UND Fan

That is outstanding if the Manke rumor is fact. I think that I have figured out why we are not hearing or reading in the Herald or Forum that recruits have committed to UND or SU as often as in past few years. Both Rocky and especially Babich made sure that commitments of higher profile athletes were published as soon as possible. Although that can't be done by the school, it can easily happen through the player, his coach, his local newspaper, or someone dropping a hint to the Forum, etc. They did it for two reasons: 1) Once a commitment is published, a recruit really can't change his mind very easily. He is pretty much locked in. Apparently SU's outstanding OL of a few years ago, Pete Campion, probably would have played for the Sioux had the Forum not published that he was going to SU. He had changed his mind but didn't want to go through the embarrassment and questions if he would have signed with UND. 2) Having the names of coveted recruits published as they commit makes it easier to convince other coveted recruits to come to your school. Babich used this technique extensively to entice others to come to SU to join an "outstanding class" of recruits. I am not implying that I have a huge problem with this. It is probably a good strategy although I don't think it is too fair to the recruit. You didn't hear much about UND recruiting before signing date until the last few years. UND had to start doing the same thing as Babich was effectively using it to his advantage. Apparently, Bohl does not operate this way in his recruiting. Therefore, UND has also revised how they do things. Only a theory but I bet it is a pretty accurate assessment of the situation.

While I agree with your point, the game with Upper Iowa obviously was scheduled long before Bubba arrived in Duluth. He can only control what happens in the future, not what someone else had committed to in the past!

Football related info from a semi-reliable source: RECRUITING We have 8-10 commitments at this time but the only three that could be confirmed were the ones we are aware of: Dressler, Caufield and Rohde. Apparently Rohde has outstanding speed and quickness - sounds a lot like Dressler. The Bison have gotten a couple of kids we wanted because they were able to offer full rides compared to our partials. We better get used to that scenario. With their adding 20 scholarships this year, this will happen often in years to come. Kole Heckendorf had a good visit to UND last weekend. He is considering St. Cloud, where his brother was the All-American QB, and will be visiting Grand Valley State this weekend. He is at the top of our WR list - it would be great to get him. The top QB on the list is supposed to be out of Kenosha, WS. He is supposed to be a big kid who was accompanied to UND by his father, the coach of his HS team. In searching the web, there appears to be a great QB out of Kenosha St. Josephs, Dan Freund. His dad is the principal of the HS - couldn't verify if he was the coach. This kid is "only" 6'1", 190 so I am not sure he is the "big" kid that was in for the visit. Earlier we had heard that UND was looking at QB Mike Klepatz out of New Berlin, WS. He is 6'6" - I suppose it could have been him. I hope it was Freund! This QB and Heckendorf spent a lot of time together - it would be great to land them both! I got the impression that one of the commitments might be the Stadnyk DE out of Regina. It appears that both Brennan and Carney will be back next year. That really creates a log jam at QB. And, Groeschel prefers to move back to QB! NEXT YEAR'S SCHEDULE We may have as many as eight home games next year. We know about Central Washington and Mesa but Delta State, Ferris St. and Kutztown St. may also come to GF. The schedule should be finalized soon. We would likely pay guarantees to these schools rather than "home & home" arrangements. No more Crookstons!!! AGAIN - this info is unofficial - it may or may not be fact.

The Manke scenario reminds me of two situations that haunted the Soux in the past. We recruited Mark Speral out of Fargo and Kevin Feeney out of Bismarck to be DBs, NDSU successfully recruited them as QBs and both came back to burn us many times. Of course, SU was running the veer then and both were veer-type QBs. I realize that the situations are not likely the same but I would sure hate to lose him to SU because he wanted to play QB.

Another factor when you look at the Lunde situation from NDSU's and UND's perspective. SU has five seniors and, therefore, has quite a bit of scholarship $ available plus I suppose they have another DI scholarship available. UND only has Jahner and Dahl who are getting less than 1/2 of a scholarship between them. It is much easier for SU to "gamble" with some scholarship $ than UND. And, it probably is a pretty decent gamble. It is tough to find height up there and he may turn out to be a contributor. Plus, I am sure that didn't invest a full ride in him. That being said, I also believe the fact that Northern was the other option tells you something - he is likely a long shot.

I tried to be "politically correct" in my assessment of Lunde so NDSU fans can't come back in a year or so to remind me of my comments. Who knows, he could become a very good ballplayer - you can't teach height!! But I know many (not just the UND coaching staff) who feel he will have a tough time playing DI ball.

UND looked at both kids and was interested in Lunde (as a project). They felt he may or may not make a good DII ballplayer. They weren't confident enough to offer him much $. I understand that SU offered significantly more than UND was prepared to gamble.

Do we know for sure that Carney is coming back?

In my recollection, the names of 8-10 UND commitments would have been publicized by now in the last couple of years. I haven't read/heard about many NDSU commitments either. Anyone have any idea why that is? I would hope that it isn't because we aren't doing well.

Gunther moved into an Asst AD job at the suggestion of AD Wanless. I do not know how "strong" of a suggestion it was but it was a correct decision. Dave was an outstanding coach and a great guy who represented UND extremely well. But it was time for a change. His stoic, structured approach was not working nearly as well with the "new age" athlete so he was starting to have difficulties recruiting, relating to the kids, etc. - hence his success was affected.

Many on this thread have expressed their concern about the UND BB program and Coach Glas. I am not asking for your opinion but, for those of you who live in GF or ND, how much unrest is their among local UND fans, Fighting Sioux Club members, GF businesspeople, etc.? Is there a lot of talk about it?

