Teeder11

Practice #6 It was the second day of full pads today, and Bubba and crew were prodding the boys to not take any plays off and to get as many valuable reps in as possible, as it's closing in on three weeks until Utah! There was a little bit of an NFL buzz at Memorial Stadium this morning as scouts for the Lions, Saints and Texans were on hand to monitor practice and presumably Cole Reyes. Also, Deion Harris (out for the season) made an appearance at practice for the first time today, on crutches wearing a boot. As has been reported by others on here, a new running back is practicing as of this morning -- Teddy Sherva comes from a Minnesota JUCO program after showing UND coaches a blazing 40-time over the summer (tip of the hat to Herald's Tom Miller for the extra background on Sherva). Sherva is wearing the #35 practice jersey on offense. Tyus was back on the practice field today taking reps. My Play of the Day goes to the defense for the second day in a row. Reyes put on a show for the scouts as he patrolled the red zone on a 20 yard pass from Studsrud to Demun. Reyes reached up with his big paw and batted down what would have been an easy catch for Demun and an even easier scamper into the end zone. The ball almost was picked off by a fellow safety before it hitting ground. Team drills today focused on red zone play. Ketteringham hit Demun at the pilon inside the 1 yards line for a nice catch while blanketed in solid coverage. Zimmerman followed up with a similar play to Demun that the senior receiver also hauled in. I can't stress enough how locked in Izzy appears to be right now at receiver. He's getting a ton of reps, and I'm getting more and more confident that he'll be one to get his shirt pulled. I was hard enough on Izzy early on, I think, for others not to say this is just a bro-mance. We shall see. Heidelbaugh had a nice red zone back-shoulder throw to Izzy that was good for a TD. Heidelbaugh also hit Carr for nice TD pass in the red zone. The boys have a busy day today after practice..added onto all their usual routines they have to get prettied up for Picture Day. See you later!

It's the main administrative building for North Dakota Athletics. Makes sense to me. No wind is a rarity in North Dakota; not on SiouxSports, however.

Maybe before the official practice starts when the specialists seem to be doing most of their work. I've never been there before 8:30 a.m.

Who was No. 8 last year? ( ;

Practice #5 Pretty uneventful day out on the football pitch today ... some highlights, some things to work on but pretty much a solid go by the Fighting Hawks. My observances from today: Without further ado, my Play of the Day goes to the secondary and came in the last part of practice during 11-on --11 play. QB Zimmerman chucked the pigskin about 40 yards and seemingly was about to hit cagey 6-3 WR Travis Toivonnen on a fly pattern when Cole Reyes, as he's apt to do, flew in for the rescue and blindly threw his arm up in a volleyball one-handed-dig-like motion, deflecting the ball high up and down into the waiting arms of fellow safety Chuck Flowers for the INT. It's always tough to be too critical of the team when there are mishaps during team drills because the personnel changes out so frequently and it's hard to discern trends, but there were some bad and higher-than-optimal snaps and some procedural stuff that need to be cleaned up moving forward. It was spread out among the team on both sides of the ball and not tied to any one individual. In team drills, Studsrud rolled out to his right and hit Wanzek on a 30 yard out pattern in traffic. Later, Speedy WR Izzy Adeoti showed excellent ball control, after an up-and-out pattern, corralling a 20-yard bullet with his finger tips and then bringing it before gaining some more YAC. Speaking of Izzy, when you watch him catch and run, it's hard not to be reminded of Clive Georges. Izzy is a slightly shorter version of Clive with much the same speed and juking moves as Jiven' Clive after the catch. It will be hard for opposing defenses not to bite or at least honor if Izzy or any of the other speedsters go in motion in the backfield. It's a matter of pick your poison, take the motion guy or bank on the fake to the motion guy in lieu of a delayed give to one of the power backs up the middle or risk a quick toss over a pinching secondary. As a defense, if you guess wrong, it's already too late. Noah Larson and Tanner Palmborg really had nice days today defensively. Looked extremely assignment sharp. Especially impressive for a young guy like Larson who's already got the physical tools to compete. Always vocal Torrey Hunt was white-on-rice over the middle for a PBU on Wanzek. Took some time today to watch the DLs and the OLs go at it in the trenches during positional drills -- Engwall and Greer showed to be extremely powerful dudes one-on-one, bull rushing their opposing OLs back and to the ground. Bennett, on the other hand, showed an extremely quick first step that was difficult to counter. Young OL Mortel really stood out to me on that side of ball. He held his own against the DL beasts that just kept coming in waves. Taubenheim looked really good on FG work today, hitting 4/4 from inside the 20 at varying positions on the field left and right. His kicks were center and would have been good from much longer distances. Stetson Carr acted as holder. That's it today!

