Spring Game

[FSSD]

Just that I that I would start a thread about the spring game.

[gfhockey]

I went to the pre party. Awesome food. Wasnt very well attended IMO but could have filled up as i left at 1130 for a prior commitment.

I voted for the acme philly steak sub. I can still taste it in my mouth haha. Also jakes fried pickles were good as i have never tasted them before.

[Hambone]

Any news on how the game went?? Inquiring minds want to know......

[homer]

I liked the new format. The WR's are young and had some drops but look more athletic than years past. I was most impressed with the offensive and defensive lines. The OL looks much improved which is good. Our DL is going to be very good this year. I like the direction those position groups are going. The biggest thing in my mind that the qb's are lacking is experience. Maybe they won't improve but it seems the tools are there but poor decisions just kill them. All and all it was a fun day. I really enjoyed all the hard work everyone put into the day and with a little nicer weather I think this was a step in the right direction to turn this game into more of an event.

[Wilbur]

Anybody else think they should play the game at Memorial Field? Or is the stadium condemned or something?

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

Anybody else think they should play the game at Memorial Field? Or is the stadium condemned or something?

Would have loved to see it at Memorial. I have to assume the stadium is just fine, because the fall fireworks are still held there during potato bowl week.

[siouxforeverbaby]

Anybody else think they should play the game at Memorial Field? Or is the stadium condemned or something?

I would hope that it is not condemned as they still practice there and the football offices are housed there.

[dakotadan]

UND FOOTBALL: Secondary stakes its claim

But one thing was clear during Saturday

[und78]

Now that it is over, I can easily see why the athletic department spent so much time promoting it. I had an absolute BLAST with my family out in the tailgate section. It was quite literally cooler than just about anything I have seen at a regular-season UND football game. My kids love the games, they participated in the youth clinic, and we ate a lot of food. The guy at the green mill trailer even gave me and my wife a couple of free jello shots! How cool is that?

2 thumbs up from this guy on the spring game....

Oh yeah, and the game was fun too!

[CMSioux]

I was there. Nice idea to create interest in football in the spring. The weather and the newness of the event probably contributed to the turnout, which I thought wasn't that bad. The participation by businesses and individual groups in the tailgating booths was very good I thought for a first time event I had more ribs, burgers and other stuff than I could handle, great quality and lot of fun. Again a little cool in temperature and the 8 inches of snow made it seem strange. But definitely something I hope they build on.

It was n ice to be able to walk into the heated Alerus for the game, but if the weather were better the stadium would be a nice flash from the past, however, much less space for tailgating and I'm sure the Alerus didn't mind having the event.

The game was enjoyable, not a game atmosphere but it was fun to see the team having fun. It was worth the drive (4 hours).

[gfhockey]

Whod u guys vote for? Acme had one of the ebst philly steak ive ever had.

[und78]

cowboy catering/italian moon: anybody who brings a whole hog to a bbq competition gets my vote immediately. It was delicious.

[SooToo]

Getting back to football....

The passing yardage certainly tells a lot of the story and I Bradley had a great looking pass down field to Bickle late in the game, but I thought the quarterback who looked the best was Hendrickson; he stayed in the pocket when he was supposed to, he didn't stare down his receivers and he threw the ball accurately, including some nice middle-distance completions on the run. Alternate opinions?

[ndfootball]

I thought Bradley looked the best, but not by a big margin. All would have looked better if not for a few drops by the recievers.

I'm concerned for Hendrickson. All I've ever heard is that he is a great athlete. But if we are going to play a couple of quarterbacks in front of him we better not waste his talent and find a spot for him, back to reciever. He's already going to be a Jr. next year and we've used him very little.

By the way I thought the philly cheese steak from Acme was grrreat!

[Let'sGoHawks!]

I thought Bradley looked the best, but not by a big margin. All would have looked better if not for a few drops by the recievers.

I'm concerned for Hendrickson. All I've ever heard is that he is a great athlete. But if we are going to play a couple of quarterbacks in front of him we better not waste his talent and find a spot for him, back to reciever. He's already going to be a Jr. next year and we've used him very little.

By the way I thought the philly cheese steak from Acme was grrreat!

What is acme, other than a tool place???

[gfhockey]

I guess it wasnt form acme. Just the place that was cooking it rented acmes equipment to cook it. It was the alerus center who was makin them. they won.

[homer]

I left pretty happy with where we are at in the passing game. I feel that next year we are at least going to have options. I agree with the above posts that Bradley and Hendrickson looked the best. Bradley has only been in the offense for 3 months, 11 practices. He could be an option. Hendrickson looks better than he did at the end of last year. We all know he was switched back from WR but he looks to have made strides in the offseason. That says a lot about the kid. Also, I heard good things about Comes. We didn't get to see him but he throws a nice ball and has good feel for the offense for a freshman. I'm a lot more confident about our QB situation going into next year.

[FSSD]

The offense has a long way to go and this is going to be a young team on offense with depth problems at the skill positions.

QB - no clear favorite, but I thought that Hendrickson looked like the best option. Bradley looks lost under center.

