Sioux94

I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree on this. Santiago was recruited as a WR and I think if he wasn't switched to RB he would have been good, Toivenen could also be pretty good, Georges was a nice get as well. Smith was going to be a WR and sure seemed to have a lot of potential, although I guess he didn't stick so it probably doesn't count. I do agree though that WR should be a focal point in recruiting next year, get at least one stud WR and a couple of solids. Need to land a really good QB next year too.

I think some young guys will step up, they will have to. I think back to Bubba's first year when the top 3 WR's from the previous year were gone....one graduated and the other two transferred. Then during the year, the top 2 WR's went down...one got hurt for the year and the other left the team I believe. So at that point towards the end of the season our #1 WR was really what would have been our 4th or 5th WR. Seibel ended up stepping up big time, and the rest weren't great but ok...and we got through it. Those departures along with Seibel's injury certainly give me concern, but i think guys will step up. We won't be able to afford any more injuries at that position however. Also if those guys were going to leave, better that they left now so other guys can get more time now and realize now is there chance. Much better than hearing in August that those two are not coming back. That said......it really would have been interesting to see if Smith could have developed into a stud....he definitely had the potential.

Dang...that sucks!! Especially Smith.....was hoping they'd be able to get him the ball in space this year. Walker certainly would have been good for depth, but probably not considered a key loss. Although it is a bigger deal with Smith gone and Seibel injured, hopefully Seibel will be back at full strength come August. With spring ball going on I've been super antsy for updates on the team and have at times felt like I haven't heard that much, but I was also thinking no news can be good news because when you get news in the off season often it's not good.

Defending that type of offense will be a big test for sure. In the event we don't come out with a win in that one it will be a good game experience against that type of offense. We don't play Montana in the regular season this year, but we certainly have to get a lot better defending wide open passing offenses so this will be a good gauge to see where we are at and how much we have to improve. If we can run the ball successfully and control the clock and limit their offensive possessions, and make a few plays on defense (particularly on 3rd down) we could pull it out.

Exactly, we may be better off losing to Bowling Green than beating them, you know......so we can make sure we have a good quality loss on our resume.

We'll likely find out early in the season against Bowling Green how far the DB's have come along. I'm glad we play Stony Brook first to hopefully iron out early season wrinkles. Would be awesome if we could pull the upset against Bowling Green! Will still need to take care of business against Stony Brook firs though.

Totally agree!

It sure will be nice to have both Arnell and Reyes back out there this year, hopefully for the entire year (knock on wood). It will be interesting to see who ends up starting at corner. Hopefully they all have improved and will be able to play more on instinct this year because they will know the system and be able to make a lot more plays, instead of thinking too much. If the secondary steps up in a big way this year it's going to be really fun to watch the D again this year. Can't wait until football season....super excited about this coming fall!

He still made a very strong claim of ND being his home though, and held 13 title fights in Bismarck to recognize his home state. I'm sure he could have gotten more money having them in Vegas etc..

I was thinking the same thing, he'll be screwed if he goes to Cleveland! However now that the Browns have picked up RGIII it sounds like there plan is to have him as the starter, so Wentz would still be able to ease into it, and not have to be considered the savior and start from day one......and get beat to hell and never be able to recover.

Exactly......right now this story is a big deal, and I think most UND fans obviously agree that it is a big deal too. Most UND fans I doubt would really talk or say anything bad about Wentz and the story except for when Bison people have to come over here and gloat and look for further validation, well then you are going to get push back. Since Wentz is from Bismarck, I am curious to see where he goes and how it all ends up and hope he does well. If he was a recruit from another state.......I'd be totally ok if he crashed and burned. This is a big story right now because we are living it, and now days with social media and channels dedicated to a single sport....it's going to get a lot of coverage. Plus media loves underdog..........to quote Bill Murray "Cinderalla Story. Outta Nowhere." Everybody loves that story....especially the media. If he ends up becoming a viable starter and does well in the NFL the story has some more long time meat to it. But if he ends up being Ryan Leaf 2.0......or Brandon Weeden then 10 years down the road this story will be not be as big of a deal. He's got talent.....I could see him doing quite well, I'm definitely not rooting against the Bismarck kid even if he went to NDSU.

