2014 Recruiting

[jdub27]

Yes, recruiting is very important in making a winner. However, I would argue that player development is even more important than recruitment. Why? Because at this time we don't have a shot at getting the guys we want like NDSU does. We have to go a different route and get a coach that can truly develop talent and make his players perform at a higher level than their recruitment would suggest.

Agree completely. UND has recruited some talented players but I don't think many of them have developed to their full potential.

[geaux_sioux]

So you think it's no big deal that on one on a B1G defense can't out run a ex. full back from the FCS?

His being an ex full back means nothing. He was an athlete before during and after he was a fullback. He was probably the fastest fullback I've ever seen. It seemed pretty obvious that he could be a monster feature back.

[geaux_sioux]

Hardin developed pretty well as have Jackson and Golladay. Dan Hendrickson developed pretty well. Look at the difference in Marcus Hendrickson from his soph to senior year. Ross Brennamen Jay Nelson Dyo Idowu Alex Hickle Goodman and Bennett have all been transformed physically at UND. I'm not saying the development shouldn't be better but it's not like guys come here and don't get better. Just wait a couple years and we'll have a veteran team and we'll see how the core of this team was developed. There are plenty of underclass men like Rich and Labbat that have put on some good weight so they're at the very least being developed by the strength staff. If we saw those guys on the field more we'd be able to gauge how they've developed football wise.

[jdub27]

Hardin developed pretty well as have Jackson and Golladay. Dan Hendrickson developed pretty well. Look at the difference in Marcus Hendrickson from his soph to senior year. Ross Brennamen Jay Nelson Dyo Idowu Alex Hickle Goodman and Bennett have all been transformed physically at UND. I'm not saying the development shouldn't be better but it's not like guys come here and don't get better. Just wait a couple years and we'll have a veteran team and we'll see how the core of this team was developed. There are plenty of underclass men like Rich and Labbat that have put on some good weight so they're at the very least being developed by the strength staff. If we saw those guys on the field more we'd be able to gauge how they've developed football wise.

Guys have developed but they could be better. Those first three are pretty good examples of that. They are a super-talented group, but you watch some of the balls they drop or routes they give up on and it is a little disappointing. For the most part, I think a lot of the current upperclassman have not developed as hoped.

[Bidago]

in once sense, most everyone agrees. so, back to my question. how do we get eggs without a chicken?

[geaux_sioux]

in once sense, most everyone agrees. so, back to my question. how do we get eggs without a chicken?

Go to Hugo's

[sioux24/7]

Looks like Blake Emsick will be visiting this weekend.

[UND Fan]

For some reason, I don't have quite the enthusiasm I had for keeping Wiki up-to-date with recruiting info - probably because I don't expect many (if any) of the good ones to be making commitments to UND any time soon. Nevertheless, Wiki has been updated. Let me know if I am missing anyone.

[NDSIOUXFAN1]

Looks like Blake Emsick will be visiting this weekend.

I am assuming that we are interested in him as a LB?

[sioux24/7]

I am assuming that we are interested in him as a LB?

It appears so on wiki

[UND-FB-FAN]

Looks like Blake Emsick will be visiting this weekend.

That's not good. After Saturday's game, it's very doubtful that he leaves impressed.

[NDSIOUXFAN1]

I'm not sure I would bring in any recruits during this season, unless you want to show them how quickly they will get on the field.

[CMSioux]

So with that logic a team that has a bad season would never be able to turn it around. There are plenty of talented kids out there looking for a great education in fields that UND offers (ok I now understand why that wouldn't be considered in this thread), what about wanting to be a part of a growing program and helping turn things around, playing in the Big Sky - the football category on SiouxSports has become a cesspool of negativity driven by a bunch of fair weather fans that hide behind fake names and make fun of student athletes, diss a program they should be supporting no matter what and call for guys jobs. You can bash me but I won't see it because I'm not coming back here - God GROW UP!

[NDSIOUXFAN1]

So with that logic a team that has a bad season would never be able to turn it around. There are plenty of talented kids out there looking for a great education in fields that UND offers (ok I now understand why that wouldn't be considered in this thread), what about wanting to be a part of a growing program and helping turn things around, playing in the Big Sky - the football category on SiouxSports has become a cesspool of negativity driven by a bunch of fair weather fans that hide behind fake names and make fun of student athletes, diss a program they should be supporting no matter what and call for guys jobs. You can bash me but I won't see it because I'm not coming back here - God GROW UP!

