AJS

I said before the portal opened I was hoping between 5 - 7 would enter. The # was 6. Imo, nobody who would have been on the two-deep. This coaching staff absolutely nailed the portal exits, both in the Fall & Spring. One giant piece left. Getting 6-8 guys from the portal. They will be competitive next year.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/what-will-und-football-be-searching-for-in-this-transfer-portal-window Another possible position of need is running back, where UND is top heavy with Gaven Ziebarth and Sawyer Siedl, who missed spring ball recovering from an injury. Young running back Colton Brunell missed the second half of spring ball with an injury and the Hawks likely need to add some insurance at the position.

Correct

Tomorrow

It was so obvious last time it was Wunderlich. based on social media activity. Zero movement with current public portal offers, very little with the 2026 offers. Could this be someone (most likely portal) where the offer was never made public?

I don't think there's currently a correlation. What I mean is if we land X from the portal, then we cut Y. Either the numbers must work as is, or we'll see a few more enter in the next 3 days. By the offers, I'm guessing the staff is looking for 1 RB, 1 TE, 1 WR, 2 D-Line, 1 LB, 1 DB (7 total). So far 3 have entered the portal, but you also had Teiken, Baretz (I'm sure a few others) that were, to the public unknowns that left the program prior to Spring ball.

Joey VanWetzinga (Iowa) - DT : UND, CMU Henry Amposta (Saddleback College) - LB: UND Aleki Manutai - DT: Sacred Heart, Campbell, Sac State, UND, NM State, NAU Steven Mahar (Syracuse) - TE: Southern Miss, UND, EKU, Albany, Mercyhurst Peyton Wing (Portland State) - LB: Montana, UND, Kent State Jason Thome (Colorado Mesa) - Safety: UND, Robert Morris, Campbell, Indiana State, Idaho State, Louisiana Tech, SDSU LJ Turner (West Virginia) - RB: UND Kai Rios (Indiana State) - TE: UND, Kent State Darrion Dalton (SDSU) - DT: UTEP, UND, North Texas, Texas State, SJSU, NAU, UIW Cooper Warren (Kansas State) - WR: UND, USD * VanWetzinga has a brother that currently plays for CMU.

I've donated to the collective from the very beginning. It can absolutely be used for business use as appearances and advertisement. The general public that donate (like me), it's effectively pay for play. Why I say effectively, is I'm sure they have to do something (community service based) to collect, but I can tell you I've received no appearances or advertisement from the donations I've given.

Competing offers are starting to heat up! We’ll see how these end up, but it is so fun to have a staff in place that you know can go toe to toe with these other schools!

Few interesting notes. Turner had just committed out of the portal to West Virginia this Fall (technically 01/05/2025). Picked WVU over Costal Carolina, UTEP, YSU, ETSU. VanWetzinga was an early enrollee at Iowa. He'd be part of the 2025 class.

Current offers with competing D1 offers. Joey VanWetzinga (Iowa) - DT: UND, CMU Henry Amposta (Saddleback College) - LB: UND Aleki Manutai (Saddleback College) - DT: Sacred Heart, Campbell, Sac State, UND, NM State Steven Mahar (Syracuse) - TE: Southern Miss, UND, EKU, Albany, Mercyhurst Peyton Wing (Portland State) - LB: Montana, UND, Kent State Jason Thome (Colorado Mesa) - Safety: UND, Robert Morris, Campbell, Indiana State, Idaho State, Louisiana Tech LJ Turner (West Virginia) - RB: UND Kai Rios (Indiana State) - TE: UND, Kent State Darrion Dalton (SDSU) - DT: UTEP, UND, NDSU, UNT, Texas State