AJS

Good news is the defensive deficiencies were so glaring this year that one thing we can all agree on is they will be attempted to be addressed. If we see Safety portal offers like we did O-Line this past year, then we'll know the coaching staff doesn't feel they have in-house what they need to take that next step.

I don't disagree with anyone you've said. My point is there are positions that are easier to fill in gaps via the portal. At UND, I think Safety is the most difficult position to do that. Improvement will have to be a group effort from within. Talking about improvement, I did feel Buckner looked much more comfortable by the end of the year. He could take a big step.

Although I don't think it was the weakest point last year, for me it's always start up front. Johnson returning is huge and I'm hoping Ogbu returns too. I get the sense that is the plan but would like confirmation. If nothing us changes, they'll lose Morrison (starter), depth upperclassman Keech / Thorsness and Fr. Ledbetter. Based on Bubba specifically calling out improving the D-Line, I'm hoping we'll see the O-Line portal approach from last year applied to the D-Line. This is the only position that I hope they try to sign multiple portal players at.

Is your hope that some combination of Fort / Buckner / Ball / Davis will start with KK providing back up? What I've picked up the last couple of years is it takes time to develop at the safety position at UND. Must be a lot you have to know. I'm hoping for your sake and others that you think that UND will just pick up a couple of "Cole Reyes" types and that's the solution for next year. I'm not saying they aren't looking for one, but I'm guessing you'll see them ready to rock with mostly what's on the roster currently.

For FBS schools. So for UND, no. I’m guessing UND will have a few more next week, but should be close to done.

Here's my thought. When the season ends, there's clearly an internal audit of each positional group. The Portal / Extra Covid year has added a new layer. I want to concentrate on OLB / Safety, since I believe they were the two biggest weaknesses on the defense, as well as have many parallels. The first important component is only one player has no eligibility left (Cooper). Almost everyone can come back. These were both position groups that the 2-Deep was very heavy on upperclassman. What's the strategy. For me, the two most important things are (1) You cannot run it back with the same group. (2) More importantly, you cannot start over. What do you do? For me, if you feel a soon to be 5th year guy is the most important piece, then you have to offset that with another Upperclassman in this situation. Both MJV / Coley's request happened on Friday (although Coley announced on Saturday). Seems very strategic to me. What do I want to happen? Exactly what did. That was Part 1 for those two positional groups. Part 2 is and I know this will not be popular with at least one of these, but KK, Buckner, Mullin all need to return. I hope they all do. The coaching staff will either feel they can promote from within (i.e. Fort / Davis / Sutton / Boekner, ect) or else they'll go to the Portal. I feel really good about the moves that have happened so far in the offseason. The next key piece is for a non-starter at CB that did play that's an upperclassman to hit the portal. That is if indeed Siegel returns. That will hopefully be the last portal entry.

Best of luck. You’d think we’ll see one of the corners enter as well over the next couple of days. *Early indications were that all Secondary members that could use their 5th year were going to, so there was going to be movement elsewhere.

Big time. Very important piece returning. Need a few more key 5th year guys to confirm.

Going to be very interested to hear what Berry has to say, doesn't look good for him at surface level. Edit: "Doesn't look good" is a pretty large understatement.

Kudos to Chaves for publicly saying something isn't right and Miller for doing the reporting on it.

My question is, based on the excellent reporting done so far, is anyone else surprised that there apparently has been no actual push back on the committee members? Herder breaks everything down perfectly in his article. We're so close. Just need someone to go with the facts and ask for an explanation. Not the one we already were given, like a true, if you made this case for Weber, why was the opposite done for Montana? It's just so frustrating that Larson is going to be able to skate without ever answering to how this happened. There's no other way to look at what happened and come to the conclusion. NDSU - Better situation, UND - Worse, Youngstown - Worse. Not saying that Youngstown should have been in, but man, really appears he only went to bat for one school.

