National Signing Day

[jdub27]

Listening to the staff talk about the class last night, it was obvious that they valued multi-sport athletes and the versatility that comes with it. The size and speed some of these guys have is pretty impressive coming out of high school. Also said something like 18 or 19 of the signees had been to one of UND's summer camps, reiterating how important that is.

[Teeder11]

21 hours ago, ClassB said:

Nice. I was young enough that I don't remember details.

At the risk of this being in the wrong thread, I think sometimes we, ahem, relatively older fans of UND forget how lucky we were to witness the most recent era of championships 1987-2001 in men's hockey, women's basketball and the 2001 improbable come-from-behind win in the waning seconds for the national championship, and that there are some younger fans on here that don't have the same vivid memories of those times.  

I was listening to the football game on the radio during a National Guard drill weekend in Dickinson.... I remember considering turning off the radio just prior to the fourth down Klosterman-to-Schleussner pass and run because I couldn't bear to listen any longer. But something in me kept me hanging on, and after what seemed like eternity in radio hell, I  heard those magical words "caught!!!!"  I thought he just got the first down and I was ecstatic, but I was soon to learn that he had lumbered to almost the 1-yd line to set up the game winning TD.  What a game! Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

[geaux_sioux]

2 minutes ago, Teeder11 said:

At the risk of this being in the wrong thread, I think sometimes we, ahem, relatively older fans of UND forget how lucky we were to witness the most recent era of championships 1987-2001 in men's hockey, women's basketball and the 2001 improbable come-from-behind win in the waning seconds for the national championship, and that there are some younger fans on here that don't have the same vivid memories of those times.  

I was listening to the football game on the radio during a National Guard drill weekend in Dickinson.... I remember considering turning off the radio just prior to the fourth down Klosterman-to-Schleussner pass and run because I couldn't bear to listen any longer. But something in me kept me hanging on, and after what seemed like eternity in radio hell, I  heard those magical words "caught!!!!"  I thought he just got the first down and I was ecstatic, but I was soon to learn that he had lumbered to almost the 1-yd line to set up a the game winning TD.  What a game! Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I nearly broke my parents futon celebrating that play.

[MoSiouxFan]

4 minutes ago, Teeder11 said:

At the risk of this being in the wrong thread, I think sometimes we, ahem, relatively older fans of UND forget how lucky we were to witness the most recent era of championships 1987-2001 in men's hockey, women's basketball and the 2001 improbable come-from-behind win in the waning seconds for the national championship, and that there are some younger fans on here that don't have the same vivid memories of those times.  

I was listening to the football game on the radio during a National Guard drill weekend in Dickinson.... I remember considering turning off the radio just prior to the fourth down Klosterman-to-Schleussner pass and run because I couldn't bear to listen any longer. But something in me kept me hanging on, and after what seemed like eternity in radio hell, I  heard those magical words "caught!!!!"  I thought he just got the first down and I was ecstatic, but I was soon to learn that he had lumbered to almost the 1-yd line to set up the game winning TD.  What a game! Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Thanks for reminiscing on behalf of us, ahem, older UND fans.  I was blessed to be watching the game on TV but probably shouldn't have been because I almost had a stroke when Klosterman connected with Schluessner to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat.

[siouxjoy]

12 minutes ago, Teeder11 said:

At the risk of this being in the wrong thread, I think sometimes we, ahem, relatively older fans of UND forget how lucky we were to witness the most recent era of championships 1987-2001 in men's hockey, women's basketball and the 2001 improbable come-from-behind win in the waning seconds for the national championship, and that there are some younger fans on here that don't have the same vivid memories of those times.  

I was listening to the football game on the radio during a National Guard drill weekend in Dickinson.... I remember considering turning off the radio just prior to the fourth down Klosterman-to-Schleussner pass and run because I couldn't bear to listen any longer. But something in me kept me hanging on, and after what seemed like eternity in radio hell, I  heard those magical words "caught!!!!"  I thought he just got the first down and I was ecstatic, but I was soon to learn that he had lumbered to almost the 1-yd line to set up the game winning TD.  What a game! Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I was going crazy on the sidelines...in Florence. 

9 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

I nearly broke my parents futon celebrating that play.

I am pretty sure I gave the guy next to me bruises after jumping and screaming and flailing my arms.  It was an AMAZING experience to see it unfold live. 

[Teeder11]

8 minutes ago, siouxjoy said:

I was going crazy on the sidelines...in Florence. 

