota with a deep résumé. He said he has taken nuggets from each of his football stops and used them to grow as a coach. Included in that growth is staying away from ideas he never thought worked. Fruechte is a discerning coach, always ready to keep adding to his bank of knowledge, keeping the good, throwing out the bad.

Fruechte looks at Minnesota’s program and sees many reasons for optimism. The Gophers are coming off an 8-5 season, which concluded with them winning their bowl game for the seventh straight season under Fleck. Minnesota returns second-year quarterback Drake Lindsey as a starter following a promising freshman season.

The Gophers, with the help of Fruechte, have reached into the NCAA transfer portal to bolster their roster. Included in that has been plucking from Auburn receiver Perry Thompson, a second-year player who was a high four-star recruit out of high school. On Friday, the Gophers added wideout Noah Jennings from Cincinnati.

As Fruechte indoctrinates himself to his new position at Minnesota, he says he has been showing up early for work, learning the terminology of the offense.

“It is a challenge,” Fruechte said. “There are a lot of different things to learn from the football aspect.”

Fruechte is doing it all with a smile. In coming back to Minnesota, he’s living out a long-held dream.

“This is a special place,” he said.

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