My pleasure, guys!

Check your IM

Practice #4 The coaches increased the intensity a notch this morning and the players responded in kind. Anyone taking a play off heard about it from the staff and there was a lot of competitive back-and-forth chirping between the defense and offensive corps. Things are starting to heat up! I focused a bit on the young linebackers today, the ones who are likely to see the field regularly. Yesterday I commented on how much bigger and thicker Palmborg looks this year compared to last year, well, add highly touted red-shirt freshman Jake Geier to that list with Jake Rastas not far behind. Geier really stood out to me today, both his size and his agility in filling the gap. Just from my amateur eye-ball test...I think linebacking will be in good hands this year. We are young but the talent is pretty damn good. Kind of like when we were wondering about this relatively unknown Donnell Rodgers kid out of Minnesota, only to watch him develop into a difference maker. The speed guys, especially at WR, had a really good practice today. I would say it was Izzy's best practice so far. McKinney had a good first half of practice as well. I really like what Logan Alm and Derek Paulson bring to the TE position ... along with Fiedler, both converted TEs are getting a ton or reps, both are good on the block and both can catch. Alm snagged a one-handed grab along the sidelines today (but still got chewed out for his route running). The coaches aren't letting anything slip. Would you believe that Boltmann had the best day today of all the QBs on the field. The rookie looked really crisp and accurate on his throws. The future bodes well for him if he keeps up his progression. All this is not to say that any of the other QBs had a bad day. Speaking of Boltmann, during live passing drills with four DBs in coverage, the QB hit Izzy on two 40 yard ropes that would have gone for TDs, and topped it off with a 30 yard TD pass to Stanley. Later Boltmann hit Wanzek in stride for a 40 yard TD catch and run. The Play of the Day, however, has to go to the QB-WR tandem of Brad Heidelbaugh and Izzy. Heidelbaugh hit Izzy about 40 yards out after Izzy got behind the coverage of Jaxon Turner and the speedster WR took it the rest of the 80 yard distance for a TD. On the defensive side of the spectrum, Newcomer TyKeise Johnson had a nice PBU on a pass from Studs to Izzy to close out the first round of passing drills. Later on, Jake Rastas and Palmborg both had near picks that turned into valuable PBUs During Team Drills today: Blubaugh (CB), Flowers (FS), Reyes (SS) and Torrey Hunt (CB) made up the first-line secondary with Palmborg and Haas on the outside at LB and Disterhaupt and Rodgers in the middle. Disterhaupt played reps at both inside and outside, too. Offensively, it was Rooney in the middle flanked by Taylor and Cox to his right, and Bell and Stockwell on the center's left side. Nguon and Stiner also got reps at center. Grant Aplin mostly saw reps at RG. The team drills today consisted mostly of running plays with some passes sprinkled in for good measure. Defensively, Blubaugh continues to play really well. He made his presence known on one sequence in which he prevented what would have been a nice reception by Izzy with a last second strip of the ball. The Runner up Play of the Day came during team drills when Studsrud stepped back and launched a perfect 50 yard bomb to Wanzek instride for a TD. One of the walk-on CBs was providing coverage. A final thought: UND, like any program, has had its fair share of recruiting misses over the years... players who didn't pan out for one reason or another... on the other side of the coin, it's fun to look at the list of current players who originally were PWOs for UND. They include Grant Aplin, Tyler Coyne, Luke Stanley, Austin Gordon, Logan Alm, Tanner Palmborg, Andre Steiger, Brett Finke, Jake Rastas and Derek Paulson. There's some good ones in there! See you later!

Nice work! It was Tyus who went down hard. Seemed to bounce back ok. Shoulder not impacted.

