Teeder11

Rodgers is the lock and it's looking like they are grooming Noah Larson to be the other so they can keep Disterhaupt outside on the edge. After that, I like Geier, Rastas and Nevermann. Disterhaupt has been mostly playing outside lately opposite Palmborg and Haas.

Coyne scored a TD On a broken play.

I agree!

Man, this is always tough to say. There could be more but I would have to say I would put my money on Izzy on offense and Noah Larson and Blubaugh on defense based on need. I think Greibel and McKinney may be locked in for a redshirt year now, based on the number of reps they're missing this camp. Kind of like when Reyes hurt his hand his true freshman year. I think had that not happened, Reyes would have been done after last year.

Thanks! You're a quick reader.... sorry about the typos. They should be cleaned up now for the most part.

Thoughts from Saturday morning scrimmage: Good crowd, great weather... OK football. Two out of three ain't bad, I guess. Here we go: Apart from the those lost for the season, their were a bunch of players who did not participate today due to various conditions, including Dranka, Tamas Stewart, McKinney (hard cast on right forearm), Jade Lawrence, Torrey Hunt, Mikey Geibel, Stanley. The morning started out with a "pin the hip" tempo in the red zone, with Studs at QB and Toivonen, Wanzek and Mercer in the receiver slots. The OL was as we've stated in the past -- Stockwell, Bell, Rooney, Taylor and Cox On the other side of the ball was a heavy defensive front with Tank and Cieslak along with Mason Bennett. The linebacking corps comprised Palmborg, Rodgers, Noah Larson and Disterhaupt. It was Tyus and Holm at the corners and Reyes and Flowers at safety. We will see in the coming weeks how this kind of a line up shuffles around as other players come back into the mix. On the first series with Studs at the helm, Evan Holm showed his speed, ability to close quickly and pretty good coverage ability on a number of plays where he forced incompletions. Studs started a little slow but got it going on a beautiful wheel route throw to Oliviera out of the backfield who scampered in for a TD. Heidelbaugh took over next, connecting with Oliviera on another short slideline pattern in which the powerful back with deceptive speed did the extra hard work to muscle his way in for another TD. When Studsrud got his chance again, the senior QB connected with Mercer in the back of the endzone after the O line provided excellent pass pro. On Heidelbaugh's next try, the defense rose up. Cieslak powered in for a sack when Heidelbaugh got caught holding the ball too long in pocket. Both kickers, Taubenhiem and Leach, were good on their FG attempts for the day. Bubba then had his teams line up inside the 5 yard line for a goal-to-go series. The defense initially rose up to form an impenetrable wall. Then, on a seemingly wrecked play due to a bad snap... FB Coyne alertly located the ball in the scrum at the 1 and worked his way in for a TD. After that, the offense gained confidence. RB J.J. and the defensive line played a game of "immovable object versus the Irresistible force," Only this time J.J., as the Irresistible Force, had just enough to power in. On his attempt with in the 5 yard line, Heidelbaugh made good on a quick out to Stetson Carr, who got rocked by Vashon Tucker, but was still able to get the ball over the line for a TD. During live scrimmage drills, the emphasis was on the back up QBs (Heidelbaugh and Zimmerman) as well as J.J. at tailback. Early on at least it was tough sledding for J.J. and his fellow tailbacks (Austin Gordon and Teddy Sherven) as the defense put up a dominating effort. If you like defensive football, something that is pretty to watch is when the 3-4 works to perfection as in the d line eats up the blockers and the LBs swoop in for the kill. There was a lot of that initially during the live drills. Finally, J.J. did show a flash of what we hope to see much more of this year when he powered through the scrum, found a lane and exploited it for a 40 yard rush down field. Izzy Adeoti had a nice day at receiver after Toivonenen, Wanzek and Mercer were done for the day. Lots of quick out patterns, slants and curl routes to the speedy true freshman. My Play of the Day goes OLB Ray Haas on the edge, as the Cagey 6-5 Haas blasted his blocker and rushed to within feet of the equally towering Heidelbaugh who just barely had time to attempt a toss out to the flats. Haas was having none of it as the linebacker put up his arms and smashed the ball down and into the turf. The Pride of Red River factored in today with what I would have to call the Runner up Play of the Day. WR Chad Bartosh slipped through coverage and found a seam down field. Heidelbaugh's eyes must have got as big as saucers as the QB slinged a bomb toward Bartosh, who went up to snatch the ball and run for about a 70 yard pass and catch. The good wheels of S Ty Shannon to catch up to the play was the only thing that prevented a TD. On special teams, I think Austin Dussold is really benefitting from having quality competition in camp this year with Meindel. Dussold had a few good booming punts today and looked good. Meindel is a huge asset to have back, though, as he as proven to be a good one in the past. Meindel holds the UND all-time records for overall punt average (43.1) and punt average in a season (44.1). He also is a good athlete in situations where the punter needs to scramble or throw the ball down field. And finally, Meindel has the ability to kick FGs, too. This is important as newcomer Leach as yet to show confidence knocking down routine PAT or FG attempts. When Zimmerman got his shot. It was more heavy doses of J.J. The offensive line found its oats on this series, too, as they started moving the pile forward. J.J. exited a bit early today after a particularly hard run and tackle. He'll be one to watch in coming days to see how he does. The training staff was conducting the old "How many fingers am I holding up" routine with him on the sidelines. Today, Zimmerman exhibited a little better pocket presence and awareness to step up compared to Heidelbaugh, IMHO. One encourageing sign for the near and longterm future was how freaking impressive the young Offensive linemen did against a pretty salty young defensive line. The line centered by Nguon with Aplin and Sean Russo on the right and Tobin and Helgren on the left absolutely bulldozed the defensive front seven on a QB keeper by Zimmerman. Zimmerman also completed some nice out pattern throws to Carr, Izzy, Pifer and TE Paulson on his final live series, but ultimately they couldn't punch it in. Boltmann took charge next, and my big take away from the young QB recruit is that he has a tendency to scramble early when things seem like they're not there instead of letting things develop for a split second more. It should also be said, however, that Boltmann demonstrated the ability to make this work on several plays today. He had some nice gains on improvised QB runs. The newest tailback, Teddy Sherven, saw very little daylight to do anything with against a hodgepodge of young swarming back up Linebackers. DL Jalen Morrison, Nevermann and Geier were especially noticeable as the running plays were funneled inside and the LBS exploded to the player to blow them up. Ketteringham ended the scrimmage with a a nice pass to TE Paulson who got tied up with a pursuing Geier late in the play. The ball got knocked loose and Geier recovered. If I had to make an assessment, I would have to say that overall, the defense won the day, but the offense had some shining moments. This is not to forget that many of the offensive starters didn't play much beyond the first series or were sitting out altogether. Same goes for the first line defense. The boys have a day off tomorrow and are back at it on Monday. See ya!

