Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a lank cup with the sports editor the Grand
Forks Herald, mister Tom Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Morning Tom, Good morning, gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Good morning Tom.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We don't go off and get called centerman, but we'll
take it.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Yeah, it's uh, it's a it's a beautiful Friday day
where uh, wherever you turn in the Grand Forks Herald,
there's something about sports. So let's talk about sports.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Tom.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You are making the trip to Carbondale, Illinois. But before
we get to you indie football hockey tonight at Ralf
Fingalstead Arena. The rivalry is back on the ice. North
got to Minnesota. You've got your a one hockey beat
writer on at Brad Schlassman. What are your big takeaways
in some of the stories from this week and and
some of the big takeaways from the stories heading into tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, I'm still kind of getting a feel for what
this you indie hockey roster is. Uh is like just
a lot of new faces, new coaching staff, and so uh,
you know, it kind of feels weird having this undie
Minnesota matchup early in the season here where I feel
like even their own fan bases are still having a
(01:14):
feeling out period for for what the makeup of their
their team's going to be. So uh, you know, I'm
sending another one of our writers, Alex Favor, who's kind
of new to us in Grant Forks. UH just told
him to uh to expect a pretty good atmosphere. I'm
curious to hear what what he's got to to take
away from what he experiences there at the Row.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah. Yeah, that'll be be interesting for him to kind
of get his first full run at the rivalry. Tim,
what do you got for Tom?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well, I'm going to uh soccer with the Red River.
Oh yeah, that was a shocker, wouldn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, I sure think so. What Bismarck legacy was the
I mean, not only were they the ones seed from
the West, but they were the defending state champs. So,
you know, I don't know year to year, you know,
if the powers in the East or the West. Typically
in boys soccer, I don't have my pulse on things
that much, but the fact that they're defending state champs
(02:14):
tells me that it's not like a North Dakota high
school hockey thing where the power is always in the East.
So I was impressive victory to start the state tournament
with a two zero win over Legacy Here to advance
to the semi finals.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah. I mean that is a great local story that
emerges sometimes the unexpected one, and that's the case. I'm
not making the move to Carbondale, Illinois. I'm gonna have
to follow along after U and D basketball gets into
their first exhibition of the season against the University of
Jamestown but North Dakota in Carbondale starting tomorrow afternoon against
(02:56):
this slookies who just got beat up a little bit
by you know, everybody's nemesis, the number one team in
the country NDSU and Fargo last week. The every week
it seems like there's a mobile quarterback. I think the
thing that coach Schmitch stressed in his conversations this week,
the back to back weeks of an extremely mobile quarterback.
(03:16):
But at the same time, this mobile quarterback looks different
than the previous one last week that was in Grand Forks.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, you know, I think they're similar in the sense
that their teams rely heavily on their dual athletic style.
But definitely bo Bruguard is more of the six foot
super elusive where I think maybe DJ Williams at six
(03:46):
foot three, is a little bit more out to run
you over and be dangerous on that second level, not
so much circle around you like like Brunnguard was. So
probably a lot of the probably a lot of the
same concepts and keys and assignments for a defense, but
(04:07):
certainly a different skill set.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah. We saw your article on the punting game, and
certainly that is one that may go unnoticed sometimes about
how valuable that can be. I mean, sometimes you just
got to flip the field. Not every drive is going
to end in success, even though that's the end goal,
it just doesn't always work out that way. That's been
a huge storyline that you decided to kind of touch on.
I thought that was probably worthy because the numbers are
(04:33):
significant in from previous years for Luke Silvernail, who continues
to do right when he has the opportunity for North
Dakota in the punt team.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, you know, and it didn't completely jump off the
page of me, but when I saw what his average
was over forty five yards per punt, and I thought, gosh,
who's done that at North Dakota. And you know, I
look at the top ten, I'm like, oh wow, that
would be the best all time season in union football
history at punting. So that's what led me to start
(05:07):
digging in. And I think it's interesting too that you
take a jump in an off season in which Sea
Costas had a great quote about, you know, the Pollard
being a beautiful facility for everybody but a punter because
because you can't truly punt in there because the ceiling's
too low, like most indoors would be here, indoors would
be I think so in Grandfort's, North Dakota, he's spending
(05:31):
a lot of time punting into a softball batting cage essentially.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, that's interesting, Tim, what he got for Tom.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, that's that's a whole different story there. But uh,
you're right about turning turning the field. I remember way
back Dale Lennon used to say that all the time.
But punt is not a bad thing if you can
if you can bring that in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Right, Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, I think I
think go ahead, Tom.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, I was just gonna say that. You know, they
even more so than the the yards per punt that
Silver Nail is putting together. You know, they're looking at
that net net yardage. You know, and and Eric Schmidt's
quote in there was a little bit more to that
end of things in terms of, uh, some guys might
lay into sixty yarders, but if you outpunt your your
(06:26):
coverage and you're not game planning for hang time, then
it doesn't matter how many yards per punt you've got.