Practice # 3 Another beautiful day out at Memorial Stadium this morning as the pads were popping for the first time in fall camp. The Fighting Hawks added shoulder-pads to their helmet and shorts practice attire and the intensity went up a notch at least for the first hour of practice. Bubba would like to see that kind of fire for the entire session and challenged the team to work on maintaining the desire to learn and perform at the highest level from start to finish. He also challenged the Hawks to clean up some minor errors that would have cost the team a number of 5-yard penalties in a game situation. Basically though, the day was another good practice for all involved. The Play of the Day goes to the Pride of Red River WR Chad Bartosh whose stick-to-it-iveness was rewarded with a long TD catch and run courtesy of Studsrud. On the play, Bartosh slipped behind coverage about 25 yards up field -- Studs fired a bullet that was nearly intercepted by Walk-on LB Bryden Swenson. Swenson couldn't handle the heat on the ball and bobbled it around for a second before it continued on to the hands of Bartosh. But Bartosh bobbled it around himself before pulling it up from his ankles, recovering and running it in for a score. JUCO Transfer QB Zimmerman has clearly upped his game as he guns to solidify his spot at backup to Studsrud. The game looks to be slowing down for Zim as he's showing his skill more and more. Fellow QB Heidelbaugh didn't shine as much today compared to Zim. Ketteringham was excellent again, and young Boltmann held his own. The benefit of having at least four DI caliber QBs on the practice field at the same time was evident when there were two live drills taking place at the same time -- Two QBs handled drills focused on running backs and the others handled passing drills on the other side of the field. There was a lot of emphasis placed on getting the ball carriers and blocking receivers on the same page (getting ball carriers to help set up the blocks before them) around the edge and downfield. Once developed, this is a muscle memory habit that really good teams do really well. Santiago, McKinney, Torrey Hunt, Izzy and Seibel all took turn at punt return duties this morning. I did not see any RETURNABLE punts muffed on the turf by any of them. Dusshold and Meindel were pretty even on their punts, placing them between 47 and 54 yards out. Meindel had the long of 54 but Dusshold had a bit better accuracy today. As for field goals, Taubs was 4/4 from various distances within 25 yards. Newcomer Leach was 2/4. In live action: WR Cam McKinney almost got to show off his speed on a jet sweep. All was going well and the speedster was blazing around the left side when he tripped over the 50-yard line and almost bit the dust... he recovered and built his speed back up but the misstep was enough for the LBs and DBs to catch up. WR Izzy Adeoti finally showed some of his top end speed today on a sweep play of his own. The freshman took the hand off, read the defense and abruptly cut up instead of taking it wider... the move figuratively broke a few ankles as Izzy blazed into the secondary. All that said, I think he's still got more speed that he has yet to show us. Zimmerman had a nice pass completion to Mercer over the middle that would have gone for a TD. Mercer is a quiet burner. On the defensive front, DL Mason Bennett used his huge frame and bear claw to reach up and knock down a Zimmerman attempt out to the flats. The possession guys made their mark too, as Zimmerman hit Toivonnen on a beautiful slant pattern that the big cagey receiver was able to scamper up the field for considerable YAC. Take care!

I thank you wholeheartedly! As of now, unfortunately, I'll be watching on TV. I did go to Laramie a couple years ago and had a blast watching UND stomp The Pokes!

SCOMM CLASS OF '98, after six circuitous years! I blame the Down Under ("Bucks night"), old Whitey's, The Antique, and The Back Door. Some of you know of which I speak. ( :

I would humbly submit that Brock Jensen was a "game manager." And there's nothing wrong with that.

Holm is not 100 percent right now. Missing reps as he works out a lower body issue with trainers.

Yes.

Hard to say... it's a mishmash of starters and young guys for the LBs. I will have to watch for more of a trend ... .The CBs seem to usually be ... Blubaugh and Holm, though Holm may have a tweak in his lower body that has forced him to miss some reps.

