The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[Augieholic]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

What's story with transfer of John Warren?

It's still too new and raw for me to unpack, all of my holdings on John Warren island are staring down the barrel of foreclosure. He was the last remaining piece of the National Championship squad and I'm sad he won't get the proper heroes good bye. But it's his career and I hope he finds a situation that pleases him.

Texas Tom will be guiding his youngest team since 2004-2005 this fall and while it wont result in an immediate return of victories, his track record suggests the looming struggle shall yield a bountiful crop of wins. This is AJ Plitzuweit's team now, act accordingly.

[Moorhead123]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

What's story with transfer of John Warren?

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

I wouldn't give too much praise to kids committing to NDSU, I pretty coach will be gone after another crappy season this coming year.

Yeah, I wasn't praising any NDSU commits. More just commenting on the fact that Augie's recruits in MN were placed higher in these very subjective rankings (that were seniors-only, to be clear) than a handful of D1 commits.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

A question for Mr. A Which of our recruits had D1 offer and by whom? Listening to coach OJ interviews, I get a strong impression that Peyton Zabel is the Vikings QB
of the near future. Zabel is a 3 sport star athlete for Pierre T.F. Riggs HS.

My understanding is that Plitzuweit had an open offer from NDSU when he committed to Augie and Hanson at one point committed early (summer before his junior year) to SDSU and eventually de-committed for reasons I'm not aware of, but am not complaining about.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Again, only Augie fans will care, but all three of Augie's 2018 commits from SD made 1st Team Senior All-State via the Prep Hoops guys. Other NSIC-ers of note include Lincoln Jordre (NSU) on the 1st Team, Gus Reede (NSU) who landed on the 4th Team and, interestingly, D1-bound (former NSU commit) Cole Bergan ended up 4th Team as well.

Future Augie baseballer and footballer Peyton Zabel was 4th Team Senior All-State as well.

Congrats to those incoming freshmen on great seniors seasons and great careers.

A question for Mr. A Which of our recruits had D1 offer and by whom? Listening to coach OJ interviews, I get a strong impression that Peyton Zabel is the Vikings QB
of the near future. Zabel is a 3 sport star athlete for Pierre T.F. Riggs HS.

[NSU4LIFE]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Vikings incoming class have made a lot of news and all of it is good. Certainly going to be a fun upcoming season.

I wouldn't give too much praise to kids committing to NDSU, I pretty coach will be gone after another crappy season this coming year.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Again, only Augie fans will care, but all three of Augie's 2018 commits from SD made 1st Team Senior All-State via the Prep Hoops guys. Other NSIC-ers of note include Lincoln Jordre (NSU) on the 1st Team, Gus Reede (NSU) who landed on the 4th Team and, interestingly, D1-bound (former NSU commit) Cole Bergan ended up 4th Team as well.

Future Augie baseballer and footballer Peyton Zabel was 4th Team Senior All-State as well.

Congrats to those incoming freshmen on great seniors seasons and great careers.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Northstar Hoops released their Senior All-State team. Michael Schaefer of St. Cloud Cathedral made the 2nd-Team and Eric Tiedman made 4th-Team. Schaefer in particular was given a spot above 4-5 D1 players, including kids going to Denver, Wofford, NDSU, Navy, and the 2nd-Team had two mid-major D1 kids on it and Minnesota commit Jarvis Omersa.

Not saying it guarantees Schaefer will be a superstar, obviously, but it's interesting to see him make the cut as 2nd-Team Senior All-State while a guy committed to NDSU ended up on the 5th-Team. I think he and Tiedman are going to be HUGE parts of a really, really special core by the time this 2018 class graduates.

Vikings incoming class have made a lot of news and all of it is good. Certainly going to be a fun upcoming season.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Northstar Hoops released their Senior All-State team. Michael Schaefer of St. Cloud Cathedral made the 2nd-Team and Eric Tiedman made 4th-Team. Schaefer in particular was given a spot above 4-5 D1 players, including kids going to Denver, Wofford, NDSU, Navy, and the 2nd-Team had two mid-major D1 kids on it and Minnesota commit Jarvis Omersa.

