AJS

Learning more about the Spring season and the Missouri Valley Football Conference with each completed week. Western (along with Missouri State) seem to be the worst teams in the Conference, by a long shot. If UND is a true Top 10 team, this one shouldn't be close. Simple as that.

I had a pretty lengthy post before the SDSU game, one of the main take a points was how important with the league change this Spring season is for UND. It's an opportunity to change the perception of your program quickly. Now the discussion regionally is "let's see how they do on the road". Which is more than fair. Recently they have been a much better home than road team. This team has so much momentum right now, such a big opportunity to keep it going. I will say, I like how this team is built this year. Being strong on the Lines, being able to run and stop the run is a winning formula playing on the road. I know this has been asked before, but does anyone know if Beach will be able to return this Spring? They've played well so far, but having 2 of 4 NT's being injured as it's such a unique position makes you nervous if anything happens to one of the two that are healthy.

That's an important sentence. The vertical passing game hasn't clicked, yet. It also won't be his bread and butter, but to me he's shown adequate arm strength, most throws are just a little off. He's also in just his 4th game as a Redshirt Freshman. Reps / Experience are so important right now for him. With the mix of experience / youth on Offense, it's exciting times for UND.

I think the only schools UND is guaranteed to play every year is NDSU, USD, SDSU.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/education/6912143-UND-spring-enrollment-numbers-stay-similar-to-last-year Some of the key takeaways. Down 17 Students from Spring 2020 and 101 from Spring 2019 Total Count 13,011 Undergraduate - 9,093 Graduate - 3,423 Law School - 206 Medical School - 289 I do want to focus on this note. Armacost did note that there has been a reduction in on-campus enrollment, and an increase in both online and graduate students at the university. I know this has been asked before. What % of UND's students are online? I hope it's not disproportionate to other peer institutions.

Week 1 had 3 WR Spots / 1 TE. Week 2 has 2 WR Spots / 2 TE Spots.

From a strictly preview analysis, I don't have a lot to offer. It's the weighing Game 1 vs your expectations based on last years results. I really don't know what to expect. What I do want to talk about is the incredible opportunity that this weekend gives this program. Not being in the Missouri Valley I do feel has really hurt this program from a notoriety standpoint regionally. Which I do feel hurts recruiting to a certain extent, or just general enthusiasm around the Football team. You are recruiting against all the schools (Dakota / UNI) and you don't play any of them, for the most part. You aren't being talked about in the media outside of GF. Of course, winning big games and capitalizing on momentum has been an issue that plays into it as well. I felt a shift after Game 1 of being in the Valley. I can guarantee if the same thing happened, but instead of being in the Valley, UND was still independent or in the Big Sky, there would have been different opinions than we saw. More dismissive. This was a long winded way of saying UND can change the perception of their Football program regionally in a hurry by winning games against teams like the Jacks. The momentum swing a win would get this program could not be overstated.

I really like the attitude it appears most have here about Game 1. Consistency along with not being able to capitalize on momentum have really been UND's Achilles heel under Bubba. They need to prove it consistently. Huge opportunity against SDSU.

100%. Their AD mentioned earlier that for them to break even (I'm not sure exactly what term he used), they needed around 10K in the seats for Football games this Spring. That's what they are going to get. As a UND fan it was one of the hardest pills I've had to swallow, but a few years ago I finally came to terms that the two Universities just don't seem to have the same mindset. It's incredibly frustrating, but it just is. Just another example.

It would be hard to describe how big that would be. Any word on Canady, Tobin, Nguon or Turner and if they are looking to play again this Fall?

We're kind of going in circles here, so I'm going to leave it alone after this one. I find it surprising that anyone has a problem with calling an average team average. Sweeping anyone in the NCHC on the road is not easy. Average does not equal awful. Average is Average. The way I always look at it. Top 3 teams: Split (both at home / road) Teams 4-6: Sweep Home / Split Road Bottom 2: Sweep Both Home / Road Of course this won't be perfect, but you do that on a regular year and you'll have a good shot at Winning the regular season championship.

You don’t overlook any team. Not sure how that correlates to thinking they are average. You think they are above average?

I still cannot believe the combination of Omaha's 3rd, 4th and 5th goals. Talk about one of those nights. We won't see back to back to back goals like that for a long, long time. Talent level isn't close. Omaha is not a Top 4 NCHC team.

Agreed. Omaha is average. I feel better about getting them four more times than I did before this weekend.

3 goals on 11 shots. Not ideal.

Win tonight and UND for all intents and purposes locks up the Regular season title.

8 Points (3G 5A) in 3 games with Muskegon.

Is your best guess with recent Covid numbers they are hoping to be able to increase the amount they can sell? Hold off until that picture becomes clearer.

I have the same final standings. I don't think either SCSU or Duluth will catch UND though. If I had to highlight one reason why for each. St. Cloud runs out of games. Duluth, it's hard to sweep on the road (that clearly goes for every NCHC team).

I think Omaha is a solid team, but I'm not worried at all about them finishing with more points than UND. Looking at both teams, splits work as UND has 2 more points (that's giving Omaha a sweep against CC). I find it hard to believe that Omaha will take more points than UND in those games, although I think it'll be close. We'll be taking this week by week, but I am worried about SCSU / Duluth's remaining schedules. If they can but together some more weekends against Western / Miami taking all 6, while Omaha / UND split, they will be able to make up ground in a hurry.

It'll be really interesting to follow Portz the rest of the way. Last year he was just off a PPG pace in the USHL at .90 PPG. Started off this year going scoreless in the first four games, picked it up a little, but before his trade was 10 Points (5G / 5A) in 16 Games. Tri-City currently does not have a PPG guy on their team, but have 2 that are relatively close (now 3 via trade). Also if you look at Gopher recruit Matthew Knies who was a PPG last year as an underager, huge talent and he's at .53 PPG this year. Portz is a key piece to next years recruiting class. Only one game, but what a debut that was.

Shaugabay: 5 Goals 7 Assists - 12 Points (3GP)

Per Greg Cameron "Colorado College head coach Mike Haviland says F Grant Cruikshank will not be available for this weekend's series at North Dakota. Cruikshank got his appendix removed earlier this month."

Not knowing how they will award NCAA Tournament spots, I really do believe the Regular Season Champion will be one of the automatics. You need to Sweep teams at the bottom of the standings at home. That simple. Some other keys to this weekend. Will Cruikshank be available for CC? He's an elite NCHC player. Not having him is a huge blow to CC. Travel: When games started to get pushed back, you knew someone would be losing a day as they try to correct and get back on Friday / Saturday (not there yet). CC plays tonight (at home) and then travels and plays on Saturday. UND gains a day of rest / preparation. I know before last years first round, CC flew to Minneapolis and they bus to GF. I'm not sure with Covid if they will Charter. If they don't, that's a bad travel day on top of losing a day of preparation.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/hockey/6845425-Commentary-You-could-see-UNDs-loss-to-Denver-coming Right on the money.