The BB transfer that UND had hoped to land (he would not have been immediately eligible), did not transfer in. He needs to complete a couple more JC classes before he would be able to transfer anywhere. While it is not a dead deal, it is now less likely he will come to UND.

More bad news for the men's team. Wells broke his hand in practice yesterday and will be out at least a month, probably longer. While he wasn't a great player, he was the no. 1 guy off the bench to play underneath. Stoute will obviously get more playing time - and the coaching staff had originally hope to redshirt him this year to give him another year to develop! UND is now down to only five players who were recruited to play ball for us: Rykema, Johnson, Stoute, Lindahl and Austin. And, Austin is far from being the player he was when he was recruited. All the rest were walk-ons or at least received NO $ to come to UND. It will likely be a long year!

The rumors I have heard is that he may go outside the organization for the replacement. If so, I would asume that he may be doing so for recruiting purposes - bring in someone who has great ties to an area where we would like to have better results. At this point, I am sure the replacement will not be announced until after the signing period. A new coach would have little influence on recruiting and Lennon does not have the time to devote to the interview process, etc. now.

When I recently referenced Bismarck as the best sports town in the state, I was solely referring to the people living there and the surrounding area - not type of number of sporting events they host. I found a much larger percentage of people (young and old) truly interested in sports than in Fargo or GF. And, as I said, I think part of the reason for this is that they do not have access to high quality college sports, etc. so they value what they do have more and pay closer attention to all ND sports and MN pro sports.

92,96 - You make a good point - thanks for enlightening me! Plus, most of these underclassmen are likely to gain a few more pounds of muscle as their bodies mature and they continue their work in the weight room.

NDSU Grad - While I certainly hope that those predicting that our defense will be the best ever nwxt year, I agree with you that the '01 group would be awfully hard to top. In certain games this last year, we gave up a lot of yards - and too many points. With most everyone back and some very talented redshirt freshmen joining the mix, we should be very good. One challenge is that we are quite undersized on the D-Line and LB position - I bet our average weight in those two areas was 20-25 pounds less than the average NCC team. Guys - I fully understand that Digger and Dahlen are outstanding LBs and we have good D linemen, but it sure would be nice if we had more size against some offenses. Not a complaint - just an observation.

My opinion on the Bismarck issue. Although I currently live in Florida, I have lived in Grand Forks, Bismarck and Fargo. My perception is that Bismarck is easily the best sports town of the three. I believe that the primary reason is that as they do not have one of the state universities located there, they "value and appreciate" athletic events and competition because it isn't as commonplace there as it is in Fargo or GF. The fact that Bsimarck is centrally located within the state and has decent facilities is also a factor.

Thanks for the note. I agree, Winona has become a "player" in DII FB. With that, recruiting should be easier so your success should continue. What is your take regarding WSU eventually joining the NCC? Any chance of that happening in your opinion? Do you know how many FB scholarships you will be able to fund next year?

That wouldn't surprise me - he is a real talented kid. Sure wish we could have landed him!

Thanks for the post. Very interesting! It sure would have been nice if the hotel were completed before the World Championships but I don't think that is a possibly, is it? Any construction experts out there?

That article was timely for this discussion, wasn't it? Although all conversations regarding the Old Ralph have been related to Athletics, I know that the EERC would love to have that property for their growth. I think that is prompting the Athletic Department to move a little quicker than they may have otherwise.

Please excuse my ignorance - what the hell is that?

This is a response to star2city's post under "Announcement Soon" in "other UND topics". It probably should be discussed here. He stated that with UND BB and VB moving to a new facility and with the new Wellness Center that will be built, that UND sports of FB, track, baseball, softball, soccer, etc. would have plenty of room for indoor practicing. I, as well as all of the involved coaches, will really disagree with that. First of all, the new Wellness Center is at least a couple of years away. More importantly, there really isn't room for one of these sports to adequately practice, let alone 2 or 3 of them at the same time which often happens as normal practice times are mid or late afternoons (after most classes are done for the day). Obviously, the only one of these sports that actually would hold competition in Hyslop are the track teams. Our small oval and poor facility for hosting non-running events is very embarrassing and one of the reasons that our Track teams are average at best. With the ND climate, much of the preparation takes place inside. It is impossible to effectively work out for track events when other sports are attempting to practice in Hyslop. Hosting HS track meets is also an embarrassment at UND due to the facility. UND has (or will have after the BB/VB addition is completed) nearly the best facilities in DII for hosting athletic events. However, compared to the other top DII schools, our practice facilities are near the bottom. With our climate, having a first rate indoor practice and track facility will allow us to greatly improve our recruiting efficiencies - in FB as well as the sports disccussed above. Bottom line - we will be better in all these sports! Fortunately Tom Clifford agrees with this and may take the lead in getting a facility off the ground in the relatievely near future.

The UND coaching staff thought the younger VerDoux was going to be a stud. That is part of the reason that actively encouraged the older one to walk on. I don't think there were any hard feelings caused by big brother not making it. My understanding was that the younger one didn't continue his progress and the UND staff lost interest. As was mentioned, I hope we were right, not Billeter! Winkelman is a dandy, Glas had hoped to sign him early but he decided to wait. At that time, it appeared to be between UND and St. Cloud. But, who knows now. A couple weekends ago, UND had a similar type of player in from WS. He is a friend (different school, same conference) of Daniel Harkins, the recent signee. Gutter will likely be pretty good but may be a year or two away from being a major contributor. He is somewhat of "a bull in a china shop" right now. A nice problem - if anything, he works too hard!