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With respect to Brad Berry's letter to the Herald, he went out the same way that he conducted himself throughout his time at UND: with class in every respect. He is a class act and a credit to UND in every respect.

I am with @stoneySIOUX Schloss, is a hard worker. He's up late working almost every night. He's focused and many NHL teams would probably love to have a beat writer with his drive. He's always working sources and his job isn't to go out and dig up dirt and nasty rummors. He covers the team and the different stories surrounding the team. Leave that to the anonymous sources. We’ve all heard the rumors coming out of this past season’s team. It was a mess. There's a new Sheriff in town and that's a positive. Attacking Schloss is pointless. I think we’re lucky to have him.

Lol I don’t remember talking to you?

Some teachable moments out there for the coaches last night but it’s pretty simple. We catch one of those 5 dropped picks and it’s a win. What a performance either way. Quit bitching so much, we had no idea what kind of team we had going in and we just showed serious guts on the road against a ranked FBS team. Lots to build on, we will improve this year.

I am happy to report to @Wilbur and everyone else that my post-surgical stent comes out tomorrow and I should be back in my seat in REA this weekend. Thank you all for the well-wishes over the past several weeks.

A sign of things to come. A hawk eating a gopher on the UND campus.

I have a friend who used to work with Brad at the Herald. I’ve met Brad a couple times but we are not friends. I can tell you that his professionalism as a journalist is of the highest standard. College hockey as a whole is fortunate to have a guy like Brad working as a beat writer.

We need some posters to enter the portal lol

The Romfo boys are a great college sports story. Small town twins whose greatest obvious assets out of HS were they were winners and good athletes, although undersized. I don’t think you have a clue as to the challenges these guys faced as PWO’s coming to play at UND. Your unhealthy fixation on Simon doesn’t make sense. He didn’t make the decisions to become the starter. He worked his butt off to get to that position. Now Jerry has worked his butt off to earn the starting position. It’s obvious that Simon is still doing whatever he can to help the team. If the time comes I would expect he will be able to step in and show that he is a better QB than he was last year. Regardless, your persistent negative comments are unwarranted this year. I would hope you now realize that even Jerry will miss wide open receivers for a TD at times or one bounce passes to receivers at times. (Please don’t post of them 20 times on ss.com). That doesn’t mean Jerry shouldn’t be QB, it means it happens to all QB’s at all levels. Who cares about whose picture is where? They did an interesting article on Simon who has played well when he has been in. It’s clear how much respect the coaches and his teammates have for him. Championship teams need guys like this. It’s part of learning to win and building a consistent winner. Guys who may have more physical abilities get motivated to do better when they see teammates doing everything they can to help the team. Give that some thought.

Commitments in March and early April. Maybe someone can tell us who was the earliest commitment prior to this in years past. They're identifying who they like early and offering before camp season. And actually getting them to commit. We'll see how it works out. All I know is that Polasek is losing his mind and berating recruits for committing to us so early and before camp evaluations. A certain parent of a certain recruit was not impressed with Polasek's response and lack of professionalism. So I'd say what we're doing is paying dividends in the short term. As I said, we'll have to wait and see about the long term. But I'm f**king here for all of it.

How is everyone doing here? I just thought I would come check to see if it was as bad as our little community on GPL. BTW... Cannot wait to be at The Ralph this fall. We had a great time last time we visited. The staff is always so accommodating and most if the fans are great too. Makes me really look forward to another trip.

Most of us on this board couldn't be bigger fans/supporters of UND athletes. That said, I unfortunately agree with you. I could write a pretty nice check annually (like many on the board), but I just don't see that happening. It feels like ponying up to try to maintain the status quo, with no personal return on investment or societal benefit. This is supposed to be fun and entertaining to take my mind off actual life for a while. My donations will continue to go to local causes that hopefully better the community, not some highly skilled 18-year-old mercenary who doesn't care about UND and is just looking for the highest # as a stopping point along the way to greener pastures. I don't know if I'm in the minority on this, but from my perspective it's sad.

No, he should not. It serves no purpose. When you are privileged to be allowed “inside”, you have an obligation to keep certain things “in the family”. That includes guys like Schlossman, Hennessy, Poolman, team medical staff, locker room staff etc.

