Midwestern Hawk

UND needs more safeties. Seems like they are always teetering on the brink at safety. With Tamas Stewart out with a shoulder injury it was hard to get a gauge on what they truly have. Two freshman, Jordan Canady and Andre Randolph got reps throughout spring but we won’t have an idea on them until fall camp. Cole Reyes is an All-American and veteran Chuck Flowers has played some and seems to be improving by the year. Vashon Tucker hasn’t played at all. So, they have two guys that have played entering next fall. Stewart needs to be a player. Defensive Line is getting better by the day. Depth is solid. Talent is getting better. With depth/talent come battles each and every day in practice. This makes them better and makes the team better. Plus, their are four pretty good DL coming in this fall. Simply put, the DL Dawgs need to win the line of scrimmage every week for UND to make a run deep in the FCS playoffs. The cornerback spot has quality, high-end talent and is starting to develop some depth. (H3–Harris, Hunt, Holm are all solid). Need Tyus Carter to return from injury and push those three. Garrett Bollant is a wild card, special teams guy. We like where the cornerback position is at. Plus, Hayden Blubaugh will be joining the group in August. A freshman could be starting opposite Jade Lawrence at outside linebacker. Lawrence is pretty much a lock to start on the weakside but the emergence of Jaxson Turner and Ray Haas make it interesting (those positions are somewhat interchangeable). Right now, I would slate Tanner Palmborg as the starter heading into the summer but Haas will push him hard. The inside linebacker position is one big question mark (?). Donnell Rodgers should be a starter-we are high on him. But after that it is a bunch of inexperienced players battling it out. Jake Disterhaupt is a senior, yes, but he has never played ILB. After those two there are two freshmen in Jake Rastas and Jake Geier, to go along with Oscar Nevermann, who played RB last year. They need Dijon Murray to stay healthy and finally get out on the field after being on campus now for over a year. Cam Hunt could be a wild card but he missed the entire spring and valuable reps. Mildly worried about the ILB position. Defensive 2-deep at start of fall camp: DE Dranka Cieslak NT Harris Greer DE Greely Bennett OLB Lawrence Poole ILB Rodgers Rastas ILB Disterhaupt Geier OLB Palmborg Haas CB Hunt Carter SS Reyes Canaday FS Stewart Randolph CB Harris Holm

2016 FCS over FBS September 2: Albany 22, Buffalo 16 September 3: #4 Richmond 37, Virginia 20 #5 Northern Iowa 25, Iowa State 20 #14 Eastern Washington 45, Washington State 42 September 10: #10 Illinois State 9, Northwestern 7 Eastern Illinois 21, Miami (OH) 17 #23 North Carolina A&T 39, Kent State 36 4OT September 17: #1 North Dakota State 23, #13 (FBS) Iowa 21 September 24: #13 Western Illinois 28, Northern Illinois 23 Central Arkansas 28, Arkansas State 23

With O'Brien's retirement and the graduation losses linebacker is an area of some unknowns. After watching Spring Game, ILBs are Rodgers and Disterhaupt with Grier and either Rastas/Marler backing up and OLB's of Lawrence and Palmborg backed up by Haas and Poole.

Didn't we lose 2 starters at LB? Rodgers should be good but what about the 4th backer and depth? Also what about safety other than Reyes? I would rate potential areas of problem....OL, LB, QB and S.

With disterhaupt moving inside, Whi do you see on the 2 deep at outside?

Any redshirt freshman expected to contribute in a big way on defense or is it too early to tell?