pirate

Not so quick, Cutlip could fit in very well with behrnsie at uno, or with Rocky at Temple.

I see where Sierra JC head coach Jeff Tisdel has taken himself out of the running for the job at Sac State. hmmm, maybe he already knows what Lennon will be seeing at Sacremento. Another note, St. Mary's, another D-1AA, No. Cal. school is also looking to replace a head coach.

Listening to Tim and Swyg this morning, Tim offered some provocative commentary. With regard to winless's quotes given to the lick-spittle, gasbag ac media and the possible Lennon hiring. winless told the forum that the process of hiring Lennon is alot like his hiring of Dean Blais. Tim went on to say that the last thing tw wanted to do was to hire anyone with previous involvements with the UND Hockey programs. Tim said tw went so far as to DENY any contacts or interviews with Cary Eades. Blais's credentials and personal characteristics were so overwhelming even winless could not turn Blais down. Maybe Pat Behrns is not such a bad choice at Sac State after all, both he and tw have truth as a second language. As for other coaches leaving, Mussman MIGHT go, however, Bubba has alot of loyalty to UND and the State and just could be the next Head Coach. I do think their is a 6'7" rs freshman QB who may leave for Sac State.

The "want" list for the head football coaching job at Sac State, has everything but Dale Lennon's name on it. They want a disciplinarian, they want a coach with a past history as a defensive coach, they prefer head coaching experience, they want success. Moroski(UC-Davis o- coordinater), has never been a head coach and been an offensive coach exclusively. Davis is a successful program, however, has never won the big enchilada. The rest have lesser credentials but some successes. Like I said, the job is Lennon"s IF he wants it

Apparently, this story has some wheels. Wanles's tactics are pretty transparent if even the lick-spittle, gasbag ac fans and media have been speculating on this scenario since last spring. I do know that Coach Lennon is very disappointed with the current UND position regarding Division status. He firmly believes his football program should be at D1-AA. He spoke of this on the Wednesday coaches show following USD's decision to stay at D2. I was very surprised to see that no one on this board picked up on that. Anyway, press reports indicate Coach Lennon will be in Sacremento next week. I think Wanless is pitching this story hard. I believe wanless has unlimited access to the drooling fargo media and he could get an excellent coach to boot. If you look at the other candidates, you will see one is pat berhns( why hire him, the reason the previous coach was fired was because the Sac team lacked discipline. Go figure.) One candidate is a JUCO coach, another, a high school coach. One is O-coordinater at UC-Davis, another an assistant at Oregon. So the list includes 2 d2 head coaches, 1 JUCO head coach, 1 high school head coach, and 2 assistant coaches one soon to be d1-aa, one d-1. My thinking the job is Lennon's IF he wants it.

SF4L, Thanks for the research. Very helpful. It brings up a couple of questions. Are we thin at stud? Who rotated with Christofferson last fall? I too had heard the stories about Hofschneider, Ulsperger and Z.Ba-Jo. Sounded great to me, however, as scouts, they must have paid heck with the offenses. I heard S. Brennan was recruited for stud and had a good fall. Same can be said for Schmitz and Wolf. Sounds like the D is in good hands down the road.

Ralph Engelstad's number was #23 and will be retired today.

If Cutlip is eligible, why isn't he now playing? If he was ineligible, why was he allowed to play in four of his team's games? UNC's compliance people are a joke, besides, UNC doesn't care about the NCC, Division 2, or the NCAA. They are going d-1. Another dirty program in the lower echelons of d1-aa obscurity. Go NWMSU-Bearcats.

Jarvis Thomas is listed as a D-Back. He is a junior, who last attended Waldorf C.C. in Iowa. I would agree that if UND could get a transfer anywhere near the quality of Glenn Matthews, they should jump all over him. His football, academic and personal qualities are very rare. What I don't want to see are non-sucesses like Duston Broderick and Mykal Smith. I thought the O-Line matured as the season progressed. I had heard alot about Kuper since last year. I think moving Grant to Center and inserting Kuper into the line-up is a worthy experiment. The D-line can be effective in that all who return have "whiskers" with their game experience over the past years. A healthy Brennan will help. Again, the Line-backers are all very talented which we've come to expect. Some just need to mature physically. The same can be said for the D-backs.

Unless the JUCO is of extraordinary talent and also has impeccable academic credentials, I don't see Lennon and staff going that route. Lennon and staff have a history of 'red-shirting' transfers. (See Mikal Smith and this year Jarvis Thomas.)

