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September 12, 2025 • 14 mins
Grand Forks Herald Sports Editor, Tom Miller looks ahead to UND Football's game against the Montana Griz.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The sports editor of the Grand Forks Herald, Tom Millert.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Morning, Tom morning, gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Good morning Tom. Here we go Week three for North
Dakota football Potato Bowl. You know, got out of the
gates the way you'd want, basically got a cushion and
held on to it. What were the big takeaways from
a Potato Bowl win a week ago? And and what

(00:26):
did you what did you think about it as you've
looked at that game a little bit now over the
last week.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's a good question, you know, how much and even
going into the Potato Bowl we said this for the
most part, right like, we're we're probably not going to
really learn a ton until Montana. And I think that's
that just how true? You know, if but but there's
there's certainly nothing you can knock North Dakota four getting

(00:55):
up twenty two zero before Portland Stay gets a first down,
and you know, it's easy to rid important state right now.
But you know, for example, you look at Montana, they
played a Division two at Central Washington and it was
twenty one seventeen and a half before Montana went and
cruised and did their thing. But you know, if you
if you contrast those two games you know, North Dakota

(01:16):
certainly took care of his business, and that's not always
the easiest thing to do when you're favored like that.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, you know, one of the big things that you know,
seems to be the the thing coming out of the
program right now is obviously the injury to kayleb Olsen
on the offensive front. One thing you have to respect
about that kid from the Lisbon area is that he's
earned everything that he's got, and I think a lot

(01:43):
of people really look to him for how he's basically
started at ground zero, because nobody really thought he may
be even factor into an offensive line here when he
arrived at North Dakota. Here he is, he's a leader,
he's you know, captain type guy. And now he's injured
and now they've had to go to their depth. However,
the story from teammates and the story from the coaching

(02:05):
staff is they feel like that's one of the deeper positions.
So despite it all that, they feel like can navigate
it at least right now.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, I think you, I mean, you hit it on
the head. It's you know, it's tough to lose a
leader like that, an in state kid who I love
making sure that we bring him to press conference situations
because I think he's a fantastic quote which you don't
know always find on the offensive line. It's not super
easy to do, but he's very talented in that role.
And I think you and danger this season thinking that

(02:36):
they're seven deep on the offensive line and now you know,
maybe you're sixty. But you know you're feeling fairly comfortable
about where you are production wise, but you missed that
leadership piece.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Tim, go ahead, Tom, what do you know about Montana?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's a good question. I mean, obviously there's been some
change over from when they were in Grand Forks a
year ago. There I was speaking with one of their
I don't know if he's necessarily a be writer, but
Coulter Nuanas has been covering Montana college football for a
long time, and I think I want to say he
said something like fifty four new players have shooted up

(03:18):
for Montana in Week one here out in Missoula against
Central Washington, and so there was a bunch of roster changeover.
I think they're still searching for an identity. You know,
it's the same quarterback from a year ago that played
in Grand Forks. The Hawaiian kid. And you know, I'm
not sure exactly what to expect out of this team

(03:40):
because they're so new running back Eli Gilman, it's kind
of their one super established piece. And then they've got
a wide receiver who's a grad transfer from Eastern Washington
wor them who's who I think they hope is kind
of their Junior Bergen replacement. Junior Bergen was a very
dynamic punt returner, wide receiver type who who's getting a

(04:01):
shot in the NFL. I believe, at least in the preseason.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well they've got, you know, they the coach Houp teams,
I feel like I've got a bit of a handle on,
you know, the way he wants to to operate. He
always wants to have some high skill kids that can
be game breakers and and get them, you know, operating
like you touched on and defensively, I think what you know,

(04:26):
Coach Schmid said, And he wasn't being negative as far
as denigrading. He actually liked it that they because they
do it so well, they know what they're doing. But
to an opponent like North Dakota's offense, sometimes Montana's defense
looks like organized chaos because they don't necessarily know who's coming,
who's bailing out into coverage, and it can be confusing.

