August 29, 2025 • 13 mins
Grand Forks Herald Sports Editor Tom Miller, discusses the UND Fighting Hawks Football program as they ready themselves for game one of the new season against the Big 12's Kansas State Wildcats.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's check in with the sports editor. I think Radford
held Tom Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Morning Tom, Good morning, guys.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good morning Tom.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Busy time, right, Yeah, it's starting to hit a little bit,
a little bit heavy. This week had some and even
yesterday we had a high school football game locally here
and had a had some rivalry tennis over in Riverside.
So just keeps kicking along this weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, well, at least the Riverside Tennis. I mean, that's
right next door. You can walk to that one, Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, I did walk by.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Turn out, So I mean I was gonna say what
I mean, you know, we we know that neighborhood tennis
at Riverside, whether it's Central or Red River on a
match day, there's usually people over there playing anyway, whether
any day of the week. I mean, they're tennis mad
over on that side at Riverside Park, at the tennis courts.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, but I left Schlotsman do the riding. I don't
take I don't take keenness for him.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Okay, okay, it sounds good. Well, we're turning the corner.
We're getting on a plane. We're gonna play a football
game for North Dakota Football at Kansas State. You wrote
about eight things to know about the Wildcats. One of
the things that I thought, and I've been saying here
on Tuesday nights HOWK Talk Coaches show with Coach Schmid,
I said, you know, they have three or four really
(01:27):
good tight ends at Kansas Statedium. Where we talk about
all the receivers that they've surrounded Avery Johnson with, they
lined tight ends on the line of scrimmage, they line
them out wide. The one tight end who was a
preseason All Big twelve selection didn't catch a a pass,
but there were seven catches by those tight ends. One
of them had four. And I always feel like if
(01:50):
you've got your tight ends involved at the collegiate level
who are very good, that puts stresses on the defense
as well. Not only do they have good running backs
one is out missing, but this Kansas Citate team has
a number of different ways they can get at you.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, this new look North Cota defense is gonna be
stressed quickly. We'll get to learn, We'll get to learn
some of the new personnel and the new scheme against
a really good offense. So it's gonna be I think
it'll be really interesting to see who steps forward for
this defense. You know, you look at Malachi McNeil's probably
(02:26):
one of the few proven commodities out there, you know,
from Paul Camp, I think, I think Bennett Walker at
corner and Zach Lewis at safety are gonna be you know,
above average FCS football players for U and D. But
there's there's just a lot of unknowns with this defense
that yeah, it's gonna be tested very quickly.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well. One one thing I'm interested is at the defensive
tackle spot, because I think you've written that he's had
some good practices Montrey Samuels Parker. I was just gonna
say that he's a little undersized you'd think for for
that role, but he seems to have at least have
had a good fall camp.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah. I think the phrase they used with him is twitchy,
And if you're playing playing D tackle at two sixty,
I think you you better be. But I you know,
I'm curious to see, you know, a couple of the
new transfers at the other D tackle spot. You know,
they've been a little in and out of the lineup
with injuries, but I think they're getting healthy at the
(03:28):
at the right time here, and those are the those
are the body types that didn't exist in the program,
you know, the last few years, to be honest and
so curious that they can make a difference. Uh inside,
because any football but this, this team's gonna have to
get people a little off schedule because teams are going
(03:49):
to try to run it right at them after you know,
some of the stats they gave up a year ago.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Tim, I'm just trying to settle down Bella here, I
can tell yeah, And that's not an easy task, that's
for sure. So any surprises with we talked about this before,
about the quarterback thing, But are we talking about more
than one playing? Do you think Saturday?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, I still believe that we'll see at least two
quarterbacks against Kansas State. I think it's clear to me that,
you know, Javance has a skill set that needs to
see the field somehow, some way, you know. I don't
think it's the short yardage game that Quincy Vaughan provided.
