There has been a ton of stuff going lately with the UND Football program behind the scenes so we figured we better try to keep everyone up on it. We apologize for having to consolidate all the topics into one but time restraints have kept us from posting individually as they happened.
The Big Sky Conference has announced it Preseason All-Conference Teams at their Summer Kickoff in Park City, Utah. The lone UND representative was WR Greg Hardin, who was one of 4 receivers on the team. The other three (Brandon Kaufman-EWU, Rodrick Rumble-ISU, and Nicholas Edwards-EWU) are all very talented, highly thought of receivers and for Hardin to join that group is very impressive. DL Ross Brenneman is a player that we felt should have made the team but being new to league, UND and it’s student-athletes will have to make names for themselves on the field in the first couple years.
A few thoughts on the Preseason All-Conference team in the Big Sky:
- UC-Davis (4-7 last year) gets 4 players on the preseason team. That is the same amount as Eastern Washington got. Montana got 2.
- Cal-Poly only got 1 player on the team. We think they are going to be much better than UC-Davis.
- QB Brad Sorenson (SUU) is a man (but he isn’t 40). Try to watch him as much as you can this year. He should go fairly high in the draft next spring.
UND has officially added three assistant coaches to the football staff. Wes Nurse, Kyle Myers, and Jeff Richter were hired to fill out the staff as they head towards the start fall camp on July 31st.
- Nurse comes to UND from UC-Davis, a fellow Big Sky member. Before that he spent 3 years with the University of Houston under Kevin Sumlin. He played and coached at Boise State under both Dan Hawkins and Chris Petersen in two stints from 1999-2003 and 2005-06. We assume Nurse will coach the defensive backs along with Bennie Boyd.
- Myers previously coached at UND as a volunteer assistant and left last year to be the defensive coordinator at Northland CC in Minnesota. He will fill a spot on the defensive staff, probably linebackers due to Nurse being a DB coach.
- Richter was a former defensive lineman for UND from 2005-2008. He spent the last two years on the staff of Northern State under former UND defensive line coach Tom Dosch. Richter will coach the TE’s at UND.
At the 11-Man North Dakota Shrine Football Game on Saturday, the West beat the East 22-13. UND had four incoming recruits in the game – Conrad Schwarzkopf, Jake Watson, Seth Westby, and Tucker Nordby.
Incoming recruit Joe Schobert put on quite a show in the Wisconsin WFCA All-Star Football game. Here is an excerpt from the article that explains his day:
“Waukesha West’s Joe Schobert ran four times for a team-high 53 yards, intercepted a pass and returned five punts for 92 yards. His most spectacular run came in the second quarter, when he leaped into the air to successfully hurdle an oncoming defender”.
Offense, defense, and special teams all in the same all-star game. Throw in the fact that he has shown on film that he can dunk a basketball with a lot of creativity and that is what we would call a diverse athlete. UND got him as a preferred walk-on. With his athleticism, at 6’2″-205 pounds he seems like a steal to us. The coaching staff must be grinning about that one.
Incoming QB recruit Ryan Bartels scored a TD for the West squad in a rain-delayed 27-26 overtime victory in the Illinois Shrine All-Star Football game.
Former Sioux and Viking great Jimmy Kleinsasser (1995-98) was announced as being part of the 2012 UND Hall of Fame class. Kleinsasser will be inducted into the Hall of Fame prior to the September 29th football game vs. Cal-Poly. We touched on Kleinsasser’s career in this post from last winter.
It is UND Day at the North Dakota State Fair next Sunday, July 22nd from 1pm to 5pm. UND Football players Jake Miller and Seth Wisthoff will be there along with a handful of other UND athletes and coaches.
