UND92,96

So why is it that Red River football has gotten so bad? I suppose it's easy to say that too many kids concentrate solely on hockey, but I don't buy that as being the primary reason. Nick Cichy had some excellent teams in the 80's, and I don't think those teams had many players who also played hockey. I know the 1987 state runner-up team had very few hockey players on it, and I suspect it was the same with the 1982 state runner-up team. Clearly it's not just a problem with Grand Forks in general, either. Even with far fewer base kids than there used to be, Central is doing quite well lately, and will probably be one of the top two or three teams in the state again this year, and of course EGF is coming off a state title and looks solid again.

I don't know what point you were attempting to make with the highlighted quote, but in any event, it's better to host playoff games which don't sell out as opposed to not hosting any playoff games at all. I believe the finances of UND's football program are actually quite healthy compared to most fully-funded programs in dII.

My understanding is that those banners will be in the Alerus this season. I was at the shrine game in July, and there was one up already from the 1930's, so they were evidently just starting to hang them.

This article was in the Forum today. McFeely also had a column about it.

I noticed in the UND press release that the duties currently handled by Bruggeman will be assumed by the new senior women's administrator, to be hired in September. By combining those two positions, it will presumably save a decent amount of money. Getting the budget balanced is obviously one of the most important tasks Buning faces, and this would seem to be one step in that direction.

There is a scrimmage in EGF tonight at 5:30. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend, but if anyone goes and could maybe post their thoughts, it would be appreciated. Specifically, I'm wondering who looks to be starting on the offensive line besides Kuper, Buisker and Storhaug. A poster on d2football.com indicated that another UND offensive lineman may be out with mono, but he didn't know the player's name. Also, how does new running back Brandon Brady look? Thanks in advance.

It will be interesting to see how Benter develops this year. I saw him play in the first round at the state tournament last year, and he struggled a bit as I recall, although he apparently played much better in the two games after that. He was also recently named to an all-tournament team for a pretty big AAU tournament. link. The kid from Williston is Brian Qvale, and he'll be a junior this year. At this point, I'd kind of expect him to go to at least a mid-major dI.

The roster has apparently been updated, and in addition to Franklin, other players who have been removed include Rick Presthus and Andy Hoffelt.

UND picked sixth in pre-season poll. link. Question for those who follow the volleyball program closely: is this the make-or-break year for Maria Bruggeman? Obviously there's a new boss, and presumably all programs will be under review, particularly those whose success has been modest at best. I believe her career NCC record in 37-77 (.324), and she is coming off a winless conference season. I'm not advocating anything one way or the other, I'm just curious what the sentiment is among those who follow the program. It would certainly appear that the program should be capable of more, particularly now with the Betty being, I assume, one of the nicer volleyball facilities in the NCC.

He quit towards the end of spring ball. I'm not sure what his reasons, if any, were. Ironically, his departure may open the door for another Wisconsin product--Jordan Armentrout--who looked good in the spring game.

I suppose we should have seen this lack of offensive line depth coming, considering how many defections we've had by offensive linemen recruits in the past four years. Of the 18 o-line recruits signed between 2001 and 2004, eight lasted two or fewer years in the program: 2001 Chris Kuper--three-year starter; all american Matt Buisker--part-time starter as junior and projected starter as senior Brian Osterday--two years and gone Mike Wacek--one year and gone Mike Henneman--never reported (died tragically a few years later) 2002 Andy Hoffelt--part-time starter (currently injured) John Bronson--backup Cody Bartlett--one year and gone Darrin Kalash--one year and gone Jeremy Anderson--never reported 2003 Mitch Braegelmann--started as a freshman (currently injured) Brett Bauer--projected starter Andy Soll--backup Nick Bonnet--one year and gone 2004 Brian Troen--projected starter Brett Rousseau--backup Erik Moe--backup Mike Yilek--one year and gone It's a good thing that former walk-on Storhaug developed into a starter or else we'd be probably looking at starting three young and fairly experienced players on the line right now.

Here's a Herald article focusing primarily on the offensive line situation. Will Kusler may end up moving to the interior line. Also, due to Drew Thomas likely being out for the year, there is virtually no depth at fullback, meaning true freshman Marcus Tibesar could get a look.

Anybody know whether Hoffelt is also out for the season?

When talking about the running game, don't forget about the new guy, Brandon Brady. He could be the wildcard. A 200-plus pound back with speed is something we haven't had since...well, I can't even remember when. I wouldn't look for him to leapfrog Strouth on the depth chart, but he could get into the mix before too long. I've heard from more than one person that he's quite a talent.

It's only available via the print edition. They typically use some sort of graphic for this type of thing which for whatever reason never is included in the online edition.

Here's an article about another walk-on for the men's basketball team.

The pre-season depth chart was in the Herald today, and although I realize you sometimes have to take these with a grain of salt, I have to admit that I'm a little concerned about the o-line. The projected starters, according to the chart, are sophomore Brett Bauer at left tackle (where's Hoffelt? He's not listed at all), freshman Brian Troen at left guard (I've heard Braegelmann is hurt, anybody know for sure? He's not listed at all, either), senior Tyler Storhaug at center, Kuper at right guard, and senior Matt Buisker at right tackle. If this chart is accurate, and admittedly it may not be, Kuper is the only full-time starter returning.

Unless schools can successfully challenge this rule through litigation, I'm afraid that's exactly what it means.

The new roster has been posted. It looks like all signees reported, and so far two walk-ons have been added. I didn't notice any key defections from the spring roster, either. It's also nice to see a couple of pretty decent ex-players, Craig Riendeau and Ben Olson, are new grad assistants.

It looks like everybody in the NCC except UND reported seven-figure gross "not allocated by gender" revenue, so I have no idea why UND is reporting differently from the other schools, or for that matter, exactly where this "not allocated by gender" revenue comes from. One encouraging thing I noticed was that among all the NCC schools, plus NDSU, UNC and SDSU, UND had the second-lowest football deficit (MSU-Mankato's was $14,800 less. All of the schools had deficits). Since that time, I believe UND has entered into a more advantageous contract with the Alerus, which would seem to suggest that operating in the black for football could possibly be a realistic goal for UND, particularly if we could get average attendance up to about 10,000 or more. Operating in the black or anywhere close to it definitely isn't a realistic goal for most NCC schools. UNO, for example, was a whopping $933,900 in the red for football.

The high: epic battle with Metro State in the 1990 region final, won by the Sioux. The low: overtime loss to USD in 1993 region final, with Randy Rosenquist making the game-winning shot in the last couple of seconds. In retrospect, it almost seems like that shot ended UND's reign as the NCC top dog (two Elite 8 appearances and three region final appearances in four years), and the Sioux haven't advanced to the region final since.