Tom Miller GF Herald 10-31-25

Sports editor of the Grand Forks Herald, Tom Miller, joins Tim and Paul to discuss local high school playoff football, UND Football and more, as we hit the weekend.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If we can get Tom Miller to quit doing the
Monster Mash, we can visit with him this morning on
the radio, the sports editor at the ground for Gerald
more than Tom.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, guys. I wish I could say that's the
first time I heard that song this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
But uh, you know, the the Halloween mix for kids
is really a short list, like you got you got
Ghostbusters theme song, you got maybe some Michael Jackson thriller,
and you got.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
The Monster Mash. And outside of that, what directionally can
you really go?

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Well, you've already hit our you you've already uh hit
our playlist. We've already knocked those out. But I tried
to go dead Man's Party from Oingo Boing Go from
Back to School earlier this week with uh Tim, Uh
he didn't he wasn't familiar with that one, but it
was from Rodney Dangerfields back to School movie Oingo Boying Go,

(00:52):
dead Man's Party, Weird Science from Oingo Boying Go as well,
and uh, you know Witchy Woman from the Eagles, And yeah,
so I mean there's there's some other ones in there. Tom,
you just have to kind of you have to search
for them here and your Halloween treat. But you've got, Yeah,
you've you've got who is a Donovan as well with

(01:13):
Season of the Witch. So there's some others out there,
and you can maybe stretch, don't fear the Reaper from
Blue Oyster Cult probably in there, and play that cow
bell if you want so. Uh, Yeah, you've got you've
got plenty there. But you've got plenty on your plate,
Tom Miller and your team and you you were already
busy yesterday with Section eight football and in the nine

(01:34):
man championship Section six football with the six man nine
man or six Section six nine man championship. One was
a game one got away pretty quickly. But we do
have area teams that are heading to the state tournament
in quarterfinal action with their wins yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, you know Kitchen and Steven, uh classic matchup there
in the Section eight nine man was a pretty good game.
Kitsen ended up having just enough to to win that one.
And then Ferdle, like you mentioned in the Section sixty
nine man, ran away a little bit there from Boston
and Ferdle's had a really good run here of athletes

(02:11):
and been successful across a few different sports there. And
and then the Section eight A was Manovan Wobbin against
Red Lake County which was which was also a pretty
tight game for a while until Manoman Wobbin uh won
I think what was at their fifth straight section titles.
So some good football in the Fargo Dome yesterday and

(02:31):
we were there to to capture a bunch of it.
Got some great photos from Dave Sampson and the Fargo Forum.
Great great photographer, got us a lot of good stuff.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Tim go ahead.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Good. So now we turned our attention to Central and
Red River with you know, Red River's got a tall
task ahead of them, right, and so does Central playing
in Devil's Lake. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, you know I watched River and min not North,
I think during the regular season, and uh, you gotta
hope if you're at River that you've just evolved over
the season and maybe you can give it a better
go around, uh this time here. And so they're certainly
the underdog. I would say Central Devil's Lake's gotta be
a fairly dead heat. Although you know, if you talk

(03:21):
to certain people, maybe you always get in a seven
point hole when you play at Devil's Lake. But you know,
the there should be a good matchup Devil's Lake seems
to throw the ball really well with the Palmer Kid,
and and Central seems to have found something with the

(03:42):
connection between Leedige and Brooklyn Brewster. So those we'll be
watching those tonight for sure.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
I think it will be a great atmosphere, especially in
in Devil's Lake. I think community wise, they'll they'll have
the buy in and they'll just be a great atmosphere
as usual, but especially because it's post season. I think
roller Field will be a fun place to be for
people in that part of the world tonight. And I'm
sure mine at North you know, really just getting their

(04:09):
school underway. I'm sure they'll be excited. And I've been
to I've seen the field. I've never been there for
a game yet, but it's a good venue, so I'm
sure people will be out and about tonight for a
good playoff game there too. Of course, you and I
were trying to get as far south in the Dakota
as that we can. That's Vermillion. You probably go down tomorrow,
I'll go today. And it is a place where finding success,

