AJS

Jacquez Barksdale - Coffeyville CC He'll be announcing his commitment in 48 hours. Recently visited UND as well as Buffalo.

He just visited Buffalo this past weekend.

What a weird post.

Count me in possibly being late to the party with NIL. I've always wanted one to get started, but more from an urgency standpoint didn't really feel it. I'm feeling it now. I'm looking at this two ways. For hockey, it's going to be necessary to stay elite. For Football / Basketball, can UND for once be in the drivers seat with the Dakota schools. Acting first. It would help if some of the prominent coaches or media members would start making some noise. Why would Berry not be going through Schlossman with articles about this? If we're all on the same page that UND in situations like this are incapable of leading, what do we hope for? What will get people's attention? It wouldn't be hypothetically losing Hensler / Mooney to Mich / Minnesota respectively. How about the 3 FM NDTP players that are eligible to commit Aug 1st? For Football / Basketball, like always, need NDSU to set up one first. I had no idea on the Q fund that @brianvf posted about. Why wouldn't Schlossman highlight that? He can make noise when he wants too, I'm just surprised he isn't on this front.

A few months out, but let's start the list of potential recruits that can commit on August 1st. These are all high caliber players that have either been reported, rumored or you'd imagine UND is interested in. Please feel free to add. I'll also add the closer we get. I'm a firm believer that you can tell a lot by social media as well. Laurila (NTDP) Schools follows: None Hensler (NTDP) Schools follows: None Rumor / Notes: UND is finalist alongside Michigan / MN Mooney (NTDP) Schools follows: UND / MN Rumor / Notes: Logan Cooley's cousin, UND is a finalist with MN Lindberg (NTDP) Schools follows: UND, CC, SCSU Rumors / Notes: Brother CC recruit O'Neill (NTDP) Schools follows: UND, WI, SCSU Kor (Fargo Force) Schools follows: UND + Other power schools Fleece (Fargo Force) Schools follows: UND + Other power schools Grimes (Sioux Falls) Schools follows: UND + Other power schools

Really like this addition. Littler falls into a sweet spot category for recruits. Higher-end guy, that's going +1 in Juniors related to his HS class. Similar to Strathmann, where he might not need to play another year of Juniors, but will no doubt pay dividends for all parties. As someone who hopes UND follows the path of the younger / talented programs, this is a great fit to go along with guys like Strathmann, McInnis (potentially), Swanson, Boisvert in that 2024 class.

Littler would be a very nice addition to the 2024 class.

Good news is things can change quick, but I'm starting to get a little worried about key transfers for the 2023 season. Exiting Spring ball, felt really good about this team, but also realizing they needed from the portal 1 RB, 1OLB, 1 Safety. So far, 0-2 on RB offers and to my knowledge have not offered an OLB or Safety. Thoughts? Clearly, they are trying to get a RB, but what about the other positions?

Perron / Emerson are completely different situations than Ness coming out of the USHL. Ness had a great final year, but that was also his final eligible year. Age matters. No argument with transition time. But that’s my point, let talent play and develop. Game 1 Ness might be better than Emerson. Emerson needs to play over Ness. UND needs to be a developmental team. Let talented Fr make mistakes and grow throughout the year.

Huge. I was really harping on this after the season, I thought it was crucial to get back to the standard roster construction of 15F, 8D, 3G. Now, play and develop talent. That's the second part to the equation. To me there's a pretty clear 12 / 3 divide. What I'm going to be watching is how many of the 3 find themselves in the lineup.

Looks perfect, lets lock this one in.

The most recent UND pod, Schlossman said the goalie situation was locked in for next year (Hedquist coming in).

I could agree with that. Last year the two biggest weaknesses were OLB / Safety play. The big difference heading into this year is I'm confident that the Safety play will be better than last year. What they would grade out to be I guess is a different discussion.

Great listen as always. Offensively line shuffle was surprising, but exciting. Get the guys in the position they feel their skills can be optimized. Two things I'll be watching are Borud and Anderson. Lots of Borud talk for the short time he's been on campus. Kelly did mention it, but what kind of jump can Anderson make this year? Wish they spent the same amount of time on the Defense as the Offense. My big takeaway defensively, was more the discussion about what went wrong last year. The simplifying mentality / new DC will really help. I've talked myself into the D-Line / CB positions being slightly above average. ILB / Safety being average. You can win with some positional groups being average. Only group I'm worried about is OLB. They were awful last year and I wouldn't be surprised if they were worse this year. This team NEEDS a OLB and a RB from the portal in the bad way.

Interesting. Would this player be more exciting than the last teased commitment (Komzak)?

Tyree announced he’s back.

I seem to be in the minority liking the Bemidji series every year. It's far too practical not to do.

Listening to the new UND Pod. Two things stuck out in regard to the roster construction. 16th F: The question being Montgomery's health and if they felt he would be ready for Fall. 8th D: Is Strathmann ready to come in and play. They would not bring him in to sit. Those were the questions that Schlossman posed. I think there are cases where he knows more than he might lead on, but I got the feeling that he doesn't know which way they'll go with those.

Here's some other interesting NAU scores from last year. Here are their last four games. Away vs Idaho State (W, 24-10) Home vs Weber (L, 31-33) Away vs UNC (L, 20-21) Home vs Montana State (L, 38-41) At home last year, they were competitive against all schools but Idaho. On the road they were competitive against all FCS schools but UC Davis. Some of those road losses (@ UNC, Portland State) although competitive are tough ones.

I'm keying in on this response. Here's my question. This isn't meant to be pessimistic, but given where this team was last year, call it realistic. Heading into next year, are there two positional groups defensively we feel are "above average" at the FCS level? I'm starting to like the D-Line and I think the CB position is really good. My main reason for optimism is any improvement on any positional group will take pressure off other units.

Lucky for sure. Bend but don't break defense and missed FG's for NAU were big. That being said, what really sticks out about that game was under 2 minutes left in the first half, UND is up and driving. 4th and 3 at about the 36(?) Bubba decides to kick a FG, which is blocked. NAU goes down to score and is up I think 3 at the half. That decision seemed crazy at the time, there's no way UND was making that field goal. This was kind of a common theme in a lot of games they ended up winning. IF Bubba decides to go for it and they make that fourth down, does that change the whole complexion of the game? As far as how it shapes up this year. I think it's all good news. Alerus is worth (+7), UND offensively was pretty awful (see 3rd down efficiency), the defense was pretty awful (see 3rd down efficiency) last year and they still won. Went over NAU's new look roster, I'm guessing it's more talented, but lots to work out with so many changes. Getting them early is a good thing. Until proven otherwise, I'm feeling good about this team. Not touching the offense. I've been burned before, but my mindset is the defense cannot be worse than last year. How much better is the question.