I am pretty sure I gave the guy next to me bruises after jumping and screaming and flailing my arms.  It was an AMAZING experience. 

Thanks, all, for returning with me to that beautiful time in UND lore!   The point being that I sense the trajectory is needling upward for us toward another era of success in multiple sports. And as for football, Bubba and staff seem to be bringing in the right recruits to lead us back to the Promise Land!  Go UND!  

[Hambone]

29 minutes ago, siouxjoy said:

I was going crazy on the sidelines...in Florence. 

I am pretty sure I gave the guy next to me bruises after jumping and screaming and flailing my arms.  It was an AMAZING experience to see it unfold live. 

Definitely happy that I was there to see that in person - and then celebrate with the players on the field afterwards.  

[Longtime fan]

35 minutes ago, Teeder11 said:

Thanks, all, for returning with me to that beautiful time in UND lore!   The point being that I sense the trajectory is needling upward for us toward another era of success in multiple sports. And as for football, Bubba and staff seem to be bringing in the right recruits to lead us back to the Promise Land!  Go UND!  

Bubba had seen und football at its highest.  He knows we as fans have been starving for much to long and he shares the same compassion.  Bubba has a will to win that is contagious and bleeds Kelley green.  He wants to be here and does things the right way and more importantly the moral way.  Great progress last and now the excitement and expectations leading into next year are very high.  Proud to have him leading the team!!  

 

[geaux_sioux]

Apparently Berry was at the signing day party. Says a lot about the kind of guy Berry is.

[jdub27]

20 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

Apparently Berry was at the signing day party. Says a lot about the kind of guy Berry is.

Him and Idalski were there to do interviews with Hennessy but he made a point to come into the ballroom and listen for a while and may or may not have bought Bubba a well-deserved beverage. Nice to see him to that, especially with the support that the football team gives to other programs.

[UNDBIZ]

#TeamBubba

[Westside]

3 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

Apparently Berry was at the signing day party. Says a lot about the kind of guy Berry is.

I think both football & hockey staffs think pretty highly of each other.  I remember Hakstol saying how great it was to have a great man like Bubba Schweigert back on campus at one of the Champions Club golf events the summer after Bubba was hired.

[tnt]

30 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

Apparently Berry was at the signing day party. Says a lot about the kind of guy Berry is.

Football Bubba said that he appreciates Berry talking to him about the culture in the hockey locker room and the behind the scenes things that go on to create that culture, so it seems the two Bubba's have a pretty good relationship.  

[bang]

I put this on SFI earlier. Thought I'd put this here as well.

 

Here is a question for you guys. What do you think about Rivals and their influence on big time football colleges. These 3 star, 4 star, 5 star ratings they give out seem to really sway these colleges in how they recruit. Look at some of our steals and some of their flops. It’s not often we get one of these star rated athletes and its not often FBS give schollies to non rated athletes. Are FBS schools taking templates of rated athletes created by rivals and going off of that and only that? Tunnel vision by FBS schools maybe allowing us to land some of these top notch unrated athletes. In the last couple years Oliviera, Nguon, Santiago, Grady, Rudolph, Toivonen had no profiles on Rivals. Cloyd, Canady, Tyus Carter, Geier, Helgren and Holm all had generic profiles with no rating. For instance NDSU NFLer Marcus Williams generic profile, Wentz no profile. Ratelle no profile. Golloday no profile.
Not sure if this means anything or not or if I’m over analyzing stuff but just found this interesting. I think it proves that Rivals miss and Bubba is hopefully picking up what they missed.Great job his staff in my opinion.

[MoSiouxFan]

22 minutes ago, bang said:

I put this on SFI earlier. Thought I'd put this here as well.

 

Here is a question for you guys. What do you think about Rivals and their influence on big time football colleges. These 3 star, 4 star, 5 star ratings they give out seem to really sway these colleges in how they recruit. Look at some of our steals and some of their flops. It’s not often we get one of these star rated athletes and its not often FBS give schollies to non rated athletes. Are FBS schools taking templates of rated athletes created by rivals and going off of that and only that? Tunnel vision by FBS schools maybe allowing us to land some of these top notch unrated athletes. In the last couple years Oliviera, Nguon, Santiago, Grady, Rudolph, Toivonen had no profiles on Rivals. Cloyd, Canady, Tyus Carter, Geier, Helgren and Holm all had generic profiles with no rating. For instance NDSU NFLer Marcus Williams generic profile, Wentz no profile. Ratelle no profile. Golloday no profile.
Not sure if this means anything or not or if I’m over analyzing stuff but just found this interesting. I think it proves that Rivals miss and Bubba is hopefully picking up what they missed.Great job his staff in my opinion.