Let em walk, they haven’t won !@#$.

Please give me the name of a better college hockey beat writer. I want to follow them on social media like schloss. Go ahead i will wait ....

After today I feel strongly that the program is in good hands.

Can be on the ice, but can't directly coach the goalies.... I'm going to tell my wife that I'll be in the house, but can't directly parent the kids.

A handful plus of Frozen Fours, and two National Championships, that KG was a part of as a player, volunteer, and coach. Appreciate his commitment to the Program!

There is not a program in the Country that doesn't want to up their talent level. The fact is that we have who we have right now and the coaching staff needs to use what they have to win as many game as possible. All indications are Simon has been a great teammate since he has got here. Just because the previous coaching staff made him the starting QB last year is not his fault. He did the best that he could. Now he is doing all the he can to help the team win. We loved the Brockstar package and when Quincy V would come in and run QB sneak, but when Simon wants to help and the coaches put in packages for him some people have a problem. Simon is a team player and the way he gets crapped on by people on this site is gross and sickening. You may say you have nothing against him personally, but you clearly do. Let it go. Your guy is QB1. Enjoy it. Looks like Jerry is clearly the best QB this year, and I'm surprised the completion was that close in Fall Camp. Its as if you want Schimidt to call and tell the Herald who they should put on the front of the page. I guarantee no one on the team cares, they just want to win.

Thank you for providing the definition of 'front-running'. Absolutely despise and loathe both sides of it. I want UND to be successful in everything. Could not care less about the school in Fargo in the name of state pride.

Absolutely nothing but respect for your program. Tough ending for you today, but you kicked our asses for 50 minutes today (after doing so for 30 last year). And it's rare to see a team handle WaGRIZ the way the Hawks did today. Super impressed. The few ND fans I met were fantastic; just wish I'd seen more around town so I could have bought their beers. Now, go win the Valley and let's meet in Nashville!

Thank you so much, Burd, for you kind words. I'm still around. And right back at you! UND fans know better than any that tradition is everything. And it got me to thinking that so much of Denver's success over the last 20 years or so can be actually be directly attributed to UND's tradition of excellence -- for raising the bar in not only our DU/UND rivalry but for all college hockey. UND winning the NCAA title in 2000 and building the Ralph 25 years go did not just elevate UND hockey, it raised up the entire sport of college hockey and showed DU and the rest of the country what heights were actually possible for a program to achieve. Since then, Denver has spent most of these last 25 years in flat-out chase mode, following behind, and learning from, the excellence of the UND program. For example, the decisive moment in the Pioneers' rise back to national relevance came on a March day in 2004, when Pioneers were quite fortunate to eke out a 1-0 win in that 2004 NCAA regional against a much better, loaded and top-ranked UND team in Colorado Springs. That somewhat unlikely win showed Denver that returning to the pinnacle of the sport after 35 years of mostly drift and dust was even possible, as UND had brought out the best in Denver. If DU could survive Parise, Bochenski, Murray and Stafford buzzing Adam Berkhoel's net in the final frenzied minutes of that game, we sure as hell could survive Junior Lessard/UMD in the NCAA semis and UMaine's six-on-three advantage in the final minutes to eke out a 1-0 win in Boston for that 2004NCAA title That 2004 crown put Denver back on the national map with six titles after 35 years without one, and without learning from UND in the Colorado Springs regional, that recent DU program evolution never happens.... And the 2005 Denver NCAA title win over UND in Columbus was the point when Denver finally pulled even with UND with our seventh crown. The bad blood between the two teams in the Paukovich/Bina/Dasher Dance-era raised the DU/UND rivalry to new heights. That rolling boil of rivalry in the Gwoz/Blais/Hakstol years set the stage for Denver and UND to work together to reset the national bar by being the lead schools in the formation of the NCHC in the 2011-2013 time frame. Once again, our two schools led from the front and showed the sport what was possible, with like-minded, hockey-first investment, leadership and hockey vision. This is the exact commitment that led to the 2016 UND Frozen Four semi win over Denver in Tampa that ultimately put UND back on top of the game over Denver with eight crowns, as everyone knew that once UND beat Denver in the semis, that NoDak would just crush Quinnipiac for the whole enchilada. Denver once again was forced to chase UND, and that 2016 UND title win gave the Pios exact the road map they needed to find another gear the next year, leading to 2017's Denver NCAA title win in Chicago to pull back even with UND at eight crowns. And once again, it was UND thumping Denver around like a rag doll in the Covid bubble season (playing a record seven times in a short season) that led to Denver finding new gears to win NCAA titles in the 2022 and 2024, moving the Pios ahead of UND with 10 crowns. While Denver may be the leader in NCAA titles now, we Pios are still chasing UND in a number of important categories, especially fan base size, fan base fervency, program budget, attracting top blue chip talent, players sent to the NHL and hockey facilities. In fact, with the UND standards still setting the pace in those critical areas, the Pios don't get to 10 without chasing the leadership of UND. And to be quite honest, DU will likely never catch UND in those other program metrics for a variety of reasons. I have no doubts that UND will soon be back in the NCAA title hunt. There is just too much tradition, pride and excellence tied up in the program not to get there again.

