AJS

Let's wait and see on next years Freshman crop. Schmaltz is tied for the lead in scoring on Green Bay with 5 Goals 3 Assists in 6 Games. Late round pick. Just one example, but as someone who follows recruiting closely, you really don't know until the year before they come in. Gaber might be an exception, but who would have thought when he committed it would have turned out like this? No one.

This. First games always make you a little nervous as I do think they favor the team with less talent. Get the win, knock some rust off and move on. I liked the lines, hope they stick with them. Echoing others, Gaber is going to be a star. I thought him and Pinto were the best two forwards. The key, like last year, will be finding a 3rd for the 2nd line. They never found it last year. More experience / options this year.

I try to look at these things from every angle. Things I understand. The well meaning intention behind JBD's and Jasper's message. Where they are coming from. Why people would be upset with Kneeling for the anthem Things I don't really understand: Why you would do something that although isn't your intent, there's a reasonable reason why it would offend and alienate some. Doesn't seem like an effective way to promote a message. What kind of impact JBD and Jasper think this will have. To me it's a little naïve and self-serving. Things that make no sense to me: Why you would let this act change your opinion on the University / Team. Either withdrawing donations or not attending games in the future. It's bizarre. You go from enjoying something, to being done with it, because two members of the team demonstrate a peaceful protest. Especially when their intentions are pure. I hope both JBD / Jasper feel their impact was made and this was a one time thing. Things can return from normal and everyone can concentrate on the actual games.

The only thing that bothers me, is although it's clearly not their intent to show disrespect, that you couldn't see at least how people could be offended. Does it offend me, no, but I can see how it could. It just seems completely counter productive and in that sense, really short sided and frustrating. Has to be better ways or things you could do that would offend less.

Always love the 360 write ups. One of my big takeaways, and what made me optimistic on the Defensive side of the ball, is their thought that the defensive line was the biggest question mark. My thought being it will be better than last year, still a work in progress, but only losing 1 guy, there should be a lot of improvement.

If you're Berry, are you looking at the Transfer portal? With an increasing amount of Teams shutting down, I'm guessing we'll see the numbers in the Transfer Portal keep increasing. Currently: Goalies: 3 Defense: 8 Forwards: 14 There is a Spot open at Forward. If a Top player enters, do you try to get him? I'd say absolutely.

I like the structure of the question, there are so many factors, big difference between 1 Year vs 2, the kind of impact they made. Kawaguchi is the extreme side of the four year player. As was a guy like Duncan. Because of that I'll remove names. It's easier to play when we know their college careers. It took me a long time and only relatively recently did I get burned enough times to no longer really get too high or low when a player committed. You see the offer list of a 15 year old and think he's the next first rounder. Most times he's not. Likewise you see the 19 year old putting up ok numbers and you wonder why they offered. It's still fun to follow the progress, but I really don't start keying in until the year before they are projected to be here. You do take age into the equation of what to expect, but this is a long winded way of saying I've gotten a lot more excited about the players body of work and not just draft ratings, ect. Take this year for example, it's Gaber / Ness that I'm really excited about. They appear to be the perfect college player. Kind of a cop out, but it's gone from 90/10 in favor of the big name recruits to 50/50 for me.

Can someone ban @gfNDfan and then close this topic?

It's important to note that UND has a very small list of first year eligible players for the 2021 draft. There's only 3 guys who fall into that category, all three being very talented (Morrow / Blake / Hedquist). The year after, UND should be very active (James / Dunbar / Singleton / Spicer / Ausmus / Panzer).

Can we close this one? We get it @RobThomas , you're upset it didn't work for your relative. He's transferred and moved on, it's time you do too.

Mark me down as a huge fan of these. Full disclosure, I couldn't have hated the Grey jerseys anymore, so not seeing those was all I needed. I would prefer Green over Black slightly, but overall think they are sharp.

I would like to think and it really wouldn't surprise me if it was done because of competitive balance. It'd be a tough sell to see CC / Miami in the same pod.