Practice #2: It was a fun day from a fan's perspective out at old Memorial today... lots of fun plays. Bubba might beg to differ on certain aspects, because, well, he's the coach. The theme for the day today was that The Defense Strikes Back. After a day in which the offense ran a bit roughshod over the defenders, the tables turned a bit. My Play of the Day came from the defensive side of the ball: It's not often that you see a player pull off a Pass Break Up and an INT all on the same play, but that's exactly what Torrey Hunt did. The second-year CB stepped in front of a Studsrud bullet over the middle to Toivonnen, batted it up and away and then recovered his positioning in enough time to scoop the ball up just before it hit the turf. In other action: For the second day in a row, Mikey Greibel looked really good out on the practice field, and for the second day in a row the rookie snagged a one-handed catch along the sidelines. Austin Gordon just never lets you down the way he practices. Every time, he explodes off the ball like a bull out of a chute and increases his power through the play. Some of the rooks could learn from AG as sometimes it looks more like they're rolling out of bed than exploding through the play. Speaking of practice Studs, if WR Easton Erbes were maybe a couple inches taller and a bit thicker...you'd probably have heard more about him on Saturdays. The kid continues to grind and do everything right, not letting any catchable balls hit the turf, catching tough balls along the sidelines with toes in bound, and in general, hustling before during and after every play. Observed that Izzy, Toivonnen, Mercer and McKinney were being used a lot on jet-sweep action plays, either fakes or actual sweeps. Two different QBs -- Ketteringham and Heidelbaugh placed perfect balls to Greibel and McKinney, respectively, on slant patterns that would have went for long distances. The starting four in the secondary, at this point in practice, appears to be Tyus, Reyes, Flowers and Torrey Hunt. We'll monitor if that changes. Tyus played coverage perfectly on a long overthrown pass by Zimmerman, snatching an INT in the back of the end zone. Ketteringham connected with freshman WR Izzy Adeoti for about a 40 reception. Though they had there moments, McKinney and Izzy did fight balls a little bit today, more than I've seen to this point... looked to be more mental concentration than ability. OLB Palmborg has become a monster. He looks really good, strong and fast on the edge and in drop back pass coverage. Someone asked me about newcomer TyKeise Johnson's position yesterday. He's mostly been playing corner. After the aforementioned first-line secondary, it apears that Blubaugh, Kyle Heiptas, T Johnson, and another newcomer in Eli Allen played mostly the corner back position, while Randolph, Turner, Tucker and Shannon patrolled the middle. The first-line line backer positioning appeared to be Palmborg and Lawrence on the outside with Disterhaupt and Rodgers inside. During 2-minute drills to end today's practice, Studsrud started things out again. That series was highlighted by a PBU on Toivonnen by Tyus Carter, and a nice INT by LB Andre Steiger. (The LB crew had been changed out after the Tyus' PBU) Heidelbaugh took the next series and it was mostly the Hayden Blubaugh Show on defense. Blubaugh had two athletic PBUs in a row on coverage of Mercer than then Stanley. Heidelbaugh was able to connect with Seibel on a 45 yard bomb along the sidelines, with Randolph providing excellent coverage. Just a nice athletic play by the senior. That series ended, however, with today's runner-up Play of the Day: If there was ever a play where both sides of the ball could come away feeling ok about what just happened, it would be this one. The defense, however, felt just a little bit better. Hiedelbaugh through a rope about 20 yards up and along the sidelines to Wanzek, who miraculously came down with the snag and got one toe in-bounds despite being blanketed by Tyus Carter. It's the kind of play that you'd expect only Wanzek to make. So as I am prematurely gesturing the completed catch signal from my spot in the Memorial Stadium seats, Reyes swoops in from out of nowhere to clean things up and knocks the ball loose before Wanzek is completely down. It was big boy football on both sides of the ball. Zimmerman took the final series, which was mired by bad snaps and incompletions (bad throws, drops). Zimmerman did find life on his series with a nice long third and 10 ball to Redshirt Freshman TE Derek Paulson, who is now wearing Dulin's old #84. Bumps and bruises are mounting a bit and I anticipate the bike brigade membership will start growing in the coming days. Nothing looks too serious. See you tomorrow!

that was years ago.

That settles it then.

Each year I put out a caveat about reading too much into the no-pad practices as far as whether the O is ahead of the D or vice versa. I'll do the same this year. IMHO, because the D has so many more restrictions placed on it as far as "no tackling" "no hitting" and "pin the hip" situations, the Offense has an inherit advantage in the first few days. The emphasis in the first few days is on basic drills where it's difficult to discern any kind of competitive advantage. And the few "live" drills that happen are mostly QB keepers, dives, sweeps and pass plays against a Defense that can't do anything other than lightly wrap up, PBU or intercept. The tables turn when full pads are donned and that's when the Defense usually comes out on top for a while against an offense that is still finding its way and scrambling a bit -- against a defense that's been one of the best in the FCS the last couple of years.