I believe the critical question is who will be coming back from this past years team? A certain amount of attrition usually occurs, however, I see some players as not making the progression expected in a quality program. Next years team will be Coach Lennon's first with his own recruits and the transition from Coach Thomas to Lennon will be complete. As for players to lead the way, the "o"-line will have to replace Schnieder. Last week Coaches had Storhaug and Grant(moved over from guard) making snaps. Also, will have to replace Murphy at tight end, great at making blocks not used to catch passes. Vanderpan is back and has experience.Trevor Meilke(RS) some some time at the end of the year. I wonder where Eric Ahstrom fits in? The only thing the backs and receivers need is physical maturity(off-season weight and conditioning) for the RSs. The upperclassmen like Miller, Wistopf, Ahlers, Stattelman, Johnson et al are now the "leaders" and need to solidify that role. The defense has got to get it's confidence back. Making big plays and controlling the game is SIOUX defense. Turnovers, big hits and getting to the opposition's quarterback is SIOUX defense. Taking away the running game, neutralizing the opponents best receiver is SIOUX defense. This team has to regain that confidence AND ATTITUDE. I see those qualities in players like Anderson, Gagner and Stratton. Coach Lennon has talked about the evolution of the game and how He has recruited for that change. He is building a program based on speed and finesse. Gone are the days of bulk and brute force. He talks about generating strength from speed, quickness and technique. His reruits certainly reflect those qualities.

It is official, according to Head Football Coach, Dale Lennon. This year is a time of restructuring and evaluation for the football team. Something I think we all saw coming following the Klosterman injury, the Miller injury and loss to scstate. With the one remaing conference game and the off season coming up we will get to see who will be left standing for next years team. On a sidebar regarding the Augie game, an incredible game statistic. Yards penalized: UND 65; Augie "0". That's zero, ziltch, nada, bupkis, nothing. Hmmm,.

I believe it was in either '98 or '99,NDSU hosted representatives from all NCC schools as well as from the Big Sky conference. At that time, the Big Sky reps shared their story detailing hopes plans and struggles regarding their league. It was at this forum that the BSC first stated their intent to NOT look at eastward expansion. A major reason being that since 1987, the North Dakota schools do not receive any state funds for inter-collegiate athletics. Montana, apparently, gives a substantial stipend to it's two BSC schools to help fund inter-collegiate athletic programs. I would see the BSC as gladley opening it's doors if the North Dakota legislature would "co-sign" for 2M per year+++ .

This years team is being given the least amount of respect of any defending National Champion I have ever seen. On another board, d2 football.com., some fans are almost putting an asterisk on last years NC. (the fans I refer to are from GVSU, UCD and UNO.) I would guess the NCC pre-season poll will have the Coaches picking North Dakota as the favorite. The media poll will pick UNO. I see the O-line as being underestimated. Murphy, is a senior, with D-1 experience and has found a position(TE) where he can have success. Schneider is also a SR. who started many games since his freshmen year. Olson started last year as a sophomore. Dokken has been waiting his turn and appears ready to step into a starting role. Smith, a sophomore, is a physical specimen who also has been waiting his turn. Right Guard appears to be a position that may be up for a fight,however, Ryan Grant was listed as a starter during the spring. Running back is a situation with many provocative possibilities. Schwenzfeier is a hard worker who has yet to prove himself on game day. Maybe this is his year. Miller, busted out last year before the injury. Here's hoping he has a complete recovery. Coaches have refered to Beatty as a "Perk" clone. Apparently, he was more physically mature than Mahmoud last year,and thus, might have been able to take off the shirt when The Sioux were hurting for RB's last year. Mahmoud reminds me alot of Phillip Moore. I hope he has Phillip's durability. Your right Barker, North Dakota needs to win 2 of the 3 games with UNO, UNC and ndsu. However, beware of the two South Dakota trips.

I have been checking some of the pre-season rankings by some FB publications ie. Lindy's, S&S, CBS and Don Hanson's. North Dakota rated anywhere from 4 to 11. The main negatives being graduation losses to o-line and at linebacker. Pre-season All-America projections to Ben Dixon(1st team) and Kelby Klosterman(2nd team). I see quite a few players have remained in Grand Forks this summer. Pre fall camp starts in a couple of weeks with 1st game a month away. Anybody aware of the rehab status of Brennan, Hermes, Miller and Nelson?

I am going strictly on memory on this. The one concession made to the retired number 2, was that Berge wore two jerseys at that time. I believe he wore the jersey with the number 2 on it on the 'away' or all green jersey. On the 'home' or white jersey I think he wore #28. Anyway it was a different number. The next year, he wore #2 both home and away. Since that time, I think it

Following the graduation of All-American defenseman Bill Steenson, the nummber 2 was retired. This lasted untill Gino became head coach. I believe the first to wear the #2 sweater was Mark Berge. Since then it has been worn by Akil Adams, Dave Hakstol and Curtis Murphy to name a few.

