2016 Season

[AFMSGT]

I think it also depends on what the player is doing during that downtime.  I'm guessing Studsrud put in a lot of time watching film and getting better even if he wasn't taking snaps. 

 

Hence the mental preparation (watching film) that I was referring to.  Also, by being a QB..I think it sets a good leadership tone for the locker room.

[AFMSGT]

Very much related to this, I'm concerned that UND's bye week got moved to the last week of the season for this exact reason.

Yes, I agree. The bye should come with about 3 games remaining at the earliest, but not later when you factor in a playoff run.  That being said, I hope the staff takes that into consideration in fall camp and during the season to help the guys save their bodies a bit, while still getting maximum preparation and effort. Its a tough balance. A lot of guys seem really thinned out physically at the end of the season. Good for some that stand to lose a few pounds to improve mobility, but bad for those that need to maintain a few pounds for the bumps and grinds that football places on your body, especially at the skill positions.

[SloStang]

I was very impressed with UND this year and expect they will only get better next year looking at their depth chart from this season.  That coupled with the investment you are making in facilities and I expect to see UND at or near the top of the Big Sky year in and year out in the coming years.  Congrats on the great season.  

[UND-FB-FAN]

I was very impressed with UND this year and expect they will only get better next year looking at their depth chart from this season.  That coupled with the investment you are making in facilities and I expect to see UND at or near the top of the Big Sky year in and year out in the coming years.  Congrats on the great season.  

Yes, that is the vision UND has for its football program. For many years in Divison II, UND was a top program. Now, after a few hiccup seasons, UND football is finally realizing its potential here in the FCS.

Best of luck to Cal Poly next season, too. 

[geaux_sioux]

I was very impressed with UND this year and expect they will only get better next year looking at their depth chart from this season.  That coupled with the investment you are making in facilities and I expect to see UND at or near the top of the Big Sky year in and year out in the coming years.  Congrats on the great season.  

I'm curious about your defense. The numbers were not good but the talent seemed to be. Poly had by far the fastest defense we faced all year.

[Sioux95]

I'm curious about your defense. The numbers were not good but the talent seemed to be. Poly had by far the fastest defense we faced all year.

agree with that.  No long runs from Santiago, and a couple of times when santiago tried the stiff arm, CP was able to keep their angle and run through the stiff arm.

[SloStang]

I'm curious about your defense. The numbers were not good but the talent seemed to be. Poly had by far the fastest defense we faced all year.

I think we have the talent on defense, but I think we need a new DC.  We played a bend (keep everything in front of us) and try not to break defense.  Very simple and predictable.  

[The Sicatoka]

Yes, I agree. The bye should come with about 3 games remaining at the earliest, but not later when you factor in a playoff run.  That being said, I hope the staff takes that into consideration in fall camp and during the season to help the guys save their bodies a bit, while still getting maximum preparation and effort. Its a tough balance. A lot of guys seem really thinned out physically at the end of the season. Good for some that stand to lose a few pounds to improve mobility, but bad for those that need to maintain a few pounds for the bumps and grinds that football places on your body, especially at the skill positions.

The simplest way to save people isn't to worry about when the bye week is, but to make each week a virtual bye week. 

And how's that you say?

Roll up on opponents. Stick 21 on them in the first quarter. Have 28 point halftime lead. Then, in the second half, you can spot in a couple of 2s to get them some experience and playing time and keep some of the wear and run time off the 1s. 

Dominant teams build leads and then build depth by getting 2s and 3s on the field. 

[fightingsioux4life]

I think we have the talent on defense, but I think we need a new DC.  We played a bend (keep everything in front of us) and try not to break defense.  Very simple and predictable.  

Who is your current DC? Leslie Frazier?

[Mama Sue]

I was very impressed with UND this year and expect they will only get better next year looking at their depth chart from this season.  That coupled with the investment you are making in facilities and I expect to see UND at or near the top of the Big Sky year in and year out in the coming years.  Congrats on the great season.  

Now 2 years into the 4 year rebuilding!

[Smoggy]

The simplest way to save people isn't to worry about when the bye week is, but to make each week a virtual bye week. 

And how's that you say?

Roll up on opponents. Stick 21 on them in the first quarter. Have 28 point halftime lead. Then, in the second half, you can spot in a couple of 2s to get them some experience and playing time and keep some of the wear and run time off the 1s. 

Dominant teams build leads and then build depth by getting 2s and 3s on the field. 

Can't because playoff committee seems to look at style so need to hammer teams week in and week out.

[AFMSGT]

The simplest way to save people isn't to worry about when the bye week is, but to make each week a virtual bye week. 

And how's that you say?

