UND92,96

I certainly agree with regard to the talent in NW Minnesota being far better five years ago than it is now. But I'm not sure the transition in and of itself should be that huge of a detriment to recruiting. SDSU seemingly wasn't adversely affected at all. I think we need to do a better job of recruiting southern Minnesota, where we picked up the Pudenzes, Arndtson, Boese, etc. It's been awhile since we've picked up a really good player from that area, but SDSU has picked up several. Wisconsin is another area which should be pretty ripe for the picking. Brewster presumably has contacts in Iowa, and we have gotten some Iowans of late so hopefully that trend continues. Basically, although I certainly like to have ND kids on the team, we may have gone overboard in signing locals as of late. Hopefully it works out, but truth be told I don't think any of them are, or ever will be of the caliber of Heisler, Meier, Kleinsasser, Richards, etc., and that's the type of talent we need, whether it's from ND or elsewhere. One final thought--doesn't it seem like perhaps we should occasionally get a player that is good enough to play at a high-major school due to the school of aviation? You would think that there should be a few great girls basketball players out there who are interested in majoring in an aviation-related field. I don't think that's happened since Crouse.

When SDSU went dI, we were basically dead even with them in terms of talent. Since that time, there's has gone up--mostly with SD, MN, WI and IA kids--whereas ours has clearly gone down, although not immediately since we did get Langen who they wanted very much, along with Kimbrough and Bagaason. Are we not targeting the right kids, or are we just unable to sign the top kids we do target?

Based upon everything I've read about Title IX, I don't believe a school can be required to add any particular sport in order to comply. A school can be required to add opportunities and scholarships for women, but the manner in which the school chooses to do so is up to the individual school, so long as the sport or sports added are NCAA-sanctioned. From the women's sports foundation web site: Is girl's/women's hockey somehow more important than gymnastics, for example? Gymnastics has been a sport at the ND high school level far longer than girls hockey, but I've never heard any talk of Title IX lawsuits to bring it back as a sport at UND or NDSU. Or are there simply no litigious gymnasts/parents in this state? Based upon the facilities already in place, and the general interest in hockey in this area, I think adding women's hockey was the "right" thing to so, although clearly not the most feasible from a purely financial standpoint. But it wasn't the only option IMO.

IMO, a big part of the problem is that since the Kimbrough-Bagaason class, no big-time scorers have been recruited. With a few exceptions, the recruits weren't even huge scorers at the high school level. So it's probably not a big surprise that this team seems to score in the 40's and 50's every game. That's not going to win a lot of games.

I guess we won't know for sure how bad things are/aren't until we start playing similarly situated programs, i.e Great West opponents, but I honestly never expected a Roebuck team to be this uncompetitive. I know the competition has been pretty strong, but I don't believe for one minute that the team from a few years ago with Boese, Langen, Kimbrough, etc. would be getting hammered like this. And certainly not the Crouse/Pudenzes/Richards teams. We are in serious need of a talent upgrade.

According to the Bison media blog, Langdon-Munich lb Travis Beck (presumably related to former UND women's basketball player Karla Beck?) will be taking an official visit to NDSU. Has anybody heard with UND is recruiting either Beck or Jon Dinius?

Whenever I see any reference to Villanova football, I always think of 2001--the season they somehow lost to dII New Haven, whereas we beat New Haven 42-10. I still don't know how an 8-3 FCS team featuring Brian Westbrook could possibly have lost to New Haven. I think Lennon will lead SIU to the championship game, although knocking off Richmond will be tough.

Not a bad showing by UND's 2008 recruiting class--rookie of the year and first-team offense (Sutton); second-team offense (Bamba) and honorable mention (Brenneman). In the future, I wouldn't be surprised if they're joined by McGurran, Lynch, Benjamin, Cameron and possibly Mersereau.

Sutton named rookie of the year, and makes first team offense. Kasowski makes first team defense. Bamba, Hellevang (as both kicker and punter), Bondy, Boyle and Hawkins make second team. Ankenbauer and Brenneman are honorable mention. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/gwfc/s...-Conference.pdf I'm surprised Hellevang (as a kicker) and Bamba didn't get first team. Also surprised Dublanko didn't get at least honorable mention.

The game notes for the UCA game were just posted, and Roach was named offensive scout player of the week yet again.

Although it would be a short-term solution at best since he only has one more year of eligibility, I'd like to see Davis moved to receiver in spring ball. I think he'd have a much better chance to contribute there than at running back.

It's amazing that Nebraska-Omaha has managed to avoid a Title IX lawsuit for as long as it has. I'm assuming they're one of the very few schools which has a men's hockey program but not one for women; women make up 52% of their students; and yet receive just 37% of the athletic scholarships. That info is taken directly from the OPE site. You would think that within a few years, they'll either have to add women's hockey, or drop football.

I'm pleased to have gotten a win against a non-transitional team on the road. Wasn't sure that was going to happen this year. But I couldn't help but notice from the box score that the four freshmen combined for 41 minutes and 0 points.

Sutton-Marcus Binns should be a very nice combo if Murray's career is over. I'm excited to see what some of the red-shirt skill position kids can do next year--Binns, Hardin, Townsend, etc. I've also noticed that a receiver by the name of Chris Roach, who is evidently either a walk-on or a transfer, has been named offensive scout player of the week twice.

On the OL, McGurran has started all year at center, and Lynch has played a lot in place of Keller at guard. I'm not sure whether Lynch's play has been entirely a result of Keller's injuries, or whether he has simply played his way into a fairly significant role. Gillson has played very little to the best of my knowledge. I don't think McKendry has played much of late. In addition to the ones you mention, another non-starting underclassmen who didn't play much, if at all last year but who has looked good is Goska. Also, I believe Justin Belotti has played a fair amount when healthy, and Wisthoff and Hendrickson have played some, also.

Although UCA has lost five of their last six games, their six losses this year have been by a combined 22 points. And they are coming off a game in which they held playoff-bound McNeese State to just 250 yards of offense.

Although I don't think anybody is happy with the way this season has started, I'm not sure this is particularly surprising. Kirstie was in her third year in the program, and still wasn't getting playing time. Jenna likely never was going to play, either. And Haring was a walk-on who, like 99% of the kids who try to play two sports, probably quickly realized that it's just too much. If we start seeing players who are actually getting playing time leave, then that's a different story.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/260150/

I didn't see the game last night--did UND play any man-to-man at all?

According to today's Herald, both Gillett's recently left the team. So even with the addition of Burck to the 2010 recruiting class, that leaves one open scholarship. Or two depending upon Sharkova's status.

Trey Demler has won the Dave Krieg award as the top sr. quarterback in Wisconsin: link

Rothfusz and Houdek are no longer red-shirting, and both have played tonight. Kind of a curious decision. 48 Wyoming 33 UND half

Not sure how relevant McFeely is anymore in the Fargo media since his departure from the Forum, but if the hypothetical NDSU-USD series did come to fruition before UND and NDSU re-started their series, he would have had a field day with it for weeks, and probably would have been far more snide that anything Bakken would write. Love him or hate him...or should I say dislike him or hate him, McFeely could rile people up like almost nobody else in North Dakota during his Forum columnist days, and this would be been right up his alley.

It seemed to work out O.K. in the old NCC, but to each his own I guess. Personally, I'd love for UND to have nine of the same opponents every year rather than the situation we're in now.