Tom Miller -GF Herald 12-12-25

Sports editor of the Grand Forks Herald, Tom Miller, drops in to talk about UND Football and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Visiting with Tom Miller, sports editor the Grand Forks Herald.

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

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Good morning Tom.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're staying warm.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You know, I gave the car the full fifteen minutes
to warm.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Up this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm fifteen. I'm mashing that start button.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
You are hitting the start button. Good for you. That's
a veteran, a crafty veteran move by Tom Miller, sports
editor of the Grand Forks Herald. You've been writing and
tracking portal entries by the North Dakota football team. Und
let's wrap up this season with you Indy football before

(00:39):
we get into the portal stories. Obviously norths could have
finishes their year at Charlatan State, you know, the last
six weeks of the season. Obviously North could have head
their struggles offensively. And I said, you know, you can
point a lot of different things. I know people always
want to talk about play calling because they all play
Madden or College Football two thousand twenty five or whatever,

(01:01):
and I all think everybody's a great play caller. But
I also felt, you know, North Cota's offensive line as
the season war on didn't open as many holes that
were there. They want to run the football, that's their
identity if you're not running the football very effectively. Now
they're bringing more people into the box and things that
becomes hard to run against. But you know, when when
your quarterback is a running game, everything gets a little

(01:22):
bit easier. Play actions there all those things offensively, Can
you put your finger on anything? Is the season war
on kind of the final month and changing into the
playoffs of the season.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I think I think there's a lot of interesting debate
about chicken and egg type situations with the offense, right, Like,
you know, did did Jerry have struggles when Simon couldn't
find room to run? Did Simon's not find room to
run when Jerry struggled? Did the opposite coordinator put them
in positions to succeed? Did you know, did the tight

(01:55):
end usage change because tight ends got hurt? You know,
there was a there's a lot of interconnectedness to some
of that that it is hard to put your finger on.
And I think in the South Dakota game, if nothing else,
there was certainly a shaken confidence that changed with that
team that I thought that they had an offensive swagger

(02:15):
coming out of Kansas State, even to some extent Montana,
that that I thought they lost in that South Dakota game,
and and yeah, some some of it, you know, probably
starts on the offensive line. And I think they were
they were maybe good and not great. You know, I
think the next step from North Kota's offensive line, you know,
if they bring those guys back intact to me, I

(02:37):
think fans lose sight in the portal era. You just
don't want to go shopping for offensive linemen. You know.
There there's there's one offensive lineman who re entered the
portal that you and de grabbed when they were a
little bit desperate in the offensive line game. And I
think it, you know, it just it tells you that
that's the number one part of the portal game. Keep

(02:58):
the offensive line now. So if you and d can
bring back bucksa Beacher Dayden, and you bring back Caleb Olson,
who I think that might have been a sneaky miss
all year, Right, you take out perhaps your best interior
offensive lineman, and and who filled in anybody who filled
in what wasn't a weak link per se. But when

(03:22):
I get back to when I get back to like
good but not great, that's when you're talking about you're
playing the best defensive lines in the SCS North Kota States,
South Dakota State, South Dakota. I thought Tarleton was was
was better in the trenches than than I was anticipating.
And so to yeah, to me, if that offense wants

(03:44):
to take a next step, you know, they can really
you know, obviously Jerry Kaminski has to has to continue
to improve as just a sophomore. But yeah, the offensive
line could take could take another step, and I think
I think that's in them. Just the makeup of of
who they have, who they have coming back and and
getting kleb Olson healthy again, I think would be really important.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Go ahead, some matter of keeping those guys right that
are there.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, you know, and if if I'm the general manager
and I get to make decisions on finances, because that's
the thing now in college football, I'm I'm loading my
money in the trenches, you know. You and he was
able to find bj Fleming you know, in ten days,

(04:31):
you know whatever it was when that staff gets put
into place. So I think you can find your legs
somewhere in the portal. I think it's hard. It's really
hard to find, uh, you know, the the heart of
the of the of the line situation in the portal
and so that's that's where I would stick all of
my h all of my dollars.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
We saw the ebb and flow of a season of
a young quarterback Jerry Kaminski this year. At times early
this year, he could do no wrong, struggled at times
down down the stretch of the season with some of
the throws that at times were head scratching, right, And
it really started against South Dakota when he just didn't
throw it right out of bounds, basically threw it up
the sideline and it's a pick and everything kind of

(05:15):
flipped on it, on the switch on the on its
end at that point. Will there be a quarterback competition
when we get to the spring season, because I'll say
this right now, like I like Javans as a young
person and what he does and you know as far
as uh, you know, being a good person, but you
know he was limited in what he can do throwing

(05:36):
the football. If you watched him when he got his
reps this year. What do you anticipate the quarterback conversation
to be when we get to the spring?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah? Will will Eric Schmidt say Jerry Kovinski's our guy?
Or will he say, Hey, all jobs are always open,
We're not We're never going. You know, there's a couple
of different ways I could see him taking this thing.
I'm very serious about Kaminski, you know. I feel like
it can go one of two ways. You could say, hey,

(06:07):
if his worst if his worst year starting, which you
could anticipate his sophomore year of of the of the
year starting. If that's the path that goes down, you know,
is that his worst year starting is a school record
for single season touchdown passes? Or do you say, while
the film got out on Jerry, everybody knows how to

(06:30):
defend him now that that will be You could take
that either way. But I I do think that he's
a young player that could continue to develop and and
there's reason not to give up on Jivant's as well,
just as in a in an incredibly raw skill set,

(06:53):
if he could ever find some confidence in his accuracy,
I still believe that he's an elite runner at level.
But he can't run if there's ten in the box
and everybody knows that he's gonna.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Run, right, Yeah, I completely agree with you, Tim, You
have anything else on the football front, did you like
to ask Tom or I'll throw one more in if
you if you don't have one, Oh sorry, I got it.
Go ahead, go ahead, Tim.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
So many questions going to an off season portals and
who's in the portal, who's not in the I mean
it's hard to even talk about it, you know, because
who knows what's going to happen, right.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, And the spring is going to be pretty cool
in terms of six guys. I believe six or seven
guys are are coming in in the spring early. Yeah,
I've never I've never seen you in the early en
roll to that extent. Bringing in a wide receiver from Dallas,
a wide receiver from Florida, bringing in the quarterback from Wisconsin.

