2024 UND Football

[UND Football Fan]

In my opinion. One similarity between Danny and Rudy is the reliance of a play concept. Danny we complain about the different versions of the short passing game, and Rudy I recall his use of  different versions if  the toss sweep run game. 

[Goose15]

  On 12/9/2023 at 11:20 PM, Midwestern Hawk said:

How long has Danny been the OC?

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Great comeback! We all know Danny has been OC for five years. In that time frame Danny has made us a good offense.  (Fringe top 20 overall scoring offense the last two years.) I know you want us to be elite after one year, like USD became this year but that's not how things work. It would be one thing if our previous OC retired or took a job elsewhere, but when the dude was fired it means you needed to build some things back up, which Danny did in his first three years to give us a good offense.  Now that we have a solid base, recruits on that side of the ball our starting to take notice.  You don't get recruits like Kaminski, Tai, Seidl, and others if you aren't doing something right.  Recruiting is one of the most important things to building a team and over Danny's five years our recruiting has made noticeable improvements.  Some of us talk about how many offers a kid has and I made a post a while back, that shows roughly 75% of this last year's freshman class and our incoming class this year all had at least one division 1 offer.  Lastly, I want to touch on the notion that Danny can't coach offense in games against good competition.  Last year we scored 29 against UNI, 48 on Missouri State when they were ranked #7, 35 on the road against YSU, 35 on SDSU!!  This year the games that everyone brings up are Boise, SDSU, UNI and South Dakota.  In the games against Boise, UNI and South Dakota, Tommy had a handful of plays that changed the game not in our favor. Against Boise he fumbles before half. Against UNI he fumbles on the opening drive deep in UNI territory. Against South Dakota he floats up a duck on a deep shot to Quincy that gets picked.  These are all plays that I don't see our next QB making. We also moved the ball in all three of those games, so it wasn't like every drive was a 3 and out.  I understand people are sick of waiting for us to take that next step.  Some on here think our offense has lost it's shine, but to me it is more a product of Bubba not being able to take this team any further and our defense not improving that takes the shine off our program.  Danny unlike Bubba has shown improvement in his time!

[Goose15]

  On 12/11/2023 at 3:19 PM, Goose15 said:

Great comeback! We all know Danny has been OC for five years. In that time frame Danny has made us a good offense.  (Fringe top 20 overall scoring offense the last two years.) I know you want us to be elite after one year, like USD became this year but that's not how things work. It would be one thing if our previous OC retired or took a job elsewhere, but when the dude was fired it means you needed to build some things back up, which Danny did in his first three years to give us a good offense.  Now that we have a solid base, recruits on that side of the ball our starting to take notice.  You don't get recruits like Kaminski, Tai, Seidl, and others if you aren't doing something right.  Recruiting is one of the most important things to building a team and over Danny's five years our recruiting has made noticeable improvements.  Some of us talk about how many offers a kid has and I made a post a while back, that shows roughly 75% of this last year's freshman class and our incoming class this year all had at least one division 1 offer.  Lastly, I want to touch on the notion that Danny can't coach offense in games against good competition.  Last year we scored 29 against UNI, 48 on Missouri State when they were ranked #7, 35 on the road against YSU, 35 on SDSU!!  This year the games that everyone brings up are Boise, SDSU, UNI and South Dakota.  In the games against Boise, UNI and South Dakota, Tommy had a handful of plays that changed the game not in our favor. Against Boise he fumbles before half. Against UNI he fumbles on the opening drive deep in UNI territory. Against South Dakota he floats up a duck on a deep shot to Quincy that gets picked.  These are all plays that I don't see our next QB making. We also moved the ball in all three of those games, so it wasn't like every drive was a 3 and out.  I understand people are sick of waiting for us to take that next step.  Some on here think our offense has lost it's shine, but to me it is more a product of Bubba not being able to take this team any further and our defense not improving that takes the shine off our program.  Danny unlike Bubba has shown improvement in his time!