(04:37):
Maybe it's more like a couple of years ago when
when Simon Rumfo got sprinkled in at times. And I
think I think there's too many people too curious about
how teams are able to tackle Javans. I think I
think he could be an elite runner scrambler creator. You
(05:00):
just didn't have enough touch passes during the y're in
fall camp to maybe give them the keys to the
full offense, and that that's why we're seeing Jerry comvinc
you come out as QB one to kind of run
kind of the full arsenal of the offense.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
How the players react to it when Simon makes a
big play to maybe the other quarterbacks you know, yeah, yeah,
sorry about that, we lost you, Tom. But anyway, I
was saying, it was always interesting to me, like from
the handful of practices that I went to, is that
in regards to when Simon made a big play, there
was always kind of an eruption throughout the roster basically,
(05:39):
and you know, well, will there be be that little
bump for Jerry. I'm sure there will be, but it
always seemed that way in my in practice, I'm like, oh,
who made that play? And it was usually Simon, So
you know, I didn't know how to read the quarterback
competition coming in and where they were going to go.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, And I think some of that's natural in terms
of like case Simon's an in state or the code
of guy he was a walk on who had to
earn everything he got. He's an undersized guy who is
easy to root for because because he just works his
tail off to get what he's got. Not to say
that there's any dislike towards Jerry or that he's not liked,
(06:16):
but you just have a guy who's a fiftier guy
in the program who I feel like there's something a
little extra special about guys who worked their way into
the lineup after coming in as a walk on. And
so yeah, there was a lot of love for Simon
and I think that plays a role into ever thinking
that he was going to be the guy or has
been the guy. I think he galvanizes the roster. So
(06:38):
Jerry has a little bit of work to do in
terms of he's got to get guys believing. And I
think when I stopped out to practice this week, it
looked to me like Jerry had an extra jump to
his step. I'm curious if there's a feeling of a
bit of a weight off his shoulders. YE constantly waiting
to see if he could be QB one, and now
that he's received that title, I thought he was just
(07:01):
a little bit more clearly a leader. Out there when
I stopped by practice this week.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Should we read anything into Sawyer sidell not being listed
in Xavier lead being listed on the depth chart on
the too deep that I saw.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, that's a fabulous question. I think at times two
deeps can be opportunities to send messages. Perhaps you want
to pat Xavier on the back. Perhaps you want to
remind Sawyer that there's a competition here, and so I
(07:35):
you know, yes, you can read into you can read
into it and say that there's a message being sent somehow.
You can also know that they're going to run a
very three balanced offensive backfield I would imagine, very similar
to a year ago with Isaiah Smith Ze Barthen Sidel.
I anticipate that being the case here. But that being said,
(07:59):
when I saw too Deep, that's the first thing I
pointed to in said, all right, that's.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Interesting, Yeah, Tim, Anything else for Tom today?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
No, not much.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Actually, Oh, I have one more question regarding him the
game with Kansas State. You know, obviously their quarterback is
a really good athlete, throws a really good ball, he's
got some new receivers to work with, and uh, you know,
I forget about you know the thing that happened in Ireland,
you know, made social media whatever. But you know, the
one thing is is that when they run him or
(08:31):
he chooses to run, and he's a good enough athlete,
uh that that QB run game has been a fit
for North Ka's defense. So that one scares me just
a little bit. How about you, Tom?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, you know a year ago it was just like
they looked lost in the QB run game. It was,
you know, you come after him or you sit back,
and it felt like every choice you and he made
with the wrong choice didn't didn't seem to matter which
option you and each chose, it just didn't work. Will
(09:10):
a fit defensive back on the field this year in
the four two five? Can can Johnny Wiltshire clean up
some things that they didn't a year ago? You know,
that'll be something that will definitely be worth watching because
you Indy has struggled with the QB run game for
for a while now and new era, new defense. We'll
see if at uh new results. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well, the high school football season underway too. Before we
get to that. I cross country today Ron Pinn and
Ray Richards. Tom Scott was at the press conference the
other day. He's kind of up on his women's program
right now. I know they were a preseason pick like third,
but I've never heard across country coach just come right.
I mean, Coach Clay was so spoken for all the
(09:54):
years he was there, you know, you know, but uh,
coach Tom Scott, He's like, I don't know, we gotta
we got some thing is happening here. And I was like,
WHOA good, that's a that's for a cross country coach.
That's kind of a different feel. I kind of enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, he started rattling off times and how how much
progress they've made, and you know, Jaden Keeler talked about
them getting better every year and so yeah, it looks
like they should have a good year. So busy weekend
in GF even when we're away.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, well, I was gonna say, you know, if, if, if,
whatever he's feeling comes to be, and they were to
win a something league championship, that would be the first
some of league team championship for any team since joining
the Summit League. So that'd be a big one. If
he's if he's got those feelings, I hope they come true.
