Bison06

You have to admit that’s pretty comical given the conversation.

You mean see the best in and give the benefit of the doubt to the people we cheer for and donate time/energy/money to? You just described every college football fan in the country.

Official visits don’t always end in an offer. You are 100% in the know on every communication that happened with the Florida kid? It just seems like you are making logic leaps based on whatever “insider” information you believe you have and always spinning it in the worst possible way in regards to how NDSU acted.

And you see this as shady? Again, if the player felt he was getting kicked around and not communicated to, why would he accept the offer? This is such a common practice it’s not even worth bringing up. “Hey, we like you and another guy, he’s slightly higher on our list and we are extending you an offer contingent on him turning us down, we’ve given him until this weekend and then the scholarship offer is withdrawn and it’s yours, if that works for you” If you think conversations like that aren’t happening every single day in DI recruiting, then I’m not sure what to say.

I’m not buying this holier than thou act you’ve been playing lately. Recruiting is a zero sum game with real winners and losers. Every school(including your beloved hawks) do things that serve their own interests at times at the expense of others. I have no idea of the details of what you’re talking about, but the kid seems quite happy with his commitment to NDSU, doubt he would have committed if he felt the coaches were doing things that didn’t sit well with him.

Question wasn’t directed at me, but I’ll say I don’t know the answer to that. Why do you think Coach Roehl did that? If indeed he did.

I agree with you, I’ve been very consistent on that. It matters, because in the context of this conversation, NDSU’s coaches are the ones making the scholarship offers.

Many people on this board seem to ignore or have a complete inability to handle nuances in conversations. Is UND, NDSU's primary rival? In many ways yes. If you read the thread, it is specifically about recruiting and even more precisely it's about the recruitment of a single player. The allegation is NDSU offered a valuable scholarship, at the most important position in sports to a guy, only because they didn't want UND to have him. So to that allegation, I've been responding. So to that allegation, do NDSU's coaches see UND as such a threat to them that they would do something as extreme as use a scholarship on a player that they don't think can help them win enough to be worthy of that scholarship? I do not believe NDSU's coaches view UND that way.

How many coaches on the staff have ever coached a game against UND? UND is the primary rival to the fans in my opinion, but to the coaches? I doubt they see it that way.

Probably closer to a thousand by my math, but I didn’t want to come off too hyperbolic.

Which coach on the staff sees UND as their primary rival?

From a timing standpoint, maybe the coaching changeover is playing a role. Could be possible that the new coaching staff either put a higher priority on the position in this cycle than the previous staff, or the new staff could have had this guy rated higher than the previous staff and decided to extend the scholly offer. As I’ve been saying, there are a hundred scenarios that are more likely than the NDSU staff seeing that UND offered and as a sole causal factor decided to offer a valuable scholarship to a guy they didn’t think was worthy of it.

I didn’t really see that as a controversial statement, especially to a poster like you who has been extremely vocal and critical of your unhappiness with the direction of the team. If a team has one playoff apprearance and zero playoff wins in their time in a division, in my opinion that team hasn’t been relevant on the national scene. It’s not a personal comment about UND.

I’m just speculating. There are about a dozen scenarios I can think of that are far more likely than NDSU offered a scholarship to a guy that, in your scenario, wasn’t scholarship worthy in your mind, but upgraded him to a scholarship guy because UND offered him. What does that accomplish for NDSU? It’s contradictory. He’s either so damn good that NDSU doesn’t want him playing for anybody else in which case he would have originally been a scholarship guy. Or, he was the next guy on the list they wanted to offer, but had other players or scenarios they liked slightly better and were willing to let him go if another school offers him a scholarship. Hence the PWO. Something had to have changed their mind and it just doesn’t seem very likely that the thing that would change their mind is the fear of having to play against a guy they didn’t think was originally good enough to be a scholly QB in this class.

So NDSU's motive in your scenario is to take up a scholarship with a guy they didn't have rated as a scholarship guy simply to ensure that he doesn't end up at a school that hasn't been (with respect) relevant on the national scene since their move up to FCS? Isn't it more likely they know something you don't? Maybe one of their current scholly QB's let them know he was transferring?(pure speculation)

Or...a guy that NDSU had rated higher decided to turn down the scholarship offer and this guy was next on the list. Not everything is complicated.

I’ve got the morning to myself to figure out all of the world’s problems right here with all of you.

That’s why I’m a fan and they are the coaches. I’m sure they are on it and have the necessary recruits and development in place to keep the machine churning.

Really? Grammar police man? Smh I’m typing on my phone.

Maybe at UND you always worry about the oline , kidding of course. I haven’t worried about NDSU’s o line in 15 years, they haven’t proven me wrong yet. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until they give me reason to worry.

Looking back at Wilson’s recruiting he definitely has the track background and accolades to suggest the speed is there. We’ll see how that translates to his college body this spring and fall. With any back that doesn’t get a ton of carries, thinking too much can lead to indecisiveness which can make them look slower than they might be. Who knows if that’s the case with these young guys or not.

I haven’t been overly impressed with Saybein Clark just yet, but it’s difficult when you don’t get a ton of carries. I really like Wilson, he has good instincts as a runner and is excellent as a receiver out of the backfield. I haven’t seen enough from Cofield to get an opinion one way or another and your right on Brooks, great change of pace guy, but not sure his body would hold up if he was an every down back. My guess is they continue to running back by committee with Wilson being seen as “the guy”. Not sure what sort of speed he has, but he seemed to do a nice job last year when he got opportunities. By last year, I mean two years ago I suppose, 2017. Definitely an area I’ll be keeping a close eye on in spring ball.

Fair points, But for the story to be complete and to truly see which situation is better off you would need more information. 1. How good were the people they were replacing? 2. What has recruiting looked like the 2-3 years before this. 3. Culture of the team Sure, there are question marks, but this is college football. You only get four years with each guy playing. So your ability to recruit and develop is central to your success. You can’t have a Tom Brady starting for you for two decades. NDSU has proven they can recruit and develop players as good if not better than anyone in the nation. People can worry about other positions if they like, but I wouldn’t worry about the O-line.

Fair enough. Hard to tell who is "trolling" and who is making actual predictions I suppose when it's just words on a screen.

Did you think that Klieman was an upgrade in head coach at the time? As a likeable guy, I think many would agree, but to say he was an upgrade when he took the position seems like 20/20 vision in retrospect. Klieman at the time had only been a head coach for one season at a Divison III school and they went 3-7. Not exactly a track record that screams upgrade from a guy who had just won three national championships as a head coach and finished what many consider to be the most successful transition from DII to I-AA/I-FCS ever.