Roll up on opponents. Stick 21 on them in the first quarter. Have 28 point halftime lead. Then, in the second half, you can spot in a couple of 2s to get them some experience and playing time and keep some of the wear and run time off the 1s. 

Dominant teams build leads and then build depth by getting 2s and 3s on the field.

Yes, playing in blowout games each week sounds good in theory, but not very realistic once you factor in opponent, injuries etc. We found that out this season. Some games, many games will be contested well into the second half. The biggest grind on players is not during the games, but during the weeks of camp and practice. Playing the actual game is the easy part. Any athlete will tell you that.

[shep]

I think we have the talent on defense, but I think we need a new DC.  We played a bend (keep everything in front of us) and try not to break defense.  Very simple and predictable.  

You don't think the Head Coach, a former DC, isn't highly influential in the DC's schemes?

[niouxsiouxfan]

Can't because playoff committee seems to look at style so need to hammer teams week in and week out.

This!  Don't let up in any game until it's far out of hand, preferably in UND's favor.  Don't leave any out for the committee.  

[Longtime fan]

As for next year and Unds outlook, this is what I see: offense: 

QB- Keaton, with a couple of seniors as his backup and a Redshirt fresh.  Keaton is not an all American type but just simply gets it done. He will be a true junior and is 9-1 is his last 10 games. It's mandatory that und needs to hit on a big qb recruit this year!   Grade B/B-

RB- true sophomores santiago, brady, iwarri and juniors nevermann and Norberg and hearing nice things about red shirt fresh Gordon as well. Stacked!!   Grade A+

WR/TE - returning starters at wr are junior seibel, soph Stanley, senior Clive and add in redshirt fresh Dulin.  Dulin and Clive together could be very dangerous . Returning starter at TE, sen Mathewson and backup soph Fiedler return. Need to add depth at the wr position and with players that can get separation.  Unds wr crew were far above average in blocking down field, kudos to them. TE position is all about blocking and Mathewson is very good.  The true fresh recruit from Nebraska could possibly have his shirt pulled next year an be a added plus.  Grade C+ with B/B+ potential

FB- Adler is going to be missed!  Loved that guy.  But that job belonged to freshman coyle until he went down this summer.  backup soph Francis and red shirt fresh Roland will be in the mix as well. Might take a couple of games to settle someone in but I like coyle to win that job. Grade ?? Not familiar enough with any of those guys to grade 

O Line-  soph Grady =beast, jun stockwell= almost beast, jun Bell, jun Cox and sophomores Aplin and Demon have me excited. Grady and stockwell are the foundation and I see Demon being just as good.  Coaching staff just has to keep adding depth.  Not a slight to the 3 seniors that will be gone but I absolutely love the returning guys.  As always, it will take a few games for the new starters to get comfortable but without doubt I see this as one of Unds strengths.  Grade- start of season B- / by game fourish   A

kicker- jun- Reid.  Heard rumors that he had a leg injury this year?  Can't say for sure but he has a powerful leg and is automatic when it counts.  Grade B+

The offense will miss Adler, anderson, Meehan and boas.  The offense will still be young as potentially only 2 seniors will start, Clive and Mathewson. Unlike Bubbas first two years, the experience factor is there as most of these guys have played major minutes.  Potential is there to be very good and need to keep Keaton healthy......that's a must!!!  Overall grade B

[Teeder11]

As for next year and Unds outlook, this is what I see: offense: 

QB- Keaton, with a couple of seniors as his backup and a Redshirt fresh.  Keaton is not an all American type but just simply gets it done. He will be a true junior and is 9-1 is his last 10 games. It's mandatory that und needs to hit on a big qb recruit this year!   Grade B/B-

RB- true sophomores santiago, brady, iwarri and juniors nevermann and Norberg and hearing nice things about red shirt fresh Gordon as well. Stacked!!   Grade A+

WR/TE - returning starters at wr are junior seibel, soph Stanley, senior Clive and add in redshirt fresh Dulin.  Dulin and Clive together could be very dangerous . Returning starter at TE, sen Mathewson and backup soph Fiedler return. Need to add depth at the wr position and with players that can get separation.  Unds wr crew were far above average in blocking down field, kudos to them. TE position is all about blocking and Mathewson is very good.  The true fresh recruit from Nebraska could possibly have his shirt pulled next year an be a added plus.  Grade C+ with B/B+ potential

FB- Adler is going to be missed!  Loved that guy.  But that job belonged to freshman coyle until he went down this summer.  backup soph Francis and red shirt fresh Roland will be in the mix as well. Might take a couple of games to settle someone in but I like coyle to win that job. Grade ?? Not familiar enough with any of those guys to grade 