Give Blais the 2024-25 roster and he gets four more wins from better line up cards alone.

Anyone else sick of this crap? College hockey isn't even college hockey anymore, it's a completely different sport when you aren't recruiting a kid to develop them into the best player/person they can be. You're recruiting your commits, your recruiting other teams' players, your recruiting your own players so they don't leave. It's wild. All of it points to a GM position like Schloss brought up with Chyzyk, a head coach can't possibly keep up with all of it and still find the time to develop a strategy to break UMD's forecheck the following week.

With the current disappointing state of our program, I thought it might do all of us a little good to go back to a great weekend for our program. It was 28 years ago today (January 31, 1997). North Dakota was hosting Minnesota in a key WCHA series at the Old Ralph Engelstad Arena. Both teams were fighting for first place. A buzz built up on campus during the week leading up to the game. People started standing in-line outside the student entrance on the north side of the arena around 1:00pm. People who had cell phones (a new thing back then) had pizzas delivered to them in-line. People would bring firewood with them to put into the trash cans and set them on fire to keep warm (this was the infamous 1996-97 winter preceding the 1997 flood). Gopher fans who were UND students got snowballs thrown at them and were serenaded with "Gophers suck" chants. The fervor built to a fever pitch as we got closer to arena opening time. Inside, the tension and passion was thick enough to cut with a knife. The student section was as rabid as it had been in a long time. Our program was in the process of being resurrected after struggling for several years. Gopher fans considered us nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan who would go back to the bottom of the league sooner rather than later. Twin Cities media personality Dark Star gave a commentary ripping UND's program and history. Our fan base, obviously, took exception to those things. The rivalry was about to be put into overdrive. The games did not disappoint. UND won 6-4 on Friday night and completed the sweep on Saturday night 6-2 behind Jason Blake's hat trick. Blake's third goal sent the arena into total bedlam. The chippiness was evident throughout the weekend with plenty of pushing and shoving after the whistle. It was an extremely satisfying and emotionally exhilarating weekend after all the struggles of previous years. Especially against one of the most arrogant and self-absorbed programs in collegiate sports. Everyone knows what happened next. UND beat the Goofs in OT in the Final Five title game in St. Paul, then went on to win the program's sixth national title in Milwaukee. The rivalry with the Goofs was also raised to a white-hot temperature, where it would stay for years to come. May we go back to those days sooner rather than later. Let's Go Sioux!!!!!

The pick for goalie for the rest of the season is a no brainer. TJ has no skin in UND hockey. Don't think his heart's in it now either. He's bounced around D1 hockey like an unfrozen puck. Hobie wants a starting spot on the team next year. He needs to be the guy.

There is a fire Bubba thread for this conversation and to complain about QB play/reps/etc. This thread is about the transfer portal. It sounds like we are actively looking for a portal QB which is what everyone wanted. Please don’t ruin another thread repeating your complaints about a former coach…again.

