AJS

No predictions here yet as I'm waiting for Spring Ball to try to get more of a feel on some positions. I do like the schedule though.

Central Scouting midterm rankings have been released. https://www.nhl.com/news/central-scouting-north-american-midterm-nhl-draft-ranking/c-313771208?tid=277764372 N/A rankings: 11. Sanderson 44. Kleven 48. Miller 77. Bowen 113. Kunz 178. Halliday A lot can still change, but this is the first real look at where players line up for the draft.

After last weekend we are officially done with the "must win" games for the remainder of the regular season. That doesn't mean that expectations should change. Omaha is an average team, to keep up with the Top teams, who are all fighting for #1 seeds as well as for the #1 spot in the NCHC they need to be thinking sweep. You don't need to or will win every game, clearly, but take care of the games at home you should (which they've done all year).

These are the two most important games remaining in the regular season and I don't think it's close. Only two must wins.

Here are three things I'm going to really key in on going into the 2020 season. Lines - I like most do buy into the philosophy that it all starts on the lines. I also buy into strength in numbers. UND only loses two players total, key players, yes, but that is as low of a number as you'll get. I don't think there's any doubt that both will improve, but the key is by how much. O-line: Great in pass blocking, not with run blocking. A lot has been made about the weight loss experiment going into last year. Having a year under the new O-line coaches belt, there's no doubt he'll be tweaking his formula. Miller's early starters go JR, SR, SR, SO, SO. D-line: This is really where the strength in numbers is key. This group last year was so young / inexperienced. The very talented Freshman class will now have their first off season, what's exciting like the O-line is when you return so much and especially with the D-line so much youth, it's a numbers game. You now have a baseline, there will only be improvement. There will be a lot of competition for the two-deep and the overall play should greatly improve. LB - Both LB groups are my #1 and #2 concern going into next year. Moving Shannon and the pick up of Krzanowski and Bohenkamp have helped with the depth, but I don't know enough about the youth to be comfortable. Obviously we feel good about Larson and Turner. Is White as a Sophomore a legitimate starting ILB? Who else is ready to compete for a starting / 2-deep spot? QB - This might be the only position where not knowing is actually pretty exciting. It's exciting and crucial that both Neal and Vaughn will be on campus in January to start the competition with Schuster. Is it finally time where UND has "that guy". Some other quick notes. When will they know if Weah if eligible? He's definitely an X-factor. Secondary will be strength. Love the talent / depth. Also, like the schedule. Two winnable non-conference games with an FBS pay day. Like the way the home / away are set up as well. One example is as much as I can't wait to play NDSU at home, it's probably (looking at W's / L's), a good team to play on the road.

Just a reminder

#5 for Montana State is so bad

Definitely agree that lack of consistency was the main take away from the 2019 season. We saw glimpses of really good things from every unit, still can't believe we never really saw what I'd consider a full 60 minutes (Weber was probably the closest). I've been saying this for years, they seem to be scratching at the surface of consistently being a really solid FCS program. Where I fully agree with @SteppenHawk is every year they seem to be missing one or two components that will put them over the top. Last year it was D-line. This isn't saying they were rock solid everywhere else, but they always have a weakness (I will say that over the years it is improving, from an overall (# of weaknesses) and depth standpoint. What's very encouraging is although a couple years later than it should have been, they've made changes to the coaching staff. Freund appears to be a home run pick for OC, overall I really like the coaching staff Bubba has put together. They are very close to breaking through, but like I mentioned earlier, it's now been since 2015 where it's felt like that (throw away the 2017 injury riddled campaign). I still believe it can happen under the current staff. The team is in a much better position now than when Bubba took over, one thing I really do believe is once UND does break through, it will be for good.

Excited about the three QB's that will be on campus in January. I'm more in the @gundy1124 camp, I would be even more specific with who I brought in. This would be a perfect place for a Grad Transfer. Someone like Braden Hanson. One year type scenario.

Nothing yet from ODU or Vaughn that has him signing his NLI. Longer that goes, the more optimistic I'll be.

