UND92,96

Obviously this is a very good football schedule, although there were no real surprises since these are all opponents that have been mentioned on this board. The question I have is this: since the game with Kutztown apparently fell through, wouldn't it be better to add one cupcake opponent--other than UMC--and have an 11-game schedule instead of a 10-game schedule? I never like the idea of playing one fewer game than most other schools because it just means there's that much less margin for error.

Here's the release.

I was just thinking of how few North Dakotans there are right now who are currently averaging double figures in points at the dII level. As far as I can think of, there's only Jared Keaveny at SW St. and Evan Lindahl at UND. Obviously Nick Jacobson is doing well at Utah, and Koenig at WI-GB probably would have done pretty well in the NCC, but it seems like there should be more decent basketball players being produced in North Dakota. I don't see too many current high school players who look like they will go on to successful college careers, either. It seems that there are a lot more players who have disappointing careers, i.e. some of the recent Mr. Basketball winners, than those who actually live up to their high school hype, i.e. Scott Guldseth and Chris Gardner. Is this just a down period, or more of a long-term trend?

This has to be one of the weirdest NCC men's basketball seasons I can remember. First, you have a team in first place who has practically no margin for error to even make the post-season since they already have 8 losses overall. NDSU still has very tough games yet to play at USD and UNO, not to mention difficult home games against SDSU, St. Cloud and Mankato. Plus, there's the NCC post-season tournament. If they get to 10 or 11 losses, they would very possibly not even get in unless they won the post-season tournament. It will be interesting to see how far they slip in the regional rankings this week. Second, there's basically very little difference between the first place team, and the team in 7th. Notwithstanding the lop-sided loss in Fargo, you have one team at 12-9 overall, one at 13-8, and a split in the season series. And that's despite the fact that this is one of the weakest UND men's teams in many years, albeit due in large part to injuries. Also, other than Rypkema, there's not a single true center in the top 20 in the league in scoring. While there are players like King who post up a lot, at 6'5" he's not exactly a true center. Where have all the post players gone?

It's a turnstile count. Every ticket is scanned on the way in. I don't have any doubts that there were that many people there at one time, but as I said a lot left early. Unless you've been to several basketball games there (I have), it's very difficult to render a semi-accurate guess of the crowd size just by looking. Last night, I figured there were about 7200 to 7500, and that was about right for early in the men's game.

Obviously this can be taken with a grain of salt, but I checked out recruiting "guru" Tom Lemming's master list of college prospects on the ESPN site, and five UND signees were listed: Freund, Moe, Nicholas, Otto and Troen. Needless to say, where a kid is from plays a big role in these types of lists as I don't believe North Dakotans, for example, are ever listed. Also, it would seem players like Manke and Yilek, for example, should have been on there as well. But again, you have to take these lists for what they're worth. I mostly found it interesting that a kid from a relatively small town in northern Minnesota (Moe) would have found his way onto the list.

I can't believe this is worth arguing about, but yes, they did sign 36 according to this link. As tuggnutt correctly pointed out (see the link he provided), a LOI requires some sort of financial aid. Otherwise, it would unenforceable because you can't have a binding agreement without consideration. Without some financial aid, there's no consideration.

A few thoughts on some other NCC teams' signings: --Mankato is certainly looking for a quick fix with 13 juco transfers. Yeah, that's the way to build your program, Holley. --the new USD coach must be planning on losing or getting rid of a number of current players since they signed 36 recruits! --Bubba looks like he has a nice class. He got one of the better running backs in Minnesota. I would expect that UND and UMD will be recruiting a lot of the same Wisconsin players over the next several years. --I was surprised that St. Cloud didn't sign a quarterback. I wonder if they're expecting a transfer? They only have three qb's on the roster, none of whom has really played at all, and two of whom red-shirted last year. I don't believe any of the three were highly-recruited, but maybe Hedberg feels he can develop at least one of them. In any event, it will be interesting to see how their offense functions without Heckendorf at the controls.

An article on the signing of Brian Troen. And another on Jordan Armentrout.

I kind of figured that either he was misquoted, or else he simply misspoke. Again, no disrespect to Jangula or Belquist, but I don't think most people would have necessarily had them ranked among the top five players in ND this year. Roehl and Wurzbacher? Yes. Harrington? Maybe. I'm not a scout or a coach, but I would say the top six ND players were, in no particular order, Dressler, Roehl, Wurzbacher, Trenbeath, Harrington and Caufield.

I had thought that perhaps something to that effect was in Kupchella's letter regarding division I as it pertains to UND, but upon further review, there was no mention of it.

