The UND Football team has completed the fall camp portion of their season and are now officially in game prep mode.  They have 10 days to prepare for DII South Dakota Mines, who UND plays on Thursday, August 30th at 7pm at the Alerus Center.  Besides OG Joe Kleason, who never started camp due to a foot injury, UND has remained fairly healthy and should have all hands on deck for opening night.

Thunder Lake Lodge

We thought we would give you 10 predictions on the upcoming season now that we are 10 days away from the first game:

  1. The most improved part of the team will be the secondary – or better yet it HAS to be.  By far the biggest question entering 2012 was the play of the secondary, which lost both starting safeties and has youth throughout the depth chart with no seniors on the roster.   From what we have seen and heard, the play of this group is much better than it was last year.  There were some coaching changes at the position with Bennie Boyd taking over along with Wes Nurse.   Those two appear to have their guys believing in the system because the aggressiveness and coverage skills look much improved.
  2. Senior QB Braden Hanson will throw for 20+ TD’s in 2012.  We will go as far as saying the transfer from North Carolina will have an all-conference type of season for UND in 2012.  He seems so poised and mature out there.  Polished is a word that seems to describe him best.   We hate to give too much praise on him, but he has earned it thus far.
  3. Junior OLB Cordero Finley (6′-1″, 225) will be a breakout player on the defensive side of the ball.   Things appear to be clicking for Finley as he enters his third season with UND.   He has the speed and athleticism to make plays in space against smaller, shiftier players but still has the size to play the run game.  He has made numerous plays throughout camp and we expect that to carry over to the regular season.
  4. True Freshman receiver Kenny Golladay will have his redshirt pulled.  Even though receiver is one of the deepest positions on the team, they do not have a player with the physical attributes of Golladay.  He stands 6’4″, can run pretty well, has real good hands, and seems to understand the offense already.   Golladay has amazed teammates and coaches alike with his play-making ability and we understand why the coaches would like to have him as an option at WR.  Look for him to be an immediate red-zone threat.  Wide receivers coach Luke Schleusner is known for rotating his receivers throughout the course of a game.
  5. Junior kicker Zeb Miller will at least make people think about their vote for All-Big Sky kicker.  Portland State’s Zach Brown is a senior All-American who is widely regarded as the best kicker in the country and should have another outstanding season for the Vikings.   However, we feel that Miller could be the second best kicker in the Big Sky Conference and will have an outstanding season now that he has two full seasons under his belt.  Last season he was 15-19 on field goals, going 7-10 on kicks over 40 yards.  His long was a 54 yard game winner at Northern Colorado that was actually tipped at the line.  We look for Coach Mussman to have no hesitation in using Miller from 55 yards and in.  At the Alerus Center, Miller can hit from 60 on in.
  6. The offensive line is good – as long as there are no more major injuries.  UND can survive the loss of Kleason because they have sophomore Shea Walker and freshman Brandon Anderson both ready to fill in.  However, if one of those two goes down or one of the starting tackles (Deneui & Gillson) goes down the offensive line will start to get real young, real fast.  Not what you want heading in to the first year of the Big Sky.
  7. UND will start the year 4-1 before heading out to Cheney, WA for a showdown with the Eastern Washington Eagles at the Inferno.
  8. UND will return a kickoff for a TD in 2012.  With Jer Garman, RJ McGill, and Romon Bridges to choose from we believe the kick return unit will break one this upcoming season.  The last UND kickoff return for a TD was by Ismael Bamba in 2009.
  9. UND will break the record for average attendance in a season of 10,617 (2008).   We feel the average will be around 10,900, which will obliterate last years average of 7,841.
  10. UND will wear the black uniforms for every home game after it brings them good luck vs. Portland State.  On the road they will wear white jerseys with the brand new black pants which will make for an awesome looking uniform.

There you have it, the full season laid out EXACTLY how its going to happen….we think……and hope.