The Sicatoka

I believe in the hanging curve ball, high fiber, and good scotch.

Pattyn's brother is playing defense at Vermont.

Simple truisms of football: You play to win the game. (Courtesy Herm Edwards) You win in the trenches.<-- A lot of focus has been put on QB and WR recruiting. It's time to refocus on this one.

Unfortunately, I believe "gopher chips" would be from gopher ... uh ... "extracts".

What's in BC's favor? Boston television market. What's against BC? Not AAU.

I'm sticking to my original FCS prediction: "chalk" to the semis.

And the hits keep coming ... Speculation is Tulane will be joining the Big East for all sports and that East Carolina will become a football-only member of the Big East.

There is a rumor that Grand Canyon University will be getting a WAC invite tomorrow. That probably was the final straw that drove DU out of the WAC. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it drove Idaho to the Big Sky a year earlier than the current "in 2014" plan.

I'm calling this one "chalk" in the semis: ODU v. NDSU EWU v. MSU

Back to this topic: Zeb Miller is not on the field.

Quite honestly, and thinking about it overnight, the decision to not kick (a shorter FG than the winner last year) seems like a move by a guy who wants to be fired.

The Big Ten is looking to add TVs to their Big Ten Network. That's where the money is. Adding Maryland gets them into the Baltimore / Washington DC cable television market. That's big. Rutgers would get them into Newark / NYC. Buh-zhing! Side note: Adding Maryland? Uh, nice move there Don Lucia and Mike Eaves. More BB teams? We'll see BTHC on the BTN ... when?

Sorry, but the three stars of: 3 - UMD goalie guy 2 - Kristo 1 - MacMillan is wrong. Zane Gothberg may not have been the #1 star of the night, but he didn't give up a goal for at least the last 45 minutes of play and gave his team time to come back and win.

I'm adding a class or two to everyone on defense's spring class schedule: Football 103: Introduction to the Concepts of Tackling. Here we explore the notions behind the defensive strategy of tackling. We'll define the notions of "wrapping up" and setting an angle. Using the sideline as a 12th defender will also be explored. Football 205: Wrapping Up. Here the finer points of wrap-up tacking will be detailed. Students will be expected to be proficient in the technique by the end of the course. Attempts to "blow up" or just "throw a shoulder into" tackle when a wrap-up is not already underway will be grounds for course failure. At this point, I'm not sure how many will advance to the 300-level courses like "Read and React" or "Man Coverage and You".

Are we sure they knew it was fourth down when they called the run up the middle?

What the ... If you throw deep on 3rd you're saying you're going for the FG on 4th. If you want 1st down you run on 3rd. So you go deep on 3rd, miss, and then run on 4th and come up short? Good grief. Someone have Kalen DeBoer's phone number handy? Or Tom Dosch's?

If it was 3rd and 1 and you're going to go for 1st down, why not do it on 3rd down instead of throwing deep. Sorry, Miller from 51 would've been better option. Fire Muss.

Zeb Miller from 51 for the win ... or not. Hanson hands off and we're short.

UND's defense will miss tackles.

... and no playoffs.

Why do the coaches (cough-Hakstol-cough) seem to think playing aggressive offensively minded hockey for 45 minutes and then trying to play trap for the last 15 minutes is a good plan? It's not, and I can prove it. First 45 minutes: 1 goal allowed, 2 goals scored Last 15 minutes: 3 goals allowed, 0 goals scored BU generated no offense when UND was playing an aggressive style. These guys are race horses that play their best defense when they are on the offensive attack (because they are defensively responsible and they tend to have the puck on their sticks when they're aggressive); let the plow horses play trap because that's all plow horses can do.

The UND secondary finally did something right at the right time: Rather than trying to catch the last ball of the game (and having a bad bounce happen), they knocked the ball to the ground with malace. It's not much, but it's a start.

Yup. Winning solves thousands of ills.

Defensively you have to make a decision: - rush three or four and play tight man coverage with a safety over the top (because you're not going to get pressure) or - rush five or six and play loose zone coverage (hoping to stop the pass before it comes) What I see is UND playing loose zone (can you say "12 yards off the line") and only rushing three. That's not "bend don't break"; that's "give until it hurts".

That statement too is a nasty echo from past seasons. Let's fix it early and have the problem be which of the top four PWR seeds they'll get, not if they'll get in the tournament via PWR.