Two Week Layoff

[UND Fan]

While most of us were very disappointed that UND's schedule included a two-week layoff, it may end up being a very good thing! Many of our injured players are healing up a bit and it is allowing our coaching staff to do some serious talent assessment and recruiting during the season - a rare opportunity! Of course, if the team is not sharp when play resumes, it may not have been such a good thing!

Although I am not a fan of recruiting a lot of JC players, I am glad we are doing so for next year. We lose a lot of talent and we are very thin in many positions. It will be important that we are very respectable next year - we don't have to be 9-2 or 8-3 (although that would be great!) but we do need to play people tough and continue to make progress as a DI team.

[UND92,96]

While most of us were very disappointed that UND's schedule included a two-week layoff, it may end up being a very good thing! Many of our injured players are healing up a bit and it is allowing our coaching staff to do some serious talent assessment and recruiting during the season - a rare opportunity! Of course, if the team is not sharp when play resumes, it may not have been such a good thing!

Although I am not a fan of recruiting a lot of JC players, I am glad we are doing so for next year. We lose a lot of talent and we are very thin in many positions. It will be important that we are very respectable next year - we don't have to be 9-2 or 8-3 (although that would be great!) but we do need to play people tough and continue to make progress as a DI team.

Just a hunch, but I suspect the juco recruiting is only going to be a temporary thing. The reality is that we are thin at certain positions, and playing young kids before they're ready may not be in anyone's best interests. We have a ton of scholarship money available this year, so we should hopefully be able to get some immediate impact help via either juco or FBS transfers.

The interesting thing to watch for is whether the offense can reload next year despite the losses of Freund, Trenbeath, Braegelmann, Troen, etc. Whereas once UND known mostly for its defense, the past three years have really reversed that trend, as the offense has obviously been the team's strength. Can that continue? Or is the defense ready to become a dominant unit again to take some pressure off the offense?

[homer]

Just a hunch, but I suspect the juco recruiting is only going to be a temporary thing. The reality is that we are thin at certain positions, and playing young kids before they're ready may not be in anyone's best interests. We have a ton of scholarship money available this year, so we should hopefully be able to get some immediate impact help via either juco or FBS transfers.

The interesting thing to watch for is whether the offense can reload next year despite the losses of Freund, Trenbeath, Braegelmann, Troen, etc. Whereas once UND known mostly for its defense, the past three years have really reversed that trend, as the offense has obviously been the team's strength. Can that continue? Or is the defense ready to become a dominant unit again to take some pressure off the offense?

I agree. Although we have had some good talent in the past few recruiting classes UND has had very good luck in the past with Jucos. I for one have no problem with bringing in Jucos to patch a few holes as I also agree that competing next year will be very important in our development as a program through this transition.