UNDvince97-01

Respectfully, can you please stop with the foot-stomping bull$***? I don't understand why you continue to do this.

I used to really enjoy reading Kolpack's work before he went full-blown propanganda minister for ndsu during the last 4-5 years. He is the most crass, brash unprofessional journalist in the upper midwest. He's also pretty cavalier with his language at times on his Twitter account, something I don't typically expect to see from a professional journalist. Here are some of my recent favorite excerpts: From April 4th, 2012: "If I were UND coach other than hockey, I'd be distributing my resume like the Home Shopping Network. #byebyebigsky" From April 4th, 2012: "If I were parent of UND athlete other than hockey, I would have some serious concerns/questions." From March 7th, 2012: ”So 740 is carrying the Big Sky Conference basketball title game. For some reason, I thought RFM is voice of the Bison and Summit League.” From September 19th, 2011: "@TerryVandrovec I think you're right. I think the FCS coaches who vote on the poll got UND and NDSU mixed up." From September 19th, 2011: "I expect it from fb fans, but now I'm getting !@#$ from an SID on a public domain." (He actually posted the "S" word on his account) From September 21st, 2011: "@TerryVandrovec UND A.D. should consider the same message for his employees." (regarding twitter accounts) From October 28th, 2011: "Kolpack: Ridiculous FCS coaches poll needs to either shape up or ship out | INFORUM | Fargo, ND http://shar.es/bZ6Ye" From January 17th, 2012: "NDSU 27, UND 23 at the half." (His 2nd tweet on the UND-NDSU mens bball game. Shockingly, no tweet about the rest of the game that he was physically attending, nor a score update to report after half-time. By the way, UND won that game) From February 8th, 2012: "Still getting compliments on my Joe Chapman column prior to FCS title game last month." From February 18th, 2012: "Looks to me like the Star-Trib fumbled in the Vikes stadium story. Anonymous sources r risky, I rarely, rarely use them." From December 16th, 2011: "Unconfirmed report says Bemidji WR Carey Woods verballed to NDSU." As of June 13th, the guy was still talking about his theory and the supposed 'mix-up' in the schools in the FCS coaches poll last fall. He's a complete blow-hard, who can't be taken seriously anymore when it comes to the critcal word "objectivity". All signs point to Kolpack being a fan, booster, mouthpiece and employee for the ndsu athletic department. I guarantee you he owns at least one yellow bison thong. Right now, Dom Izzo is the only sports media guy I take seriously in Fargo.

I'm no expert, but I tend to agree to GFG on this one. Seems like a good small school player with some decent top-end speed. He's playing against some very suspect competition each week and he shows stiffness in his hips. Just my opinion, but I'd be surprised if we offer him a scholarship. Would be a great preferred walk-on candidate though.

Well then I digress. That's good to hear.

You sure about that? I could be wrong, but I have heard in the past that the REA/UND contracts are not very friendly to UND. Maybe this has changed and/or maybe I'm wrong.

Fixed it.

I got the exact same email response, verbatim. Anybody know Randy Newman well?

I understand what you are saying, but.... It's ok to put "Big Sky" logos on the turf but not "UND"? Is there another potential future Big Sky Football tenant that we aren't aware of? It just makes no sense to me. Why would we half-ass this type of project? Do it right the 1st time.

Unless my eyes are already deceiving me, it has Big Sky logos on each side.

I would let Brian Faison know your feelings on this. I tend to agree with most of the comments here.