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One thing I left out with recruiting too.  Look at what has happened with our OL!  Yes, Pawlak is a big part of that, but who do you think was a key part of getting him on staff? We have Waletzko in the NFL. Kilty has some big time FBS offers.  Again, it doesn't happen over night but you give a coach some time to have some success and look what happens. 

[fightingsioux4life]

  On 12/11/2023 at 3:19 PM, Goose15 said:

Great comeback! We all know Danny has been OC for five years. In that time frame Danny has made us a good offense.  (Fringe top 20 overall scoring offense the last two years.) I know you want us to be elite after one year, like USD became this year but that's not how things work. It would be one thing if our previous OC retired or took a job elsewhere, but when the dude was fired it means you needed to build some things back up, which Danny did in his first three years to give us a good offense.  Now that we have a solid base, recruits on that side of the ball our starting to take notice.  You don't get recruits like Kaminski, Tai, Seidl, and others if you aren't doing something right.  Recruiting is one of the most important things to building a team and over Danny's five years our recruiting has made noticeable improvements.  Some of us talk about how many offers a kid has and I made a post a while back, that shows roughly 75% of this last year's freshman class and our incoming class this year all had at least one division 1 offer.  Lastly, I want to touch on the notion that Danny can't coach offense in games against good competition.  Last year we scored 29 against UNI, 48 on Missouri State when they were ranked #7, 35 on the road against YSU, 35 on SDSU!!  This year the games that everyone brings up are Boise, SDSU, UNI and South Dakota.  In the games against Boise, UNI and South Dakota, Tommy had a handful of plays that changed the game not in our favor. Against Boise he fumbles before half. Against UNI he fumbles on the opening drive deep in UNI territory. Against South Dakota he floats up a duck on a deep shot to Quincy that gets picked.  These are all plays that I don't see our next QB making. We also moved the ball in all three of those games, so it wasn't like every drive was a 3 and out.  I understand people are sick of waiting for us to take that next step.  Some on here think our offense has lost it's shine, but to me it is more a product of Bubba not being able to take this team any further and our defense not improving that takes the shine off our program.  Danny unlike Bubba has shown improvement in his time!

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I agree with you. The offense figures to only get better. The problem with this team is the defense, which I never thought would happen with our program.

[gundy1124]

  On 12/11/2023 at 4:22 PM, fightingsioux4life said:

I agree with you. The offense figures to only get better. The problem with this team is the defense, which I never thought would happen with our program.

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If we're going to hype up the Jets as unstoppable again heading into 2024 they better actually run by someone.

[AJS]

Excellent article. UND football 2024 roster outlook 1.0 - Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, East Grand Forks news, weather & sports

Important Notes:

• Fort: Appears he intends to transfer (although not in portal yet)
• Vaughn, Beach, Navratil, Hembry intend to return.

No other surprises. 

Quick thoughts.

• S / OLB - Portal or bust. On paper, these positions currently are awful. 
• D-Line - Needs a lot of help via the portal, but a bit better of a situation than S / OLB

[UND-FB-FAN]

  On 12/11/2023 at 3:19 PM, Goose15 said:

.  Some on here think our offense has lost it's shine, but to me it is more a product of Bubba not being able to take this team any further and our defense not improving that takes the shine off our program.  Danny unlike Bubba has shown improvement in his time!

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Danny Freund still has some potential, but no guarantees. The jury is out on Bubba; he needs to step aside. He’s not a championship caliber coach. 

[AJS]

Re-Fort. Can anyone find the YouTube highlight package that Miller wrote about?

[Oxbow6]

UND won't be getting Logan Conklin from Minot HS next season.  Committed to NDSU. Big in-state get. He's a dude.

 

[SIOUXFAN97]

  On 12/11/2023 at 7:43 PM, Oxbow6 said:

UND won't be getting Logan Conklin from Minot HS next season.  Committed to NDSU. Big in-state get. He's a dude.

 

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all the more reason why bubba has to go............wasn't he supposed to start getting the in-state studs?????????????????

