Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Done a Friday a m as. We welcome to the program,
the sports editor, the grand forks Er, mister Tom Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Morning Tom, Good morning, guys.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
All right, Tom is on location. We will allow him
to be remote this morning. We won't give away the details.
We don't want people. You know, he's a celebrity. We
don't want the sports editor track down. So we'll let
him be out there on his getaway, his weekend get
away for the Easter holiday. Have you been homemade? Have
(00:31):
you been dying eggs and boiling him and dying him
basically for all in anticipation of an exceptional Easter egg
hunt where you're at.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
That's a good point. I haven't even thought that the
Easter egg hunting needs to begin here pretty soon. We've
been three and five year olds have been awake. It's
about five okay.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
What you always wanted when you get away is to
have the three in the five year olds up at
about five am in the morning. But there's just so
much time for activities. There's only so much.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Time, You're right, So.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, Tom. When it comes to you, Indi football. I
ran into you out to practice here the other day.
One of your stories. I thought was an interesting one
here in regards to in helmet communication. The big schools
did it last year and DSU purchased it for one
game last year because it wasn't going to be used
at the FCS level. They used it at Colorado. What
(01:32):
do we know about in helmet communication and how it
will work at the FCS level for North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, you know, I was able to talk with coach Frichty,
who will be in the ear of the quarterbacks, you know,
and I was just kind of interested. Had a few
questions for him in terms of, you know, do players
at the handoff helmets and you know that kind of thing.
But the answer to that is now every quarterback helmet
(02:01):
is hooked up with the technology. You know. It would
have been interesting to figure out how they would have
handled the Quincy von situation because you can only have
one one helmet in the game that's designated as a
quarterback communication helmet at a time, so the Quincy Von
Brock Boltman's of the world would not also be in
(02:23):
communication with the offensive coordinator. The helmets are cut out
at fifteen seconds left on the play clock, so there'll
be a third party official in the booth that's got
the cut off button that make sure that coach and
player can't be in communication late in the play clock.
So coach Fritty said that he wanted to keep it
(02:46):
real simple in the headset, so guys weren't overthinking things.
From his experience in the NFL and and Javan's experience
at San Diego State, you know, they were kind of
in agreement that, you know, sticking to the bare bones
of what players need to know is is more important
than perhaps adding too many layers of information.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Jim, Well, that's so you're saying every quarterback has it
in the helmet, but you can only have one on
the field during the game. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah? Yep, So right now three quarterbacks have it going
at at at spring ball because Simon Ruffo remains sidelined
as he recovers from an injury. Otherwise there would be
for helmets, uh with with with that technology. So I
I assume I don't know this yet. I assume there's
(03:42):
some sort of like sticker that indicates, I believe wish
which helmets have that that technology, so that only only
the the one quarterback would have would have communication with
with the assistant coach.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, I believe I talked to you. I talked to
equipment manager Travis Kolbob about this after your story came out,
and it will be recognized by a sticker and a
defensive player more than likely. Probably a linebacker could be
a safety too, I guess, depending upon who they want
to kind of in that role. But yeah, defensive player
will have in helmet communication and same cutoff times, I believe.
(04:21):
So do you just say, like, here's our d watch
for this.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, that I would assume, you know, I would have
to talk to to defensive coaches, but I would assume
in that situation that you might be more willing to
uh unload more information. You know, a quarterback, you know,
you're you're maybe a little bit more delicate on information
overload and in allowing guys to play for you where
(04:53):
in depending on who you're communicating with, you know, maybe
you're more willing to add a little bit more context
to a simple play call. That'd be pretty fascinating to have.
I'd love to wear a headset that hurt everything.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it would be interesting. Portal Portal, Portal, So here's
what we learned from Portal this week. If you've had
your ear to the ground. On the basketball side, Tracey
and Eagles staff was going to South Carolina supposedly now
not going to Colombia to be a game Cock now,
(05:31):
who knows. On the basketball side, on the we've had
women's basketball players now recently start to make their way,
whether they be former Kansas State or Arizona State players
and more. On the women's side football, I'd say it's
been less about you and d's football portal news here recently.
It's been more about NDSU and their high level running
(05:51):
back that was a nationally recognized running back a season ago.
South Dakota seems to have all sorts of things happening
down in Vermilion. Let's get them Miller Portal experience. Where
do you start, Tom.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That's a good question. Yeah, South Dakota State, I'm sorry.
South Dakota and Illinois State kind of seemed to be
the teams that, you know, in this first week of
the college football spring portion of the portal being open,
the Yoats and the Redbirds seem to be rated the hardest.
(06:25):
North Dakota, you know, is in a funny position. To
some extent, you'd probably like to see a little bit
more action in the transfer portal because you know, I
don't know if we've talked about this exactly, but the
basic math here is that you know, the the current
roster plus what was signed in the fall, he's probably
(06:45):
going to add up to too much to get down
to what you've historically been out at around one hundred
and five players. If you want to add out of
the transfer portal, which you've got needs at linebacker, defensive tack,
go running back, probably tight end, you've got some needs.
(07:06):
You might need to see more portal action because it's
gonna be tough to get down to one oh five
come fall.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So, uh so, essentially you're telling you and defense, uh
North Dakota, if they're if they're following it, may need
to actually see more portal things in order to find
more pieces to what they need. And and I guess
to use a technical term and an investing term, you
may actually have to divest and and see some guys
(07:35):
in the portal essentially in order to get some different
guys in.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, I mean that's uh, you know, the brutal truth
of college athletics as as a business. Essentially, nowadays you
and d has to get around one hundred and five
and you know that there's not a lot of pretty
ways to do it. You know, they're gonna have to
(08:00):
They're going to have to really, you know, show kids
that this is where they stand in the death chart.