(04:47):
It's going to be a testing week for Jerry Kaminsky
in that respect.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think, yeah, absolutely, yeah, I think I think how
grown runs a three three five in mont Hannah and
so they can be pretty multiple too, kind of some
of the similar stuff that you hear you and D
talk about here defensively, But you know, I can't remember

(05:10):
you and D looking super confident in Missoula. I mean,
it's been a while since these two teams have played,
and I've been to Montana, but that's certainly a place
where things can can implode on you a little bit.
But outside of that element, if you just look at
these two teams and rosters, like, there's no reason this
shouldn't be a fantastic game on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, Tim cool, very nice.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
So Paul is stressed very much so that North Kota
has never had a whole lot of success there anything in.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Any sport in my lifetime. I mean, it's been a
house of nightmares for football, batman's and women's basketball. It's
Missoula has been tough on me. I like the community,
it's just been tough.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, I mean there's something to be said for that.
I'm sure there's a lot of people around the country
who feel the same way about the Dakotas and general.
You know, you and DS had had that, you know,
similar ish success in Grand Forks, at least in football,
and so you know, there's something to be said for that. Though.
There's twenty five thousand people in Montana and you know,

(06:19):
they've been they've been chomping at the bit since Monday
to get into Walker Stadium and uh, you know, get
after it a little bit. So it's uh, it makes
for a fun environment. It's uh, you know, it's a
big deal there and that's why. That's why the Montana
schools are successful similar to the coad To schools, is
that it's the show in town, and you know, I

(06:40):
think it's a That's why I think it's such a
great opportunity for you and d just in terms of
like trying to prove that it's a new era. Uh,
you know, because it wasn't a season defining win a
year ago when you and you beat Montana and Grand Forks,
but I think it could be kind of a program
season defining win if you snap your losing get on
the road at Montana against the top five team in

(07:03):
the country.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah. Last thing here in regards to a couple of
personnel things that I've noticed and you've written about the
diversity of spraying the ball around to a lot of
different people. The resurrection of the tight end position. Adams
of Alney's smiling and probably the most recent guy that
was used quite frequently at the tight end position. And

(07:26):
they got more than one there, and they've you know,
had to battle some injuries there and yet they still
find guys to make catches. And it's a group that
is being utilized right now, and for some of the fans,
they think that's great in today's day and age of
spread offenses. I didn't know that there was still use
of the tight end as much as as it's been,
and it's been very effective for him, the tight end

(07:46):
for North Dakota.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. I mean, I went into the Monday Weekly press
conference this week, you know, hoping to answer the question
that I had coming out of that game, was that
is this U should do the tight end the reflection
of what Isaac Frichtie wants to do skinmatically, did he
come into the offseason going we're gonna find these ways
to use our tight ends, dang it? Or is this

(08:09):
a reflection of Jerry Kaminski as a quarterback and these are
some of the throws that he likes to make. These
are some of the reads he likes to make. U.
These are the the full gamut of the progression that
he's allowed to see the field. I don't know if
that makes sense, but yeah, you know, I I was curious,
and I don't think I found any answers, but the

(08:31):
answers were were interesting enough, and it's it's been it's
been cool to see, you know, a guy like Nathan
Hermako out of Maple Girl of a true freshman. You're like,
that's pretty rare. Tight end is a physical position that
you don't often see, you know, an eighteen year old
kid or whatever he is step right into the action
like that.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, it's it's been a storyline and it's been impressive
to see the tight ends that they've used and they
it's been a factor and we'll see if it's another
one here on on Saturday, Great right up by Alex
Faber highlighting Greater Grand Forks football heading into tonight. But
I was looking through the region. There's other big games
like Thompson at Park River and other places, but you know,

(09:12):
Central having a chance to make a good story here
in the early going. If they can find another win,
they can get off to a three and oh start
Red River up against it. Mina North's been very good
here out of the gates for that new school in Mine.
Not East Cranford Senior High Boy close but no cigar
a still looking. Both teams in Park Rapids tonight are
going to be desperate. Crookston Polcony West. Some really good

(09:35):
games and a really good slate here to follow here
in the Herald, here to see how the results panned
out tomorrow. But really good right up there by Alex.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, he did a nice job with that. It was
interesting that the Knights are on a little bit of
a revenge tour here, you know, picking up two wins
to start the year against teams they lost to last
year during a one and eighth season, and then tonight
Dickinson represents a third opportunity to be teams that beat
you a year ago. So I know coach Jake Shower,