I think that there's a lot truth in what you're saying and, to me, that's what makes FCS recruiting,  Bubba and staff to be specific, much more exciting, because they're doing the real recruiting by ferretting out the gems that have been overlooked by the FBS teams that are fixated on the star rating system.  In other words, FCS schools perhaps have to do a more thorough job of talent evaluation than FBS schools since they aren't reliant on the star rating system and, obviously, the schools that do the best job of doing that are the ones that will rise to the top of the heap.

[UND Fan]

2 hours ago, Hambone said:

 Definitely happy that I was there to see that in person - and then celebrate with the players on the field afterwards.  

I was there as well - what a great day that was!!!

[gundy1124]

5 hours ago, Nodak78 said:

A comparison to Darin Erstad.  Wow!!!  That is saying a lot.  If that is the case we do have a steal.  

"F'N Hawks Football, We keep our stealing limited to overlooked recruits........."

[Hambone]

1 hour ago, MoSiouxFan said:

I think that there's a lot truth in what you're saying and, to me, that's what makes FCS recruiting,  Bubba and staff to be specific, much more exciting, because they're doing the real recruiting by ferretting out the gems that have been overlooked by the FBS teams that are fixated on the star rating system.  In other words, FCS schools perhaps have to do a more thorough job of talent evaluation than FBS schools since they aren't reliant on the star rating system and, obviously, the schools that do the best job of doing that are the ones that will rise to the top of the heap.

Those rating systems are pretty much broken and don't mean all that much when they even get down to some of the three star players.  Per Clenz at AGS, who worked for rivals.

 

Quote

These don't mean ****. I worked for Rivals for about 5 years going across the state of Iowa gathering film on recruits for football and basketball. I cut the film to create game highlights and player highlights, published the film to the site, did interviews, involved with how to rank kids, etc... I know how this **** works.

247 doesn't know a damn thing about these classes beyond superficial ratings done on kids that they maybe saw 8 minutes of highlight tape on. That doesn't make 247 lazy, it's how Scout, Rivals, NY2LA (for BB), etc... do their rankings. Outside of the top 150-200 (even that's pushing it) the rankings are like the points on Whose Line Is It Anyway. For those unfamiliar (somehow) with that...





Want some proof? I'll use specific names to make my case.

Class of 2010 - Andre Dawson http://sports.yahoo.com/uab/football...e-Dawson-76560
I did film on him. Those highlights you see on Rivals...guess who was involved in that.

Look at his offer sheet - for those that don't want to click the link
Cinci
Illinois
Iowa
Kansas
Minnesota
Northern Illinois
Purdue
Wisconsin
Northern Iowa

He was, long considered, the best player in the state of Iowa. There was, at one point, a strong push to make him a top half 4* recruit. Towards the end of the recruiting cycle someone started a rumor he wasn't going to be a qualifier due to how well he liked UNI and how strongly he felt about going there -regardless of his other offers and how could a kid not be a clearing hows qualifier, yet still enroll as an athlete a D1 school. What did that do to people at Rivals and Scout? Sent them panicking. One e-mail I got on the topic said "We can't have a 4* kid commit to an FCS program out of high school. That would make a mockery of our rankings." so they dropped him from the #1 player in the state and out of the top 50 position rankings. They knew they couldn't drop him from 4 to 2 so they dinged him down to a low 3 and had anyone got "solid confirmation even one of his offers was pulled" he would have gone to 2* or N/R after being 3-4* just a few weeks earlier and for all of his JR and SR seasons.

Once Dawson got to campus he was pretty much disinterested in football. Transferred after a year to Iowa Western CC for a year, then to Iowa for a season and then quit football all together.

