Sioux94

Nice to see our starting OL will all be 300 lbs. Sure hope Waletzko is back to 100% come fall camp. Would be nice to finally have all 5 starting OL be healthy at the same time for once.

Rodgers and Bennett to me are the biggest losses from last year and the hardest to replace. Here are my general thoughts comparing the upcoming year to what we had last year. OL - Better than last year: We realized it was a massive mistake in having them lose weight, they've already added a lot of weight and we are now looking like we have a decent sized OL, and they have experience. We've been waiting for years for this group to step up...hopefully this is the year. Either way I see them better than last year. QB - Huge question mark: This one is hard to say if we are better, worse, or the same as last year. Depth is obviously a lot worse as really nobody has experience. Kett got a lot of complaints but he did some good things. He was very accurate on those passes out in the flat and would hit guys in stride most of the time, which is key for those passes. Whomever is the QB this year will be more mobile though, which will help. We hopefully will no longer have plays where the QB runs backwards and just lays down for sack. This is a make or break for the season, one of the young kids needs to step up. Will be interesting to see if they have a few more things in for Boltmann this year, some easy pass plays to keep the defense somewhat honest when he is in there. RB: I'm going to say better than last year: We lose JJ, but we will have Skokna for a full year, Weah hopefully, and I think Mitchell will likely get his shirt pulled, and of course there is Gee. Would be nice to have a bruiser at RB too, but I think we will easily end up with more rushing yards that last year with this group, which a big part of it is the OL should be able to get a push. Also still have McKinney as a RB/WR type. Hope we go back to giving it to him on the sweep this year again. I still don't understand why we went away from that from the previous year, was so successful. I mean even Rudy saw that WR: Big losses so is a question mark: Definitely don't have the depth that we had last year, last year was probably the deepest we've ever had in a long time. Obviously Wanzek is a huge loss, and Toivinen really had a great Senior year and was solid. I do think some of the younger guys will step up however. Nobody knew who Wanzek was and he came in and made big plays as a true freshman. I think we have guys that can make plays, particularly Cochran. Plus with Maag back.....Boltmann I think we will end up being pretty decent at WR. Lots of opportunities for guys with little experience to step up, and I think they can. Hopefully not too many injuries to this group this year though. DL - Loss of Bennett is huge. However with the other guys putting on weight this year, and Bennett being injured for part of last year.....I think overall this may be a push from last year. Good to see the NG's put on more weight so that we can hopefully hold our own up the middle and don't get pushed around. LB - Loss of Rodgers, again huge. This group overall I'd say not as strong this year due to the loss of Rodgers. Larson may step up even more, Turner is obviously a stud. Shannon moving up to LB. Will be interesting to see how they all perform. Hard to fill that gab Rodgers provided however. Secondary - stronger than last year. Holm coming back is huge, Seigal is a stud and will only be better this year. Fort, Bluebaugh.....as solid as a two deep at CB as we've maybe ever had? Fort is supposed to be a stud, with Holm and Seigal already studs...will be interesting to see how that plays out. Kicking game - all the guys are back from last year with a years more of experience, certainly can't get any worse so I'd say push on this one but am hoping for some improvement. Most every team in the country has holes they are trying to fill, and question marks in certain areas going into a new season. Outside of the QB (just because we don't really know for sure what those guys can do) I'd say over all we will be solid.

Could be an interesting trend, Power 5 schools over offering. Hopefully the next few years our coaches can also pluck out some gems when this happens. https://www.inforum.com/bison-media-zone/mens-sports/football/4922930-Entz-Power-Five-schools-over-offering-football-recruits-made-players-available-to-Bison?fbclid=IwAR0Jb4YvkJCp4v-2gcD1rIA-5zy-SrLSKk-I4XZEF642Lr20wBEvGsUtSxU

So next year we will kind of be Scatback U, Skokna, Weah (hopefully), and Mitchell. Hopefully we can find a Brady type recruit again sometime soon. Gee will obviously be in the mix next year too, but he's definitely not a power runner. Weah does have some power for being smaller. Would be nice to have one big back, but I think the RB's we do have can be pretty successful in Danny's offense. Any word on if the abandoned the strategy of having lighter offensive lineman? I hope those guys are putting some weight back on.

Definitely, would be a win win. WIn for him to get a degree and we'd certainly love to have him on the field next year. Books and school aren't always for everyone, but hopefully he can get his degree.

I think that kid is going to be a monster, but I hope some of the other guys step up and we only play him 4 games next year. Would love for him to play 4 solid years.

Somebody should make a 2 deep projection chart. We should be as good as we've ever been a 2 deep CB with Holm coming back this year.

