UND92,96

I agree--he was a very nice man.

I had kind of forgotten that Kovash actually did play in the 1990's (1990 was his sr. year). He was a good quarterback, and certainly had a large hand in the turnaround of UND football after the disastrous mid-1980's. I believe he was a part of Roger Thomas's first recruiting class.

Valid point. Klancher was a very solid qb, as was Kory Wahl.

I guess I draw a distinction between those two situations. Manke was never pulled for poor performance to the best of my knowledge. Belmore was given the nod as the starter when Bowenkamp went down in 2004, and kept the job longer than he should have IMO. This was one of the only times I ever disagreed with a Dale Lennon decision during his tenure as head coach. Once Manke finally got his shot, injuries were the only things that ever kept him out of a game.

So who might be some players on the current roster who could be included on this list in a few years? I'll say Boyle, Hawkins and Saporu.

Completely off-topic, but what is the deal with columnists from places like Rochester and Sioux Falls seemingly always acting like the weather in Grand Forks is so radically different from weather in southern Minnesota/eastern South Dakota? The difference in average high temps in GF compared to Rochester in January is a whopping six degrees.

It's hard to say. My recollection of 2003 is a lot of very close games, and a lot of switching of quarterbacks between Bowenkamp and Joe Wilson--sometimes due to injuries, and sometimes due to ineffectiveness of one or the other.

Bowenkamp had better physical abilities, but I just really liked the intangibles that Manke brought to the table. When he was healthy, he was extremely effective. Bowenkamp wasn't as consistent IMO, and didn't move around in the pocket and avoid the rush as well as Manke did. I don't believe Bowenkamp could have lead the Sioux to a win at UNI.

Martin was a great player on some bad Sioux teams. Not sure he was better than Dressler, though.

QB Kelby Klosterman Reed Manke RB Phillip Moore Shannon Burnell Ryan Chappell WR Weston Dressler Jeff McElroy Brady Trenbeath Mike Juhasz Dan Graf TE Jim Kleinsasser OL Chris Kuper Jason Childs Greg Lotysz Tim Prinsen Marcus McKenzie Ben Olson DL Mark Callahan Glen Matthews Scott Schultz Ben Dixon LB Mike Mooney Digger Anderson Travis O'Neel Eric Schmidt Tim Tibesar Jason Mitchell David Borowicz S Kelly Howe Danny Gagner James Cheatham CB Craig Riendeau Ryan Manke Brent Johnson K Jeff Glas Cameron Peterka

Yes. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to raise a child with both parents having jobs which require so much travel.

I believe it's August 8.

May was listed on the roster last year, even though he couldn't even practice. Perhaps it's just different policies for different sports within an athletic department.

I hope that's true, but it begs the question--why has Murray's name been removed from the roster?

Barring any academic issues, FBS transfers do not have to sit out a year when tranferring "down", so Moore should be eligible to play this year.

My understanding is that Murray has not been dismissed, so if his grades improve he can return. It's hard to say how likely that is, however, as we heard the same thing about Chappell last year...

Here's Moore's bio from the 2008 Gopher roster/media guide.

Hopefully it's a good sign for the depth and talent on the defensive line that Wayne is not even listed as a starter right now.

This prospectus posted on www.fightingsioux.com includes a depth chart. It's apparently not the same one from the spring game, as Bamba is listed as number one at split end, whereas he was not starting, and may have been as low as third, as of the spring game. A couple of other interesting things are that Kenny Watkins, who played a lot as a true freshman, is listed at third at right corner, and former linebacker Noah Dombrovski is now the starting tight end.

I just noticed that recruit Mitch Overstreet isn't listed on the new roster. I wonder if he decided to play baseball somewhere instead?

I'll be very interested to see whether the starting offense will be more or less the same as from the spring game (with the probable addition of Bondy), or whether we'll see some of the talented young players/newcomers such as Sutton or Davis or Anderson break into the starting lineup. Plus, will Bamba get himself out of the doghouse? He could be a difference-maker, as he showed some real playmaking ability last year.

I don't disagree, at least most of the time, but according to Wayne Nelson's article from Saturday's Herald: I'm sure it's not a decision being taken lightly, but it's apparently being seriously considered.

Speaking of the post, does anybody know whether Ledger will be able to play this season?

I guess I look at certain positions as being more likely for a first-year player to contribute--running back, receiver and corner. If there's a need, i.e. few proven returnees, and if a kid is likely better than those returnees, it may make sense to play him right away. For most other positions, such as quarterback, offensive line, and linebacker, it would be highly unlikely that a kid could play right away. In those situations, unless the kid is really exceptional or the cupboard is almost completely bare, then you red-shirt everybody. I think this is the philosophy that the coaching staff has taken the past few years, as the kids who didn't red-shirt have all been either rb's, wr's or db's. This year, it wouldn't surprise me if Binns and possibly the receiver from Nebraska don't red-shirt because IMO there is need at those positions, and these kids look like they may be able to contribute immediately.

I respectfully disagree. If Binns can show in pre-fall that he's one of the top three backs, let him play. We desperately need playmakers right now, and as we've seen the past two years, keeping our top backs in the program and eligible for more a couple of years is far from a guarantee, so using one of those years on a red-shirt season may turn out to be a waste (see Chappell as Exhibit A).