Not stoking the coals here, just giving my worthless opinion on this. All I can say is that I am glad this forum is being constructively critical of our staff for being too aggressive in recruiting high school student-athletes. I would MUCH rather have it this way rather than being critical for not being aggressive enough. Lets say we have 50 offers out already. Like others have stated, probably half of those 'early' offers will end up going to FBS schools. The other half will be divided among the top 10 FCS schools that recruit in the region - of which 3 or less will ultimately be in the running on signing day. If you do the math, that doesn't leave many for each school. If we were to get just 10 of these hypothetical 50 early offers, the coaching staff would be ecstatic I'm guessing. And if they want to get the 20-25 they get each year, they still have to go get 10-15 more kids. The numbers say we should be offering way more kids early - presuming we have enough info to properly evaluate and justify the offer. The kids love the early attention and sometimes it holds water for them when they make their final decision. I hope the coaches get criticized for offering too many kids. That's a good thing. It also drives up the competitive market for these kids as there are only so many scholarships to go around. It also would be nice to have to tell kids "no" wouldn't it? Also, it creates a 'first come, first serve' atmosphere for the recruits: "We've got 3 scholarship offers to QBs this year. First one to say yes is who we are taking in this class...". Some FCS schools are very lazy in recruiting. School X sees that School Y has offered a kid, so they offer him in turn without doing their own homework and only because of the recruiting competition. Trust me, it happens all the time. This is a non-issue in my opinion. Mussman, Kotelnicki and the staff have this thing right. Keep offering away....

I'll go out on a limb and say we get at least one verbal after this weekend. From what I understand, there will be a TON of recruits on campus again for the spring game Junior Day.

Josh Kotelnicki has taken over recruiting the Twin Cities area and will do a great job there. I also believe Kotelnicki is now the recruiting coordinator, having taken that responsibility over after Tim Belmore's departure.

Thanks for the updates everyone. Haven't been this excited for spring ball and the start of the football season in a long, long time. You can definitely feel that something "different" is in the air right now.

Agree with Sic. Run the ball on offense. Stop the run on defense. Sprinkle in an efficient passing game when needed on offense. Bend but don't break against the pass on defense. Win the special teams battle. This formula is PROVEN to be successful against Big Sky teams.

That's what I thought. Please, carry on with your un-informed belligerent opinions as usual....

I'm curious what you specifically think Mannausau has done wrong or is doing wrong as a coach? What would you do differently? Are there certain philosophies or techniques that you see that are flawed? Situational playcalling? Coverages, fronts or blitzing packages? How about nickel and dime? Personnel? Please let me know which it is. I know I'm curious and I'm sure many others on here are as well. Thanks in advance.

IMO, Jackson is the type of WR you don't want to pigeon-hole into any one spot or position. He's got the ability to go outside against smaller corners and go up and get the ball using his bigger body in the red zone and other "possession" situations (get to the sticks). He's also the type of guy you can line up in the slot and cause serious matchup issues with. Who knows, he may end up as a TE eventually. I think it will all depend on how he progresses physically with his size and speed. I'm excited to see how he develops this spring. The mental part is sometimes the toughest for young WRs.

Lechler is for sure. I was just telling the truth is all.

If true, looks like Lechler wanted to be a farmer and Arp wanted to own the farm....

Maybe this was already mentioned somewhere, but I just noticed that Montana is currently tied for the Big Sky Conference lead at 8-1 with their only loss coming to Weber St in Ogden, whom they are tied with for 1st place. Can't wait until UND gets into the BIg Sky Conference schedule next season to see how we stack up week in and week out.

If I were a betting man, I'd say he's going to ndsu......he's an agriculture kid. I'd be very suprised if UND can land him because of that, although I hope they do.

You missed the point. Dom Izzo said Marcus Horne soft verballed to ndsu, supposedly per Horne's HS coach....as of yesterday, Horne himself told Travis at WSN firsthand that he NEVER did soft verbal to ndsu. This fall, Dom or Kolpack (can't remember which) reported that Mollberg had given ndsu his "FCS verbal" if he didn't go to the Big 10. A couple days later that was refuted by Mollberg himself in the paper....we know the end result. I can't remember what the source was for the Mollberg to ndsu "FCS verbal" in the article. This is my point. It's one thing to have a kid change his mind and decommit to another school, which happens a lot nowadays, but it is entirely another to be flat-out wrong about your initial report. At best, it's irresponsible journalism......at worst, it's ndsu propaganda from the Fargo Forum and WDAY Sorry, I'm back on topic now.

There's a little Twitter battle/disagreement going on between Travis from wissports.net and Dom Izzo at WDAY regarding a supposed "soft verbal" from Marcus Horne to ndsu, who just committed to Michigan State. First Mollberg, then Horne.