2012 Recruiting

[Hambone]

UND has an offer out to Stephen Arnold, a Center out of Arizona who also has offers from Bryant, Penn and Yale.

http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=5476431

[UND Fan]

Thanks for the update. That kid plays with a great motor. He'd look very good playing in the 3-4 as he fits the mold of the very athletic LB's we have had in the past and have recruited the last few seasons.

Wiki has been updated with the two most recent offers. It is good to see us getting into the Chicago area. While this market is highly recruited, we may be able to pull a good prospect or two out of there!

[UND Fan]

Another 10-11 prospects from Minnesota have been added to Wiki. As far as I know, none of them have been offered.

[Herd]

I would be very surprised if the word und is uttered by Bohl during a recruiting visit to Fargo. I am quite sure the focus is on selling your program, institution and city, not running down another.

[dakotadan]

I would be very surprised if the word und is uttered by Bohl during a recruiting visit to Fargo. I am quite sure the focus is on selling your program, institution and city, not running down another.

This coming from a bison fan?

[UND Fan]

Another offer: King Frazier, a 6', 205 RB from Lee's Summit, MO. He also has offers from Indiana and SDSU.

[UND Fan]

UND has offered RB Casey Jahn out of Phoenix NW Community Christian. Wiki has been updated.

NDSU has offered this kid - as has NAU.

[UND Fan]

We have offered Austin Farnlof, an OG from AZ. He is a Rivals 3 Star and Scout 2 Star so he must be good. His size (6'1", 260) will probably keep the big boys away from him. Rivals has his 40 time at 5.2 while Scout has him at 4.9. If it is 4.9, the kid is fast for a OL. He has offers from SDSU and Air Force.

[UND Fan]

Matt Baltimore (DE out of KS), who had an offer from us, has committed to N. Illinois.

[UND Fan]

Another QB offer: Robert Tonyan, Jr., 6'4", 180, McHenry, IL

[Wilbur]

Not a lot of North Dakota/Minnesota kids discussed in this recruiting thread....guess its all part of being a DI football program.

I'm going to miss the days when the Sioux had QBs from Cogswell.....defensive backs out of Red River High School.....great running backs from Washburn, and speedy little receivers from Bismarck.

[UNDColorado]

Not a lot of North Dakota/Minnesota kids discussed in this recruiting thread....guess its all part of being a DI football program.

I'm going to miss the days when the Sioux had QBs from Cogswell.....defensive backs out of Red River High School.....great running backs from Washburn, and speedy little receivers from Bismarck.

I would certainly like to see more kids from Nodak and northern MN but it may be time for North Dakota's high school football system to become more competitive with other states. In Nodak it seems that most of the kids merely participate whereas many other states have their kids training at least half of the year. When growing up we didn't get to play tackle until 7th grade but at least now they have pee wee tackle leagues. (played football in the Nodak system for Devils Lake). Just a thought...

[Wilbur]

I would certainly like to see more kids from Nodak and northern MN but it may be time for North Dakota's high school football system to become more competitive with other states. In Nodak it seems that most of the kids merely participate whereas many other states have their kids training at least half of the year. When growing up we didn't get to play tackle until 7th grade but at least now they have pee wee tackle leagues. (played football in the Nodak system for Devils Lake). Just a thought...

I agree, but I don't see North Dakota becoming more competitive in high school football. I mean you watch a game on Friday night in North Dakota (even at the AAA level) and a game in California or Texas, and its completely different football. Part of the move to DI football meant that less and less kids from North Dakota would be seeing the field for the Sioux, and I'm still in the denial stage about this....

There are simply better athletes in Texas, Arizona, Missouri, California, etc. And if UND wants to schedule games against Texas Tech, Fresno State, Idaho, they'd better go out of state to get kids to keep the game close.

[BigGame]

I agree, but I don't see North Dakota becoming more competitive in high school football. I mean you watch a game on Friday night in North Dakota (even at the AAA level) and a game in California or Texas, and its completely different football. Part of the move to DI football meant that less and less kids from North Dakota would be seeing the field for the Sioux, and I'm still in the denial stage about this....

There are simply better athletes in Texas, Arizona, Missouri, California, etc. And if UND wants to schedule games against Texas Tech, Fresno State, Idaho, they'd better go out of state to get kids to keep the game close.

ND could never compete overall athletically with TX for several reasons but I do think that they could produce better football talent if they adopted some of the rules they have in TX. For example offseason programs and athletic PE classes would help dramatically to improve skill and athleticism (the athletic PE classes also have some school wide benefits as well). They also have spring football in TX which can help a lot as well.

[UNDvince97-01]

There are still ND and NW MN kids to be had every year. It's just a matter of identifying the right kids and projecting them properly. Not an easy thing to do obviously with no real formula. Some are better at doing this than others. The Perkerewicz's and Stein's of UND football world were low-scholarship guys coming in who earned everything they got and developed to get there through coaching and experience. They paid their dues and bought in to the system.

In the D2 days, UND recruited guys that were "projected" and developed them with coaching and technique, with the exception of a few guys in each recruiting class who were "blue-chip", relative to D2 football. We need to better "develop" our guys that we get each year, ND, MN, CA or otherwise. I feel like we think that since we are recruiting supposedly better natural athletes out of high school, that it means automatically more dividends on the playing field. I would also argue with great conviction that we had a lot of better players at certain positions during our D2 days than what we have seen so far in Division 1. However, I will say that we definitely seem to get better each year with our recruiting classes and that the best is yet to come.

Recruiting can be a crap-shoot, no doubt. Every coach "misses" on players from time to time. The key is develop what you get each year.

Bottom line: we need to continue to recruit better players each year, and we need to do a better job of developing those players during their time on campus - "Coach'em up".

