UND92,96

I believe the statement was in regard to the fact that those schools have recruited heavily in Canada in the past. Boise St. has been a very good program considering its location and the fact that is was once a jr. college not all that many years ago.

An updated recruiting list (again, I can't vouch for the 100% accuracy of this list, and it is definitely not all-inclusive): verbal commitments: Weston Dressler, rb/wr/returns, 5'6", 150, Bismarck Jake Caufield, wr, 6'2", 190, Minot The following either are or were being recruited by UND according to at least one internet source: Jordan Armentrout, rb, Madison (WI) Memorial Jared Bardon, te, 6'3", 225, Deforest (WI) Allistair Blair, rb, 5'10", 225, Toronto Central Tech Tristan Black, lb, 6'2", 228, Toronto Central Tech Ricky Clarke, wr/returns, 6'0", 180, Toronto Central Tech Bobby Coy, rb, 5'10", 175, Heritage (CO) Tyson DesCamps, rb, 5'9", 190, Aberdeen (SD) Danny Freund, qb, 6'1", 190, Kenosha (WI) St. Joseph's Zach Harrington, dl, 6'2", 270, Carrington Kole Heckendorf, wr, 6'2", 175, Mosinee (WI) Brandon Jordan, wr/db, Winnipeg Mike Klepatz, te, 6'6", 225, New Berlin (WI) Matt Lien, wr/db, 6'3", 190, Duluth Denfeld Rory Manke, qb/wr/db, 6'1", 195, Detroit Lakes Jordan Meier, qb, Madison (WI) Memorial Tyler Morrow, lb, 6'3", 232, NDSCS Mike Stadnyk, de, 6'3", 235, Miller (in Sask.?) No confirmation of being recruited by UND but probably are receiving at least some interest: Trevor Dally, ol, 6'4", 285, Fosston Chris Erdmann, qb, Crookston Josh Karch, lb, 6'2", 195, Moorhead Jerry Netland, fb/punter, Bagley Nolan Oliver, lb, 6'1", 205, Moorhead Wayne Samson, ol/dl, 6'4", 275, Cavalier Eric Schaumberg, db, 6'1", 165, Mahnomen Brady Trenbeath, wr, 6'0", 175, Cavalier Dustin Timmersman, fb, Roseau Jesse Vote, db, Cando

From allcanadagridiron.com:

UND is recruiting a receiver/safety from Duluth per this article. I have heard that the coaching staff feels that this kid could really be good.

It's great to hear that Austin will be playing. He is a difference-maker. Now, if he can shake off the rust, UND will have a star and three other solid players who can score in double figures most every night. Barring further injuries, that could get the Sioux into the top three or four in the league, and hopefully set the stage for a decent run next season when Parks, Nobles, Harkins, Doyle, Gutter and hopefully Winkelman arrive or return from injuries.

That's fine, I can buy that. My point was that recruiting juco's (at least for football) is not generally the way to go because you can recruit talent good enough to win from the high school ranks. I'm sure we can agree on that. If it's a matter of more or less evening out the classes to compensate for some of the attrition from some previous recruiting classes, then it makes a certain amount of sense. If it's more based on an attempt to upgrade talent, then the results have been mixed. I believe that out of the approximately eight or nine juco players signed by NDSU in the past two years, only three have been impact players or at least solid starters (Malone, Ware and Summerville). Five or six others have been something less than that (Cooley and one other linebacker from the 2002 team who may have red-shirted and whose name escapes me, Mamula, Byrd, Irby and Fleming). In the interest of fairness, I believe UND and NDSU have each recruited a very comparable number of juco basketball players in recent years. Unfortunately, it's somewhat necessary in basketball because there are so few dI or even high dII caliber basketball players from this area.

You are correct. I believe he got his master's degree from NDSU.

All this speculation regarding Lennon's future employment got me thinking of Rocky Hager and his tenure at NDSU. I know he was an NDSU grad and if my recollection is correct, he used to talk like being the head coach at NDSU was his dream job and that he wasn't interested in going anywhere else. My question is this for Bison fans: if the problems that led to his dismissal had never occurred, would he have voluntarily left NDSU before he was ready to retire? No flame intended here, I'm just curious.

Don't worry about it, sodakfan. Most of what's posted in this thread is speculation, so it's pretty tough to be too upset with someone for being wrong about something. I hope you continue to update us on the recruitment of DesCamps.

Yeah, whatever. I think I'm quite real, thank you. While I may disagree with many things written by NDSU fans on this board, I never attack anyone, so it surprises and amuses me that you would apparently interpret my post(s) as being combative and/or paranoid. My point was, and still is, that it's indisputable that certain NDSU fans have somewhat of a preoccupation with Lennon's future. Why that is, I don't know.

It's not as though UND hasn't gone through several coaching staff changes over the past dozen-or-so years. Obviously, Lennon replaced Thomas as head coach. At offensive coordinator, off the top of my head, there's been Rob Bollinger, Randy Hedberg, Jeff Menage and Chris Mussman. At defensive coordinator, it's gone from Lennon to Schweigert and now to Tibesar. Of course there have been numerous changes among the position coaches as well. And yet, aside from the forgettable 2002 season, every year from 1990 to the present has been pretty successful. Lennon is a great coach, but there's no reason to think that UND's program is going to all of a sudden collapse when he eventually does leave. Especially now that UND and NDSU are no longer going to be competing against each other aside from recruiting some of the same players, I don't understand why certain Bison fans and Fargo media members seem so interested in Lennon's future and are so anxious to see him go.