Terry Casey was from Great Falls, MT. I remember his mother being an Internationally known figure skating coach. She coached a couple of internationally competitive figure skaters, men and women. Terry learned strong skating skills from her. At UND, during hard practices, he would perform some of the figure skating programs he had learned. This would break up the tedium of some hard practices. He was a teamate of Gino Gasperini's and I believe Gino was the coach who retired his number permenantly. By the way, does anyone know what and whose number other than Casey's is also retired? As per George Pelewa, he was a first round draft choice of the Calgary Flames and I think was one of the first 3 or 4 taken in that draft. I remember seeing him at the Meet the Sioux Football Team, in '86(Roger Thomas's first year as head coach) and He dwarfed the football team players.

Remembering Pat Behrns as both an assistant and head coach at North Dakota, he was aloof and secretive. He was also dishonest with players, their parents, the media, the administration and fans. It appears things haven't changed at all with coach Behrns. He has no control over his assistants(they were a part of the demonstration at the Alerus), or his players. Abriam Stovall, gets kicked out of the playoff game against ndsu in 2000, and then against Pitt State in 2001. The disturbing thing to me is why it took so long for the officials to do so in the Pitt State game. Behrns took no responsibility and showed no moxie by saying he did not want to take the senior out of his last game. This was after Behrns had removed Stovall following a warning by on field officials. What did ' Behrnsie' do ,put Stovall back in the game where Stovall started a fight and subsequently was ejected. Neither coach nor team has any character, and the team motto is "the first two whistles don't count". North Dakota owes Omaha big. I hope this is the year we do it. As far as season ticket sales are concerned, everyone that I know is renewing. Given the attendance figures last year as well as fan interest and talk within the community and across the country, I would say sales will equal and surpass last year. Spring ball starts soon and it will be interesting to see how many people attend the spring game. That could be a guage to see what sales will be like. I will be interested to find out who the o-line will be.(A young group, but remember, when this years seniors were sophomores, they went to the play-offs and lost to the eventual National Champs, in O.T.) Also, who will be in the mix as far as running-backs. What impact will the redshirts have. How will Brennan, Hermes, Miller and Nelson do following their injuries of last year. Who will be next years Stars?

Hopefully, a Sioux victory at Omaha, will be the beginning of the annual season ending unravelling of the Mavericks. Omaha has alot of talent, however, the team and it's coaching staff have absolutely NO discipline. I still see UNC as a force to be reckoned with in the conference. They have great receivers in Carroll, Jenkins and Nelson. Their defense was inconsistent last year but played well at the Alerus. I think gettimg scsu at home, will be a plus. Their passing game can be formidable if not overwhelming at times. Heckendorf is only a junior. He will continue to put up big numbers under Hedberg. Scott Underwood, will continue with his construction of the defense for scsu.

This schedule is much better than it could have been. As I stated in a previous post, filling out the schedule has got to be a nightmare for North Dakota. With the success of last years team and the national reputation of crowd support and noise at the Alerus by Fighting Sioux Fans, a great monster has been created. (Who wants to bring in a team to be playing in front of thousands of loud and boistrous Sioux fans? It is a great problem to have though.) Don't think that the rest of D2, did not notice the crowd support the Sioux enjoyed, especially during the play-offs. I only have one question. What the #### happened to the New Haven game?

The schedule in the next several years, has gotten to be a big headache. With Morningside leaving, there is a big hole in the middle and end of the football schedule that is tough to fill. I hear the Sioux are trying to fill the hole with D-1AA games. Also, the conference, periodically, has to have schools play at the same venue two years in a row. Next year begins the two years in a row at ndsu. As far as positions and personel, spring ball will sort out alot of questions.

Excuse my error regarding Tom Maus. What I meant to say, Tom Maus has the most experience of those trying to replace the graduated Craig Riendeau. Of course the Sioux have Thornburgh and Stratton as starters.One at corner and one at safety.

Tom Maus has the most experience of the returning D-backs. Schwenzfeier and Miller return with the most game time at runningback, however, their is some significant potential and speed with the two redshirt freshmen and the sophomore Griffin. Look for Tom Irvin and Christofferson to have good years at linebacker. Yhe safety position will be wide open. By the way, at seasons end, Kotelnicki(who has one year of football eligibility left after being a medical redshirt in '00), indicated He will not be back next year. The o-line returns Olson, but Schneider has started off and on the past three years. I wonder if Wyoming transfer Murphy will continue to be played at tight end? Jeff Glas(Rich's son) will take over for Peterka without the team losing much,(I hear Jeff is within Two yards of Peterka's range right now.) NDSU has no passing game and an unproven running game at this time. They will have to improve a ton to be a contender. I look for UNC to push The Sioux and UNO for the Title.