RB - After Sutton - no running back depth. I see another shirt getting pulled next fall. Miller looks OK as a 3rd down back and it sounds like Breon B. needs surgery.

WR - After Hardin it is a bunch of unknowns - I like the potential of McGill, Ivery and Townsen. But, can they stay healthy and can they develop.

[bincitysioux]

Why are the QB's going under center so much this spring when they didn't at all last season?

[GeauxSioux]

Why are the QB's going under center so much this spring when they didn't at all last season?

And watching Bradley's youtube video, was he ever under center? I don't think that is his style.

[the green team]

I thought that of the 4 backs I saw on Saturday. Sutton, didn't get a lot of touches, but we should know what we are going to get with him from his previous years play. I was pleased with Jake Miller, and very surprised with Ethan Magsteadt who I really thought, ran the ball quite well. He like's to initiate contact and deliver the blow, but also showed some great ability to set up some runs out wide by patience, by waiting for a block to develop or feinting inside a cut up and then kicking out wide. Receivers, we need to make the easy catches, too many drops. Is it just me or does it seem like our receivers have a hard time creating seperation from db's in their routes. That will have to change.

Our special teams, especially punt team was crap. They are trying to run that spread like every other team out there right now (kind of the flavor of the month in college fb), and it was absolutely dreadful.

I like how Bradley get's into his drop quickly and when he reaches the end of the drop the ball is out---I feel this is very important for any college qb. Hendrickson, didn't look too bad, but he still has a ways to go as well.

[und78]

Yeah, I noticed that about the special teams too. However, I'm not even close to hitting the panic button here. Of all three units, this one has easily been the most consistent over the past couple of seasons. It's kept us in A LOT of games. I trust Coach K to have them going by the time we take the field against Drake next year!

[UNDvince97-01]

The format of the game was great, the tailgating and cook-off competitions were awesome and the free food was unbelievable. Combine that with the kids activities and it's really a shame the weather took a turn for the worst. Having said that, it was still a pretty good turnout. I look forward to the athletic dept building off this first year success and making it a bigger and better event every year.

The football play on the field was decent and you can tell they still have a week left of practices to get better. Both sides of the ball showed rustiness and inexperience, which is to be expected. We still have a ways to go at QB but I'm not worried yet. Defensively, the d-backs and defensive line play was overall pretty good. Offensively, the future of the o-line looks very bright with lots of promising young talent. Next fall, the WR group needs to step up and make plays. Jake Miller and Mitch Suttton will complement each other well.

Overall a fun weekend and I am excited to watch this team develop next season.

[Feff]

I enjoyed the game and thought they did a good job on the atmosphere. Jerelle Davis was quite entertaining with his sideline interviews and I think that was a nice touch. Also having it an actual game format certainly made it more entertaining than the controlled scrimmages of years prior.

As for what happened on the field: The QB situation I am feeling better about and we at least have some young options. Pretty sure that Goska is out of the starting situation, of the three quarterbacks he's the one that did the least and his interception was plain out an overthrow that Hardin had no shot at. Hendrickson still has the tendency to throw too high on short to intermediate routes and that's definitely something he needs to work on. I thought I saw some improvement in him from last year though, much more patient and actually looking downfield. Bradley did a decent job for the most part, but it was easy to see he was not comfortable under center. That will come with practice though, as he almost never did it last year from what I could tell. He has a quick release and generally made good decisions. Not sure if it's due to a low release, but the two passes blocked at the line make me a little uneasy.

WR's: Nothing really stood out as all that impressive to me. They were solid, but far too many drops. On Bradley's interception, Heimler has to go up for the ball. That was a 50/50 ball that Heimler didn't even make an attempt on. Hardin is still the stud of the group and we need someone to step up to take the double pressure off of him and make teams reconsider shifting coverage over his way.

RB's: Sutton looked steady as always, Miller definitely showed some improvement, especially between the tackles, I think he needs to work on his vision a little more. Magstadt was a pleasant surprise and should be considered for short yardage next season. He definitely seemed to like initiating contact and had nice leg drive to keep moving forward. Bickel didn't really show me anything but did make a nice catch downfield.

O-line: Looked very steady for the most part, I thought they opened some great run lanes during the game and gave time to the QB's for the most part, especially going against a talented d-line. Lots of young talent there and looks bright for the future.

Defense: I'm going to lump them all together here because I thought they played pretty well. You can see there is a bit of aggressiveness in the defense and the athleticism of the OLB's was fun to watch. Hendrickson is still a tackling machine and looks to have some support in the middle. The d-backs played very well for the most part, limiting most everything downfield. The two interceptions were exceptional positional coverage and then making a play on the ball, which is good to see. Brenneman should be a stud for us next year, he is just incredibly quick off the edge.

I think the team is showing improvement and we got out of the spring without too many injuries (obviously Butler's injury is a setback). Can't ask for too much more. I am thinking we'll need to rely on our running game next season, and that might be the cause of going more under center. However getting steady play out of whoever wins the quarterback competition come this fall will be the ultimate decider for what our team can do. We'll have the defense in place to keep us in games, and the running game to take some pressure off whoever the QB is, but we will need plays out of the passing game and I'm not entirely sold on if we'll have that come fall.