Thanks, guys! Really means a lot! I really enjoy being out there, and usually schedule a working vacation around fall camp so I can just pop into work for an hour or two early in the morning and then head out to Memorial Stadium. It's a pleasure to provide a little more insight on things for everyone. I promise tomorrow a full recap on the scrimmage for those who cannot make it out. Cheers!

I lost track of the Practice #s ... but it's something like 19 days and a wake up until Utah! Speaking of 19.... Newcomer Ty Shannon showed up on the radar at today's practice with a beautiful pick on Zimmerman, who scrambled to his right and fired what would have been a nice low catch to a diving receiver...instead Shannon dove in front of the receiver and snatched the ball before it hit the turf. Another player who probably had his best day of camp today was TE Cloyd. He had several nice catches over the middle, one that would have gone for a TD. Actually, the TEs were featured quite a bit today as Alm and Pinke also made nice plays on slants over the middle for TDs. Heidelbaugh is slowly establishing himself as the backup to Studs. He's a very smart cerebral QB that, knows the playbook and sees the field well from his 6-5 stature. Needs to get the ball off quicker. Noah Larson played a lot of reps at MLB with Rodgers today... with Disterhaupt and Haas on the outside. Team drills focused on Hurry up offense today. Banged up secondary players are starting to make their way back onto the practice field and taking normal reps, including Tyus, Holm and Torrey Hunt.

The way things tend to go with injuries on the OL, Grant will get his reps. I think we need his depth there. Plus DL is stacked.

Pronounced like "Hoss" as in "Hoss Cartwright" EDIT: Though, I have heard it before with more of a "ZZ" ending than a hard "S"

Check your PM.

I've been out there... just thought there was enough other chatter with UND Sports' daily reports, UND 360, The Insiders, and Tom Miller to fill the void. I've basically concurred with their assessments the past couple days. Two words: Logan Alm Two more words: Ray Haas And two final words: Cole Reyes All have been very very good as of late. Haas laid a lick on a fullback today with a forearm shiver that stopped the runner in his tracks and to the ground with a thud. It would have been hype video material had it been in game. #47 lookin'' like a bad hombre.

Didn't practice today.

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. ( :