I think you first have to understand that there is passion and support or nobody would be commenting one way or the other. I think most of us are frustrated with the lack of passion from our coaching staff and tired of watching the program go south. You can call it "fair weather", but who wouldn't get tired of going to games that we get blown out in and see players screwing around on the sideline while we are getting out butts kicked.

[darell1976]

So with that logic a team that has a bad season would never be able to turn it around. There are plenty of talented kids out there looking for a great education in fields that UND offers (ok I now understand why that wouldn't be considered in this thread), what about wanting to be a part of a growing program and helping turn things around, playing in the Big Sky - the football category on SiouxSports has become a cesspool of negativity driven by a bunch of fair weather fans that hide behind fake names and make fun of student athletes, diss a program they should be supporting no matter what and call for guys jobs. You can bash me but I won't see it because I'm not coming back here - God GROW UP!

Fans who grew up with UND football (like me, since my dad took me to my first game in 1985) saw how horrible this team was in the 80's, and this team is starting to swing towards that decade who saw Behrns fired in the middle of it and RT dragging this team out of the mudpit. Now you have Muss playing the part of Behrns so hopefully we can get the next RT to drag this team out of the mudpit this team has been in since 2008.

[fightingsioux4life]

So with that logic a team that has a bad season would never be able to turn it around. There are plenty of talented kids out there looking for a great education in fields that UND offers (ok I now understand why that wouldn't be considered in this thread), what about wanting to be a part of a growing program and helping turn things around, playing in the Big Sky - the football category on SiouxSports has become a cesspool of negativity driven by a bunch of fair weather fans that hide behind fake names and make fun of student athletes, diss a program they should be supporting no matter what and call for guys jobs. You can bash me but I won't see it because I'm not coming back here - God GROW UP!

I agree with you on this part of your post - but not the rest of it. Being loyal does not mean being a sycophant and pretending that problems do not exist. The day that our fans stop caring about winning games and championships is the day our programs are doomed to permanent oblivion.

[BigGame]

I agree with you on this part of your post - but not the rest of it. Being loyal does not mean being a sycophant and pretending that problems do not exist. The day that our fans stop caring about winning games and championships is the day our programs are doomed to permanent oblivion.

I think his problem isn't people being critical, it's the negative manner in which they do it. We have a lot to complain about but people are so worked up they are piling things on to place blame where it isn't deserved in some cases and in a non-constructive manner. I get people are upset but it seems very few on the message board can keep a level head.

I leave is a few hours to drive up to Fargo, pick up my brother, and we will be at the game tomorrow. At this point I don't have a lot of hope for a good outcome but I will stay for the entire game.

[iramurphy]

^{I would diagree with those who don't think we can recruit to UND. We have a long and storied tradition of excellence with UND FB and UND athletics. The facilites are excellent and are getting better. UND is an outstanding academic institution with Alumni excelling in all walks of life from outer space to Hollywood, to the CEO offices of Cargill and Buffalo Wild Wings. Our graduates have excelled in the fields of Law, Medicine, Engineering, Business, Aviation and Entreprenureship. We have excellent programs in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and many grads have excelled over the years as educators. We offer graduate programs in many of those fields of study. We have a beautiful campus and the cost of an education at UND is still a bargain. We belong to one of the premier FCS conferences in the country and playing for UND will take you as a student athlete to Montana, Washington, Utah, Oregon, California, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado on a regualr basis. You will make lifelong friends not only with your teammates but with the other UND students. Those students and UND alumni offer connections which can be very helpful in whatever career path you eventually choose. You will get a first rate education. If you are good enough to play here you be one of the players who leads this team back to a position of National prominence and that can be more special than sitting around talking about what some teams did before you got here. If you as a coach can't sell a kid on the UND experience you don't belong here and maybe don't belong in coaching. We will get this thing turned around. Go Sioux!}

[planetearth]

We have a long and storied tradition of excellence with UND FB...

Define excellence.

[geaux_sioux]

Define excellence.

25 conference titles a national title and bowl wins in the 70s where we could have easily been voted as national champs. Also dominance over the Dakotas for a 15 year stretch in the 90s and 2000s

[fightingsioux4life]

25 conference titles a national title and bowl wins in the 70s where we could have easily been voted as national champs. Also dominance over the Dakotas for a 15 year stretch in the 90s and 2000s

And going into the future, becoming perennial Big Sky Conference title contenders and making the FCS playoffs as much of a tradition as the Final Five was for the hockey team for so many years. That must be our vision, those must be our standards and the sooner we get started on the long road to get there, the better.

