Darnell Duckett will embark on his second season as UND's general manager and director of player personnel in 2026. The Fighting Hawks went 8-6, including a 5-3 mark in MVFC play during Duckett's first season with the program. The 2025 campaign also saw the Fighting Hawks win their first road FCS playoff game in program history and match a single-season Division I record with four road victories.
Duckett arrived in Grand Forks after spending time with the New York Jets of the National Football League along with collegiate stops at Washington, Maryland and Salisbury.
In 2024, he spent the year working with the Jets as a Nunn-Wooten Scouting Fellow. His role involved supporting scouts with the day-to-day operations of training camp, aiding in organizing workouts for free agents, scheduling school visits for college scouts, reviewing practice and game footage and preparing scouting reports. He also participated in daily scouting school, writing evaluations, calculating player grades and rankings and team value.
Prior to his time in New York, Duckett was a Football Recruiting Analyst/Player Development Assistant for the Washington Huskies from 2022-24. Before that, he was a Football Recruiting Analyst/Operations Assistant at Maryland from 2021-22.
He began his coaching career as a wide receivers coach at his alma mater, Salisbury University in Maryland, from 2020-21. Duckett graduated from Salisbury with a bachelor's degree in exercise science and athletic coaching in 2020 and also played wide receiver for the Sea Gulls.