Not saying it guarantees Schaefer will be a superstar, obviously, but it's interesting to see him make the cut as 2nd-Team Senior All-State while a guy committed to NDSU ended up on the 5th-Team. I think he and Tiedman are going to be HUGE parts of a really, really special core by the time this 2018 class graduates.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Here's the article: https://www.yankton.net/sports/artic...2f1403d0e.html

Good for Cody. Now we just need to make sure he doesn't steal away any Augie recruits in the future. :)

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Jeremy Hoeck
?@jhoeck
3h3 hours ago
More
Today's project: The Cody Schilling effect at Mount Marty College

Men's hoops coach has secured 15 commitments for the 2018 class (currently 13 guys on the roster), with 8 recruits from South Dakota

3 recruits today raved about Schilling's vision for MMC. Full story later!

Here's the article: https://www.yankton.net/sports/artic...2f1403d0e.html

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Jeremy Hoeck
?@jhoeck
3h3 hours ago
More
Today's project: The Cody Schilling effect at Mount Marty College

Men's hoops coach has secured 15 commitments for the 2018 class (currently 13 guys on the roster), with 8 recruits from South Dakota

3 recruits today raved about Schilling's vision for MMC. Full story later!

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Not sure if I already posted this somewhere, but a couple of updates on Augie's incoming recruits:

In the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Association awards, incoming Viking AJ Plitzuweit was named 2018 Player of the Year as well as 1st Team All-State, while fellow incoming Vikings Dylan LeBrun and Trevor Hanson were also named 1st Team All-State.

Also, in the KELOLAND/Sanford Pentagon Player of the Year awards, Plitzuweit and LeBrun were two of five nominees, and AJ ended up winning Player of the Year for that as well.

Finally, I think I posted this already, but Plitzuweit and LeBrun were also two of the Argus Leader First Five award winners, and Trevor Hanson was on the Second Five team. Interestingly, SDSU-bound Aaron Fiegen ended up making the Second Five. That's about the only way the Vikes can beat the Jackrabbits in anything anymore (unless President Herseth Sandlin leads us into the Division 1 ranks in a blaze of glory), but it still made me smile.

Congrats to the incoming Vikes on their various awards. Looking forward to their continued success into next season and beyond.

[simple as a $3 bill]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Pitching was the word in both games today with 29 strikeouts total in the twin bill. After looking at a good amount of snow on a SCSU webcam, I assume the Huskies have an indoor practice facility.

I think that the bubble is still up over the football field. Word is that unless there are some drastic weather improvements in St. Cloud, they may not get any home games in this season.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

It's been a long, long time since I've posted. Those that know me know that I've moved on but still follow the conference closely. But the recent situation with Augustana intrigues me and has me asking...

Augie has narrowed down the AD search to 4 people. Slade's departure hits a very volatile time for Augie athletics. The rumors are rampant. "Augie is going D-1." "Augie is NOT going D-1." Ultimately, President Herseth will make the AD hire fit her own agenda. The Summit League Tournament is in Sioux Falls until at least 2022 (I can't see the tournament ever leaving unless they want to rotate between Sioux Falls and Fargo), your first year of playoff eligibility would be 2023 if the move happened immediately.

So, how do you feel about the possibility of moving Division I in athletics? Do you think the money is there to fundraise and increase your budget 100%? Do you see any benefits of making the transition? I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on the situation.

Edit: I don't know if this post gets more traction on the football half of the forum. Seeing that everything purged with the move to CR4, it might be worth the discussion since Spring Ball has started.

Listening to an interview of President Stephanie Herseth by voice of the Vikings Jeff Fylling after a women's central region game, she did not come across enthusiastic about a D1 move and talked about the need to grow enrollment to around 3,000 as a priority before considering moving on from the NSIC. Raising an additional 10 million dollars a year to compete in the summit league would be a monumental task. The Summit league is not a robust conference with turnover and teams looking for a better league. I'm sure NDSU and SDSU would be gone in a heartbeat if a better offer came along.

As a 30+ year follower of AU I have enjoyed the NSIC where Augie has been very competitive versus the old NCC years. The NSIC is gaining traction as a premier D2 league, judging by all the National championship hardware in the trophy cases. Augustana would be out of their minds to move to D1, especially to the shaky Summit league.