And you know, to some extent, they're gonna have to
hope some of those guys, you know, take a shot
at another university, at another program to to find their
way in the death chart. And I think fans need
to have a clearer understanding of that that if you
(08:21):
didn't like the results a year ago, you know, maybe
don't be too upset if the roster turns over.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
If you start seeing portal entries, you shouldn't say the
question of oh, what's happening or why is this happening?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
It?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Actually maybe the thing that needs to happen a little
bit is what you're indicating a little bit. Okay, Tim,
what do you got for Tom?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That's uh, I was going to talk about that a
little bit. So what do you just end up then
cutting guys?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You know, I think you could reward I don't know
anymore the specifics of this. You could probably rework the
financial arrangements that you've head for kids. I think the
most effective you know, in the in the there are
times sometimes when you can, you know, maybe put a
veteran on the scout team. That usually sends a message
that you know, hey there's there's probably not the easiest
(09:14):
pass forward for you here. Or you can pull up
a depth chart and say, hey, this young kid, this
young kid, they've passed you on the depth chart. You know,
you're you're number six. We like who you are as
a kid, but you're number six, you know, so you know,
probably the same thing for you in hockey. You know,
(09:36):
you move a kid down the depth chart. Oh you
think you're a power play kid. Now now you're on
the Now you're on the fourth line. And maybe you
send messages that way, you know. I think that kind
of thing is what takes place in Spring Bath.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So the basketball side of this, h I you know,
the Trace and Eagles staff side of this. You know, again,
I I haven't really followed much of it other than
you know, when he went in. I wasn't surprised, nobody
really was. But at the same time, then he'd selected
a school, and now it's coming out that he's going
to try somewhere else that he hasn't even got on campus.
(10:09):
So welcome to the world of movement to where one
one thing is uh, it's not set in stone until
you're actually on campus with everything going on, basically, is
what I'm learning.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, you know, I think maybe maybe that's a good
example of everybody who who would like to, you know,
get to a place where athletes and university sit at
tables and and come to more binding agreements that that
don't go up and smoke as fast. Now. I haven't
spoke to to Tracy, so I can only guess at
(10:45):
the at the situation, but I will say that I
noticed that after Tracing committed to South Carolina that other
South Carolina men's basketball players entered the transfer portal. So
just as projecting what could have happened, perhaps you recruited
and said, you know, we can line you up to
play with X, Y and Z who fit what you do,
(11:08):
and then perhaps if those kids transfer out. I don't
know that. That was my first inclination when I saw
that news.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, interesting there. Yeah, I I don't have any additional
to it, but just an interesting way of it. Uh,
you know where we're at basically right now, it's it's
just a whirlwind, really, I mean, it changes on the fly.
You know, you know, we played University of Texas San
Antonio twice this past year in men's basketball, as you're
(11:38):
aware of, Tom, the proud road Runners of UTSA. We
didn't get them. We probably should at least got them once.
But they'd brought in a player, Primo Spears, who who
was at Florida State prior. He was their star and
uh and and uh. Primo was one of those players
that had left Florida State under a cloud of saying
(11:59):
they had indicated those that had left Florida State the
year prior. Is that Hey, they were saying in the
media they promised us X. We didn't get X. That's
why we left. Now at University of Texas San Antonio.
Just the other day, a couple of weeks ago, or
within the last week and change ago, there was stories
coming out of San Antonio, those on the road Runners
(12:20):
roster that were all entering the portal were complaining in
the media that they promised us X here at UTSA
and we weren't getting any of X. So for as
much as being reported about how much is out there
and be you know, you know, there doesn't seem to
be a lot of signing on the dotted line, any
sort of stuff on contract. So it allows institutions to say, yeah,
(12:44):
we'll give you X, and then there's no follow through
and then you got unhappy campers leaving the next year.
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, yeah, and I've I've said it a million times,
but I just think, you know, need to get to
a place where athletes and universities are both at the
bargaining table and you can have contracts and you know,
if we're gonna treat it like the pros, let's uh,
let's contractually treat it like the pros here and maybe
(13:11):
maybe that leads to fewer rogue collectives and a few
more police officers on the highway. I feel like that's
part of the problem right now is you know, even
with people thrown around the word tampering, people aren't even
scared to use that word anymore. You know, the tampering
matter if there's not an agency that gives that that
(13:32):
that's out there to patrol essentially, you know, I, I
don't know, it's kind of a lawless era.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It is a lawless that's a great Well, that's why
he's a wordsmith, and that's why he's the sports editor
of The Harold. So he's an ink stained wretch, is
what he is, and he's proud of it. And we're although, well,
you know, it's a different type of thin nowadays and
(14:00):
in today's digital world. So but anyway, we appreciate Tom
Miller swinging in here. As heading into the holiday weekend,
may you have a happy Easter. We'll be following all
the stories local and more in our digital editions of
the Grand Forks Herald. We encourage you to get a subscription,
it's really worth it and support our local story makers,
including Tom and his team on the sports side. Tom, thanks,
(14:23):
have a great holiday and we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Sounds great, you guys, take care of have a good Easter.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Thanks Tom. There goes Tom Miller, sports editor of the
Grand Forks Herald.