iramurphy

All three Manke's are Sioux football players and their ACT scores were too high so they couldn't have gone to the agricultural college if they had wanted to (I think you need to be below a composite ACT of 12). I am sure the fact that Ryan was at UND was a factor, but both Reed and Rory made up their own minds. They liked the coaches, players and academic programs UND has to offer. I think Reed will continue to excel at QB and it sounds like he will get his opportunity to start this weekend. If anyone thinks the Mankes would leave simply because they weren't playing don't know them. They will be team players until they get their opportunity and as long as they are treated fairly will do whatever they need to do to help the team win. I don't think they would want to stay anywhere they weren't given the opportunity to earn their playing time. I think Coach Lennon will see to it his players are treated fairly. I did not understand why it took as long as it has to see what Reed could do, but now he needs to go out and make plays and have fun. I think he will show he is a winner. He tends to make the players around him better. He had great coaches in HS and he was a winner there because he was able to make his second and sometimes his third reads and he throws a very "catchable ball". He also made his teamates better but was the first to credit them for playing well. It should be fun to see him develop. Speaking of QB's, the kid from East Grand Forks is the real deal. Is UND going after him?

Bowencamp can't get a medical redshirt anymore. It would have been nice to see the two Sophs learn and develop with him as the starter. Hopefully, he will get a chance to come back healthy. For the sake of the team, I hope Belmore gets a lot better each game because he is the starter right now and he was OK last game. They also have a redshirt Fr from Wisconsin that is supposed to be pretty good. In addition to seeing Manke get a series or two early, I hope Carney gets to play more. UND has had a bad habit of not playing their backup QB's much since the Roger Thomas days. Most recently, they didn't give Rislov much time and he left. I do trust the Sioux coaches, but Rislov did well enough too start at the real DI level and excelled. I would hate to see the Sioux lose Manke and also the pipeline from Detroit Lakes to UND. They should be loaded again in about two more years.

I have seen them play in every game except Augie and the spring game. I don't think we would have lost the St. Cloud game had they let Manke play in the second half. He is more poised and throws a better ball. Last year during the Friday practice, before the title game in Florence, I asked Travis Lueck who the best of the young QB's was and he said it was "close but Manke threw a more catchable ball". I trust the coaches to pick who they think the best kid is but sometimes they're slow to admit they may have been wrong. I agree Belmore is making Freshman mistakes. The problem is, he is a Sophomore.

I would agree UND is favored but I would temper my enthusiasm due to the QB situation. Belmore played poorly against Central Washington and sucked against Augie and St. Cloud. He had happy feet, missed reads, couldn't get the play run when the coaches were slow getting the play in and missed a wide open receiver that would like have led to the winning TD. On that play he didn't have pressure. He also didn't exploit the two true FR. conerbacks St. Cloud had. Has anyone noticed Manke is 13 of 16 for 138yds, 2 TDs and no Ints, no fumbles and 2 rushes for 14 yds. His pass efficiency rating is 194.95. If you add last years stats he is 19 of 23 with two of those dropped. He also got the team to the line of scrimmage with a sense of urgency when the assistant coaches were slow getting the plays in. Belmore has thrown 7 int's and his efficiency rating is 134.52. Lest you think Manke was playing against the oppostion backups when he has been in, that was only for the last drive against Ferris. He has played with the UND two's for the most part. In high school he led a team with mediocore talent to the state title throwing for over 300 yds in the championship game and outdueled the guy who starts now for Wisconsin in the quarter finals. He is a better QB than Belmore. Even if the coaches (who are there and I am not) think Belmore is better, how could they not have gotten him into the game against St. Cloud. Belmore played better last week and certainly deserves to start until he screws up again, but I hope they give Manke a series in each of the first two quarters Saturday to get a better feel for what he can do when the game is on the line. The other thing Belmore needs is a bit of tutoring on what to say to the media. He was still commenting that the defense didn't play well against St. Cloud when he was interviewed after the Ferris game. If our QB had played as poorly as he did and he made that comment he would have gotten his butt kicked.