Speaking of feelings, there will be an electric feeling at
Cushman this afternoon and tonight with Rhetorvern Central beginning their seasons,
(10:47):
and then at East Grand Fourth Senior High on the
road at Staples Motley Greenway. I think will be pretty decent,
you know. I think Central certainly has good numbers and
uh and they've got to feel around their program like
guys are going to take a step. So kind of
an interesting night to kind of get to see where
the baseline is for these schools.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I I think I
think all three Redvers, Central and East Grand Forest could
have really nice years. I think that, you know, Redriver
and Central should have nice years in that division each year,
even though even though both teams kind of come into
this season with some with uh maybe not as high
as expectations as red River had a year ago. But
(11:27):
you know, the you look at that middle class and
you have Kindred supposed to be pretty special. But you know,
Grand Forks is a pretty big community once you start
looking at the you know, you play Castleton and Kindred
and Devil's Lake. You know, there's no reason that the
Grand Forks schools can't string together a bunch of wins
there this year.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, it's going to be interesting. It's just weird to
me to to think about Castleton and Kindred being in
the same classification as those, but it just tells you
that the demographics of our state are quickly changing and
we're just a sleepy bedroom community now basically. So, Tom,
thanks for taking some time here today. We appreciate your
(12:10):
coverage of you indie football and the insights that you've
lent leading into Game one. We look forward to recapping
with you and going into Potato Ble next Friday. We
encourage everybody to get their subscription to the Grand Forks
Herald because your team of folks on your sports staff
do it as good as anybody in the business. And
there's a reason we want to continue to support the
(12:30):
Herald because you guys cover local sports the way it's
meant to be covered, and so we appreciate that, and
we look forward to reading about all the things going
into game one and tomorrow's edition and the recap on Sunday.
Thanks so much, Tom, have a great, great weekend ahead.
We'll see on the plane later today.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Sounds good. Should be fun.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
All right, all right, there goes Tom, There goes our Yeah,
we are heading into Undy Football's game one tomorrow night
at and of course you'll hear it on N six
point one, The Fox locally and the Fighting Hawks Radio
network will have the Bud Light Undy Football Tailgate Show
beginning at five pm. And then we'll kick it off
at six p'h two from Bill Schneider Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas,
(13:13):
or as Tim will call it, the Little Apple. That's right,
Let's check in with the sports editor. I think Radford
held Tom Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Morning Tom, Good morning, guys.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good morning Tom.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Busy time, right, Yeah, it's starting to hit a little bit,
a little bit heavy. This week had some and even
yesterday we had a high school football game locally here
and had a had some rivalry tennis over in Riverside.
So just keeps kicking along this weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, well, at least the Riverside Tennis. I mean, that's
right next door. You can walk to that one, Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, I did walk by.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Turn out, So I mean I was gonna say what
I mean, you know, we we know that neighborhood tennis
at Riverside, whether it's Central or Red River on a
match day, there's usually people over there playing anyway, whether
any day of the week. I mean, they're tennis mad
over on that side at Riverside Park, at the tennis courts.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, but I left Schlotsman do the riding. I don't
take I don't take keenness for him.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Okay, okay, it sounds good. Well, we're turning the corner.
