Sioux94

I would rather have us catch them, pass them, and have them slip.

The fact that he chose UND, and if that's true he was willing to pay his own first year.......means he must really see good things in our school and program. That is great news in general as we continue recruiting battles in the future. Our program is certainly seen in such a better light than it was just 4 years ago.....great job Bubba and staff!

Ok that is what I couldn't remember, if Zimmerman had 2 or 3 years left, thanks. Well that will work out perfect then with Nate sitting out this year and then have 18 & 19 to play.

Yep I know Nate is sitting out this year, just trying to remember if Zimmerman has 2 or 3 years of eligibility left. So Zimmerman is on roster this year, both him and Nate have two years left....18 and 19, or does Zimmerman only have two years of eligibility.....2017 and 2018.

Are you talking about Zimmerman? I thought he was going to be active this year and probably be our #2, I don't think he is sitting out this year is he??

Nice! Finally we are really building some good quality, depth, and competition at the most important position in sports. I can't remember now....does Zimmerman have 2 years left to play....or 3? If he has 3 left they will be battling it out, along with the Boltman the next couple of years to be the starter.

58.7% Completion percentage isn't exactly tearing it up for Stick. But when you have a 20-2 record as a starter you are going to get some recognition even if it's due to having a great team around you.

Although ILB is a concern, I also have confidence in the coaches that they will work to get them ready......although there is nothing like having game experience. Having a strong D line will help, particularly Tank up the middle to plug things up. Honestly I don't think anybody can say how it will work out over the course of the whole season and playoffs, we'll just have to see.

It's a good thing stopping the run up the gut isn't that important in football.

Yep, inexperienced and somewhat under sized for the position. Hopefully they are able to hold their own.

This probably doesn't hold true at ILB, I believe we have only one guy on the team with a Division I snap under his belt at ILB, we will have to hope they will be as good as last year by mid season but I'd say starting the year they won't be as good as last year.

Didn't Bollant have the fasted 40 time on the team last year? Seems like a guy with that much speed would make his way onto the field somehow.

I figured somebody was going to bring that one up lol. There is always that fine line of being creative.....and being too creative. And yes the situation of things and when those plays are called is huge. Nobody complained about the flea flicker that went for a TD against Richmond However you know if that pass got picked off it would have been the dumbest call ever.

Gordon kind of seemed like a mini secret weapon, the other teams so focused on Santiago and Brady that when Gordon gets in the game he got some really good yards......almost like the defense wasn't expecting it. So many offensive weapons this year, will be interesting to see how Rudy tries to take advantage of that.

With Grady back I am looking forward to the Utah game even more. I was pretty worried about our OL in the first game to be honest. Yes we were returning guys who would have a year more experience, but we had also lost Coe who was a very very good lineman and i think the loss of Coe verses the additional experience of the other guys would have maybe netted to a wash at the OL for 2017. With Grady back I think the OL has the ability to take the next step. Although Grady may be a little rusty his first game or two, but even so I think he'll help us get a better push than we would have gotten and open up some holes against Utah. The last 3 years the OL has struggled the first few games, however they did well against Wyoming.....hopefully there is a repeat against Utah!

Yeah, he could. And to think Nevermann would be in that group too if he didn't change to LB. We didn't get to see much of Nevermann but he did look good from what we saw.....so would have been 5 legit starters. It's too bad he got hurt last year, he could have gotten some reps and RB and even if he switched to LB this year I'm sure he would have enjoyed getting some reps at RB. Even though he really wanted to play RB, his potential to see the field so much more at LB will hopefully get him excited about that.

Is it safe to say that our group of RB's for 2017 is the best group of RB's we've ever had on one team? I feel pretty darn good when any of them are in the game. Gordon as the #4 could have been a starter on many of our teams.

I think his height and 3 INT's returned for TD's are hyping up higher than he maybe should be right now. Hopefully this is only making him work harder to try and be the best he can be to reach that potential. I think realistically if he could get drafted between rounds 3-5 that would still be pretty impressive. Great to see a UND player get that much attention though. With both him and Reyes highly thought of I'm sure they'll be scouts at a few games, maybe a guy like Santiago gets on the radar then too if he has a monster game like he is capable of when our OL is on it's game.

Sounds like he will be starting summer workouts with the team in late May, as long as he is working hard over the summer like the rest and has a good attitude I think they will accept him back just fine. Kudos to Grady for keeping up on his school work while he was gone to put himself in position to play right away if he did decide to play football again. I think any 4 of our RB's could or maybe would be all conference RB's this fall if we were relying on just one guy and one guy got 80% of the touches. With so much talent it will be spread around and none of our guys may have super huge numbers unless one guy really emerges as the definite lead back.

I believe in second chances. He was an 18 year old kid two years ago, I don't know details....but if he did get his girlfriends pregnant and chose to go back home and was unsure what to do, well that is pretty heavy stuff for a kid that age. It's not like he was in the bar and beat somebody up or doing drugs or other illegal things that many football players across the country have done and stayed with their team. He has likely matured a lot in the last two years and I welcome him back, and I think the team will do the same. He is still going to have to work his butt off in practice and stuff though, this is his second chance.....he won't get a third chance (at UND anyway). Let's see what he does from here on out.

Holy Crap!! Is this Christmas in April???

I guess you are probably right there, I think I just needed to hear it lol.

Below is part of the write up on the Spring game on UNDsports. That is a lot of sacks given up, yes our defensive line is good.....but giving up a sack about every 4th or 5th play....that is disheartening. We had just an average OL last year.....and we lost a potential NFL prospect from that average line. The OL is the glaring thing that still worries me about next year......will the OL take the next step or not? "Schweigert was most pleased with the defensive front that he said was really active and creating havoc for the offense. In the 43 live plays, the defense racked up what would have been nine sacks in live action and added four more in a 12-play, pin-the-hip session in the red zone."

Lots of punting practice, which I guess is good....since they were responsible for 2 of our losses last year.