 

[AJS]

  On 12/11/2023 at 7:43 PM, Oxbow6 said:

UND won't be getting Logan Conklin from Minot HS next season.  Committed to NDSU. Big in-state get. He's a dude.

 

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Not saying he won’t be great, but NDSU’s offer was a PWO. UND never offered, so not sure how they’d get him. Other offers were D-2.

[Oxbow6]

Conklin was the best player on the field in the AAA championship game vs Shanley......and it wasn't close.

#wedontneedhim

[UND-FB-FAN]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:15 PM, Oxbow6 said:

Conklin was the best player on the field in the AAA championship game vs Shanley......and it wasn't close.

#wedontneedhim

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It’s ridiculous, if true, but I think it is based on my interactions. This staff is burnt out. They aren’t even recognizing the instate players anymore. 

[wheelsup]

  On 12/11/2023 at 3:19 PM, Goose15 said:

Great comeback! We all know Danny has been OC for five years. In that time frame Danny has made us a good offense.  (Fringe top 20 overall scoring offense the last two years.) I know you want us to be elite after one year, like USD became this year but that's not how things work. It would be one thing if our previous OC retired or took a job elsewhere, but when the dude was fired it means you needed to build some things back up, which Danny did in his first three years to give us a good offense.  Now that we have a solid base, recruits on that side of the ball our starting to take notice.  You don't get recruits like Kaminski, Tai, Seidl, and others if you aren't doing something right.  Recruiting is one of the most important things to building a team and over Danny's five years our recruiting has made noticeable improvements.  Some of us talk about how many offers a kid has and I made a post a while back, that shows roughly 75% of this last year's freshman class and our incoming class this year all had at least one division 1 offer.  Lastly, I want to touch on the notion that Danny can't coach offense in games against good competition.  Last year we scored 29 against UNI, 48 on Missouri State when they were ranked #7, 35 on the road against YSU, 35 on SDSU!!  This year the games that everyone brings up are Boise, SDSU, UNI and South Dakota.  In the games against Boise, UNI and South Dakota, Tommy had a handful of plays that changed the game not in our favor. Against Boise he fumbles before half. Against UNI he fumbles on the opening drive deep in UNI territory. Against South Dakota he floats up a duck on a deep shot to Quincy that gets picked.  These are all plays that I don't see our next QB making. We also moved the ball in all three of those games, so it wasn't like every drive was a 3 and out.  I understand people are sick of waiting for us to take that next step.  Some on here think our offense has lost it's shine, but to me it is more a product of Bubba not being able to take this team any further and our defense not improving that takes the shine off our program.  Danny unlike Bubba has shown improvement in his time!

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I’m in general agreement with all you have written.. other than it puts most of the blame on Tommy.  The things I was most disappointed in this year from Danny was the unwillingness to either 1) focus on the strength of the offense and run the ball or 2) bring in feeney and give him a chance to execute. 
I 100% agree that the biggest problem by far in 2023 was the defense.. and not even close. 

[jdub27]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:20 PM, UND-FB-FAN said:

It’s ridiculous, if true, but I think it is based on my interactions. This staff is burnt out. They aren’t even recognizing the instate players anymore. 

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I'd be curious on some actual examples of this. Spoke to a few of them in the last week and got a different vibe. They are just as or more frustrated than any fan (outside of a few who's expectations that I'm not even sure NDSU meets). 

[Oxbow6]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:30 PM, jdub27 said:

I'd be curious on some actual examples of this. Spoke to a few of them in the last week and got a different vibe. They are just as or more frustrated than any fan (outside of a few who's expectations that I'm not even sure NDSU meets). 

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Let's start with a home playoff win. 2 playoffs wins in the same season would be great. Natty? Baby step....in year 11.

[UND-FB-FAN]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:30 PM, jdub27 said:

I'd be curious on some actual examples of this. Spoke to a few of them in the last week and got a different vibe. They are just as or more frustrated than any fan (outside of a few whose expectations that I'm not even sure NDSU meets). 

