UND92,96

Did anybody else get a chance to watch ex-Sioux quarterback Scott Rislov play for San Jose St. on ESPN2 last night? He played quite well, passing for over 320 yards and one td against I-AA Grambling. Last year, Rislov threw for over 3,200 yards, had a 61.2 completion percentage, and 22 touchdowns. It certainly would have been nice to have had him last year, not to mention this year.

I think 8-2 is realistic, although I wouldn't be surprised with anything from 6-4 to 10-0. I don't think that there's anybody on the schedule that the Sioux can't beat if they play well, but as we saw last year, they can just as easily lose to virtually anybody. I think the offense will be fine, at least if Bowenkamp can keep the turnovers to a minimum. The line is very solid, the receiving corps is quite deep with Ahlers, Lueck, Stattelman, Johnson, Weber, Grossman and Alkins, and the backs will be okay with Miller, Beatty, Strouth, Roland and Wisthoff. Defensively, I'm confident that the front seven will be very solid, and the Sioux should have as good a pair of safeties as anybody in the league with Stratton and Gagner. The play of the corners will be key. Watch for freshman Greenwood and Hoffschneider to push Manke and Franklin for playing time. Hoffschneider's credentials speak for themselves (all-Colorado in 2001), and Greenwood can really hit.

Although SCSU was the pretty obvious choice to win the NCC based upon last year's record and the fact that a large majority of their starters return, they have a really brutal schedule. An almost unbelievable five of their first six games are on the road, including at traditionally good programs Western Washington, Pitt St. and UND. They also play at Omaha and SDSU, and have a total of seven regular season road games. If they can equal or improve upon their 2002 record of 9-2, they will have really earned it.

This column in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is fairly critical of the SDSU brass regarding the conference issue: link

Mary's enrollment is approximately 1,800, I believe. They do have a pretty nice NAIA athletic program. Although UMary is in a fairly populous area (especially by North Dakota standards), they may very well run into the same problem as Augie--the fan support is generally not there for a private school like it would be for a public school. Although Sioux Falls is one of the largest metro areas in the NCC, Augie doesn't draw particularly well, and perhaps never will. If USD or SDSU or Northern State were located in Sioux Falls, it would likely be a whole different story. There are a lot of UND and/or NDSU fans in Bismarck, and UMary may struggle with that if they all of a sudden were to be trying to compete head-to-head instead of having their own niche as they do now. However, at least among schools not currently in division II potentially joining the NCC, I would agree that UMary is probably the most likely candidate. If very many established dII programs indicate they are not interested in a move to the NCC, it could happen.

This was in Thursday's Herald: UND football article It's certainly good news that Lueck has finally been determined to be eligible. He should be a big help. Also, it sounds like Brandon Strouth is looking very good at running back.

I don't mean to say that there's no way that another NSIC school be added to the NCC, but I do think that for it to happen, the incoming school would have to give some sort of assurance that they would make every effort to reach 36 scholarships for football. Since the NCC is pretty much in agreement in its view that football scholarships shouldn't be further cut, it would be disingenuous to add a school who didn't share this sentiment. Other possibilities would be schools from the MIAA or Great Lakes Conferences (admittedly a longshot), or the Rocky Mountain Conference (other than Kearney if they're not interested). If the choice were remaining at seven schools or adding a school like UMC, I am quite confident that the NCC would remain at seven until a more suitable member could be found.

I've never heard UMC mentioned as a potential NCC member. God help us all if they were to be added. Out of current NSIC members, Northern St., Winona St. or possibly Concordia-St. Paul may be possibilities somewhere down the line of they could at least come close to fully funding football scholarships at the dII maximum. Otherwise, I don't see the NCC adding further NSIC members anytime soon.

Do you mean unlike the major national hoopla surrounding I-AA football or Mid-Continent Conference basketball? Let's face it, unless you're talking about BCS football or major conference basketball, 90-something percent of the country knows little and cares less. But that doesn't mean that those of us who do follow division I hockey, division II or I-AA football, or division II or non-major conference college basketball are any less interested in our respective sports.

