UND92,96

The fact that Freund didn't play against UMD was addressed somewhat on the coaches's show last night, and basically Dale's explanation was that he's seen too many big leads disappear quickly with today's passing offenses so he wasn't comfortable with a 35-14 lead, and once UND's long drive for the final score was over and it was 38-14, UND never got the ball back. With that said, I agree that there have been some instances this year when the starters, or at least the key players like Manke and Dressler, stayed in a bit too long. Manke's injury against Winona really was avoidable IMO. That game was over at halftime (35-0), and Belmore should have played the entire second half, but I realize hindsight is 20/20. The fact that a team could theoretically come back from a 35-0 deficit isn't an excuse considering how much faith Dale has consistently professed in Belmore.

A few things from the coaches' show last night: 1. Manke and Belmore have shared time practicing with the first team this week about 50-50, and Lennon said Manke is very close to being completely recovered, but I got the impression Belmore will start again. 2. A caller asked about Freund's progress, and of course Dale was complimentary, but he indicated that it will probably be a battle between he and Landry this spring for the starting job. He also said he's heard from a few prospective quarterback transfers interested in UND.

Here's the athletic department release for the two exhibition games. The projected starting lineup certainly isn't what I expected, although I had heard that Koenig was probably not going to play in the exhibitions so that's not a big surprise. I'm pretty surprised that Porter and Gutter are projected starters, and I kind of expected Hoy might be a 6th man rather than a starter.

Here's the season preview. I heard that Youngblut is probably red-shirting, and that Jossy Bergan is not, but I'm not sure about the rest of the newcomers.

Of course. Mea culpa.

Between injuries and some erratic play, it's been five years since UND has had a quarterback actually make it through an entire season as the starter (Klosterman in 2001). In 2002, Kelby was injured pretty early on and Bowenkamp played most of the year. In 2003, Bowenkamp and Wilson both played quite a bit. In 2004, it was Bowenkamp and Belmore. And of course, in 2005 and 2006, Belmore and Manke have been in and out of the lineup. It's actually kind of surprising UND has had as much success as it's had given this lack of stability/continuity at such a key position.

I agree that this should be getting more press, but I think the athletic department must take much of the blame because it's not as though they're going out of their way to publicize it. I also think it was a mistake not to have a midnight madness since I would think people would have shown up with a new coach and many new players.

The offense looks very good, aside from the uncertainty at quarterback. Freund's high school credentials are extremely impressive, but whether that translates into success at the college level remains to be seen. Special teams look very good with Halfmann, Hellevang, Dressler and Chappell coming back. I believe both long snappers return, also. Defensively, my concern is at a couple of the linebacker positions. Personally, I think UND should consider signing a juco player or two unless some of the younger kids are expected to be very good. The d-line loses Wolff and Enger, but I think that will be fine as there are some good younger players there who are playing a lot this year. The secondary should be good with Alexander a three-year starter and Manke, Malner and Otto all playing a lot this year. I think that if whomever the quarterback is going to be can play fairly well, next year's team as the potential to be very good.

UND will still play an NCC schedule next year, and since the trend seems to be towards playing 10 games instead of 11, that means only two non-conference games need to be scheduled. I haven't heard anything as far as potential non-conference opponents for next year. I doubt we'll see Winona State on the schedule again.

I'm leaning towards going to this game, although I have a feeling it's going to be a frustrating one to watch and it will likely be quite low-scoring. The forecast calls for a high of 44 with possible rain, which could mean turnovers might be a problem (on both sides). SCSU does have a good defense, although they did catch some breaks by playing USD early on before the Coyote offense was doing much, and they played UNO last week without Miller. One thing to watch for is whether the SCSU punt team can finally fix their problems. They've apparently had many, many punts blocked due to some weird formation they use. It's cost them at least two wins. My feeling is that these last two games are practically playoff games. While UND would still almost certainly get into the playoffs with another loss, it realistically needs to go into the post season on a high note if the Sioux are going to have much of a chance to make any noise once they get there.

I do think UND will probably be "stealing" some good players who may have previously gone to schools like SCSU, Mankato, UNO, etc. It will be the same advantage that NDSU currently has over UND in terms of increased scholarships and the opportunity to (hopefully) play some I-A teams in a few years.

Much as I hate to say it, UND probably won't be competitive with NDSU for the top in-state/area recruits for probably 3-5 years. Once UND increases its scholarships to the point where full rides are offered, it will help, but until the period of playoff ineligibility is close to being over, things will be tough.

With his three td receptions against UMD, Weston Dressler has tied a UND single season record for receiving td's with 11. I believe he's also just one behind Dan Graf for the career record for td receptions.

I'm glad Belmore played well and everything, but I find it very disappointing that Freund didn't get to take even one snap today despite a 35-0 lead early in the second quarter. With Manke banged-up, we're basically one big hit on Belmore away from HAVING to play Freund. I don't see us blowing out SCSU next week on the road, and then it's USD (and hopefully the playoffs), so I can't see Freund having a chance to play at all this year barring the aforementioned worst-case scenario. I just hope this doesn't come back to haunt us next year when Freund will probably be counted on to run the offense with no game experience to speak of.

I think Wayne Nelson's prediction is a good one--UND over UMD 26-13. With Belmore playing, it seems like the Sioux always score somewhere around 20 points, give or take about six.

I forgot about/neglected to read Woden's post in the other thread, and I don't mean to question his information. I probably overstated things by using the words "almost positive", but I was told by a good source about six months ago that part of the Bronson property had been earmarked for a football stadium, although it was far from guaranteed that it would ever actually happen regardless of location. My big concern with an outdoor stadium is how it affects attendance once temps dip into the 40's and lower. Attendance tended to be pretty bad at Memorial later in the season, at least when compared to the past five years.

If/when a new stadium is built, I'm almost positive it would be somewhere on the Bronson property. Exactly where, I don't know.

I agree. I'm a long-time season ticketholder, but it was extremely difficult to make myself stay for the men's games last year, and I have to admit that I didn't stay for many of them. It was just too frustrating, and there didn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Now, I fully expect to go to all the games. I'm not expecting a repeat of the 1989-90 or 1990-91 seasons, but I do expect to see a better and more exciting product on the floor.

I have to agree that the offense tends to be frustrating to watch when Reed isn't in there. One thing to watch for is whether Belmore can get the ball to Dressler. Weston's stats with Manke playing are incredible; when Belmore plays the numbers go way, way down. You have to get the ball to your playmaker.

UND men get a commitment from an Iowa player: [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=14650

Lennon didn't sound very optimistic on the coaches' show tonight that Manke will play on Saturday.

On the bright side, I look for UND to get into Nebraska and Colorado pretty heavily now. UNC's program is a mess right now, which can only help UND's cause in recruiting there. Nebraska produces a fair number of very good players, and I would hope that in time, UND could do pretty well there. NDSU already recruits some in Nebraska, and UNO could really end up being hurt if the North Dakota schools start poaching some players they historically would have gotten. UNO typically doesn't have to venture more than a couple of hours from Omaha to recruit, and obviously they've had a lot of very good players over the past decade who clearly were I-AA caliber or better in terms of talent. And like I say every year, UND needs to get into Canada more heavily. In the short term, UND's recruiting in ND, MN and perhaps WI will be more difficult than it was prior to last season, but the slack can be picked up by recruiting more in other areas.

It's 20 calendar days, not including the day the defendant was actually served with the summons and complaint.

I don't think it's quite as extreme as it was last year, or as MSU-Mankato is doing this year. Looking at the stats, it appears UMD passes about two-thirds of the time.