I realize you're trying to be facetious, but in the world of dII football, schools like Grand Valley St., TAMUK, Pitt. St., NW Mo. St., etc. are big-name opponents, as you well know. I just hope that UND is able to schedule home-and-home's with one or two of the best-known (is that a better way to describe them?) dII programs. Next year, in particular, that is important since the home NCC schedule doesn't look like it will be very good. I believe Central Wash. and Mesa St. will be coming to GF, so that's a pretty good start to the non-conference schedule. At least two and preferably three more non-conference games are yet to be scheduled.

Although the BSA as a whole is not a very good facility, its track isn't bad. Compared to Hyslop's track, it's phenomenal. Since much of the track season occurs in the months of January, February and March, a decent indoor facility is an absolute must. NDSU has one, and UND does not. I believe that is the major difference between the two schools' track programs. Somewhat surprisingly, ND, SD and Minnesota actually produce quite a few very good track athletes, and NDSU has been able to get many of them due in no small part to its facility being far better than UND's. It's also possible that NDSU devotes more scholarship money to its track programs, but I don't know whether that's the case or not. It's actually kind of amazing that UND has had as many good individual track athletes as it has over the years, particularly on the womens side, considering the poor indoor facility. Not coincidentally, most have been middle and long distance runners, and field event competitors. The distance runners, I believe, do a lot of outdoor road work even in the winter, and the throwers and high jumpers don't rely on the actual track very much. Memorial is okay as an outdoor track, although I haven't run there since the late 80's so I don't know how well the track has aged, or whether it has been re-surfaced. Since it's still good enough to host the state high school track meets every other year, it must still be okay. NDSU's outdoor track was built long after my competitive days, but I assume it's good.

From allcanadagridiron.com: Stadnyk is a 6'3", 235 lb. defensive end, and runs the 40 in 4.80.

I couldn't agree more regarding the indoor track. It has been approximately 15 years since the Grand Forks high schools have even had an indoor meet there, and the only meets now are a few of the NE North Dakota Class B schools a couple of times a year. It's horrible. I'm as big of a track fan as anyone, but without a decent indoor track, having a track program is almost pointless. It's hard for me to believe that nothing has been done about this yet as it has been a problem for a long, long time.

Regarding Winkelman, here is an article from about three weeks ago regarding his recruitment. Perhaps the most interesting quote was this: Wouldn't that all but eliminate NDSU from consideration?

Regarding VerDouw, I believe his brother was on the team here for a few years. If I remember correctly, he signed about the same time as Jahner. He evidently didn't pan out, but whether that has anything to do with UND not recruiting the younger brother, I don't know.

Under the circumstances, I'd say that 9-4 has been a major accomplishment. Really, only the Mary game has been a terrible performance and the team isn't too far away from being 12-1 right now. However, I believe SDSU had a similar situation last year to what UND has experienced this year in terms of injuries/illnesses to three of their best players, and they were still able to finish 24-7. My point is that it is still possible to put an NCC champion-type team on the floor even with as many as three starters out for the season. Clearly, we are not close to being an NCC champion this year with only three guys capable of consistently scoring in double figures. Had we had our full arsenal, with a starting five of Rypkema, Lindahl, Austin, Johnson and Nobles, with Parks adding instant offense off the bench, and Jacobson, Jahner and Bradley also contributing, the team would have been pretty good. Unfortunately, neither of the juco big men have really worked out, so depth in the post was going to be a problem regardless. Hopefully, next year Gutter can be that third big guy that we are lacking right now. We also definitely need to sign another big guy--preferably a high school recruit. I know it's tough to sign a decent big kid out of high school, but we have generally been able to find some good ones like Behrens, Mustard, etc.

Thanks for the info, UND Fan. Regarding Nobles, this was in the Herald last week:

Does anyone know how many of the mens basketball players are on a full scholarship? I'm not asking for any names of those on scholarship, but rather if there are ten guys on a full ride, or whether many of the ten scholarships are split up into partials similar to in football.

You and some of you fellow NDSU fans can just keep on thinking that Lennon is going to leave soon, that UND's tremendous success has been based on him and his coaching staff alone, and that UND's football program will collapse when he does eventually leave. I will continue to think that UND will be just fine regardless, unless we are stupid enough to hire a coach like a Bob Babich, for example, when Lennon does finally decide to move on. Of course, a successful program would never do anything that dumb, right?

I am surprised that NDSU has signed as many transfers as they have the past few years, and that they are apparently planning to continue this practice. Especially considering they have next to nothing to play for over the next five years, it seems odd to sign guys who only have two years to play. If it is true that Summerville is leaving or already has left, as has been stated on the Bison board, that would mean that NDSU signed about six jucos last year (Summerville, Ware, Irby, Byrd, Fleming and Mamula?) and only one seems to have really panned out. Not a very good percentage. Why not just sign the best high school players you can find and develop them? I guess it's just a different philosophy, but I certainly hope UND does not take this route for football.

Tom Dosch is on his way to Jamestown College according to Pat Sweeney on the 5:00 WDAZ sports tonight. Also, Sweeney said Sac. St. had also been pursuing Tibesar.

The UND men get two close wins in the SDSU tournament--over Colorado School of Mines and Winona St. Any news regarding Austin? There's been nothing official yet nor has there been anything in the Herald. I hope he's still on the way because right now nearly all of the scoring load falls on Rypkema, Lindahl and Johnson. Without Austin, it will be extremely difficult to finish at .500 in the NCC. There just isn't enough offense. With Austin, things could be pretty interesting since aside from SDSU, everybody in the NCC looks pretty beatable right now.

link There's no question in my mind that this was the right decision. I am very confident that the UND defense is in good hands.