2025 UND football

[Siouxperman8]

2 hours ago, Nodak78 said:

 

Observations of Day 12 of UND football fall camp - Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, East Grand Forks news, weather & sports

Tom is calling balls and strikes on the gridiron.

Daily dose of QB: The quarterbacks were a little better overall Wednesday. Javance Tupou'ata-Johnson had one of his better days, while Simon Romfo continues to be an energizing force for the offense and was the most accurate long-ball thrower during the team setting Wednesday.

Simon just won't go away and is in the mix.  

I agree that we should have given Jerry more game time and we need much better QB play than we had last year.....but the narrative that there's no way Romfo was the top QB coming out of camp in 2024 appears to be overstated.  

[Nodak78]

7 hours ago, Siouxperman8 said:

Simon just won't go away and is in the mix.  

I agree that we should have given Jerry more game time and we need much better QB play than we had last year.....but the narrative that there's no way Romfo was the top QB coming out of camp in 2024 appears to be overstated.  

Makes you wonder if Simon didn't have the shoulder injury how different the season could have been.

[GoodGood]

1 hour ago, Nodak78 said:

Makes you wonder if Simon didn't have the shoulder injury how different the season could have been.

Did he hurt his shoulder in fall camp last year? 

[siouxfan512]

I really am hitting the point of, "I don't care who starts".

Simon - We feel like we have already watched that episode ... but maybe this year would be better. Healed up, new coaching, different approach, better receivers.

Jerry - We have been wondering what he can do for a few years

JTJ - The new shiny toy

Sulik - Let him develop and grow his game.

 

I just want some UND football and I want to see us win. Jerry and JTJ may have been tools and higher ceilings, but if they can't play consistent, maybe that isn't the option. I'm sure the coaches have a decent pulse of what is going one based on what they are seeing day in and day out.

[geaux_sioux]

1 hour ago, siouxfan512 said:

I really am hitting the point of, "I don't care who starts".

Simon - We feel like we have already watched that episode ... but maybe this year would be better. Healed up, new coaching, different approach, better receivers.

Jerry - We have been wondering what he can do for a few years

JTJ - The new shiny toy

Sulik - Let him develop and grow his game.

 

I just want some UND football and I want to see us win. Jerry and JTJ may have been tools and higher ceilings, but if they can't play consistent, maybe that isn't the option. I'm sure the coaches have a decent pulse of what is going one based on what they are seeing day in and day out.

My take would be to start Jerry and give JTJ some reps to start out. If they fail badly Simon can step in and provide better consistency. His problem is his ceiling is low. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

26 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

My take would be to start Jerry and give JTJ some reps to start out. If they fail badly Simon can step in and provide better consistency. His problem is his ceiling is low. 

I disagree.

Would recommend they pick someone (best performer in fall camp, ideally someone with 2 years + so either JTJ or Jerry), let him take his lumps early, but grow and let his confidence develop. Do not falter. Stay committed. If you play musical chairs with QBs it rarely ends well. Championship teams just historically don’t operate that way either. Fortunately, based on how persistent Fruechte was with keeping Simon in last year, I’m confident he will do this with whomever of the 3 he chooses, for which I agree. 
 

Of course, that’s just my 2 cents. If they go with a 2 or 3 QB system and win, I’d be all for it, but I doubt they’d be successful with that. Again, if you have 2 QBs, you have none.

@UNDvince97-01 said something along these lines earlier. Pick someone, coach ‘em up and stay committed to him, and see where he grows over a 2+ year period. 

Based on all of the above, I’m sure you can imagine who I want to start. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” … I want the guy with the highest ceiling & the most potential to get the nod, and see if we can reach that potential over a multi-game, multi-year relationship.

The issue with Simon is, despite UND being committed to him all of last year, he had a low ceiling (as you said) so it didn’t matter they were committed to him. UND now has higher ceiling players to consider, and I think it would be best for UND football overall to coach and develop those high ceiling guys to try and reach that potential.  

[jdub27]

16 hours ago, Nodak78 said:

 

Observations of Day 12 of UND football fall camp - Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, East Grand Forks news, weather & sports

Tom is calling balls and strikes on the gridiron.

Daily dose of QB: The quarterbacks were a little better overall Wednesday. Javance Tupou'ata-Johnson had one of his better days, while Simon Romfo continues to be an energizing force for the offense and was the most accurate long-ball thrower during the team setting Wednesday.

More propaganda by Miller...

[bubbaball69]

1 minute ago, jdub27 said:

More propaganda by Miller...

