AJS

Very interesting. @The Sicatoka what are you thinking here? Could this put enough weight on the scale for UND to end up opting in? Would seem to be quite the disadvantage if the majority of schools increase their scholarships to 26 and UND is stuck at 18.

I could not agree more. I've followed recruiting pretty closely over the years. The strategy is night and day different over previous years. They are targeting a higher level of athlete overall, being more aggressive, offering much earlier. They have 30+ offers and it's not even mid-February. You can just tell there's a confidence that wasn't there before. I believe this coaching staff believes they can win these battles. We'll see if they can seal the deal with some of these. I'm so excited for the future of this program.

If you want optimism, look no further than the similarities between the Football & Hockey program. Expectations, for Football it would be to be at the top tier of the FCS with its peers (Dakota, Montana schools) and for hockey it would be to be back in the top tier of college hockey with its peers (BIG schools, Denver). Optimism comes from the fact that everything is in place for those programs to accomplish those goals (Academics / Campus, Facilities, FCOA, Altson, NIL, Fan support). The only thing that has been holding those programs back is bad coaching / coaching & recruiting in the NIL era. Football has been fixed. We're one turnover in coaching staff for hockey to be back too. *I didn't include M/W Basketball, because although both badly need new coaching staffs, I'm not sure there's a guarantee both programs will be better under new leadership. Bubba / Berry are (were) so bad that it's a guarantee the programs are better under new leadership.

Look at the offers that Reinke has. There's a confidence and a belief with this new coaching staff, that has not been there before. You can feel it.

2026 Class - 30 Total offers, 29 Current Offers Aiden Wunderlich (Casselton, ND): UND, Montana, NDSU Deshon Jenkins (Ft. Myers, FL): Florida A&M, West Virginia, Toledo, UND Hakeim Smalls (Seattle, WA): Nevada, UND, Sac State, San Diego State, Montana State Henry Gabalis (Everett, WA): UND, Sac State, Montana, Idaho, Montana State, Arizona, Washington State Tristan Baker (Seattle, WA): UND Pierce Petersohn (Dodge Center, MN): UND, Minnesota, NDSU Luke Tetzlaff (Kaukauna, WI): UND Ben Wenzel (Appleton, WI): Eastern Michigan, UND, Lindenwood Nate Appleget (Lincoln, NE): NIU, UND, SDSU, Lindenwood Blake Buhr (Sheboygan, WI): UND, Cornell Noah Dietel (Litchfield, MN): UND Kobe Russell (Prescott, WI): NDSU, UND, NIU Pierce Decker (Fort Collins, CO): Montana, Wyoming, UND, NAU, UNC Bradley Esser (Harrisburg, SD): SDSU, UNI, UND Brayden Dozier (Maple Grove, MN): NDSU, UND Brooks Hendrickson (Mount Horeb, WI): UND Ethan Headings (Iowa City, IA): UND Will Vala (Downers Grove, IL): Illinois State, Ball State, ODU, UND, Lindenwood, Central Michigan, Arkansas State Jhace Woods (Sioux Falls, SD): SDSU, NDSU, UND Brandon Jenkins (Arlington Heights, IL): Murray State, Liberty, Toledo, Illinois State, Cincinnati, Ball State, UND, Ohio University, Miami of Ohio, Kansas State, ODU Jayden Brown (West Des Moines, IA): NDSU, UND Kaedyn Smith (Chandler, AZ): UND Xavier Rivera-Rogers (Phoenix, AZ): NAU, UND Jeremiah Daoud (Allen, TX): UND Michael Farr (Racine, WI): Eastern Michigan, Lindenwood, UND Noah Daniel (Fort Dodge, IA): UND Marquis Richardson (Chandler, AZ): Iowa State, Central Michigan, NAU, UND Bryson Williams (Omaha, NE): NDSU, SDSU, UND Keaton Reinke (Saint Charles, IL): Toledo, Penn, Miami of Ohio, NDSU, Northwestern, NIU, Stanford, UND

You’re probably right, so I’ll just hope it’s nobody on staff currently. I think that would be safe.

My prediction will be if things don't drastically turn around and Berry is retained, we'll see multiple key guys portal out. Talk about not sounding like a fan, but if you want what's best for this program, it'd be losing in the first round in the NCHC tournament, moving on from Berry and this coaching staff quickly. National search and hire with a few days to spare before the portal opens. Hope again for this program.

You really don't think that we'll lose key players this off-season if Berry is retained? Just to be clear, what I think will happen this off-season (losing multiple key players to the transfer portal) I never thought was possible for UND prior to this year.

Outside of Berg, this Senior class is brutal. Load up the first 3 lines with FR - JR. 4th be all SRs. It’s crazy having SRs that are anchors on your top 2 lines. His decisions don’t seem to be beneficial in the short or long term. It makes no sense. Or even if it’s a bit of semantics, why would you not switch the 3rd / 4th line? This coaching staff cannot do simple math in the portal era.

Wilkie!! Also, nobody better to play with Dylan’s motor than…Kunz!! Berry! I think he’s waving the white flag.

Yes, but also the fear now is they will leave because of Berry and this coaching staff. If Berry stays, I believe we’ll see key players leave.

What maybe bothers me more than anything is consistently how guys that transfer in are immediately one of Berry’s boys. What I mean is the handful of guys every year whose role is not based on ability. Wilkie might be, besides Montgomery the worst forward on the team. He’s a fixture as 3C, PK, PP. He’s a bad hockey player. Based on everything we’ve watched, why wouldn’t you upgrade Littler to Wilkie’s spot? Move Croal in and Wilkie out. From what I’ve seen, Croal is better than Wilkie as well. It’s frustrating watching time and time, transfers come in that aren’t very good and play instead of (or bigger roles) then promising freshman.