(04:33):
the Dakota Dome. People talk about the Alair Center being
a tough place to find success. Dakota Dome has been
a tough place for nearly everyone to find success, Northcota
being one of those teams. I think the last time
what it was a two thousand and eight tom It
is just a very difficult place. And for all the
people saying that the Yoats are well struggling a little
bit at times, I think it's the great equalizer. I

(04:54):
think it's going to be a tough battle for North Dakota.
What do you think about the opportunity for North Kota
football moral.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I think, you know, to some extent, like South
Dakota has kind of embraced that they're maybe not going
to be a high powered offense, and so they've kind
of been been fine, it seems like, getting into some
of these seventeen fourteen football games. And so if they've
got the ability to shorten a game here and you know,

(05:22):
try to kind of steal one from North Dakota, I
you know, I wouldn't be surprised that this is a
very a very tight football game because outside of that
score comparing, you know, clearly I think North Dakota should
have the upper hand. But but like like all the
way across this season, Paul, where it's hard to envision

(05:42):
success in the Dakota Dome, but we said that before
they went to Carbondale, Cedar Falls, Missoula. So it's it's
kind of been a season filled with a change of expectations.
I guess you'd.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Say, right, no doubt, Tim the.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
I mean, you say that North Kota should be a
favored in this one, but it all comes around the
other way when they go down there, Right.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I mean if you look in Vegas, I would
say un D, I believe is a fourteen point favorite.
And so that's already cooked in to the to that line,
so you know, of course, you know there's no uh.
I'm sure that that staff at un D doesn't feel

(06:32):
like this is by any means of slam dunk, but
I don't. I don't have to play by those rules.
So I mean, if I'm looking at it objectively, this
is what North Scota should win. And the fact that
the fact that they haven't had a roller coaster season
has to give bans some confidence in this one. You
and d just hasn't had a letdown performance, hasn't kind

(06:55):
of veered off from the path that they've set on
from from week one.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Hey, do you.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Think this will be one of the games that Charles
Chuck Longama gets a run out again and is part
of the rotation. I know they're monitoring his numbers right
because of the opportunity. Of course, if you get to
the end of the season and you do make the playoffs,
it's a reset.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
Those don't count.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
But is this one of the games do you think
he'll be part of the rotation in or do you
think they go with Sawyer along with the Xavier Lee
and Colton Brunell. How do you think the running back
rotation will look.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's a good question. I think if I were king
that you know, I would get a long look this
week at at Charles Langama because I'm not sold on
the fact that they have that you and d has
the answers in the short yardage game. In the goal
line game, Sawyer just keeps scoring from the twenty one,
so when he's any sort of woes in the red

(07:53):
zone seem to be you know, a little masked and
so and at Jerry Kavinski's run game is really their
best goal line game, really, And so I would see
Charles this week because I think you could still sit
him against Murray State and maintain his four game rule,
so he would you know, he's played against Southern Illinois

(08:15):
and then his next three and still keep his red
shirt safe. Could be USD, SD, s U, and nd SU.
Which it's a nice little gallet for the young man
from Maple Grove. But I'm just I'm just extremely curious
what Juicy can add this year because I'm pretty confident
that eventually he will really have the ability to be

(08:35):
featured back in this in this program.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Wow, that is a huge Platt's there from the sports
editor and beat writer on the football beat for u
Indie Football.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
That's that's pretty amazing.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
Uh, Tim, you got anything else on the un D
football side or are we right? Or do you got
something else burning a hole in your pocket?

Speaker 1 (08:55):
What I was gonna say, is Tom going to Alabama?

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Oh man, that would uh that would be fun. No,
We're not heading Alabama. We'll uh, we'll watch that one.
We got a story going today here Alex Baber our
new writer who's gonna be covering a lot of UNI basketball.
He tracked down a couple of players, including Elex King,
to talk about playing play in Alabama. Here a year

(09:26):
after putting a scare into him in the Betty and
one of the probably one of the most entertaining atmospheres
I've ever been a part of around und sports. I'd say, uh,
what do you think.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
Paul, Oh, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
I mean it was uh, it was prime just for
an interesting game to begin with with Grant Nelson coming
back and a lot of local individ you know, a
lot local fans having a chance to see that.

