UND92,96

On the one hand, this wouldn't surprise me because I believe it is his goal to play IA football. On the other hand, since Callahan hasn't even hired a staff yet, it would seem like an odd time for anyone to be committing to Nebraska since whomever is doing the recruiting may not even have their job in another day or two. Also, I believe Nebraska has really put a premium on speed in the secondary and although Rory has good speed, it's certainly not in the legit 4.5 or better range. It wouldn't have necessarily surprised me if he had committed to Minnesota since I believe they have been talking to him for awhile, but Nebraska? I'm not doubting your info, it just seems a little odd under the circumstances. I know someone who is friends with his family so I'll try to get some kind of confirmation of this.

From allcanadagridiron.com: Looks like it's going to be tough for UND to sign this kid. Also, there's a kid from Donovan Alexander's high school in Winnipeg named Chaanse Fennell who is 5'11", 200 lbs. and who ran for 1279 yards (more than 10 yards per carry) and 17 touchdowns in just 7 games. I don't know whether UND has looked at him but he sounds like a pretty decent prospect.

After being on the short end of a 30-point blowout to a not overly talented team one night removed from a home loss to NDSU, of all teams, it looks like a goal of a .500 conference record may be too high--much too high--for the UND mens team. Pretty pathetic performance last night. With two tough home games coming up next weekend, followed by three more road games, wins next week are imperative. EDIT: I spoke with someone who was at the game and he said that the Sioux showed very minimal intensity and just kind of sleep-walked through the game. When you don't have much talent to begin with, you certainly should be willing to at least out-work and out-hustle the opponent, even if ultimately you lose due to the opponent being better than you are. I don't know what to make of this team right now.

I believe last year's game set an NCC attendance record with a crowd of over 8800. I doubt that record will be broken (unless it happens with this year's UND-NDSU game) since no other arena can hold that many. But without Beasley as a box office draw and with neither mens team likely to be an NCC contender, I doubt this year's crowd will be as large. I hope I'm wrong.

I suppose to be more accurate, this year's games should be touted as the last matchup as division II opponents. I don't believe anyone really believes that the series is permanently over. There will probably only be a period of a few years where the teams won't play. More than likely, the two teams will be in the same division again within five to ten years.

Far too many turnovers and UND's lack of scoring depth showed itself last night in the loss to Mankato. Lindahl apparently played well, Rypkema was close to his average with 13, and even Jahner of all people scored 10. But nobody else stepped up. It looks like road wins in the NCC will be extremely difficult to come by for the Sioux. Also, it looks like it's going to be awhile until Austin is going to be the player that we know he can be. The good news is how far Lindahl has progressed from last year to this year. He went from not being able to beat out Josh Johnson--a guy with no offensive game to speak of--to being a legit all-conference caliber player. With two years of eligibility remaining, he is going to be very good. I would be satisfied with a .500 conference record, getting Austin back into game shape so he can be a 15-20 point a game scorer, continued development of Lindahl and Rypkema, and the addition of one or two other solid contributors in the off-season to go along with Johnson, Parks, Nobles, Doyle, Harkins, possibly Gutter, and whomever else from the current team who can show something the remainder of this season. I think guys like Jacobson, Bradley and Stoute need to step it up if they expect to see any playing time next season. Jacobson and Bradley in particular need to be able to knock down shots, and neither has done so with any consistency this year.

Looks like NDSU is also losing an assistant coach. link

I had forgotten about Terry. I didn't include Sannes because I'm almost positive he's a walk-on. The other kid is Seth Nieman (sp?) who played at Langdon. I believe there have been a few other kids at the military academies, as well, although obviously the military academies are something of a different situation from other dI schools.

I was just thinking about ND high school players who have earned division I football scholarships since about 1990. By my count, there have only been approximately 10: Chris Berg at Stanford Justin Conzemius at Minnesota Peter Hiestand at Minnesota Sean Hoffman at Minnesota Dan Kwapinski at Minnesota Greg Eslinger at Minnesota Brooks Bollinger at Wisconsin Andrew LeClair at Kansas Ben Murphy at Wyoming Brandon Casavan at Wyoming I may have missed a few, but probably not too many. In any event, I can't recall a single ND kid going to a IAA school, at least on scholarship, over this time period. Whether this is significant or not, I don't know. There isn't much question that there have been numerous ND natives at both UND and NDSU who could have easily played at that level. I'm just curious whether the lack of ND players at IAA schools is due to the fact that no IAA schools have recruited here, that most in-state kids have preferred to play at either UND or NDSU instead of a IAA school, or perhaps some other reason. Any thoughts?

More on Brandon Jordan from allcanadagridiron.com: If I'm not mistaken, Cooper Harris is a former grad assistant at UND.

It looks like a very strange NCC schedule this year. With just eight teams in the league, that means that there are just 14 conference games. The first half of the season has UND on the road for five out of the seven games. The good news, of course, is that in the second half of the conference season, five of the seven games are at home.

Yilek was also named all-state by the Pioneer Press. This was his all-state bio from the Press:

Mike Mannausau has been hired to fill one of the vacant defensive assistant coaching positions. link

Northern Michigan's program is really struggling. They're coming off a 3-8 season, and several of the losses were blow-outs. I would think that there's a pretty good chance that if UND makes a decent offer in terms of scholarship money, Jordan will come here. I have no idea, however, how many corners UND is recruiting, and who the number one target is. With young corners like Hoffschneider and Alexander already here, that may scare off some potential recruits.

Mike Mannausau has resigned as head coach at Grand Forks Red River High School and it's expected that he'll be named as an assistant coach at UND shortly.

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.