Commitment Report: Jack Bungarden – Woodbury (2021)

When Woodbury senior [player_tooltip player_id="18079" first="Jack" last="Bungarden"] started receiving interest to play college football, he had a school in the back of his mind that he hoped would make an offer. When the program contacted him, he took a visit, but it wasn’t really needed. He knew where he wanted to go. Now, he will be going there. "My mom went to Moorhead State, and my dad went to North Dakota State," Bungarden said. "They told me about the Fargo/Moorhead area and how it is a fun area. That was already in my mind when I visited Minnesota State-Moorhead. When I got there, I loved the place. I thought it was a good fit. I knew it was the college I wanted to go to." Although short, the recruiting experience wasn’t what Bungarden – or anyone in the 2021 class - expected. "Last year, I had a few guys telling me about how I was going to go to camps and visit campuses, and I was excited about it. Then everything got canceled right when it was coming up, but it was a good experience. I wasn’t too focused on it. I was laid back and knew everything was going to work out." It wasn’t a tough decision for MSMU either. "I am 6’2" and 205 - they liked my size," Bungarden – who also had offers from the University of Mary and Concordia-St. Paul - said. They liked my acceleration, and they like my tackling." Bungarden – who expects to play linebacker for the Dragons – knows he needs to take his game to the next level. "I can get better at the point of attack. When a blocker comes at me, normally I am good at shedding blocks, but I need to get better at taking them on and stopping them so I can blow up the hole – instead of getting around them while the runner goes by on the other side." The long-time outside linebacker made a position switch before his senior season. "The whole offseason, I thought I was going to be playing outside linebacker," Bungarden told prepredzonemn.com. "We got to practice, and it just wasn’t working with where we had guys. It ended up fitting our defense better to move me inside. One week before the season, I switched to inside. It ended up working out well." He went from playing the strong-side outside linebacker to weakside inside linebacker in a 3-4 defense. "The hardest part was going on the attack," Bungarden continued. "As an outside linebacker, I would lay back a little bit – defending the pass. At middle linebacker, you have to go and attack the ball. It took me a few games to get used to that." Despite the late position change, Bungarden felt he played well. "I thought I had a good year," the two-year varsity starter said. "I had 73 tackles in seven games. I think I recognize plays faster than other people. I am pretty fast and tall, so I have good range. I am good in man-to-man defense." As a team, the Royals had an up and down season in 2020. "Overall, we were 3-4, but I don’t think that is reflective of how good we could have been," Bungarden – who likes to fish for panfish - said. "The first few games we had everyone, and we were doing good. Then we lost a few guys and lost our momentum. We went downhill after that. The season was fun, and glad my senior year got to happen. On defense, we stopped the run well – especially when we had all our people. On offense, we had a two-quarterback offense that was working well, but then we started losing guys." His home setup has been perfect for offseason training in a pandemic. "This winter, I have a gym set up in my basement, so I have been able to use that since the shutdown," Bungarden – who plans to join the golf team in the spring - said. "I am looking to get bigger. I am 205 now, but for college, I want to be 215 or 220. I do a lot of high weight, low rep workouts." His has to work a lot harder during his workouts than he had to work on his college decision – he knew all along.