Other kids in the state of Iowa that year? David Johnson (we all know that name), AJ Derby (started at Arkansas and bouncing around the NFL), Jake Waters (started 2 years at K-State), Brandon Scherff (4 year starter at Iowa, top 5 NFL pick and NFL starter), James Morris (4 year starter at Iowa, All B10, now with NE), David Parry - All P12 guy at Stanford, drafted by the Colts and starts for them, Jack Rummells (3 year OL starter for UNI and on a couple camp/practice rosters this past year). Turns out Scherff and Morris were the only two liked by Rivals that year. Parry won the award for best NCAA senior that started career as a walk on. His only offers out of HS were UNI, Illinois State and Navy. Chose Stanford due to academics. Why were Parry and Johnson so low but guys like Dawson (who was probably "rightfully" dropped but for the wrong reason...anyone watching football in Iowa knew DJ was the better back) were high to start? Dawson played at a highly respected program that had produced B10 WRs like Adrian Arrington (of Michigan fame) and Keenan Davis (of Iowa fame) in the previous few years. DJ played on a Clinton team that was historically awful and he was their only bright spot. Same with Parry at Linn-Mar High (the district I now live in...and it's not a great program but getting better because of kids like Parry).

It's why the MVP is almost always the best player on the best team. It's easy to give them that award/rank them that high. Hard to justify a kid from a sub .500 program being a 3-4* kid.

Also keep in mind with DJ, had he played LB/SS in college and signed with Iowa/Iowa State (like they wanted to happen) he would have been a 3* "Athlete" because of where he signed. Instead, unranked RB for an FCS school.



Another one that's interesting is happening right now, and 247 is leading the charge at changing rankings on this one.

UNI DE/TE commit Desmond Chappel http://sports.yahoo.com/ucf/football...Chapple-183043 and http://247sports.com/Player/Desmond-Chapple-81282

He has offers from UNI (committed), Ball State, Miami (OH), Pittsburgh, SEMO, SIU, and Wyoming.
Jan 17 he was 3* across the board - Scout, Rivals and 247

On Jan 18th he tweeted "Blessed to say that I will be furthering my education and football career at the University of Northern Iowa!!! "...he has the tweet pinned to the top of his twitter

Rivals left him as a 3* and show he has a solid verbal. That's actually shocking to me. Watch it though, signing day he may be a 2*, or NR, depending who signs LOI where ahead of him.
Scout moved him to a 2* and show he has a solid verbal
247 has moved him to N/R and show him as uncommitted and "cool" for interest for every school...and I bet there will be zero updates to his page ever again.


Why? Can't have a FCS recruit ranked highly out of HS. Simply can't have it.

I could go on and on and on with examples but it doesn't matter. What the media has done to drive 25+ year old men to follow these kids every move is sickening. It's why I don't follow recruiting more than if something gets re-tweeted to my timeline so that I see a kid "committed". It's a perverse world.


But yeah...feel free to brag about being "ranked highly in the FCS recruiting rankings". We see it every year from the same set of schools. Yet those same schools can't seem to develop those kids to that potential because they never really accomplish anything as a team.

 

[geaux_sioux]

40 minutes ago, Hambone said:

Those rating systems are pretty much broken and don't mean all that much when they even get down to some of the three star players.  Per Clenz at AGS, who worked for rivals.

 

 

And boom goes the dynamite 

[2TRU4U]

Hambone, I agree with what clenz is saying, the ratings are a joke, and don't matter.  I find it funny that he uses the amount of offers from other schools as a measure of how good the player in his example is, because that really doesn't matter either.

[jdub27]

23 minutes ago, 2TRU4U said:

Hambone, I agree with what clenz is saying, the ratings are a joke, and don't matter.  I find it funny that he uses the amount of offers from other schools as a measure of how good the player in his example is, because that really doesn't matter either.

Don't tell Kolpack and Izzo!

 

*For the record, I agree with you.

[bang]

2 hours ago, Hambone said:

Those rating systems are pretty much broken and don't mean all that much when they even get down to some of the three star players.  Per Clenz at AGS, who worked for rivals.

 

 

 I've rarely been to the AGS website. Yet, that's a very good post and kind of what I expected to hear from anyone with insight on Rivals. Although, he says how perverse of a world it is and how he doesn't follow recruiting other than a few re-tweeted commitments. Didn't he work for these guys for five years? Must of been quite a self-loathing job for him to dislike the environment that his employer had created. 

[Bison Dan]

8 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Don't tell Kolpack and Izzo!

 

*For the record, I agree with you.

You guys go with that.  I'll take a class that has most recruits with multiple offers, and most coaches would too.

[Momster]

3 hours ago, Hambone said:

Those rating systems are pretty much broken and don't mean all that much when they even get down to some of the three star players.  Per Clenz at AGS, who worked for rivals.

 

 

Love!

[Longtime fan]

28 minutes ago, Bison Dan said:

You guys go with that.  I'll take a class that has most recruits with multiple offers, and most coaches would too.

You go girl!