The UND Football program will be holding their first full recruiting weekend of the year coming up on Saturday, December 6th. They have already had a number of official visits take place this past fall during home game weekends so a few commits and recruits are already done with that part, but some are taking them this weekend.
This will be Bubba Schweigert’s first full year of recruiting as they were not able to really get started until early January due to his hiring before Christmas break.
The fact of the matter is this: UND needs to hit a home run with this class. I mean off the facade in the second deck, type of homerun. This class combined with the 2014 class are going to lay the program’s foundation for the next five years.
We are not saying they need to get every “highly-ranked” recruit that is out there. They need to get the kids they are targeting and then retain them for their entire career. We can grade this class in February and speculate at how good they did but per usual, we won’t know if Bubba hit a home run for anther 2-3 years down the line.
Having said that, Bubba has stated that UND is obviously recruiting “across the board” once again this year. They need help at every position. But, we figured we would narrow it down a bit to the positions that are of dire need:
- Safety. They need multiple safeties in this class. Probably 4, minimum. We expect at least two of them to be junior college players. UND currently has 5 safeties on their entire roster and two of them are walk-ons. Safeties play special teams and can be moved to OLB if they flourish in the weight room and get big enough. Can’t have enough safeties on your team.
- Running Back. UND is down to the skeleton at this position. They lost Jer Garman and Adam Shaugabay to graduation and are down to Cedric Simmons, who is hurt (and frankly, we are waiting to see how he comes out of it) and Patrick Sharp. Two RB’s on the entire roster. They need a big-time transfer type at Xmas break to go along with Brady Oliveira, who already committed.
- Wide Receiver. UND is down to the skeleton at this position, too. They have three WR’s coming back that actually played last fall (Cerriteno, Seibel, Walker). They need more height (6’3″+) and more speed at this position. Teams did not have to worry about the deep passing game at all last season and this needs to be changed.
Visitors we have confirmed for this weekend:
- Troy Hansen – LB – Canada Prep, St. Catharines, ON – Hudl
- Patric Rooney (committed) – OL – Benilde St. Margarets, St. Louis Park, MN – Hudl
- Donnell Rodgers (committed) – OLB – Woodbury High School, Woodbury, MN – Hudl
- Zack Williams (committed) – OL – Winnipeg, MB – Hudl
- Carl Engwall (committed) – DL – Lakeville North High School, Lakeville, MN – Hudl
- Javon Tillman – S – Sierra College (CA-Juco) – Hudl
- Barron Miller – LB – Mississippi Gulf Coast (MS-Juco) – Hudl
- Mike Adams – S – Laney College (CA-Juco) – Hudl
- Kevin Camy – OT – Butte College (CA-Juco – Hudl
- Brad Heidlebaugh – ATH – Rugby High School, Rugby, ND
- Clive Georges – WR – Key West High School, FL (U. of Arizona transfer) – Hilites
We are almost certain they will be having a few FBS transfers in for official visits, also. We will try and update this page as the weekend goes along. Hopefully, we will find more names.
