UND92,96

I was thinking it took NDSU two years to get to 63, and that was as quickly as the rules allow, but I'm sure one of the NDSU posters would be better able to explain that rule.

It will still be 36 for next season. I'm not sure whether you can add 27 scholarships immediately after next season (I-AA max is 63), or whether it has to increase to 63 over a couple of years.

Excellent points. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see UND recruit more juco/transfer players this year than ever before. It would also be very interesting to know what sorts of credentials the quarterbacks who have contacted Lennon have.

quarterback This may be the biggest unknown on the team. Danny Freund and Jake Landry both had outstanding high school careers, but Freund has very, very little college playing experience, and Landry has none. Lennon mentioned on one of the coaches' shows a month or two ago that he's had several prospective transfers contact him, so I suspect he'll have to make a decision as to whether that's a route he feels he needs to go. I kind of doubt he'll go in that direction, but you never know. running back Things look very good here, with Ryan Chappell returning for his sophomore year after rushing for over 1200 yards this year. Brandon Brady should be the backup, with Jordan Armentraut and Brandon Dungy providing depth. Sorbo will probably be the fullback. receiver Dressler and Trenbeath are an outstanding duo. Caufield should return from his injury, leaving Nicholas, Rambeck and Wahlin to compete for the fourth spot. tight end Another well-stocked position. Grover will probably be the primary receiving tight end, with Troy Ott and possibly Marcus Tibesar also playing a lot. offensive line Four starters return, led by Mitch Braegelmann and Brian Troen. Brett Bauer and Andy Hoffelt will likely start at tackle, leaving just one guard spot open. Erik Moe is probably the frontrunner for that position. defensive line Alex Cadwell at end is the sole returning starter. Nate Wayne was Wolff's backup, and presumably will be the starter at the nose. Jeff Richter, Link Gottbeheat and Andy White will presumably be competing for the other end spot. linebacker Robbie Meek is the lone returning starter. Brett Holinka would seem to be the likely other starter on the inside, with Bobby Stroup and Noah Dombrovski the likely starters on the outside. There's not a lot of experience after that. Matt Bodoh and Andy Miller both played some this year, as did Tyler Morrow. I suspect at least one freshman may find his way into the rotation. secondary Donovan Alexander returns for his third year of starting at corner, with the other corner seemingly between Drake Otto and Brandon Jordan. Rory Manke was essentially a starter this year at free safety, and IMO was actually the best safety on the team. Derek Malner will likely start at strong safety. Similar to linebacker, there's not a lot of experience after the projected starters. kicker/punter Both Hellevang and Halfmann return. Similar to this year, it certainly appears that the offense will be the team's strength. I really hope we're pleasantly surprised by the defense, because there just isn't a lot coming back in terms of proven players.

Probably either Freund or Landry, with an outside chance of an incoming transfer. On the bright side, with a pair of receivers like Dressler and Trenbeath, a running back like Chappell, and an experienced offensive line including a pretty good receiving tight end in Grover, it's about as good of a situation as possible for a new quarterback. I'm far more concerned about what the defense will look like next year. There are definitely guys returning who played a lot this year, but even with five senior first-team all-conference players, this defense had some shortcomings. I'm not sure how realistic it is to expect improved play given how many new starters there will be.

It was a pretty wild game tonight against Mayville. In the first half, UND's defense and rebounding were outstanding. In the second half...not so much. The Sioux blew a 17-point second half lead due to committing a ridiculous number of turnovers once Mayville starting pressing. UND ended up winning, but it certainly wasn't pretty. It seems as though UND has three 6'0" shooting guards, and no real points guards. That presents a problem when teams press. On the bright side, I really like the frontcourt versatility this team has. Against smaller teams like Mayville, UND can go with Kruse, Little and Boyce. When they need to go bigger, you have Koenig and Gutter in place of one of those three. The bottom line is that if the Sioux can figure out a way to take better care of the ball, I suspect they'll be very difficult to beat at home. I think a .500 NCC record is achievable, and if everybody actually sticks around, this team has a chance to be quite good next season. Finding a pure point guard would be advisable, however.

I agree, but I can't help but be a little concerned about the state of the defense going into next year. We obviously were having trouble for stretches of the season (albeit against two excellent teams the past two weeks), and we lose five first-team all-conference players and a second-teamer. For one thing, I think Dale needs to decide on one defensive coordinator. I'm not aware of any programs who have co-coordinators on either side of the ball.

With all due respect to Roger, if Dale Lennon were to leave UND, I would really prefer that somebody be hired who has actually coached in the past eight years, and who is a bit younger. There are a number of ex-UND assistants who would be excellent candidates, as would Chris Mussman.

The team charter left this morning for Grand Rapids, and apparently, the weather there is really bad right now--ice storm.

Maybe that's what he was referring to, but let's say that UNC, NDSU, SDSU, UND and USD had all moved together and formed a new version of the NCC three or four years ago. Would that "conference" still exist a year or two from now? I doubt it. There's too much to gain by moving to a conference with an autobid. That's part of the reason I feel the NCC was doomed no matter what.

He talked to every potential new member countless times. I'm not sure what else he could have done, nor do I think anybody else probably could have saved the NCC. As we've seen countless times from Doug Fullerton, a commissioner's power to actually do anything in terms of adding members is fairly minimal. If the presidents of the NCC schools felt RT wasn't doing a good job, they almost certainly would have fired him at least a year ago.