(07:55):
Who will get who will get reps? Now that Simon's
graduated and E. T. N. Higgins is at or the portal,
you know, Brooks Henderson out of Outa, Wisconsin is gonna
have an opportunity to get adjusted to college football ahead
a schedule a little bit. And so this spring is
gonna be gonna be really intriguing to see who who

(08:17):
comes back, who can they bring in and and what
these accelerated true freshmen look like.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
You mentioned ET M. Higgins, who is just here for
this one year here as an incoming freshman is here
in the fall who is moving on? You know, It's
funny how I'm I I could probably never be a
coach because I look at a at a player like
that when when they're out doing drills and I'm like,
you know what his frame, he'd make a good cornerback.

(08:45):
Someday I'd flip him. But you know, do you know
you know what I'm saying? You know, like cause you
know that that that used to happen where guys would
you know, come in as an athlete and you'd kind
of plug him where, you you know, eventually develop them.
In today's day and age, guys don't have to be
patient and say, like, maybe I have to consider a

(09:05):
different position. Maybe the position I thought going to college
wouldn't be my position. If you even broach the subject
of flipping a position on a guy, sometimes I think
they just run and get in and go and move elsewhere. Basically,
in today's day and age, now.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
You you and d had a pretty good history of
guys who are valuable at other positions. Right look at
Quincy Vaughan, Joe Muhlberg, the Nichols kid out of Dakota Prairie, Yeah,
you know Ryan conradt that wide receiver. They've they've they
have kind of had a I guess now we're going
back some years, but uh, you know it has happened before.

(09:43):
But you're right, you know, uh guys certainly seem to
be more apt to uh try try a different opportunity
at their preferred position these days. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
That that That's the thing I kind of note is
that I don't know if that method, the madness, which
has been effective here at times in the history of
North to got to football. I don't know if that's
a thing that you can employ. You have to find
the really the right guy, because it's too easy to
just go in and say, like I can coach, see
this coach down the road is going to let me
play the position I want to play, And so that's

(10:17):
a different world as well. Well. I guess we can
touch on the basketballs I basically said I've been saying,
you know, basically, both the men and the women need
to shoot better first and foremost. I know, the men,
you know, emphasize defense and they want to get better defensively,
but you got to shoot the ball somewhat effectively if

(10:38):
you're gonna win some of those games where you do
defend well, and the women have really struggled at times
as well. I was looking at a stat here, Tom.
On the men's side, I think they're like at thirty
three percent as a team from around the ark, and
we know what a tool that is in today's NBA
college game. But if you take out Zach Kraft's threes,

(10:58):
they're at twenty six as a team. So it I mean,
it's it's just one of those things you have to
be good. Montana was really good shooting the three, both
their men and the women when they came here through
Grand Forks, and you just have to make some shots eventually.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, And I think there's also a level of early
in the season figuring out who should be taking those shots. Yeah.
You know, if you're at the midway point in the season,
if you're a fifteen percent three point shooter, maybe you're
not a three point shooter anymore, you know. So I
think some of that might have to get ironed out, because, yeah,

(11:35):
on the men's side, I think there's confidence in Zach
Kraft taking taking three pointers, and I don't know if
there's a ton of confidence elsewhere, but I thought that
was you know, as disappointed as they probably were against Montana,
there's something to be taken away from leading late against
you know, a big Sky Conference, serious contender, and the uh,

(11:58):
the breakout of Google. Uh. Yeah, I still can't say
his last name. I don't know how many years he's
gonna have to be on campus for that to iron out.
You're you're on the radio call, so you uh, you
probably gotta work on NASHVILLI however, Yeah, but Googa coming
on is uh is a really good sign there, I think.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, I mean that that that length and ability to
score it in and around the rim has got to
help some guys with the getting some more space on
the floor to do some things. If that he continues
down that road. But yeah, I mean, you know, basketball,
I desperately want it to be at a at a
fun level here for the fans, and it's been a
slog and and so now we'll see what they can

(12:41):
do here with some home games here in front of them.
But it's uh, it hasn't been easy so far, and
it hasn't been easy necessarily seeing the ball go down
for either team. And and the women, you know, against
Western Kentucky on on Sunday. Have had a tough goal
of it in a lot of instances except for that
Wyoming game.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and I watched I watched North Dakota play Montana,
and I just you know, even from an aesthetic running
up and down the court, look, it just it looks like,
you know, No, Kota has to get more athletic. And
you know, when you when you lose what eight contributors
or whatever it did coming off last season, you know

(13:23):
this was maybe bound to happen. You lost the girl
from South Dakota who was injured before the season even started, right,
gonna be in your starting lineup. You know, he's got
to fix that through through recruiting. I think there's a
few good signs in that direction. But boy, it's gonna
be a it's gonna be a slow build there.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, no doubt about it. All right, Tom, We appreciate
you going around various topics with us. We appreciate it.
Stay warm out there, and yeah, you might as well
let that car warm up for fifteen twenty minutes or
so before getting in. So sounds great, Have a great
rest of your weekend. We'll see you out and about.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Okay, sounds good. Take care, of guys,