What are you talking about?

Pat Sweeney said on the 6:00 sports last night that the Sioux had 102 players in camp. If this is true, does anyone know who out of the approximately 108 players listed on the roster did not report?

I expect that NDSU's offense should be fine, although the line seems to have some depth problems. However, the defense still has a lot of question marks. Traditionally, adding several jucos, particularly to a team coming off a struggling season, has not been a recipe for success in NCC football. Perhaps Bohl can make it work, but the odds probably aren't in his favor to turn it around in one year.

The opposing teams do pick up the win, at least according to the NCC. In the NCC release, it specifically said that UND's 2002 NCC record is now officially 4-4.

UND is picked by both the media and coaches to finish 3rd in the NCC, following SCSU and UNO. SCSU is certainly no surprise as the favorite, but I don't think UNO is going to be particularly good. NCC polls

Per the NCC, UNC has to forfeit its two early season 2002 NCC games in which quarterback Steve Cutlip played. Apparently, UND's 2002 record is now officially 6-5 (4-4 in the NCC). Not that it really matters at this point. NCC release

DMB- This is an excerpt from the Herald article regarding Parks and Stoute: Source: Herald Staff Report The UND men's basketball program has added a pair of junior college transfers to its program.Sioux coach Rich Glas on Tuesday announced the signings of Keith Parks and Germel Stoute to letters of intent.Parks is a 6-foot-5, 200-pound wing player from Chicago, Ill. He played two seasons at Parkland College in Champagne, Ill., before sitting out last season for academic reasons. As a sophomore in the 2001-02 season, Parks averaged 22 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists and was named to Published on April 30, 2003, Page 02, Grand Forks Herald (ND)

This article was in the Herald today: UND football team has strong local flavor

It's pretty impressive that Nobles was good enough to have earned a scholarship to a Big 12 school out of high school, even if it wasn't to one of the stronger programs around. My only question is why he didn't play anywhere last year? Perhaps he didn't have any more juco eligibility but he was still trying to become academically eligible to play dI? If I'm not mistaken, fellow Sioux recruit Keith Parks didn't play last year either, so both will likely have to shake off some rust. On paper, UND could be pretty loaded if everybody plays up to their potential. I can see a starting lineup of Nobles at the point, Austin and Johnson at the wing, Franklin and Rypkema inside, with Parks, Jacobson, Lindahl, Stoute and probably Jahner also in the rotation. Who knows what the team chemistry will be like, but there appears to be a lot of talent.

SDSU fan, a.k.a. h5322rsh, appears to be back under the name CRH in the "Jackrabbits aren't leaving..." thread. Maybe he's going for the rare three-peat of being banned.

DeSautel reminds me of Kelly Howe in terms of size as a safety. He also has some good blood lines in that ex-Viking safety Kurt Knoff is his uncle. I'm not saying he'll have a career as good as Howe (or Knoff), but he does appear to be a very nice prospect. I don't personally know what type of speed he has, but since he was all-metro as a db I have to assume it's at least decent. If it doesn't look like he'll make an impact at safety, he could easily put on 25 or more pounds and play tight end--a position where he was a first team all-stater. It wouldn't surprise me if that position change ultimately happens because I believe the need for a pass-catching tight end is greater right now than for another defensive back. I wouldn't mind seeing a tight end tandem of DeSautel and Drew Thomas in a year or two.

Dan Aagard was a first team AP all-state defensive back at Edina last fall. I had not heard he was coming to UND until I saw his name on the roster. He is a very nice addition to an already very good recruiting class. With Alexander, Wenzel and Aagard from this year's class, along with Hoffschneider, DeSautel and Greenwood (among others) from last year's class, that's an outstanding group of young db's.

The Sioux men signed a juco point guard today: UND press release Any info on him, DMB?