Now that the spring game is officially behind us we are trying to sort out what we saw and what we wished we had seen. The game as a whole went well and was a good time.  The UND athletic department decided to make an event of it and they couldn’t have done much better.  The weather didn’t help with pre-game activities but it was very well setup so that didn’t stop people from enjoying great food and drinks.

Rumors
Thunder Lake Lodge

Are we any closer to knowing who the starting QB will be come fall camp?  Our feeling is No.  We liked that everyone was finally able to see Joey Bradley display his skills in a game setting.  He is not a real big QB, probably about 6’-0” or 6’-1”.  He seems to have a good command of the game with his cadence, etc.  Bradley has a quick release on the short stuff but made an ill-advised throw on the long post pass early in the game that was intercepted.  He had RJ McGill open on the short crossing route but decided to go long into double coverage.  Those are the types of throws that will get UND in trouble.  Also, he obviously has not worked under center much.  The footwork is off but that is to be expected since he has been in the shotgun most of his post-high school career.  Luckily, he has 4 months to figure it out. 

The guy who threw the monkey wrench in the QB situation is Marcus Hendrickson.  The junior from Perham, MN made some nice, accurate throws on Saturday and really surprised us.  He had accuracy issues last season which led us to believe he may end up at WR due to his athleticism.  We don’t know how consistent he was throughout spring ball but we would have to think he is back in the mix with his showing in the spring game.  Brent Goska will be in the mix and we forsee him being a kind of H-back or change of pace QB that can run, maybe short yardage.  He has put in his time as a backup and deserves a shot to see the field anyway the coaches feel could work.  Chris Comes did not participate due to academic reasons.  We were pretty disappointed because we had heard good things and wanted to see what he could do. 

The tight ends all got involved in the game, which was encouraging.  Joe Kingery, Brendan Mochoruk, and Travis Greenwaldt, all sophomores, each had a catch in the game with Greenwaldt’s being a TD.  Redshirt Freshman Taylor Grant had 2 catches for 24 yards.  

Wished we could have seen Thyre Ivery at WR, we have heard very good reviews on him. 

We like the depth at OLB as they rotated in guys and plays were consistently being made.  The problem is most of them are young and are going to take some time to figure it out.  Senior Johnnie Daniels will be the elder statesman of the group and should add some stability to this young group. 

The secondary played pretty well in the game.  Kenny Watkins and Chavon Mackey had interceptions.  Overall, there was a pretty tight coverage throughout the game which is definitely encouraging.  They blew the wheel route to Bickel but were pretty good otherwise.

There are still 3 practices left this week with one being a scrimmage so the coaches should get another chance to put the players in situations to see what they can do.  Usually the spring game signals the end of the spring football season but this year was a different setup. 

Redshirt Freshman RB Breon Butler is apparently having shoulder surgery on his dislocated shoulder.  This could hurt his summer conditioning.  He is going to be in the rotation at RB next fall so hopefully he is able to return early in the summer.  Other than that the Sioux appear to be healthy.