The highlight being 6 games each, 18 total games vs your Pod (CC / Denver / Omaha) and 2 Games each, 8 total vs other league teams (Miami, Duluth, SCSU, Western). Who is in your pod is incredibly important, given not only a huge differential in games, but also no Non-Conference games to mix into the Pairwise. Either its you finish at worst #3 in your league or you don't have a shot at making it into the NCAA tourney. Let's take a closer look at UND's Pod. This is based on last years NCHC finish. 1) North Dakota: 17-4-3 (56 Points) 3) Denver: 11-8-5 (42 Points) 6) Omaha: 8-13-3 (27 Points) 8) Colorado College: 4-17-3 (16 Points) Highlights for the other teams: Denver: About even talent wise. Lost two leading scorers to early departures (can't emphasis enough how important Mitchell was to that team). Finley graduated (5th leading scorer). So lost 3 of their Top 5 scorers (They didn't have PPG guy). Another Depth Forward, Couple D-man and Backup Goalie. Great Goalie coming back, good depth, couple high end forwards returning. Good recruiting Class. I think they are the #2 team pre-season in the NCHC this year. Omaha: Improved: Return Top 5 Scorers off last years team. Do lose 5 Seniors who were contributors (3 F / 2 D). I think they'd be about #4/5 Pre-season in the NCHC this year. CC: Even. When you finish last with that record, there's really no way to be worse. They lose their Top 2 scorers (who were their Top 2 by a healthy margin). Another Top 6 Foward. I'd have them as the #8 Pre-season NCHC team Pretty even pod's thankfully. Exciting to see the plan.

Per the article it was Halliday's decision to open his recruitment, but we don't know if prior conversations with the UND Coaching staff (i.e. potentially his role / scholarship $) played a part or not. Time will tell if this one will hurt or not, it's really a coin flip. Given his size, him not being drafted is a bit of a tell. The same article confirms Costello is no longer committed either.

It really does. I've become cautious of getting too high or too low when it comes to a player when they originally commit. You get burned enough (both ways) you eventually learn. There is a lot to like about this one.

Yeah. Not only this year, but he could play again next year before aging out.

Per Heisenberg, he’s playing for Chicago in the USHL.

One key for every team will be who is not on their Spring 2021 Roster that would have played Fall 2020. Biggest reason being decided to graduate and move on, transfers, in the rare case declaring for the NFL draft. I mentioned before, Russo appears to be the only Senior for UND who will not be playing in the Spring that would have the Fall. If that sticks, I would say that's about as good as you could get. We are all aware of NDSU losing two early for the draft, I saw USD lost two members of their secondary as they transferred to FBS schools. I have no idea how different if at all each team will look, but it will cause some teams to be weaker in the Spring than they would have been in the Fall. I think UND will be better in the Spring of 2021 than they would have been in the Fall of 2020.

Comparing the current depth chart to Spring 2020, Sean Russo appears to be the only Senior who is not going to participate in Spring 2021 Football.

Thoughts on LB core this year?

@SiouxFanatic How old he was when it happened I'm guessing has a lot to do with it. Or am I off with that line of thinking?

NDSU's combination of high end starters and incredible depth has had them on a different level than every other FCS team not named James Madison for years. Looking strictly offensively, having your 1st Round / All-American LT & QB both opt out of Spring Football is such a huge blow. It's outrageous really. Depth Depth Depth, so as the roster stands now, they'll be fine offensively, but I do think this might be one of the 1st years where potential depth issues might arise if the injury bug hits certain positions.

We've been on different sides of the coin with the should UND have played this Fall along with NDSU scheduling this one game. I'll admit that after the fact, this was not a net gain for NDSU. Far from it really. I do think there's a positive psychological value of getting up for (even if it's one) game. Extra practice / game reps. Break up a "never-ending offseason". Those were always a constant though. My expectations when they scheduled the game were most likely far fetched (Expected them to parlay into more than one Game / Thought there was a National TV audience chance). Neither of those happened. The biggest backfire though was not being able to have fans (outside of parents). That single-handily made the event not worth it. Far from crippling, more of a minor speed bump, but still losing $ on this event hurts.