We're getting on a plane. We're gonna play a football
game for North Dakota Football at Kansas State. You wrote
about eight things to know about the Wildcats. One of
the things that I thought, and I've been saying here
on Tuesday nights HOWK Talk Coaches show with Coach Schmid,
I said, you know, they have three or four really
(01:27):
good tight ends at Kansas Statedium. Where we talk about
all the receivers that they've surrounded Avery Johnson with, they
lined tight ends on the line of scrimmage, they line
them out wide. The one tight end who was a
preseason All Big twelve selection didn't catch a a pass,
but there were seven catches by those tight ends. One
of them had four. And I always feel like if
(01:50):
you've got your tight ends involved at the collegiate level
who are very good, that puts stresses on the defense
as well. Not only do they have good running backs
one is out missing, but this Kansas Citate team has
a number of different ways they can get at you.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, this new look North Cota defense is gonna be
stressed quickly. We'll get to learn, We'll get to learn
some of the new personnel and the new scheme against
a really good offense. So it's gonna be I think
it'll be really interesting to see who steps forward for
this defense. You know, you look at Malachi McNeil's probably
(02:26):
one of the few proven commodities out there, you know,
from Paul Camp, I think, I think Bennett Walker at
corner and Zach Lewis at safety are gonna be you know,
above average FCS football players for U and D. But
there's there's just a lot of unknowns with this defense
that yeah, it's gonna be tested very quickly.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well. One one thing I'm interested is at the defensive
tackle spot, because I think you've written that he's had
some good practices Montrey Samuels Parker. I was just gonna
say that he's a little undersized you'd think for for
that role, but he seems to have at least have
had a good fall camp.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah. I think the phrase they used with him is twitchy,
And if you're playing playing D tackle at two sixty,
I think you you better be. But I you know,
I'm curious to see, you know, a couple of the
new transfers at the other D tackle spot. You know,
they've been a little in and out of the lineup
with injuries, but I think they're getting healthy at the
(03:28):
at the right time here, and those are the those
are the body types that didn't exist in the program,
you know, the last few years, to be honest and
so curious that they can make a difference. Uh inside,
because any football but this, this team's gonna have to
get people a little off schedule because teams are going
(03:49):
to try to run it right at them after you know,
some of the stats they gave up a year ago.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Tim, I'm just trying to settle down Bella here, I
can tell yeah, And that's not an easy task, that's
for sure. So any surprises with we talked about this before,
about the quarterback thing, But are we talking about more
than one playing? Do you think Saturday?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, I still believe that we'll see at least two
quarterbacks against Kansas State. I think it's clear to me that,
you know, Javance has a skill set that needs to
see the field somehow, some way, you know. I don't
think it's the short yardage game that Quincy Vaughan provided.
(04:37):
Maybe it's more like a couple of years ago when
when Simon Rumfo got sprinkled in at times. And I
think I think there's too many people too curious about
how teams are able to tackle Javans. I think I
think he could be an elite runner scrambler creator. You
(05:00):
just didn't have enough touch passes during the y're in
fall camp to maybe give them the keys to the
full offense, and that that's why we're seeing Jerry comvinc
you come out as QB one to kind of run
kind of the full arsenal of the offense.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
How the players react to it when Simon makes a
big play to maybe the other quarterbacks you know, yeah, yeah,
sorry about that, we lost you, Tom. But anyway, I
was saying, it was always interesting to me, like from
the handful of practices that I went to, is that
in regards to when Simon made a big play, there
was always kind of an eruption throughout the roster basically,
(05:39):
and you know, well, will there be be that little
bump for Jerry. I'm sure there will be, but it
always seemed that way in my in practice, I'm like, oh,
who made that play? And it was usually Simon, So
you know, I didn't know how to read the quarterback
competition coming in and where they were going to go.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, And I think some of that's natural in terms
of like case Simon's an in state or the code
of guy he was a walk on who had to
earn everything he got. He's an undersized guy who is
easy to root for because because he just works his
tail off to get what he's got. Not to say
that there's any dislike towards Jerry or that he's not liked,
(06:16):
but you just have a guy who's a fiftier guy
in the program who I feel like there's something a
little extra special about guys who worked their way into
the lineup after coming in as a walk on. And
so yeah, there was a lot of love for Simon
and I think that plays a role into ever thinking
that he was going to be the guy or has
been the guy. I think he galvanizes the roster. So
(06:38):
Jerry has a little bit of work to do in
terms of he's got to get guys believing. And I
think when I stopped out to practice this week, it
looked to me like Jerry had an extra jump to
his step. I'm curious if there's a feeling of a
bit of a weight off his shoulders. YE constantly waiting
to see if he could be QB one, and now
that he's received that title, I thought he was just
(07:01):
a little bit more clearly a leader. Out there when
I stopped by practice this week.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Should we read anything into Sawyer sidell not being listed
in Xavier lead being listed on the depth chart on
the too deep that I saw.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, that's a fabulous question. I think at times two
deeps can be opportunities to send messages. Perhaps you want
to pat Xavier on the back. Perhaps you want to
remind Sawyer that there's a competition here, and so I
(07:35):
you know, yes, you can read into you can read
into it and say that there's a message being sent somehow.
You can also know that they're going to run a
very three balanced offensive backfield I would imagine, very similar
to a year ago with Isaiah Smith Ze Barthen Sidel.