(10:04):
he was on Dominzo Show this week, and you know
I heard him talk about talk about his team a
little bit, and yeah, I think I think they're excited
about kind of the youth that went through the trials
a year ago. Uh, kind of getting to be an
upperclassman and handling this season.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Well all right, tim, well we've seen that before. Or
it's like you say, it's almost like a revenge tour,
right where you're getting handled one year and then you
come back and you're all a year older and you
get more guys in there, and it's like all right,
now here, you're going to see.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Something, right, Yeah, And I think that's why you're seeing
the Grand Fork schools at that two A level, is it.
It's been challenging to keep numbers at a certain level, uh,
to compete at that highest level, and you know, riding
up and down ways is probably what you know makes
all of those two A schools tick. And so you know,

(11:06):
I think the Grant Forks schools will look to hopefully
get in a place eventually here where where they maybe
don't have those those roller coaster rides depending on depending
on numbers and age and all that. So that's just
the reality of where they are right now. They had
to play a lot of sophomores last year, you know,
they had a good freshman team, probably wanted to keep

(11:28):
them together a little bit. And now those guys are
sophomores and juniors and able to impact varsity. And I
know coach Shawer's got a lot of kids out for football,
and I think they're on a pretty good path right now.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, JJ McCarthy, too early for Hall of Fame talk,
or we about right here heading into game number two
for the Vikings. Where are we at with that?

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Yeah, we'll crown them, okay, right, Yeah, I was the
biggest Well, you know, there's something to be said and eye,
I said, college players, high school players.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
I hope they were watching on Monday night for the
simple reason of, you know, he throws that pick six
too often. You know, it's woe is me? Body language
is bad, and for him it wasn't. And he just
kind of was like, you know, I'm gonna get back
out there. We'll make a couple more plays. Well continued.
His response is what coaches harp onto their players all

(12:26):
the time about getting to the next play, handling, you know,
the ebbs and flows, the momentum. You know, Jerry Kaminski,
can he have that response tomorrow. You know, when when
things aren't going quite the way he wants it to
or whatever, can he handle it? And you know, if
there was anything to take away from JJ and how
he handled adversity, I gotta tip my cap to him,
it was it was good.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
I do kind of the same comparisons in my head
as I was kind of consuming that Vice Bears game
is kind of like my one of my takeaways is
like that, like you gotta you gotta take. You gotta
be able to be able to take a few punches
on the road. You know, maybe McCarthy took a few
more than you'd like, but like you're gonna fake like
they were they were in Chicago. Of course, that's not

(13:09):
an easy place to win, you know. And I mean,
Jerry's gonna go into Missoula and there are gonna be
moments that are sketchy or are you know, you're back
into a corner a little bit absolutely like you and
he fans, you're gonna need some Jerry Kaminski to put
on his best. JJ McCarthy, Well.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
I'll just say this. I mean I like Brad Heidelby
as a kid, but that was not and as a
young person but that was not an easy situation that
he had to go into all those years ago, and
it did. It didn't go well from start to finish
that the time we were up there.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Because then that was completely completely unfair situation to kick
him into exactly. Oh my gosh, that was something Paul.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Oh boy, I remember the We didn't even have to
say words. All we had to do was look at
one another while that was going. But it was not
It was not brat Heidelbuzz's issue there. He was you know,
how many injuries did we have in the quarterback room
that season. It was just ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
So yeah, that was that squad. Didn't have a chance
that day, No, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Well, hopefully a better chance tomorrow. Tom. We appreciate you
joining us to talk about that and more. We appreciate
that your team is hitting the pavement out there covering
so many things here in the next twenty four to
thirty six hours to make sure you put in your
editions digitally in the Grand Forks Herald. Thanks for this
and we'll see on the plane later today.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Absolutely, let's go watch some sports, all right.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Sounds good. Tom Miller, Sports editor of the Grand Forks
Herald appreciate him dropping by on Fridays as always
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