[Wilbur]

ND could never compete overall athletically with TX for several reasons but I do think that they could produce better football talent if they adopted some of the rules they have in TX. For example offseason programs and athletic PE classes would help dramatically to improve skill and athleticism (the athletic PE classes also have some school wide benefits as well). They also have spring football in TX which can help a lot as well.

I like the idea of spring football, but in North Dakota a lot of your football players in the fall are playing baseball, track or golf in the spring. With the size of the schools in North Dakota we have to have a lot of three sport athletes to keep some of the programs going. If I look at the high school football team in the community that I live in and go position by position, 95% of the kids are involved in a spring sport, and put their football pads away from November until August.

With the addition of spring football I think you'd see the end of a baseball, track, or golf team because of lack of participation. But you are correct, we would have better football players.

[BigGame]

I like the idea of spring football, but in North Dakota a lot of your football players in the fall are playing baseball, track or golf in the spring. With the size of the schools in North Dakota we have to have a lot of three sport athletes to keep some of the programs going. If I look at the high school football team in the community that I live in and go position by position, 95% of the kids are involved in a spring sport, and put their football pads away from November until August.

With the addition of spring football I think you'd see the end of a baseball, track, or golf team because of lack of participation. But you are correct, we would have better football players.

I agree because even down here a lot of kids play baseball or are in track and don't participate but it helps the others athletes. Spring ball is really helpful but not nearly as much as the athletic PE period throughout the year, and yes those classes during the school day are when the kids get at least half or the spring practice time in. I think practice for the HS in TX have a max practice time per week but that doesn't count the football PE class which gives them an extra 5 hours per week of football or sports training they don't get most other places.

[siouxforeverbaby]

I agree because even down here a lot of kids play baseball or are in track and don't participate but it helps the others athletes. Spring ball is really helpful but not nearly as much as the athletic PE period throughout the year, and yes those classes during the school day are when the kids get at least half or the spring practice time in. I think practice for the HS in TX have a max practice time per week but that doesn't count the football PE class which gives them an extra 5 hours per week of football or sports training they don't get most other places.

Forgive me for being dumb in this question, but I was wondering about these athletic PE classes...are there options for the kids that don't play football or aren't athletic? Because I get the feeling that it would not be helpful for the football players to play against those kids and it is not fair for those "non-athletes" to have to try and participate against football players.

[Wilbur]

I agree because even down here a lot of kids play baseball or are in track and don't participate but it helps the others athletes. Spring ball is really helpful but not nearly as much as the athletic PE period throughout the year, and yes those classes during the school day are when the kids get at least half or the spring practice time in. I think practice for the HS in TX have a max practice time per week but that doesn't count the football PE class which gives them an extra 5 hours per week of football or sports training they don't get most other places.

The school I used to teach at formed what was called an "Athletes Lifting" PE class. The problem was that too many kids considered themselves athletes, and they could only have this a period or two a day because the school I was at didn't have a bevy of PE teachers that could teach the class. This created a clogged up weight room with kids with different lifting routines, and not a lot has gotten accomplished since then.

I would be in favor of allowing teams to have like a spring camp weekend during the school year. Where your Juniors and down can have a weekend of practices or football drilling together. Each team in North Dakota is allowed to do a camp during the summer for a week or so, but thats so close to the season getting going that its almost like an add on to the beginning of fall camp. Once again though, this would conflict with spring sports......

[BigGame]

Forgive me for being dumb in this question, but I was wondering about these athletic PE classes...are there options for the kids that don't play football or aren't athletic? Because I get the feeling that it would not be helpful for the football players to play against those kids and it is not fair for those "non-athletes" to have to try and participate against football players.

Non athletes continue regular PE, but all sports have athletics PE and band members take marching band witch qualifies as PE credit. So no they don't even see the regular PE kids in a physical activity setting which really helps get more kids active and involved because they are in activity with students closer to the skill level of each student.

[BigGame]

The school I used to teach at formed what was called an "Athletes Lifting" PE class. The problem was that too many kids considered themselves athletes, and they could only have this a period or two a day because the school I was at didn't have a bevy of PE teachers that could teach the class. This created a clogged up weight room with kids with different lifting routines, and not a lot has gotten accomplished since then.

I would be in favor of allowing teams to have like a spring camp weekend during the school year. Where your Juniors and down can have a weekend of practices or football drilling together. Each team in North Dakota is allowed to do a camp during the summer for a week or so, but thats so close to the season getting going that its almost like an add on to the beginning of fall camp. Once again though, this would conflict with spring sports......

It TX the coaches run the class, usually some are PE teachers but a lot teach other subjects with one or two athletic periods each day.

[siouxforeverbaby]

Non athletes continue regular PE, but all sports have athletics PE and band members take marching band witch qualifies as PE credit. So no they don't even see the regular PE kids in a physical activity setting which really helps get more kids active and involved because they are in activity with students closer to the skill level of each student.

Ah, thanks..In my high school, we would do things for the athletic kids....which was not at all fun when you were not athletic (like me).

[Wilbur]

It TX the coaches run the class, usually some are PE teachers but a lot teach other subjects with one or two athletic periods each day.

I suppose it helps that Texas has full time high school football coaches while I don't think you would ever see that in North Dakota.

[BigGame]

I suppose it helps that Texas has full time high school football coaches while I don't think you would ever see that in North Dakota.

Most places they Head Coach is like an athletic director on campus and they teach a few classes in addition to athletics. They do have a lot more time than a typical teacher but much of it is spent doing administrative tasks.

[UND Fan]

Another offer: Bennett Goff, 6'2", 210, LB from Middleton, WI. Also has offers from Air Force, UNI & SDSU.