I anticipate that being the case here. But that being said,
(07:59):
when I saw too Deep, that's the first thing I
pointed to in said, all right, that's.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Interesting, Yeah, Tim, Anything else for Tom today?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
No, not much.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Actually, Oh, I have one more question regarding him the
game with Kansas State. You know, obviously their quarterback is
a really good athlete, throws a really good ball, he's
got some new receivers to work with, and uh, you know,
I forget about you know the thing that happened in Ireland,
you know, made social media whatever. But you know, the
one thing is is that when they run him or
(08:31):
he chooses to run, and he's a good enough athlete,
uh that that QB run game has been a fit
for North Ka's defense. So that one scares me just
a little bit. How about you, Tom?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, you know a year ago it was just like
they looked lost in the QB run game. It was,
you know, you come after him or you sit back,
and it felt like every choice you and he made
with the wrong choice didn't didn't seem to matter which
option you and each chose, it just didn't work. Will
(09:10):
a fit defensive back on the field this year in
the four two five? Can can Johnny Wiltshire clean up
some things that they didn't a year ago? You know,
that'll be something that will definitely be worth watching because
you Indy has struggled with the QB run game for
for a while now and new era, new defense. We'll
see if at uh new results. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well, the high school football season underway too. Before we
get to that. I cross country today Ron Pinn and
Ray Richards. Tom Scott was at the press conference the
other day. He's kind of up on his women's program
right now. I know they were a preseason pick like third,
but I've never heard across country coach just come right.
I mean, Coach Clay was so spoken for all the
(09:54):
years he was there, you know, you know, but uh,
coach Tom Scott, He's like, I don't know, we gotta
we got some thing is happening here. And I was like,
WHOA good, that's a that's for a cross country coach.
That's kind of a different feel. I kind of enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, he started rattling off times and how how much
progress they've made, and you know, Jaden Keeler talked about
them getting better every year and so yeah, it looks
like they should have a good year. So busy weekend
in GF even when we're away.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, well, I was gonna say, you know, if, if, if,
whatever he's feeling comes to be, and they were to
win a something league championship, that would be the first
some of league team championship for any team since joining
the Summit League. So that'd be a big one. If
he's if he's got those feelings, I hope they come true.
Speaking of feelings, there will be an electric feeling at
Cushman this afternoon and tonight with Rhetorvern Central beginning their seasons,
(10:47):
and then at East Grand Fourth Senior High on the
road at Staples Motley Greenway. I think will be pretty decent,
you know. I think Central certainly has good numbers and
uh and they've got to feel around their program like
guys are going to take a step. So kind of
an interesting night to kind of get to see where
the baseline is for these schools.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I I think I
think all three Redvers, Central and East Grand Forest could
have really nice years. I think that, you know, Redriver
and Central should have nice years in that division each year,
even though even though both teams kind of come into
this season with some with uh maybe not as high
as expectations as red River had a year ago. But
(11:27):
you know, the you look at that middle class and
you have Kindred supposed to be pretty special. But you know,
Grand Forks is a pretty big community once you start
looking at the you know, you play Castleton and Kindred
and Devil's Lake. You know, there's no reason that the
Grand Forks schools can't string together a bunch of wins
there this year.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, it's going to be interesting. It's just weird to
me to to think about Castleton and Kindred being in
the same classification as those, but it just tells you
that the demographics of our state are quickly changing and
we're just a sleepy bedroom community now basically. So, Tom,
thanks for taking some time here today. We appreciate your
(12:10):
coverage of you indie football and the insights that you've
lent leading into Game one. We look forward to recapping
with you and going into Potato Ble next Friday. We
encourage everybody to get their subscription to the Grand Forks
Herald because your team of folks on your sports staff
do it as good as anybody in the business. And
there's a reason we want to continue to support the
(12:30):
Herald because you guys cover local sports the way it's
meant to be covered, and so we appreciate that, and
we look forward to reading about all the things going
into game one and tomorrow's edition and the recap on Sunday.
Thanks so much, Tom, have a great, great weekend ahead.
We'll see on the plane later today.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Sounds good. Should be fun.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
All right, all right, there goes Tom, There goes our Yeah,
we are heading into Undy Football's game one tomorrow night
at and of course you'll hear it on N six
point one, The Fox locally and the Fighting Hawks Radio
network will have the Bud Light Undy Football Tailgate Show
beginning at five pm. And then we'll kick it off
at six p'h two from Bill Schneider Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas,
(13:13):
or as Tim will call it, the Little Apple. That's right,
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