I don't get his infatuation with Romfo. He never moved the needle last year. Once teams stopped the run he wasn't good enough to sling the rock past 15 yards without it being a duck. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

2 minutes ago, bubbaball69 said:

I don't get his infatuation with Romfo. He never moved the needle last year. Once teams stopped the run he wasn't good enough to sling the rock past 15 yards without it being a duck. 

He’s a good local kid, and obviously he’s a good practice QB, but proof is in the pudding: not a good long-term in-game QB. 
 

Whoever gets the nod, wish them all the success in the world. And the back-up QB is pretty darn important too…

[Big Green]

3 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

More propaganda by Miller...

We want Miller covering UND Football until he tells us what we don't want to hear.  Like it or not Romfo is the Returned QB starter.  He was the job last Fall because he was the best QB on the staff at the time.  He just observes what he sees.  His observation will have not bearing on the the coaches decide.  Not sure what Propaganda you think he has.  

[Brim006]

Not to throw shade at Tom. But all I know and have heard about fall camp has come through him and him only. No other sources to lean on so far.

Say Tom maybe does have a major bias toward Romfo for whatever reason and/or his insight is anecdotal due to only seeing bits and pieces of practice and scrimmages. Maybe in reality, Romfo is in a distant 3rd and is no where near in the mix at this point and we are all talking about it for no reason. 

I have noticed his last 4-5 daily updates have not mentioned who has been taking 1st team reps and 2nd team reps etc. The last time he did it sounded like Romfo was taking 3rd string reps, and maybe that hasnt changed. Why leave that out, because that alone should tell where they are currently stacking in the coaches minds. The limited comments from Tom in his daily updates matter far less than the team reps order IMO. 

So with that said, does anyone know who is taking what team reps as of this week? That might wash out all this speculation. 

[Big Green]

4 minutes ago, bubbaball69 said:

I don't get his infatuation with Romfo. He never moved the needle last year. Once teams stopped the run he wasn't good enough to sling the rock past 15 yards without it being a duck. 

Jerry and JTJ have had there chance to step up and grab the starting role.  They both went through spring ball without Romfo.  If they don't step up soon it will be Romfo as the starting QB.

I they can't win the job, maybe they are not that great.

They need to start whoever give them the best chance to win this year.  If it is Romfo so be it.

[bubbaball69]

2 minutes ago, Brim006 said:

Not to throw shade at Tom. But all I know and have heard about fall camp has come through him and him only. No other sources to lean on so far.

Say Tom maybe does have a major bias toward Romfo for whatever reason and/or his insight is anecdotal due to only seeing bits and pieces of practice and scrimmages. Maybe in reality, Romfo is in a distant 3rd and is no where near in the mix at this point and we are all talking about it for no reason. 

I have noticed his last 4-5 daily updates have not mentioned who has been taking 1st team reps and 2nd team reps etc. The last time he did it sounded like Romfo was taking 3rd string reps, and maybe that hasnt changed. Why leave that out, because that alone should tell where they are currently stacking in the coaches minds. The limited comments from Tom matter far less than that alone. 

So with that said, does anyone know who is taking what team reps as of this week? That might wash out all this speculation. 

Tom will never be clear with his comments cause his whole goal is to drive views on Herald web site so they make money. If he says JTJ or Jerry had been playing with the 1s and 2s, and Simon has been with the 3s the last 5 practices it would be boring for the storyline. He keeps that key piece on information out of his articles on purpose. Wish we had a few more sports writers who can write about camp so we get multiple views on things.

[bubbaball69]

They need to be give a very fair shake on the starting job, it will effect recruiting, coaching jobs and fan turn out. If Simon wins that will not hype the students and fans, up like the new toy like JTJ and the unused toy in Jerry. You loose fans you loose games, we are a home team have one of the best home records since the Alerus opened and can't afford to not have the building rocking.

10 minutes ago, Big Green said:

Jerry and JTJ have had there chance to step up and grab the starting role.  They both went through spring ball without Romfo.  If they don't step up soon it will be Romfo as the starting QB.

I they can't win the job, maybe they are not that great.

They need to start whoever give them the best chance to win this year.  If it is Romfo so be it.

 

[HoopsFan03]

2 minutes ago, bubbaball69 said:

They need to be give a very fair shake on the starting job, it will effect recruiting, coaching jobs and fan turn out. If Simon wins that will not hype the students and fans, up like the new toy like JTJ and the unused toy in Jerry. You loose fans you loose games, we are a home team have one of the best home records since the Alerus opened and can't afford to not have the building rocking.