I am guessing Bubba is well aware of the fact that nearly the entire fan base is calling for him to be done. Even the football 360 crew, which used to include his brother, has run out of good things to say and are calling for change. His quote is an emotional reaction, albeit not a very smart one, to the pressure he obviously knows is there - and is warranted. There are a lot of things to say about his coaching (which has been said over and over in this blog and which I think is generally accurate) but to say he doesn’t care about his players is not right. The players will tell you that. The problem is he does not recognize his own shortcomings in coaching at this level and changing to a more modern brand of football. At his core, Bubba would still prefer the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust 1970s football he advertised when he first came - and a defensive scheme to stop that which nobody runs anymore. Couple that with an inability to recruit players with body types to play that scheme and here we are. I would love to see Bubba do some soul searching and decide for the sake of his players and the University that he should resign and go to the alumni office. Retire on his own terms rather than have his own personal legacy being canned after a 4 or 5 win season next year. In spite of all of the negativity surrounding Bubba, some of which has been consistently by me, he did help bring us out of the Mussman years. There was improvement in the program and the culture. Unfortunately that improvement had and continues to have a very low ceiling. It is time to move on and I would love to be able to thank Bubba for his contributions to the program as he makes a decision best for himself AND the program and resigns on his own terms. For all his coaching flaws, I continue to believe Bubba is a good guy - just not the right guy for this program. That may be a pipe dream but I am still holding out hope for now…

Stop bringing up former UND people as candidates !!! The inbreeding has to end

Many of you know me. I was one of the first ss.com members, joining back in 2002. I have been less active in recent years as, in my opinion, the site has been used more for bitching than talking about UND sports. I also tracked and posted UND football, M&W basketball recruiting efforts for many years. More than 3,500 potential recruits were tracked over those years. I am pleased that the tracking of potential FB recruits has continued. After running seven successful Let's Help Bubba (meaning - let's help UND football) fundraising campaigns, I backed away due to my disappointment/disagreement with UND athletic fundraising efforts. Long story short, I feel better about that area now and will likely become more active again. I had earlier posted that my next fundraising effort would be for an All-American Wall in the new football locker room. It would include pictures and brief stories of our past All-Americans, MVPs, championship teams, etc. It would be professionally done in a first-class manner to impress potential recruits and their parents. We did one of these for Rich Glas many years ago and it proved to be a recruiting asset for his basketball programs back then. I had planned to launch the fundraising for the football Wall this summer. Due to the chaos in college athletic funding right now, we are going to put the Wall on hold for a while. With the 701, 1883 NIL Collective, Champion’s Club, the Cost of Attendance and the recent House Settlement affecting mid-level Division I programs in many (some unknown) ways, the focus for the near term needs to change. UND having adequate funds to attract and retain athletes is the priority right now. Therefore, I am recommending and encouraging individual fans to contribute to one of the UND’s 701 Award funds (scholastic or NIL). The 1883 Collective NIL will still be valuable for businesses who want to take advantage of having UND athletes represent their marketing efforts. However, for fans like you and me, we should be contributing to the 701 Fund. It provides UND with the most flexibility in this challenging time. As you may know, you have the opportunity to direct your NIL funds to specific sports or the athletic program in general. Contributions to the 701 are tax deductible, 1883 donations are not. Personally, I have a concern that some fans/businesses may cut back on their Champion’s Club donations in order to help with the NIL efforts. We can’t allow that to happen as the CC provides the funds for our scholarships. Losing scholarship dollars would have a negative effect. So, I am asking that we all donate a little (hopefully, a lot) extra to help UND Athletics. Setting up monthly contributions to the 701 or 1883 would be great. You can be assured that some of our rivals are making this same plea to their supporters. We cannot be left behind. Many or our competitors have been successful in convincing business owners to contribute on behalf of their business AND make individual contributions as well. Many of our supporters already do this but many don't! Convincing these owners and upper management to do so can make a huge difference in our efforts. Here is the link to the 701 Fund: 701 Award | UND Alumni Association & Foundation | University of North Dakota If you live in the area, I encourage you to attend next Tuesday's meeting at the Ralph sponsored by the GF/EGF Chamber. I expect all the specific ways to contribute will be fully explained. https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/pub/8ziy/5krpme5r/kjb/sf0/yz0/UND%20and%20Chamber%20logo.jpg Let's do all we can to assist UND Athletics! If you have any questions or concerns about my message, please PM me.