[iramurphy]

Define excellence.

Google the word. Lee Bohnet wrote a book a few years ago documenting UND athletics including FB. UND was a conference power for years, played and won a number of D2 bowl games and played in 2 National Championship games winning one. From the Red Jarret teams of the 1930's or the Fritz Pollard teams (Olympic athlete who played FB here and whose Dad was the first black head FB coach in the NFL) to our dominance over our pals from the south over the years including our 10-3 record over the last 13 contests I think we have had an excellent program. I am not into comparing us right now with other excellent programs cuz I think we need to "right the ship" first.

[Hammersmith]

I don't know if anyone is really interested in this, but someone on this thread asked a while back about ND players on NDSU's roster and whether they were scholarship or walk-on. I've been on an internet research kick the last couple days, so I put together the info. I included a separate category for ND kids who were recruited but left the team for one reason or another(if I could find out why). I can't be sure I got everybody, especially unrecruited walk-ons who left the program. They can appear and disappear without fanfare. I also don't know if the scholarships were full or partial, and if/when players recruited as walk-ons were given scholarships.

I have no thoughts about the info, just passing the time on a wet and dreary Friday.

NDSU players from ND

Sr

Ryan Smith - Scholarship

Andrew Grothmann - Scholarship

Ryan Drevlow - Scholarship

Danny Luecke - Walk-on

Jr

Esley Thorton - Scholarship

Travis Beck - Scholarship

Zac Johnson - VCSU transfer

Nate Moody - Walk-on

So

Carson Wentz - Scholarship

Dylan Dunn - Walk-on

Brock Russell - Bemidji St transfer

Alex Fontaine - Walk-on

RFr

MJ Stumpf - Scholarship

Zachary Baker - Walk-on

Jack Plankers - Scholarship

Landon Lechler - Scholarship

Justin Arp - Walk-on

Fr

Keenan Hodenfield - Walk-on

Peter Saintal - Walk-on

Jeff Illies - Scholarship

Bryce Messner - Walk-on

No longer with team

2009: Logan Hushka(W-Injury)

2010: Tyler Gefroh(S-Injury)

2011: Andrew Okland(S-?), Brandon Chrest(W-?), Leighton Talmadge(W-Transferred to Mary)

2012: none so far

[NDSIOUXFAN1]

^{I would diagree with those who don't think we can recruit to UND. We have a long and storied tradition of excellence with UND FB and UND athletics. The facilites are excellent and are getting better. UND is an outstanding academic institution with Alumni excelling in all walks of life from outer space to Hollywood, to the CEO offices of Cargill and Buffalo Wild Wings. Our graduates have excelled in the fields of Law, Medicine, Engineering, Business, Aviation and Entreprenureship. We have excellent programs in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and many grads have excelled over the years as educators. We offer graduate programs in many of those fields of study. We have a beautiful campus and the cost of an education at UND is still a bargain. We belong to one of the premier FCS conferences in the country and playing for UND will take you as a student athlete to Montana, Washington, Utah, Oregon, California, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado on a regualr basis. You will make lifelong friends not only with your teammates but with the other UND students. Those students and UND alumni offer connections which can be very helpful in whatever career path you eventually choose. You will get a first rate education. If you are good enough to play here you be one of the players who leads this team back to a position of National prominence and that can be more special than sitting around talking about what some teams did before you got here. If you as a coach can't sell a kid on the UND experience you don't belong here and maybe don't belong in coaching. We will get this thing turned around. Go Sioux!}

Great post! I think the part that people are most concerned with is the ability for the current coaching staff to "sell" that to the right kids and bring the program back, or at least that is my major concern.

[planetearth]

Google the word. Lee Bohnet wrote a book a few years ago documenting UND athletics including FB. UND was a conference power for years, played and won a number of D2 bowl games and played in 2 National Championship games winning one. From the Red Jarret teams of the 1930's or the Fritz Pollard teams (Olympic athlete who played FB here and whose Dad was the first black head FB coach in the NFL) to our dominance over our pals from the south over the years including our 10-3 record over the last 13 contests I think we have had an excellent program. I am not into comparing us right now with other excellent programs cuz I think we need to "right the ship" first.

UofMinn's definition too. Thank you