UND92,96

I just watched the new interview with Coach Mussman posted on fightingsioux.com, and he mentioned that Ismael Bamba was just cleared by the NCAA clearinghouse so he's eligible as of today. Also, he mentioned a juco transfer receiver named Matt Cole (sp?) who I've not heard of before and who is not listed on the roster as far as I know. EDIT: I'm assuming this may be the Matt Cole who is apparently now at UND.

Not a lot to report. Most of the starters didn't play, and unfortunately several of the younger receivers (Bamba, Anderson and Dressler) weren't in uniform. No real big plays, either. It looks like Watkins is one of the players getting a look at returning kicks/punts. I'm assuming there's a decent chance he won't red shirt. I didn't notice that the freshman linebacker from Quebec was there (Fonseca). Anybody know why?

New Tom Miller blog entry. I'll venture the following answers to the questions Tom poses: 1. With a veteran quarterback in Danny Freund, one of the most consistent receivers in recent memory in Brady Trenbeath and a possible breakout star at running back in Josh Murray, I think the cupboard is pretty well-stocked in terms of playmakers. 2. Call me naive if you will, but honestly I don't expect the likes of UC-Davis or even Southern Illinois to be any more talented than teams like UNO or Grand Valley State. 3. Depth at running back is probably actually a little better now than it was last year. True, there is probably nobody in Chappell's class, but there are three pretty good options in Murray, Brady and Solum, and if necessary, the red shirt could be taken off Sutton. Sutton comes in with a far more impressive resume than Murray did last year. 4. I was very impressed with Hellevang's punting in the spring game. I'm also excited about the potential of Bamba as a returner (if he gets a shot there).

Haven't seen this posted yet, but here's an article from yesterday's Herald about the offensive line. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but it appears this will be the smallest line since probably the early 1990's.

I think that's a fair possibility. Also, keep in mind that Mussman is an Iowa State grad, and having Mac there probably doesn't hurt, either.

I think he has a chance to be a player. I've only seen him play briefly, but I plan to attend a few EGF games this season and will report back then. I'm curious about his listed height in the Herald article, though. It's certainly possible that he's grown over the summer, but I believe he was in the 6'5" or 6'6" range this past spring. The article listed him at 6'8".

I guess things have a way of evening out, as one-time UND commit Cody Rose has transferred from Wisconsin to MSU-Mankato. link

Based upon what I've heard, I don't think we'll ever see Reynolds in a UND uniform.

A lot of information in this Herald article today, including that the team is suffering from a lot of nagging injuries right now.

I think you're probably correct, although I'd like to see a little more offensive firepower in the starting lineup. For that reason, I could possibly see going without a true 5 and starting Mitchell instead of Lehnertz.

The new roster has been posted.

Tom Miller said there is no juco running back in camp. Does that mean Reynolds isn't even practicing until the grade issues are resolved, or is Miller mistaken?

I submitted the question to Tom Miller at the comments section of his new blog. I'll post if he responds.

IMO, the coaching, facilities and tradition are good enough to get it done. I just think we need to do a little better job of recruiting all of Minnesota, rather than just the northwestern part. For example, southern MN has historically been very good to UND (Pudenz sisters, Arndtson, Boese, etc.). But it's been awhile since we've gotten an impact player from down there.

Herald reporter Tom Miller has a new blog that will include some UND football talk.

Considering Ben Jacobson is a UND grad and is from the area, I would think the chances are pretty good UNI will be coming to GF within the next few years. I know there was some resentment in certain circles when he left UND, but I would hope that's all water under the bridge now.

The Appalachian State-LSU/Michigan games occurred to me also after reading Hammersmith's post. Other examples this year are Northern Iowa playing pre season #17 BYU, and Cal Poly playing pre season #12 Wisconsin.

To the extent people think UND is biting off more than it can chew by playing Texas Tech next year, how about what the Citadel is doing this year? They are a borderline top-25 FCS team, and they are playing both pre-season #5 Florida AND #9 Clemson!

Notes and quotes from the first practice.

No guts, no glory. I wonder if UC-Davis regrets playing Stanford back in 2005? Or for that matter, how about a certain dII school playing Montana back in 2003? Whether UND is competitive or gets completely blown out isn't the point. We have basically nothing to play for over the next four years, so these types of games make perfect sense. And it will be a nice paycheck to boot.

Any word as to why Reynolds has apparently not been added to the roster yet?

Tech plays a couple of pretty strong FCS programs this year--UMass and Eastern Washington--so it will be interesting to see how those teams fare.

Was Rosario a no-show? I still don't see his name on the roster.

It's being updated right now. I suspect the full roster will be up within about 10 minutes.

IMO, that's why the return of Brewster is so huge. It appears that there are going to be at least three or four scholarships available for next year, and we definitely need to add some impact players.