8 last year hit the portal, so far this year there have been 4. I'm crossing my fingers that the max we see this year is 6. I'm really interested to see what happens in the Secondary. We have not heard definite answers regarding Siegel / Buckner / Kauppinen as if they will be using their Covid year. My thought would be for each who returns, you'll see one in the same position group enter the portal. That's built into my max hope #. Another really important factor is 5 members of the Junior class Thorsness / Keech / Kimball / Neustel / Zavalney are graduating and won't be playing football further. That alone opens up Scholarship $ for 5th year / Incoming class.

Not only this new portal era, but everything is heightened by the extra covid year. It's very important when players enter the portal to look at quality along with quantity. Last year, 6 of the 8 players that entered were either starters or guys that were on the 2-Deep (or in Urwiler's case a young up and comer). I went back and looked to see if there's any kind of pattern with this year. Before season ended: 1 First week after season ended: 3 Second week: 3 Later: 1

To answer the question of what happened defensively from '21 to '22. In hindsight, I think the answer was they lost a lot. It's that simple. Not only key starters, but so many key depth guys. I think it kind of snowballed too. 5th Year (Out of Eligibility) Holm / Canady / Galvin / Turner / Shannon Seniors Larson / Seguin (Portal) Juniors Pierre / Lickfeldt Other Transfers Nelson / Robertson That would be 8 Starters and another 2 off the 2-Deep. Another important "depth" guy in Lickfeldt. Why I say I think it snowballed too. We know Pierre decided late to move on to Law School and retire. Was Lickfeldt on the Spring roster? I'm wondering if they wanted to bring Seguin back for his extra year, or they thought they were fine moving on. What happened this year has taught me not to downplay any loss of a key guy. I remember thinking when Seguin entered the portal that it was no big deal. At the time he was the only guy off the D-Line 2-Deep that was not returning. Then Pierre doesn't return and all of a sudden that's 2 guys off the two deep. Lickfeldt makes 3 of your Top 9.

Based on their IG posts, Thorsness (DL) & Neustel (OL) will not be returning next year. Both would have been Seniors. Both retiring, non-portal moves.

Both played in the ISU-Blue game.

Ventrelli confirmed via an IG post that he will be returning next year. Huge!

Can UND’s schedule be easier, but harder at the same time? The SOS will not be as tough next year, no doubt about that. Two non-conference home games, they’ll play what I’m guessing is the bottom 3 pre-season conference teams. I think they’ll be more “sure wins”. That being said, I don’t like the conference home/away schedule as much. More 50/50 road games (UNI/USD). What it’ll come down to every year, is eventually, this team will have to steal a win against the FBS/SDSU/NDSU portion of the schedule. Going 0-3 virtually every year is putting them in such a tough spot.

Too many unknown variables right now to make any type of prediction. We’ll know much more a month from now. Waiting to see a definite list of which Seniors are staying and using their Covid year. What Portal losses there are. An individual staying / leaving can make a huge impact on the roster.

What are we hoping to see this off-season? I’m genuinely curious on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively: No surprises in the Portal. Lose the 5th year guys / Seniors. They’ll be in great shape. Defensively: Where do you start? This is the worst it’s been as the defense wasn’t exactly young. Inexperienced (OLB for example), but not young. The last two games shined such a spotlight on the unit that something will be done. I’ll simply ask, do you want large chunks of this defense back next year? Would you be excited if KK / Buckner / Siegel return and the secondary doesn’t lose anyone? Or yes to those guys returning, but hope for guys below them to hit the portal?

I haven’t read anything since my very negative post before half time. I want to be consistent. Final score matters. It would be fake if I was overly upset having the ball with 2 minutes remaining with a chance to tie. Losing by 7 on the road. You can build off this. That being said there are absolute issues on defense that need to be addressed.

It’s INSANE how predictable UND Football is. Pure Garbage.

Mac Swanson w/ 5 points in his last two games since committing. Now tied for 5th in the USHL in points w/ Perron.

Couple things that stick out on Wiebe and Livanavage. Weibe is leading his team in scoring by four points. As a defenseman that is really impressive. Tied for the team lead in goals. Captain. Drafted last year by Vegas. Big as well at 6'3", 200lbs. For Livanavage, I like that he's invited to every international (Non-NTDP) tournament. Will be playing (w/ Strathmann) at the upcoming Junior A Challenge.