Boltmann was raw and let balls sail a bit... but did hit most of his targets. Looks like a kid out there just trying to get things figured out. To be expected. I will focus more on Ray tomorrow. I saw more of the MLBs today.... Jake Disterhaupt looks bigger and thicker but just as quick. ( I realized he might be either OLB or MLB or both). Tamas Stewart was out practicing today with a red "don't touch me" jersey on. He's healed up... just want to keep him healthy at this point for depth. He did not show much today but I will keep watching him.

Practice #1 is in the books and Bubba and crew really harped on special teams work and two-minute offense. "Finish strong" was the mantra of the day and that is exactly what they the team did, as QB Andrew Zimmerman connected with Demun Mercer on a 65-plus yard pattern that, if it wasn't a TD, would have set the offense up with 1st and goal to go. That was the last play of the day in the the 2-minute offense drill and it got everyone excited. Other notes and highlights from the day: My hot take for today is that we have the most complete QB group that we've ever had in the DI era, with Studs, Heidelbaugh and Zimmerman, and Ketteringham and Boltmann on deck. All looked good today on Day 1. Three have a bigger learning curve than the two returning QBs. All that being said, it is not to say that we necessarily have the best QB group in the Big Sky, it simply means top to bottom, the raw talent and potential talent is the best I've seen at UND in the D1 era (that includes when we had Mollberg, Bartels, Studsrud, Riddle and Palendeck or Braden Hansen, Marcus Hendrickson, Mollberg and Bartels). Studs, Heidelbaugh and Ketteringham had the best day today under center... Boltmann and Zimmerman threw some nice balls but had quite a few balls sailing over receivers. It should be expected that Studs and Heidlbaugh would be more polished in the pocket due to their familiarity with the offense. Studs didn't do anything flashy but what he did got the job done and almost without error. A contender for play of the day was a nice long pass, catch and run from Ketteringham to WR Izzy Adeoti for a TD. Studsrud's best connection of the day came when TE Cloyd got behind coverage and went up to grab a long pass for a TD. JUCO Transfer Tykeise Johnson got everyone's attention with a Deion Harris-style pick 6 off of Studs. Johnson was in coverage when he changed directions on a dime and stepped in front of the waiting receiver to snatch the ball and run. Mikey Greibel was impressive today with all balls thrown his way including a one-handed snag along the sidelines. He looks the part early. Logan Alm played a ton at TE today and was equally impressive catching the ball as he was on hitting his blocks. Cloyd also had a good day at TE Newcomer Hayden Blubaugh made his presence known with some nice sticky-as-glue coverage on receivers, including a nice strong PBU in which he punched the ball out of the path to the receiver at the last second. As I alluded to before, practice closed with 2-minute offense series. Studs took what appears at this point to be the first string OL (Stockwell, Bell, Rooney, Taylor, Cox) and efficiently marched them down the field in the first run of the 2-minute drill. Studs capped off that series with two nice balls to WR Easton Erbes, the second of which was for a TD. Erbes was covered by Canady both times. Heidelbaugh took the second series with an OL comprising Blair, Aplin, Nguon, Tobin and Mortel. Heidelbaugh had two nice passing gains during his run: one to Mercer over the middle and a TD in the back of the end zone to WR Stetson Carr. Zimmerman took the final two series, first with OL Helgren, Bell, Stiner, Miller and Russo. Zimmerman struggled under center at first, though he did have a nice ball over the middle to newcomer WR Cam McKinney. Ultimately though the series had two balls sail on him and a sack. Zimmerman then got a chance to guide, what I am calling the first team OL, down the field for a TD -- capped off by the beautiful pass to Mercer that ended the day. As expected, Cam Hunt did not practice due to undisclosed injury. Also, freshman TE Graham Devore had what appeared to be a hand cast on today at practice. See you tomorrow.

Kenny G

This ^^^^^^^^^

So we've got that going for us, I guess. What's not to love.