O Line-  soph Grady =beast, jun stockwell= almost beast, jun Bell, jun Cox and sophomores Aplin and Demon have me excited. Grady and stockwell are the foundation and I see Demon being just as good.  Coaching staff just has to keep adding depth.  Not a slight to the 3 seniors that will be gone but I absolutely love the returning guys.  As always, it will take a few games for the new starters to get comfortable but without doubt I see this as one of Unds strengths.  Grade- start of season B- / by game fourish   A

kicker- jun- Reid.  Heard rumors that he had a leg injury this year?  Can't say for sure but he has a powerful leg and is automatic when it counts.  Grade B+

The offense will miss Adler, anderson, Meehan and boas.  The offense will still be young as potentially only 2 seniors will start, Clive and Mathewson. Unlike Bubbas first two years, the experience factor is there as most of these guys have played major minutes.  Potential is there to be very good and need to keep Keaton healthy......that's a must!!!  Overall grade B

WR:  walker, Reed and S Carr will be wild card role players if they get/stay healthy and stay on the team. I'm curious about Toivonnen coming in and whether he can contribute  

Hoping soft verbal recruit Cloyd sticks with us.  I see him as a Kyle Ruhe type with may be even more upside.

OL: I was hoping to have a bit more depth on the line going into spring ball so we could go all out by the spring game with two full squads .  Looks like we'll have one reserve this spring, barring no departures and no second semester additions.   Losing Mertz didn't help.

 

Edited November 29, 2015 by Teeder11

[Longtime fan]

2016 defense :

They lose one starter on d, ratelle.... Ouch!!! Huge loss!!  They also lose olb dayo and walk on safety james.  

DE- this was a strength last year.  with everyone coming back other then oft injured woodsmall, Wow, I can't wait to see them next year!! They return two 3 year starters Greely and dranka , both will be true juniors.  Backups are very good in sen Noah, sen carrothers and soph cieslak. Red shirt fresh engwall will definitely be in the mix.   Absolutely love this bunch.  Grade A

Nose- monster returning starter soph  Tank will anchor the d again.  True soph Greer is back and really showed a motor.   Very very young duo that needs an offseason and a few more games to be in comfort zone.  Grade B- to B+

LBs -  ratelle gone. If und can get a taj back that would be absolutely huge.  When he went out last year in game 5, it changed the whole complexity of the d.   Returning starter jun OLB jake D is very agrressive and fast. Opposite of him is retuning 2 year starter sen OLB labat are blitzing animals.  When taj went down, jun Conner O' came in and was fantastic.  Sen backup Bakker and red shirt fresh Poole sounds like a stud.  Und relies heavily on their LBs and will miss ratelle to begin with, but have the necessary talent and experience to overcome his loss.     Grade - with a healthy taj  A.   Without    B

Secondary -  very very young group.  Talented but young.  This style of aggressive blitzing d puts huge amount of pressure on the secondary.  With more experience they will be alright. Last year at the end of the year, und started a true soph and true fresh at CBs and a soph and true fresh at safeties.  Backups were true soph, transfer soph , walk on sen and soph.   3 year starter true jun CB Deion is back and has some real talent. 6'3" doesn't hurt either and 3 year starter at safety  jun cole is a beast.  Barring injury he will be all American lists.  Incoming true fresh Holm could definitely have his shirt pulled.  He can play.   There will be no seniors but a ton of experience.  They need this offseason to get the fundamentals down as last year they let way to many passes get by.  Grade. C    If they can get their fundamentals down   Grade B

Punter- jun Mitch meindel-  big big leg!!  Grade A

 

[The Sicatoka]

The offensive line and the defensive front. Period. 

When they got rolling the season took off. 

[shep]

Good analysis for next season. Re: the O Line, I wonder what Camy and Rooney can do next year. Rooney's HUDL video last year is one that I remember.

 

[geaux_sioux]

2016 defense :

They lose one starter on d, ratelle.... Ouch!!! Huge loss!!  They also lose olb dayo and walk on safety james.  

DE- this was a strength last year.  with everyone coming back other then oft injured woodsmall, Wow, I can't wait to see them next year!! They return two 3 year starters Greely and dranka , both will be true juniors.  Backups are very good in sen Noah, sen carrothers and soph cieslak. Red shirt fresh engwall will definitely be in the mix.   Absolutely love this bunch.  Grade A

Nose- monster returning starter soph  Tank will anchor the d again.  True soph Greer is back and really showed a motor.   Very very young duo that needs an offseason and a few more games to be in comfort zone.  Grade B- to B+

