Northern State fired head football coach Chris Boden and assistant head coach/defensive coordinator Richard Sweeney on Tuesday, less than three weeks after athletic director Bob Olson said he planned to bring Boden back next season.

Olson told KELOLAND Sports on Oct. 15 that he was "operating on all indications" that Boden would be the Wolves' coach in 2010. At the time, he said that if a change would be made, it would be the result of a decision on Boden's part.

But on Tuesday, Olson said Northern State had decided to "take the program in a different direction."

"I wouldn't say that anything necessarily changed," Olson told KELOLAND Sports. "We are constantly evaluating our programs, and in particular this program."

Boden and Sweeney will coach the Wolves' final game of the season Saturday at Augustana. The future of the remaining assistant coaches is somewhat up in the air.

Olson said offensive line coach Tony Case will handle the operations of the program until a new head coach is hired. At that point, it will be up to the new coach whether to retain any of Boden's staff, which also included defensive line coach Maia Tupou and four graduate assistants.

Olson said the decision to part ways with Boden and Sweeney was not an easy one.

"They've done so many good things, whether it be quality of people in the program, the type of character, academics," said athletic director Bob Olson.  "We just didn't win enough football games. You hate to say that, but that's being very accurate."

Northern State is in the midst of its fourth straight losing season and has won just three games in the last two seasons. The Wolves were 1-10 last year and are 2-8 so far in 2009. Boden's career record in five years at Northern State is 18-36.

The search for Boden's replacement will begin immediately. Olson says he's looking for someone that can change the perception of the program.

"We play in a great league," Olson said.  "We have to get better in order to compete consistently both in our league and nationally. This is an opportunity for us to move the program forward, and that's what we'll focus on and are going to do. We feel very confident that we're going to find the right fit and right coach to help our program move forward."