No, the assumption I'm making is that if you're a kid growing up in North Dakota, you dream of playing for UND or NDSU well before schools like Northern State, Mary or a DAC school. I'll bet there's not a single North Dakota kid on the Mary roster who wouldn't have gone to UND had an offer been made. The fact that UND has been down for awhile hasn't changed that. In terms of the NCC-NSIC matchups of the past two years, it's obvious that the NCC is not doing as well as it used to. I don't know what the problem is. UND has passed on some pretty good kids who almost certainly would have come here had they been recruited, such as Craig Nelson and Blake Strouth (brother of UND football player Brandon Strouth), but who went to NSIC schools and flourished. Perhaps not coincidentally, UND lost to both Northern and Moorhead this year.

They did beat NW Mo. St., and lost by 1 to number 15 Nebraska-Kearney. They also won at St. Cloud State. It's kind of surprising to me that Mary's doing as well as they are since most of their players are ex-North Dakota high schoolers who presumably weren't recruited very hard, if at all, by NCC schools.

Minnesota a.p. all state team announced: link. Several probable UND recruiting targets made it, including Brackins, Veldman and Sczepanski.

I doubt there's much, if any scholarship money left, but considering the uncertain future of Ledger, and Val Sannes's history of knee problems, I wonder if Roebuck is at all interested in Steve Brekke's daughter, who's 6'2" and a sophomore at Lake Region? It would be nice to have another post player.

He turned down this job a few years ago, and with UND now on its way to I-AA, it seems unlikely he'd have much interest in it now. However, the big change since the last time Wanless called him is that UND has obviously changed a.d.'s. I really don't know what sort of relationship Lennon has with Buning.

The criteria for hosting in the semi's are the same as the criteria for hosting in the first round--it's just complicated by the fact that you could conceivably have two identical seeds bidding against each other. In any event, since the NCAA awarded UND the right to host a 6 seed (Winona State), I see no reason they wouldn't award UND the right to host a 5 seed (Delta State). I'm one of the few who still doesn't believe that dropping UND from a 2 to a 3 seed was the result of some sort of conspiracy (although I did think so immediately after it happened). I've been following these selection committees long enough to know that they are more than capable of making bizarre decisions even in situations where the victim school is not feuding with the NCAA.

Both defenses were apparently overmatched last Saturday, but on the other hand, these were statistically two of the best defenses in the conference. UND had five first-team all-conference defensive players, two second-teamers and one honorable mention selection. UNO had four first-teamers and two second-teamers. I think this was just a matter of two pretty good defenses having bad days.

I realize the odds of BOTH UND and Delta State winning are not great, but I honestly believe UND would host in that circumstance. The site selection criteria set out in the dII football handbook are pretty clear. If the NCAA did award Delta the right to host in that circumstance, I believe the NCAA would probably be found to be in contempt of court by Judge Jahnke.

I understand what you're saying, but to me, the only really difficult decision the NCAA would have to make would be in a GVSU-UNA semi final matchup. Both would be undefeated, and would seem to have an equal claim to the right to host. The other potential matchups would seem to be pretty clear cut (the NE travels to the SW no matter what; UND would go to UNA or host Delta; GVSU would host Delta).

That was a case of two number one seeds. National rankings play no role whatsover. I can understand why UNA fans were upset with the manner in which strength of schedule was calculated back then (games against I-AA's killed you), but it wasn't a matter of a lower seed hosting a higher seed. I agree that such a scenario COULD theoretically happen, although it would probably have to be due to the higher seed having an unplayable field, or an inability to meet the required guarantee to the NCAA. I wouldn't expect any favors from the NCAA if UND were bidding against an identical seed, but I really don't think they would be able to turn down a UND bid in favor of a lower seed's bid considering there would be no problems for UND having an adequate facility or a large enough guarantee. If not enough people showed up, UND would just have to pony up for the difference between the guarantee and the actual gate.

I agree that in terms of football, the Manke's are the best. I believe Ryan was the NCC's most valuable db his senior year; Reed is probably one of the best UND quarterbacks ever despite not starting a regular season game until his senior year; and Rory has already made numerous big plays as a sophomore. One other good brother combo in recent years is the Brennan's (Ross and Steve).

Allow me to elaborate a bit on my original post--UND's offense is averaging 37 ppg over the past five games, whereas it seems many times in the past by late in the season, the offense was really struggling to find a way to score 20. I certainly can't say whether the late season struggles of the past were due to scheme, playcalling, players, etc., but I felt it would be patently unfair not to praise Mussman during this unprecedented late season run of outstanding offense, because he's certainly taken heat by a lot of people when the offense has struggled. Obviously the players deserve much of the credit, as well, but they are being put in good positions to succeed. To me, an example of being unfair would be to call out Mannausau/Kelling for yesterday's defensive performance, considering the defense has generally played well this year. While I was very disappointed in allowing that many rushing yards playing a team where you knew exactly what they were going to do, I have faith that the problems will be addressed, and that the defense will play better next week.

Exactly. UND actually outgained GVSU last year, but three fumbles killed us. GVSU didn't have any turnovers in last year's game.