Speaker 5 (09:52):
But the fact that it turned into a.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Game was it was like twice the fun at half
the price.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
It was just it was amazing, And of course Trace
and Eagle.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
Staff at the time was at a high, high level
and having one of those moments and time, and you know,
I think it was a reminder for college powerhouses around
the country that are in the power for conferences, a
reminder to them of why they never do that. They
will they they left that night and all the other

(10:25):
powers across the country were watching that and saying, you
know what, well, gladly write the check. We're never going
to be putting ourselves in that position. That's too close
for comfort. But it was something to be a part of,
and I just wish we would have been able to
see it out.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
The only thing about that game is is.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
You know, maybe people have already forgotten, but the reason
why Alabama hung on to win that game was because
their local guy got it done for him. Grant Nelson
was the difference in that game down the stretch.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, and Alabama's gonna look brand new this year. I mean,
there's not gonna be a whole lot of like ability
for those teams to reminisce much about the matchup, you know,
back in Grand Fork, because both teams are going to
be incredibly different, you know.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
No doubt.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Yeah, I mean that's the thing. The rosters for both teams.
Everybody will be looking around and nobody's familiar.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
You look at North gode men's basketball right now, you
do the Alabama trip to start this season, you come back,
you play, you see Riverside on a Thursday night. Then
you turn around and I think have cal State Northridge
looming after the un D football game on Saturday, with
men's basketball on Sunday. In the meantime, you Indie women's basketball.
They're starting against Minnesota and the Golden Golphers. There's another

(11:38):
one that do you talk about kind of what does
this look like? What does coach Hutter have this team
looking like out of the gates. That's actually I that
has my curiosity peaked as well.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, we have, I mean, for as limited knowledge as
we have about the UNI men's basketball and then the
makeup of their roster, at least we're seeing a couple
of scrimmer or a couple exhibit game where I really,
I really have no idea what to expect out of
the undie women, So that there's kind of some fun
in that too, be uh be a lot to learn
pretty quickly here. Uh when they open against the Gophers.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
So because you have trick or treating, because you have
Oscar turning a year older, you're just turning over you
indie hockey to Brad tonight and saying, uh, it's all
you buddy, You got all the the storylines coming, because
I mean it's a it's a huge showdown tonight beginning
a two game stretch with a red hot Delute team
talk about kicking off the NCHC season, Tom, I mean,

(12:36):
this is this is huge.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
It's fun.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, And just from like a logistics perspective in our department,
is Schoftsman is so good and smart about you indie
hockey and college hockey that it does allow me to
kind of, you know, uh, focus my efforts elsewhere, because
you know, just this weekend, we've got center on Red
River High School football playoffs. You got kitchen kind of

(13:00):
Central football still rolling, East GRADPK, Sacred Heart Volleyball plays
in the section title and go end tonight, and you
and I will be in Vermillion, you know, our our
favorite little city on Saturday. So this crossover season is crazy.
And you know everybody's sitting the playoffs here for their
fall fall season, so it's gonna be a wild weekend.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
I'm so glad you mentioned that Sacred Heart Volleyball Section
championship game against the only team to get Sacred Heart
this season, ad To bore Up. What a showdown that is,
and the Eagles and Aida bore Up clashing for a
chance to get to the state tournament. That's a big
one tonight over and Crookston for those fan bases, and
I hope that's going to be an electric atmosphere for

(13:45):
those bobbers out there tonight. So Tom, we appreciate you
guys covering it all. We go and and we cheat
because we don't have to cover it. Then we just
go into your stories and and h and follow along.
Safe travels early tomorrow morning down to Vermilion, and hopefully
we'll have it this afternoon myself with my crew that
I have in my vehicle. So we'll see you down there,
and we'll talk about it tomorrow and have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
Okay, Yeah, I look forward to it. I was good
to shout with you guys. Take care all right.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
There goes Tom Miller of the Grand Forks Herald sports
editor over there, and they've got a lot on their
plate right now, Tim

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, I'd say so, right,