 

But think about the clicks Tom will get on his stories all season long!!! Everyone loves the hometown kid, underdog story  

Until he can’t win you football games……..

[SiouxBoys]

24 minutes ago, Big Green said:

We want Miller covering UND Football until he tells us what we don't want to hear.  Like it or not Romfo is the Returned QB starter.  He was the job last Fall because he was the best QB on the staff at the time.  He just observes what he sees.  His observation will have not bearing on the the coaches decide.  Not sure what Propaganda you think he has.  

He's being sarcastic and making fun of the complete door knobs that post on this site.

[bubbaball69]

1 minute ago, HoopsFan03 said:

But think about the clicks Tom will get on his stories all season long!!! Everyone loves the hometown kid, underdog story  

Until he can’t win you football games……..

What you mean hes our Doug Flute. He's slinging those 50 yard bombs at 5'8" with the best of them.

[Big Green]

3 minutes ago, bubbaball69 said:

They need to be give a very fair shake on the starting job, it will effect recruiting, coaching jobs and fan turn out. If Simon wins that will not hype the students and fans, up like the new toy like JTJ and the unused toy in Jerry. You loose fans you loose games, we are a home team have one of the best home records since the Alerus opened and can't afford to not have the building rocking.

 

If Romfo is the starting QB again this year it will be because he earned it for the 2nd year in a row, under 2 different HC.  The other 2 were giving a fair shake.  They had all of Spring ball and plenty of time in Fall ball to earn it.  If they can't go out and earn it, that is on them.

You are going to loose more games putting your 2nd and 3rd best QB out there.  They for sure will not get the building rocking.

 

[bubbaball69]

3 minutes ago, Big Green said:

If Romfo is the starting QB again this year it will be because he earned it for the 2nd year in a row, under 2 different HC.  The other 2 were giving a fair shake.  They had all of Spring ball and plenty of time in Fall ball to earn it.  If they can't go out and earn it, that is on them.

You are going to loose more games putting your 2nd and 3rd best QB out there.  They for sure will not get the building rocking.

 

Some times having a bad qb can be fun. But I do get what your says. Just don't want to loose the students early in the year.

[Oxbow6]

Good thing the fanbase saw Jerry in meaningful live game action last year to confirm he sucks......

[Brim006]

How many TDs would Romfo of had without Bo last year?

Healthy or not, I'm thinking he would probably have a worse season this year than last year due to not having that rare outlier player who caught everything and got so wide open so regularly. Start one of the other 2 and see what they can do even is Romfo is the best practice player again this year. 

[SIOUX29]

We scored 30 points a game last year, I don't think it was the QB's fault that we gave up more than 30. Just saying. So, why all the bashing on him? By the way, I don't care who wins the battle this fall either.  Change the focus to the lack of stopping the run last year and not getting off the field on 3rd downs.

[shep]

34 minutes ago, SIOUX29 said:

We scored 30 points a game last year, I don't think it was the QB's fault that we gave up more than 30. Just saying. So, why all the bashing on him? By the way, I don't care who wins the battle this fall either.  Change the focus to the lack of stopping the run last year and not getting off the field on 3rd downs.

This is spot on.

Of all the issues last year, QB was not at top of the list. I thought Simon got better as the year went on and I feel the team was vested in him. Not saying the other QB's can't be better this year, but last year's debacle can't be put on him.

[UND-FB-FAN]

34 minutes ago, SIOUX29 said:

We scored 30 points a game last year, I don't think it was the QB's fault that we gave up more than 30. Just saying. So, why all the bashing on him? By the way, I don't care who wins the battle this fall either.  Change the focus to the lack of stopping the run last year and not getting off the field on 3rd downs.

Fair, but you also aren’t going to win games 14-10 in 2025. This isn’t 2001 or earlier. In this day and age, you need to be able to score.

UND’s 2024 offense was very mediocre (if not blatantly poor) against the good teams on their schedule, and the results versus teams like Murray State inflated the overall season stats.
 

Ultimately, my point is that Romfo certainly did not overly impress at the QB position in 2024, but also, fortunately, the 2025 offense has the pieces to in fact improve drastically…. 

[Dustin]

2 hours ago, Big Green said:

We want Miller covering UND Football until he tells us what we don't want to hear.  Like it or not Romfo is the Returned QB starter.  He was the job last Fall because he was the best QB on the staff at the time.  He just observes what he sees.  His observation will have not bearing on the the coaches decide.  Not sure what Propaganda you think he has.  

Pretty sure his comment was made as sarcasm.