If you haven’t been paying attention, the Dakotas have been putting out some high-quality, prolific, and highly-touted prospects year-to-year in addition to the talented & underestimated recruits who build the foundation of the heavyweight FCS and DII programs in both North and South Dakota. The top dogs have been surefire, bonafide P5ers, and the alpha for both states 2025 class has revealed himself this fall in West Fargo Sheyenne’s 6’5, 245 lb. defensive lineman Kade Pietrzak. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the 2025s #1 prospect comes out of Fargo, as that area has been fertile for years, and Pietrzak will bring even more well-deserved attention to the 701. After his first P5 offer came in July from Kansas, which was preceded by North Dakota and North Dakota State offers, he’s solidified his P5 stock this fall with offers coming in from Nebraska (9/18), UNLV (9/20, FBS), Iowa State (9/24), Boston College (9/25), Iowa (10/1), Wisconsin (10/2), and Arizona State (10/5). South Dakota State also offered a FCS scholarship on September 10th. That’s a quite a haul in less than a month, and when you flip on the tape you can see why Pietrzak has become so popular. With rare athleticism, speed, and mobility for a kid of his size, the junior DL displays a very quick get-off, heavy hands and an effective punch that knocks blockers deep into the backfield, the balance and strength to work through contact and multiple blocking attempts well, and a little bit of bend to boot. Pietrzak gets off the ball and runs down ball carriers like a LB as compared to a 6’5, 240+ DL and closes very quickly. His combination of pursuit speed, motor, and athleticism gets him into ball carriers with scary pace and he can easily run down plays from the backside, 20+ yards downfield, and sideline to sideline. As an OL, he flies out of his stance, is controlled in space, demonstrates strength and explosiveness at the contact point that has helped him lay some big time booms in 2023, and great leg drive once he’s engaged. Pietrzak reports a 4.7 40, 4.31 5-10-5, 31″ vertical, 9’4″ broad jump, and those athletic numbers seem to be justified and backed up by his tape. He’s tailor-made for P5 football. We got a good one on our hands out of the Roughrider State, people!

Smashing hands are the first two words that come out of my mouth when I watch Kade’s tape from Week 3. The instinct that this young man has shown me since camp season is why he’s been a hot commodity amongst Division I programs since watching his camp performance in Grand Forks this summer. Kade’s versatility has also amped up for those Division I schools, as his first step he showed off on the Mustangs offensive line shows off a OL prospect that will consistently get leverage into the second level. No one in North Dakota’s 2025 class has had a bigger summer than Kade Pietrzak Kade Pietrzak 6'5" | 255 lbs | DL West Fargo Sheyenne | 2025 State ND as the Roughrider State’s next linemen up to play at the Power Five level. Twitter

Kade has been a defensive line prospect that I would highly consider as a stockriser from the multiple Division I camps I have seen him at, including last Saturday at the UND Flagship Camp. At 6’5 240 pounds, I was super impressed with Kade’s broad jump (9’3) at that size which just shows how explosive this kid really is in North Dakota’s 2025 class as one of the top defensive linemen in the class. He showed off later in camp some feisty hands and showed off strong technique with his swim moves to get home into the backfield on several occasions. Kade was one of very few 2025 prospects from camp that walked out of Grand Forks with an offer from the Fighting Hawks, which certainly shows despite somewhat light tape, how high this young man’s ceiling is at the Division I level. He certainly will see a jump upwards in our 2025 North Dakota rankings by next update in the coming months. Twitter 

West Fargo Sheyenne 2024 defensive end Kade Pietrzak Kade Pietrzak 6'5" | 255 lbs | DL West Fargo Sheyenne | 2025 State ND showed off at the Minnesota Camp why he is one of North Dakota’s top 2024 linemen on Wednesday. Kade showed off a lethal first step in 1v1s and that cranked swiftly into the point of attack into the handful of reps that he won with how much strength and instinct he got with that first step alone. Because Kade has limited tape on the defensive side of the ball, I thought this young man did himself a favor by showing off his position flexibility for both sides of the line at the next-level. As a prospect that has not uploaded his junior tape, the 6’4 235 pounder from West Fargo to me showed that his best next-level fit looks out at defensive end and the ceiling for Kade there, is solid in my eyes due to the lack of tape. Certainly a scholarship level prospect in my eyes.