I agree, Will already put up great test numbers, no need to do those again and risk an off performance. Just do the live drills for the scouts to see him move in person etc.

It was even more disgraceful that Bohl did it, given that he wasn't transferring to a team in his conference and he was transferring down a level.

I posted this question about two weeks ago, but this thread has been pretty dead the past two weeks for obvious reasons. Was asking if anybody new if there was a particular reason they started spring practice before the break, seems like having such a long break in between practicing could be counter productive? Could be some positives from having a break too?

Question, is it unusual for a team to have spring practice start before spring break and end after spring break, with that break in the middle? It's nice that we are able to have spring practice earlier now, and really whenever since they can have it inside. Seems in general when I think about it though, if they have a few practices and then kids are gone for spring break that they would lose a little momentum they were building in the first few days. But maybe there are some benefits of having the break in the middle? I'm sure Bubba and staff had a reason they scheduled it when they did with the break in the middle and maybe it was discussed before but I missed it.

There probably won't be a lot of difference between the top 6 or so teams in the conference, it'll probably be a crap shoot as to who will win the conference. We do have a favorable schedule this year....so hopefully it will be us. Leave No Doubt!!

http://siouxfb.areavoices.com/2016/03/02/spring-2016-preview-und-offense/ -It's nice knowing that we will be losing only 1 starter on offense after this year. -4 different RB's averaging over 5 yards a carry is awesome, hopefully Grady will be back and the O line will come together so we can continue to be successful in the running game. -Studs should only get better this year, 60% completion isn't bad.....and TD to interception was very good....hopefully he can have that same ratio again this year! I think we'd all agree that the O line coming together will be the key for the offense this year, and having a solid #2 QB.......but hopefully we won't see the #2 on the field this year except in mop up situations!

Along those lines I also think there should be a song played towards the very end of the game if the game is in hand.....or at the end of the game, one of those songs that makes you want to sing. I'm not a Carolina fan but I think I saw this year at the end of the game they play Sweet Caroline........it's almost impossible not to go Bah Bah Bah when that one part comes up. Play a song at the end of a winning game that becomes a tradition that fans and students look forward to hearing and singing after a win......to try and help build some more reason for students and fans to stay until the very end of the game.

I do wish Joe would have gotten a chance this year though when Studs was still recovering

Well we saw what Bartels did this past year in a couple of games when he did have a line and a running game....and it wasn't that pretty.

I dunno.....personally I think hearing something on the radio is a little different than proactively going on another teams message board to talk s**t.

Definitely have to understand him for going back for those reasons. Maybe after things settle down he could return to UND to get a degree, and if he continued to develop have a shot at the NFL and really set himself up to provide long term for his family. That is a difficult situation for a young kid that age, and I agree with the post about most of us were trying to decide where the next party was in college. Best of luck to him and his family in the future!

Tomorrow is my Birthday......so all verbals signing would be a good birthday present....and maybe even have an unexpected signing as a surprise or something! Am out of town at a customer site this week which sucks......won't be able to be online and check things throughout the day which is always a fun day doing that......Ugh. Will be excited to check things out tomorrow night!!

Wasn't it NDSU's JohnBoy that was saying Wentz is......"meh....average" or was that the entire graduating Bison class of 2011 that was always saying that?

I was thinking this the other day and agree with you. Yes the publicity benefits NDSU a lot, but in this case it can help make kids, and not just ND kids, realize that we can play some pretty good football and I think this actually can be a positive thing for UND. Mid year when they started talking about Wentz being drafted, I was kind of hoping maybe he and the Bison would fizzle a little this year because I'm so sick of hearing about NDSU and wasn't looking forward to hearing about all of that. Now that it's here and he is looking at going so high, growing up and living in western ND my whole life I do think it is kind of cool a kid from Bismarck may be a top 5 pick. I let go of my total dislike for NDSU in this instance. I'm certainly not going to tell others though that they have to love him or like him even, just throwing my two cents in. It took me a little while to get past the NDSU thing though when the draft talk really started heating up lately. As a Cowboys fan.....if Dallas takes him at #4 I'll have to like him. If he turns into a flop.......well then just one more reason to dislike NDSU