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This is an individual-by-individual consideration; not simply a generalized issue, and I’ll admit I certainly can’t account for each member of the staff. So I need to be careful with general statements, but the group needs to work together well for major accomplishment, and there certainly hasn’t been major accomplishment. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:35 PM, Oxbow6 said:

Let's start with a home playoff win. 2 playoffs wins in the same season would be great. Natty? Baby step....in year 11.

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bubba literally only has to outdo 5 schools now and 3 of them are within a few hours of here and a couple of them are in the middle on nowhereville with populations of next to nothing and the other school is a glorified junior college with cows strolling thru a prison like campus..........

this shouldn't be that hard.

[Oxbow6]

Most ND HS FB kids want to play at NDSU. Not complicated as to why. Anyone think NDSU is completely OK giving quality ND kids a PWO or partial scholly offer knowing they are 3-4 projects there but at least UND won't get them where they might be able to contribute soon??

<Puts tinfoil hat back on shelf in closet>

[jdub27]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:35 PM, Oxbow6 said:

Let's start with a home playoff win. 2 playoffs wins in the same season would be great. Natty? Baby step....in year 11.

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No doubt, those are absolutely reasonable and should be attainable. We haven't hit it yet, hence the understandable collective disappointment. But I also guarantee that when that happens, there will still be complaining. Happy to be proven wrong. 

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:44 PM, SIOUXFAN97 said:

bubba literally only has to outdo 5 schools now and 3 of them are within a few hours of here and a couple of them are in the middle on nowhereville with populations of next to nothing and the other school is a glorified junior college with cows strolling thru a prison like campus..........

this shouldn't be that hard.

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So directly recruiting against 3 of the top 5 teams in the nation, in an area that is "in the middle on nowhereville with populations of next to nothing", somehow makes it easier? Not sure I follow that math. We absolutely can consistently be in the top 5-10 and we've gotten close to the edge of that. A long way from where we were.

[SIOUXFAN97]

  On 12/11/2023 at 9:05 PM, jdub27 said:

No doubt, those are absolutely reasonable and should be attainable. We haven't hit it yet, hence the understandable collective disappointment. But I also guarantee that when that happens, there will still be complaining. Happy to be proven wrong. 

So directly recruiting against 3 of the top 5 teams in the nation, in an area that is "in the middle on nowhereville with populations of next to nothing", somehow makes it easier? Not sure I follow that math. We absolutely can consistently be in the top 5-10 and we've gotten close to the edge of that. A long way from where we were.

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what that means is......................if they can do it (win) "up here" so can bubba.........

[UND-FB-FAN]

  On 12/11/2023 at 9:05 PM, jdub27 said:

So directly recruiting against 3 of the top 5 teams in the nation, in an area that is "in the middle on nowhereville with populations of next to nothing", somehow makes it easier?

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When you pitch “in the middle on nowhereville with populations of next to nothing” then you definitely shouldn’t expect to be able to recruit worth a damn … you get what you make out of it. Whatever staff UND football has, they need to be able to emphasize the strengths and bolster recruiting and not fester on the issues/challenges. 

[geaux_sioux]

  On 12/11/2023 at 8:30 PM, jdub27 said:

I'd be curious on some actual examples of this. Spoke to a few of them in the last week and got a different vibe. They are just as or more frustrated than any fan (outside of a few who's expectations that I'm not even sure NDSU meets). 

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If they’re frustrated they should stop recruiting DEs who are the size of LBs. That portal offer to the gopher is a joke if they’re offering as a DE. 6’2” 230 lbs ain’t gonna get it done.

[UND-FB-FAN]

  On 12/11/2023 at 9:22 PM, geaux_sioux said:

If they’re frustrated they should stop recruiting DEs who are the size of LBs. That portal offer to the gopher is a joke if they’re offering as a DE. 6’2” 230 lbs ain’t gonna get it done.

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They’re in over their head. 

[Mama Sue]

Maybe we could just hire UND FB FAN full time to be head coach since he has all the answers.

My point: life is not that simple and hindsight is 20/20.

People in the right positions need to make decisions….not necessarily fans.