LBs -  ratelle gone. If und can get a taj back that would be absolutely huge.  When he went out last year in game 5, it changed the whole complexity of the d.   Returning starter jun OLB jake D is very agrressive and fast. Opposite of him is retuning 2 year starter sen OLB labat are blitzing animals.  When taj went down, jun Conner O' came in and was fantastic.  Sen backup Bakker and red shirt fresh Poole sounds like a stud.  Und relies heavily on their LBs and will miss ratelle to begin with, but have the necessary talent and experience to overcome his loss.     Grade - with a healthy taj  A.   Without    B

Secondary -  very very young group.  Talented but young.  This style of aggressive blitzing d puts huge amount of pressure on the secondary.  With more experience they will be alright. Last year at the end of the year, und started a true soph and true fresh at CBs and a soph and true fresh at safeties.  Backups were true soph, transfer soph , walk on sen and soph.   3 year starter true jun CB Deion is back and has some real talent. 6'3" doesn't hurt either and 3 year starter at safety  jun cole is a beast.  Barring injury he will be all American lists.  Incoming true fresh Holm could definitely have his shirt pulled.  He can play.   There will be no seniors but a ton of experience.  They need this offseason to get the fundamentals down as last year they let way to many passes get by.  Grade. C    If they can get their fundamentals down   Grade B

Punter- jun Mitch meindel-  big big leg!!  Grade A

 

Arnell will be huge for the secondary next year. Hopefully he can add some good weight this winter and get stronger. Tyus is going to be a stud at CB. 

[UND92,96]

 

Sorry to resurrect this discussion, but I was on vacation last week without decent internet access. This is not regarding any particular player, but my question is--should the mere fact that a player redshirts mean that he should automatically get the fifth year on scholarship? I don't pretend to know the "right" answer, but I do struggle with whether it's entirely fair to give a player who never pans out a fifth year on scholarship, when so many players now don't redshirt, either out of necessity or because they're just too good, and therefore only get four years. To me, the more fair way to do things would be to essentially guarantee four years, so long as certain expectations are met in terms of working hard, staying out of trouble and taking care of business in the classroom. The fifth year would be decided on more of a case-by-case basis, which would be explained up front when the decision as to whether to redshirt or not is made. For all I know, this is done already.

EDIT: I don't know what happened with the above post I attempted to quote, but I couldn't seem to get it fixed using the edit function.

Edited November 30, 2015 by UND92,96

[jdub27]

I'm hoping whoever takes over at the center position puts in the time that Boas did. On the surface, he might not have seemed to be the most talented or look like the most physical guy on the roster, but my understanding is he put in a lot of work to get and keep the center job, particularly on the line calls which is a very underrated part of a center's responsibilities. The way holes were opening up and protection was holding, it appears he was doing a helluva job getting the line into the right calls. Very important that continues.

[geaux_sioux]

I'm hoping whoever takes over at the center position puts in the time that Boas did. On the surface, he might not have seemed to be the most talented or look like the most physical guy on the roster, but my understanding is he put in a lot of work to get and keep the center job, particularly on the line calls which is a very underrated part of a center's responsibilities. The way holes were opening up and protection was holding, it appears he was doing a helluva job getting the line into the right calls. Very important that continues.

He went from our #1 liability as a team and one of our worst starters to a strength in one offseason. I know I wanted Aplin in there instead but Boas obviously earned it and improved about as much as a player can in one year. Kudos to him for rolling up his sleeves. I expect Aplin to do the same this offseason and be a rock at center.

[UND Fan]

Sorry to resurrect this discussion, but I was on vacation last week without decent internet access. This is not regarding any particular player, but my question is--should the mere fact that a player redshirts mean that he should automatically get the fifth year on scholarship? I don't pretend to know the "right" answer, but I do struggle with whether it's entirely fair to give a player who never pans out a fifth year on scholarship, when so many players now don't redshirt, either out of necessity or because they're just too good, and therefore only get four years. To me, the more fair way to do things would be to essentially guarantee four years, so long as certain expectations are met in terms of working hard, staying out of trouble and taking care of business in the classroom. The fifth year would be decided on more of a case-by-case basis, which would be explained up front when the decision as to whether to redshirt or not is made. For all I know, this is done already.

EDIT: I don't know what happened with the above post I attempted to quote, but I couldn't seem to get it fixed using the edit function.

This is a challenging/interesting issue. My opinion - the young man or lady needs to "earn" a 5th year on scholarship. Hence, it should be a case-by-case decision. 

[Ozzie82]

He went from our #1 liability as a team and one of our worst starters to a strength in one offseason. I know I wanted Aplin in there instead but Boas obviously earned it and improved about as much as a player can in one year. Kudos to him for rolling up his sleeves. I expect Aplin to do the same this offseason and be a rock at center.

I expect a good battle between Alpin and Rooney next year.