"When Menghini entered the portal Monday, new coach Dane Jackson called him and said, "'We missed on you the first time. We're not going to let this slip again.'" THIS is the exact stuff I want to hear from Jax. God, I love it.

Sounding like Menghini visit went great, hopeful he commits tomorrow.

Berry wasn't a super polished public speaker as well, he got better as he went along but I remember him seeming pretty nervous in his first press conference. Also, give him a little grace. This is the biggest moment in his professional life for a school he's stuck with through it all as opposed to taking a pay raise or promotion to an NHL or AHL job. The part where he got choked up thanking his family so he ended with it got me. I know that feeling.

Hey guys, I've been a lurker on your message board for a number of years now. I finally registered so I can fill out a bracket. I'm a Western Michigan alum. You guys have great college hockey conversations every weekend that I really enjoy following along with during the season. It's been a fun journey to see the respect for my Broncos grow over the years by the North Dakota fanbase. You guys have said a lot of good things about Bump & Fersch this year. Much appreciated. When the Big Ten caused the CCHA/WCHA explosion, I wasn't sure how that would effect my hockey fandom. There were actually Western hockey fans who thought we should've joined the WCHA (now CCHA) instead of the NCHC. I don't think there is any college hockey program that has benefited more by the creation of the NCHC and an invitation than Western. We instantly became the only Michigan school in this elite conference. We no longer had to be little brother to Michigan & Michigan St. I've truly enjoyed becoming a conference rival to all of these new teams...and seeing us leave Miami in the dust. Between our success, Fersch as the HC, and a new arena on the horizon, it's a really fun time to be a fan of Western Michigan hockey. Anyways, just wanted to say hi. I'm sure this will jinx us on Thursday. GO BRONCOS.

Thank you for posting that. I decided to finally put my $ where my mouth is and sign up my business for The Flagship Membership. Just doing my part to try to keep Boisvert/Perron/Emery/James in town for another season.

Dave Hakstol will receive a Sioux Award at Homecoming. Thanks Hak for everything you've done for UND.

Ya’ll get ready now. Get your popcorn and them season tickets ready. Cancel them December flights. Ya’ll don’t want to miss this! Looks like us “idiots” on here historically proclaiming for change weren’t too far off base. Coaching matters, and Coach Schmidt is a DAWG! Let’s F***ING GO!

Chavez has been nothing short of incompetent but having your home grown talent basically give the WBB program and the athletic department the middle finger is inexcusable. The optics of this is the worst thing under Chavez leadership to date

Won six straight Stanley Cups in NHL24 and I didn’t even get an interview.

4 articles in the Fargo Forum sports section on NCAA hockey. Not one about UND playing in the regional at Scheels today. That's why a new HC will be named soon.

Hand up, I am officially nervous. I always expected Jax to be interested and for him to be listed as a finalist when the new coach is announced. I still cannot fathom him getting the job logically, but who else is being named? I just keep telling myself, you don't fire Berry with one year left, pay him $500K just to hire his Assistant who you could have just hired a year from now. Need some other rumors though for my sanity.

I am surprised by all the ripping on Schloss he is the best writer in all of college hockey. I am surprised he doesn't go to the athletic and work as a national college reporter. Ì think those on this forum also need to take a deep breath and let schloss process this just like everyone else has to. Can't wait to see who the new coach is , and i personally hope whoever we hire becomes a key contact of Schloss's on day one

Kelly is a good friend of mine. I guarantee you that he is a strong UND supporter. No Governor of this state is going to fail to support one of its two largest universities is playing for a national championship. He would have to be an idiot not to do that from a political standpoint. WHEN we get to the point of making it that far, I would not be surprised if Kelly makes the pilgrimage to attend. Kelly has been at our tailgating trailer for UND football many times and I expect will do so in the future - just not during pheasant season…. He goes to Sioux hockey games as well.

Update on my kidney stone situation: I had the post-surgical stent removed yesterday. I am starting to feel normal again after 3+ weeks. Thank you again for all the well-wishes. I may not agree with all of you on things, but the vast majority of you are great people who love UND as much as I do. I am looking forward to the games this weekend.