Additional information on Fenton

Good call. Both honestly are pretty frustrating. At least with Skokna you could argue he had at the end of the year an impact offensively. I really hate burning a shirt the way they did with Nelson. He's going to be such a good player, I realize he played in a lot of games, but they lost a year where he had basically no impact.

The only person who lost their RS was Caleb Nelson and I would argue that was minimal usage.

This is great to see as ILB is really one of the major positions of need for next year. What's the expectations for what appears to be a really solid ILB at the D2 level? Thinking more of a 4/5 guy on the depth chart?

Who knows how it will end up, but I would be very nervous if I was ODU having Vaughn take an official visit to another school the weekend before signing day. It also definitely wouldn't help that 20 other current commits are on campus as well that has his ear. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't have a good feeling about it.

This is the perfect time to evaluate where the team is at heading into the second half of the season. It's fair to say that they have exceeded everyone's expectations, even those that thought they had a really good team coming into the year. 14-1-2 (7-0-1) is something special. The last two years have been rough and disappointing, but the way this team is structured is doing a lot to make that a distant memory. What I mean is the balance and depth on this team is incredible. There isn't one class or one player or one line that is carrying this team, which bodes well for the future (i.e. this isn't a one year window type situation). It's so exciting to see each player either match or exceed expectations. This team won't match this first half in the second, but they should grow. Having the second line being two true freshman and a graduate Senior playing together is only one example of a likely scenario where they will get bet better as they get more comfortable playing together and gain experience (Pinto / Caulfield). I'm ready to enjoy the ride, it'll be a lot of fun knowing they'll have as good of chance as any to win it all.

I'm very excited about the possibility of this. This would be huge.

This is great! I really don't know what to expect tomorrow, but you would think if they could get an additional 1500 the first day from the public sale that they would be feeling pretty good.

https://undfootball360.com/news/a-360-look-ahead-to-2020-season/ As usual, great write up. Completely in agreement with the two positions they mention the need to bring in transfers. We'll see how the roster shakes out, there doesn't appear to be a lot of holes, but the areas there are, they are big. Any news on Mortel?

It's a chant as we all know that's been taking place for as long as I can remember, I like it.

I know I'm late to the this, but really, what does it matter? Using the words sad and delusional is so bizarre, but the red flag on character is borderline insane. The rest of this post is a giant in general, because you see it every time a new commit posts on Twitter with either a Sioux or Hawks, you see someone reply with a "It's the Hawks now" or "It'll always be the Sioux". More than anything it's frustrating, it doesn't matter at all, no idea why people feel the need to respond at all with that type of stuff.

Ethan Bowen will be out six to eight weeks with a broken wrist.

Absolutely, if I had one word to describe this team it would be inconsistent. Inconsistent in every single aspect, I was saying it all year how weird of a year this was. It's probably pretty natural to over emphasize the most recent game, my outlook would be different depending on which game was last. It all starts on the lines. They only lose two total players to graduation (1 Offense, 1 Defense), great players, but that's about as low of a number as you could hope for. It's reasonable to expect both areas of the line to greatly improve. It's a big talker, but I really hope they scrap the idea of the O-Line being at their current weight and add some pounds. Good news is it doesn't have to be anything drastic (and will be different per player).

Since Bubba has been at the helm, I've always been optimistic going into the next season. Taking away stretches from the previous year, a couple what if player X didn't get hurt here and looking at returning players. I'm by far the most pessimistic I've been at the first glance into a next season. Taking a step back and looking at the season as a whole, I ask myself what was the 2019 UND team good at? They did have moments, but a very simplistic view of four areas Passing / Running / Stopping Pass / Stopping Run, is it fair to say that the only area they were above average in was Passing. They lose QB 1, WR 1, WR 3. What I worry about even more is you look at their biggest weakness, stopping the run and they lose their Top D-Lineman, Top ILB, Top Depth ILB, Starting OLB, Depth ILB (Hunt), Two-Deep OLB. Guys like Bennett and Rodgers (especially Rodgers) being almost impossible to replace. You can easily talk me into the D-line taking a huge step, but what about the LB unit?

This was Cochran’s 4th game, RS is intact.