The players are entering the middle of winter workouts and the coaching staff is in film hibernation for two weeks, most likely a self-evaluation of its team. Because of that, the head coach probably isn’t in a position to accurately answer questions anyway and put off talking about his team until film is done. But here are a few that are on the minds of myself and readers:
- With Derek McGinnis of Crete, Neb., coming to campus next fall, that will make five quarterbacks currently on the roster: Junior Brock Jensen, sophomore Esley Thorton and freshmen Carson Wentz and Ryan Stanford. The most-asked question without a doubt from readers is whether Thorton, one of the best all-around athletes to ever come out of the state in recent years, will see the field somewhere else, like safety.
- Who will replace the defensive leadership? Gone are valuable seniors Preston Evans, Chad Willson, Danny Eaves, John Pike, Coulter Boyer and Scott Stoczynski. I’ll also list defense-friendly punter Matt Voitglander in there. All of the aforementioned provided that championship intangible you just can’t coach.
- How is Brandon Jemison’s hip?
- What redshirt freshmen appear to have the most promise in spring football?
- Is there any assurance that Zach Vraa’s collarbone has been adquately taken care of?
- Crockett.
- This is the first year, I think, that NDSU, so far, hasn’t lost an assistant coach under Craig Bohl. Has that helped?
- Is kicker Adam Keller up to the task?
- When will Deveon Dinwiddie’s unofficial signing become official? Where in the paperwork trail is the hangup?
good questons , can’t wait to find out what happens
another question who will emerge as the #1 ,#2 ,#3 receivers
Have we found a game 11 yet? I assume it would be played on September 15 or September 22?
This is what I’m curious about, too.
The biggest question has to be, who is going to replace Cornick and Richards on the offensive line? You never know about up and coming offensive lineman since they don’t rotate in and out unless we are way ahead.
All of the postions you mentioned have good backups and returning starters that have seen significant playing time. Kicking will be a question mark but I am sure we will be fine.
Maybe the coaches could interest one of the QB’s to try punting, coach Bohl said you should look to the best athletes on your team for a punter, got to think there are some pretty good athletes in the qb stable?
Actually, the question is really for Thorton: can you live with yourself being on a national championship team…riding the pine?
Thorton can’t beat out Jensen in spring or fall camp, coaches won’t let it happen. Unless there is an injury, that’s the only way.
So do you ask the coaches to play another position? Safety needs players with Pike and Eaves leaving.
Wentz is a future superstar anyway, he needs to get time with the number 2′s in practice. As for the kid from Arizona…who knows?
There are a lot of questions you have pondered there! My only question is why? Why can’t the season get started next week already. Momma always told me not to rush your life away young man, but she also told me that foosball was the devil. She was crazy in the head, that mamma. I want the foosball to start up again tomorrow. Skip the rest of winter,spring and summer and bring on the fall for Bison Football. Go Bison!!!!!!
My momma told me not to get a tattoo or Roy Orbison.
But what momma don’t know….
I say move Esley to safety. Way too athletic to be standing on the sideline. Wentz will probably be the next starter after Jensen is gone unless McGinnis just blows the coaches away. Vraa(if healthy) is #1 receiver, smith 2, gebhart 3, wahlo and moody 4 and 5 in some order right now. I don’t see the Defense dropping off at all, even with losing all of those seniors. we were really deep at every position except cornerback last year. and we don’t lose either one this year.
What really pleases me is the way that the coaches substituted RBs, FBs, TEs, WRs, Des, DTs, LBs, CBs, and Ss during games. The players stayed fresh and learned how to respond in real situations. This gave many young men chances to play and made the BISON deep in many positions. This is a HUGE BENEFIT engineered by the coaches and recognizes desire/skill wonderfully. WAY TO GO TEAM.
I agree as well. I remember early in the season when the coaches would take out the starting LBs Jemison, Evans and Willson, and replace them with Littlejohn, Beck and Olson, in crucial situations. You always hear coaches say “There is no substitute for game experience’. Well it is true and the Bison proved it over and over this season. We lost a lot of great players but with everyone rotating in and out we have experience and depth at almost every position as has been the case the last 2 years we are bringing in a lot of young talent that should get experience just as the present players did. Things look great, I am anxious to see all of these questions get answered. Go Bison!
Apparently meaningful reps don’t matter to the backup qb. Thorton could have seen the field a lot more this year than he did.
I agree. QB was the only position where we had numerous chances to get reps (meaningful or otherwise) and didn’t. Hope this changes in the future.
Tim you are right. It was the same thing with Mertens. The Bison would be up 45 to 6 in the 4th quarter and Steve Walker never came out. As we all know that didn’t work out very well for Mertens or the Bison the next season. Jeff or Dom could you ask Coach Bohl why he doesn’t feel QBs need game reps like every other position???
Don’t you play the best players? Brock helped us win a title! I get it. But don’t you play your best players? If he is the best then I say good. If there is someone better like many of you say then shouldnt they be the starter?
We need to be careful about scheduling the ‘studs’ of the FBS. A loss may cost us a home playoff game (see GSU).