If you look at our roster for next year things look pretty promising. At QB Studsrud went from a guy with wheels who could barley complete a pass to a cold blooded surgeon behind center. His development and maturation made an incredible difference for this team. With the IPF he can throw all winter long to his WR and they can do 7 on 7 work all winter long. I can't say how huge this is. It will pay dividends right away. Between Mellberg and Bartels who knows what they will add next year or if they will even stick around on the team. Heidlebaugh is a great athlete but nobody has really seen him so I guess spring ball will give us a better idea on that. Regardless we need to add a couple QBs for depth in the future. At RB we are loaded. Santiago will get bigger faster and stronger which equals better. Olivera brings that pound the rock ability as we all know. It's so hard for a defense to go from chasing Santiago and getting stiff armed if they do catch him to getting blown up by 220 lbs of Molson. Hopefully Brady will improve his flexibility and speed this winter. If he gets a step faster he will be one great back. Theres also Norberg who is twice the back he was last season and Neverman who was apparently our best RB before Bohl forced us to discover Santiago. Gordon is also apparently a pretty good football player. This means when we get up big on a team and grind out the clock we no longer will have to cringe as Smith runs head first into tacklers. This death at RB is so important for our sustained success. At WR we have a couple guys that are reliable in Stanley and Seibel and finally found that deal threat in Georges. He was the catalyst that we all were hoping he would be. Baukol will hopefully get him up to around 190 or so to improve his strength and durability and he could have a nice season next year. Walker has a nice frame but hasn't really given us much. He needs to get a lot faster so he can separate or I'm not sure WR is his spot. Maybe he can move to safety, he was pretty damn good there in HS. Smith should be here full time next year. Lets hope he can use his speed. I think everyone is excited about Dulin. He just looks different. He's even longer than Golladay. Lets hope after this winter he fills out a little bit and can be that tall WR that drives other teams crazy. We need to add more playmakers at this position. More speed for sure and more big guys as well. TE loses Adler who developed into an all conference type player. He was so good the last two seasons as a blocker and pass catcher. Big shoes to fill. Mathewson and Fiedler both are tall and Mathewson is a big boy. Fiedler needs to fill out and become a pass catching threat. Maybe Keller can fill this need? We need to add a few guys here and the verbals look pretty solid. At OL we will be absolutely stacked next year. We have such nice depth of guys that can really move people. It's refreshing to be able to count on these guys. We lose three seniors, two of which were really good for a long time and one who was a total liability last season and actually turned out to be pretty good by the end of this year. The nice thing is that I believe we can reload at both guard spots and at center. We will be replacing these guys with better athletes. Stockwell Cox Miller Bell Aplin Taylor Grady Steiner. That's 8 legit hogs and not counting the guys who redshirted. Rooney and Merz could even contribute next year if needed. Blair, once he fills out, could end up being pretty special thanks to his agility. I really really love how this group looks. At DL we should improve again next year. We lost Woodsmall who was struggling with his knee this year. At nose we've got two young bulls. Harris is a load in there and will only get better. Greer is a damn ox and hasn't even had his first winter with Baukol yet. I thought Noah Johnson was an unsung hero for our DL. He made an instant impact and always seemed disruptive. He was a great addition. Dranka and Greeley are obviously studs as well. Cieslak is the x factor to me. He is a moose and will only get better. He will end up being something special. Schmitz is another local kid who has developed into a contributor. Carrothers will be a senior, and with the way he works theres no doubt in my mind he'll have his best season. We've got Engwall Denny Wilson and Bennett redshirting. They all have nice size but we'll have no idea what they bring until spring. Hopefully Bennett can get healthy because he has some elite talent. Either way, we're more than good at DL. At LB we lose the best LB we've had since Digger.... and also Idowu who was a very good player himself. One guy won't replace Ratelle but we do have some good players that can try. It will be easier to replace Idowu. I hope that Rich can be 100% by next year because it would be huge to have him back. Bakker also looked pretty good when he was in there. I like his game. Hopefully Baker gets put at LB full time because he seems like a powerhouse in there. Another proven commodity at ILB is O'Brien, he has very good quickness and filled in nearly seamlessly for Rich. He will have a very good season next fall. Rodgers is redshirted but seems to have good talent, he could contribute. Outside we have Labat who is a stud and Disterhaupt who is also a stud. I love how these two play. I think we can pencil in Johnson as the replacement for Idowu as a converted safety. Harmston got some garbage snaps this year and you can see how quick he is, he just needs to keep getting stronger and I think he'll end up being a very good player. I think Poole is a guy to watch, his talent is special. Add 10 or so lbs to him and set him loose. Jade Lawrence is another local kid that is a very good tough athlete with decent size. Feeney wanted him at NDSU bad. He should be good for us in the near future. We've also got Monte Shaides son Brock redshirting, his dad was one bad dude so lets hope he's got some of that in him. At CB we improved after the Montana game. They were coming along slowly but after that game there was a marked improvement. We need to remember just how young we are at this spot. Nobody was older than a true soph! That's ridiculous. Harris obviously has elite length and good ball skills. He's improving game by game and I would bet we won't be complaining much about him next season. Tyus Carter is going to be very good. He earned a starting job as a true frosh and kept getting better and better. My favorite part is how mean he is. He wants to kill guys out there. His hit against NDSU was a perfect example. He was one of the few players who was not intimidated at all by the FargoLoaf. JIS also got better as the season went on. He runs well and never seems to get burnt. His getting beat, just like most of our guys, usually came down to his eyes. That will get better and better and soon we will have some shutdown guys back there. Version Tucker will hopefully be a good player, he had a ton of FBS offers. We need to add some guys here still. If we sign Evan Holm I could see him making an immediate impact here. The future is bright at this position. At S we lose William James who joined this team as a walk on and worked and worked and worked until he got playing time. He wasn't the best in coverage but he was a very good special teams player and good in run support and he always seemed to be forcing fumbles. His work ethic was contagious and he made this program better in ways that were not directly apparent. We obvious return Reyes who will be the best safety in the Big Sky, and possibly the nation, next season. He's so good already. He will improve his coverage skills while continuing to give apposing teams headaches with his clutch tackling ability. He is going to be thee dude on defense next year. Arnell should be ready to go for next season which would be a big help. He is a great compliment to Reyes. He should also be a lot bigger and stronger next year. Palmborg had his shirt pulled late in the year and performed admirably. He'll develop a lot over the next few years. The coaches seem to like him which is always a good sign. Flowers will hopefully find a home here and start to contribute. We have a couple of nice looking recruits here and could probably use one more or a JUCO or drop down. So I guess you could say the future of Fighting Hawk football is bright. Fly or Die.