It’s a lot different this time of year now, with the early signing period.

Yep, other than fans of FCS schools nobody cares about FCS football. Just like none of us care too much about what happens in DII now. It's not going to happen, but if NDSU and UND moved up to FBS, we'd go back to not caring about FCS football, although we'd still recognize the games when we see them roll across Sports Center. Growing up I knew there was a Division I-AA, a gap between the big schools and UND/NDSU. I grew up in Western ND and have always loved football, and had not much of a clue that Montana was a top team in I-AA. I remember after graduating I worked at place in mid 90's and he was from Montana and telling me about how good the Grizzlies were in football. I had no clue if they were Montana or Montana State. That's where I find it funny about NDSU fans. Not all, but some really think the football world revolves around Fargo ND. That Iowa reporter that mocked them was spot on.

1000% all of this post, totally agree...particular the end result of competitive gap widening significantly.

I'd say 7-4 is the most probably best case scenario also. However I'd say 8-3 could happen if everything went near perfect. Loss to K State, Loss to NDSU, one other loss. If we did that, that would be a great year.....assuming we didn't then follow it up with a loss in playoffs.

Even going back to the glory DII days.....there are times where we lost to teams we shouldn't have, or had really close games with teams we were much better than. But actually I think this happens to 95% of teams out there. Heck even NDSU lost to USD when USD wasn't very good. I remember Weber taking NDSU into the 4th quarter within 7 points, and that was when they were still bottom of the Big Sky in around 2013 or something like that. It happens in football, it will happen continue to happen to UND on occasion. I just hope we don't find that one crappy team in the MVFC that gives us fits every year....like Idaho State.

Hopefully we don’t find an Idaho State in the MVFC.

We do, and so does everybody else or NDSU will continue to win it all, 8 out of 9 years, or whatever it is. I'd say realistically it's probably 75% chance they win at least 2 out of the next 3. This was the year they were supposed to be vulnerable, and ended up undefeated. Hell, even with how good JMU supposedly is, NDSU beats them at least 3 out of 4 times.

Hopefully Bubba wasn't watching how the JMU coach handled the game. The clock management the last drive was piss poor. How about that double pass play on the last drive, reminiscent of our double reverse except the overcame it and got the first down. I only watched the last few minutes of the game, I guess there was a fake field goal, also NDSU QB ran for a TD on 3rd and 23. We'd be calling for a coaches heads if all of those things happened in one game.

Perhaps we need to start a new thread called 3-4 vs 4-3

I agree with this, we weren't going to get some big splash of a coach. If they felt confident in him, hire him and don't give any new recruits to have any doubts. Really hope he can step up and be solid!

He also got out of his comfort zone and hired Danny as OC, and got up with the times. I think if he finds somebody who he thinks will be really really good, if that guy's style is 4-3 I think he'd go with it. Bubba is head coach right, he's not calling the defensive plays. I get your point though, but I think Bubba would be smart enough to catch on the ways of the 4-3 as long as he isn't the primary implementer of if. All that said....I could be totally wrong lol

Condolences for the Schweigert family. This sure hasn't been a very good Christmas break for UND Athletics

Wow seeing that pic really brings it home and makes it more real, best wishes Hunter!

Yeah I am waiting for when NDSU starts losing a few games and goes two straight years without winning it all, then we will see what they are like. I’m so sick of NDSU fans thanking other teams for putting up a good effort and making the game close, acting all friendly and stuff. Wait until they lose a couple, many will become unhinged. It’s easy to be nice when every other fan base has to kiss your a$$. Although the way things are going that will be a while. With Lance only being a freshman, can almost pencil him in for playing in three Championship games.

We held MSU to 12 points with a lot of reserves starting on the DL. NDSU will have no trouble containing them when needed. NDSU’s offense will likely wake up this week. I’ll say 31-17 NDSU. That is giving MSU benefit of the doubt, could be down 21 by halftime.

And also playoff games

Let's hope he gets more than 10 catches a year. We still didn't utilize TE much this year. I think Danny and the new QB's will end up throwing to him, hopefully he can end up being a pretty reliable weapon. Maybe can put him on punt rush team too....like Cloyd....get those long arms in there and get a block!

For whatever reason seems like hardly anybody has mentioned the new OL coach or called him out. I'm sure this was his idea, he needs to take some responsibility for that bonehead move. We all thought we were getting an upgrade at OL coach, opposite results on the field this year however. If we can get a running game with this passing game, then we've got something. OL coach better show his worth this next year or he needs to be gone. I guess we all thought he was good because he came from Iowa, he needs to show something.