I must say that you also showed some objectivity here, tony. Regarding recruiting North Dakotans, I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I've always felt that the top few North Dakotans most years could easily play I-AA. But historically, either I-AA schools didn't bother recruiting here, or else most local kids simply preferred to play for UND or NDSU. I think the fact that there hasn't been a ND kid who has played I-AA for as far back as I can remember (until this year with NDSU)--but several have played for I-A schools--supports this theory. Regarding Kupchella, he definitely doesn't speak for many UND grads on a number of issues, but that's a whole other story.

Your objectivity is refreshing. Regarding offensive linemen, it's interesting how different programs recruit that position differently. For example, UND typically signs 3 to 5 every year. Other programs prefer to load up with several every few years, but not sign anybody on the opposite years. Minnesota, for example, didn't sign any this year, although that wasn't necessarily by choice since they lost Murtha at the last minute.

Here are some of the other players whom UND recruited, and where they ultimately signed: Matt Lien, Duluth--Augie Rolly Lumbala, Calgary--Idaho Bobby Coy, Denver--Mesa St. Brandon Jordan hasn't signed anywhere yet as far as I could find.

I believe it was also documented that they were actively recruiting Dressler, and I'm almost positive they recruited Caufield, as well. Not to take anything away from players like Belquist and Jangula, but to even suggest that they were among the top five players in ND, but that Dressler, Trenbeath and/or Caufield were not, would be ridiculous. I'm not sure whether Bohl was just misquoted, or whether he's telling an outright lie with his "we got everybody we wanted from North Dakota" statement.

Lower divisions than what? These are high school stats. Duh. Why do you even bother posting here when you already have a forum in which you can bash UND all you want and everyone will agree with you?

Lennon was on the 6:00 sports on WDAZ and definitely sounded excited about this class. Yes, coaches are excited about their classes every year, but I think it is safe to say that he feels that the potential for this class is especially high. Among the players he singled out were Manke, Dressler, Trenbeath, Yilek and Freund, whom he compared to Kelby Klosterman in terms of athletic ability. In terms of statistics, this class has some of the most eye-popping numbers I've seen for UND recruits. Dressler rushed for over 2000 yards and had 40 td's. Trenbeath had over 1000 yards receiving and 36 td's. Nicholas led the state of Wisconsin in receiving yards and yards per catch. Freund led the state of Wisconsin in most passing categories, including 40 td passes. Caufield had over 1000 yards receiving. Those are just some of the highlights. It's of course impossible to predict who will pan out and who won't, but on paper I'd say Manke, Freund, Dressler, Rohde, Trenbeath, Caufield, Nicholas, Yilek, Troen and Otto look to be very good. I'm sure there will be some other guys who maybe don't come in with a huge amount of notoriety, but who turn out to be very good like Gagner and Duchscher, for example. When asked whether there would likely be any further signees, Lennon said possibly one or two, which probably means that the door is still open for Jordan. Some of the schools that had been mentioned on allcanadagridiron.com as being interested in him were Valdosta St., Northern Michigan and Tiffin, and he wasn't listed on those respective web pages as having signed with any of those schools, either.

Here is an article from the Wausau (WI) paper regarding the signings of Rohde and Heckendorf by UND and NDSU, respectively. Heckendorf's coach confirmed that he's getting a full scholarship. I think it's safe to say that UND wasn't able to offer that kind of money. Maybe he'd have gone there anyway, but the likely scholarship offer differential probably removed all doubt.

I'm very disappointed that the Herald had nothing in today's paper about any of the expected signees. In the past, there has always been an article, and at least once I recall them having an entire list of expected signees. Even the St. Cloud paper has a fairly extensive list of their commitments.

For whatever it's worth, the badgerstatepreps.com post came one day after vince's post. It would definitely be great to get this kid. We'll know for sure within the next 24 hours.

According to a poster on the wisconsinpreps.com message board, UND has received a commitment from receiver Alex Nicholas from Franklin, WI. He's 6'1", 180, and had 67 catches for 1366 yards and 15 td's this year. He was named all-state by the WFCA and all-area by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

There have been some who have run for maybe one season, but since Norm McGee in the late 80's I don't recall one who really excelled. Mahmoud ran last year, but wasn't anywhere near as successful as he was in high school. It's very difficult for sprinters/hurdlers at UND because there just isn't a decent indoor track to practice on.

Amen. I think the overall level of maturity on this site as it pertains to NDSU is far greater than that towards UND on bisonville. It's not even close. And it starts from the moderator on down. I recall a few weeks ago when tony had a post on his board about "holding his nose and checking out siouxsports.com" for something. That's just juvenile to say the least. It's hard to believe that there are people like JBB, etc. who are allegedly adults and college graduates yet post things you would expect from about a 10-year-old.