So you know, Schmidt incorporated that piece into the story
as well.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, you know, another piece on you and d football
if we stay with that, Tom, is you know who
isn't a tight end basically? And how many tight different
tight ends have we seen? I mean, apparently they all
have injuries of some sort. But then some guys are
on the field every week or every other week. I
mean you've got your Mason Sells or Hayden Stays. You've
(07:00):
got a Konson there. You've got b Meyer, who's hardly
been around until I think last week was about the
first time we've we've saw him. We've hardly seen Ramonka
after his big rollout. Watson Hafer's been on the field
a little bit. Holy Cally, I mean, there's just a
ton of tight ends. Who's it going to be this
week of the tight ends? Tom?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, I know it, and it's it's pretty interesting. That's
that's definitely a theme of the twenty twenty five season,
And like, is it because Jerry Kaminski's style is to
really spread the ball around and include that position group
more so than you know, whether it's Isaac Cricktie calling
plays for that position group. But definitely interesting that, like
(07:45):
the injuries that have hit that position group, with Hayden's
and later at some point you know Nathan Rmaka yet
still that they're a position group that's excelled. So curious
if they're shutting down Harmonica to keep him under the
four game rule as a true freshman, or or if
(08:07):
we will we'll see him yet to come here. But
Watson Hayfer, I feel like it's been really big. He's
played a lot this year that I wasn't fully anticipating.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, it's been a position group that I've certainly, you know,
obviously when you see the play on fourth down for
a score last week, that certainly was something that was
the rabbit out of the hat a little bit. But
what is this game gonna boil down to when it
gets down to it tomorrow, when we sit down and say, hey,
(08:37):
North Dakota. I've been telling Tim, and Tim's kind of
probably tired of hearing it. But it's kind of like
a mini playoff game because if you get this one,
then you have the head to head and when it
gets down to late in the season, even if the
Valley gets four or five teams into the FCS playoffs,
that might come in handy because they might still end
up having a similar record as you do. So it
(08:58):
could be a a mini playoff game, is kind of
the way I'm putting it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, I mean at Carbondale, at Vermilion, I feel like,
are you know, everybody's going to circle the games against
North Kaota State and South Kota State. But the thing
about playing the number one and the number two team
in the country is nobody holds it against you if
you lose. So from a perspective of where you could
potentially be seeded in a SGS playoff bracket, you've got
(09:24):
to make your hay against Southern Illinois. You can't stub
your toe against South Dakota if if you want to
be in that conversation for you know, potentially a first
round by a top eight seeds. So you know, I
think I think this game at Southern Illinois and then
again against South Dakota there right after Halloween. I think
those are really important games. And you know, you and
(09:47):
these shows really good signs last week against Youngstown because
I I previously would have thrown that game into that
that mix too, as well as those teams in that
middle tier. You you'd like to separate yourselves from and
elevate and and you and he did did a nice
job in their first phase of that. And now they
got two more phases in my opinion left in this
(10:08):
this stretch.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Tim, What do he else do you have for Tom
here on this Friday?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Not a whole lot.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Well, I see the Green Wave got their playoff game.
They know they're going on the road to Perham. Central
still has a game against Central casts as at tonight.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
And then then it's the Cushman Classic.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
And then we'll kind of know the playoff outline of
that division in North Dakota. But yeah, I mean meaningful
football games. Now we are entering in playoff season where
we know Polcony West with road they've got to go
through East Grenford Senior High. We know their road now.
So yeah, it's all becoming real for the high school
sports season.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, next week. It's going to be real busy because
Minnesota does that, you know, kind of Tuesday quarterfinals and
then for some of them this Saturday semi finals. So
playoff football is going to be coming in hot and
heavy quick here.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Do you ever think the state of Minnesota will ever
rethink about everybody in the section is going to play
in the Section tournament for football. I've just I've it's
we've you know, you see some of the mismatches in
previous years and you're just like, oh, what are we
doing here? But they seem to they seem to enjoy that,
don't they.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
There, that's that first Tuesday. Gosh, the box scores, ye
is nag at the newspaper, you know, it's just uh,
you're You're not wrong, Paul. There's certainly something to be
said about. Uh. I don't need to see seventy two
to three box scores coming in high school football.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It's it's gotta be what you will.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Get they will, oh man.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So, by the way, you guys will be staying away
from Carbondale because I think the place to stay is
just down the road a little bit. So, uh, there'll
be a little bit of a haul in. So I
wish you all the best as you guys make that
road trip. And I'd like to say, and I was
telling Tim this earlier today, I said, I wish I
had some answers for you and d men's basketball about
what I'm going to see tomorrow, But I said, I
(12:06):
have no idea, even though I've been to some practices
to watch, and I said, I probably will leave the
building still not having an idea to that point. So
it's a little early to start to basically settling in on,
you know, making predictions on on men's basketball as we
hit the as we hit the early exhibition season.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, I can't wait to follow along. I'm fascinated by
who on Earth starts, Who on Earth contributes? You know,
what is the Anderson kid, the kids Formoral Roberts. Yeah,
just tons of tons of guys that. Uh, it's gonna
be fun to just start to develop a base of
knowledge about that starts on Saturday'd be fun.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, I'm going to remind everybody out there before you go,
the team that was voted in the preseason poll last
year seventh was the Omaha Mavericks. And what did they do?
They won the league? So preseason predictions you can kind
of just shrug your shoulders and say they don't really
mean much. Omaha proved that last year, right, So I
(13:09):
guess we saw the preseason predictions. I think you can
just shrug your shoulders and.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Get to it.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah. I mean, it's mid major basketball in the current
landscape of college athletics, where your high end player you're
probably on the way out. So it's everybody's rebuilding every year,
and that makes for makes for difficult preseason.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Polls that, yeah, no doubt about it, if they're even
worth to have them anymore. I've argued that nobody seems
to agree with you. But anyway, it's October seventeenth. It's
Tom Miller. He's getting ready to get on a plane
to head south to Southern Illinois for an afternoon tilt
for North to Gota football. But there's so many other
sports happening. He and his team will be following along
(13:51):
and putting their stories, including North Dcota and Minnesota Night
one in the Saturday edition of the Grand Forks Herald digitally. Tom,
thanks for this, have a great weekend, and we'll talk
to you next week.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Absolutely absolutely, we'll miss you at Southern Illinois. Paul but
we'll chat soon.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Sounds good, Thanks Tom,