UND08

First off...I'm not advocating for any change within the football program. I'd frankly feel encouraged by a sense of urgency that I feel is lacking. NDSU goes FBS and boom we are even further behind. We've done little to close the gap with them on the field...and it bothers me that more of us don't feel that way. I will say that knowing coaches that I've known in the past I'm fairly confident that my attitude is closer to the attitude within the football hq than what is displayed on this site. If it's not...that's unacceptable in my book. The last half of your last sentence is where I think the problem lies and is frankly the brunt of my frustrations. Football needs more resources to succeed. Basketball does too. These are the two most popular sports by far in the country, and we are playing them with one hand tied behind our back. If we don't think we can close the gap to give our programs a chance (or at least give them a fair deal within the athletic department/REA comingled web/mess), then that's a tough pill to swallow for me. I plan on donating to the football priority needs fund today, because I'm not going to complain about something and not put my money where my mouth is. I wish I could add another zero or two to that donation...but that'll come in time. I love this program...nobody who knows me questions that...but I'm not afraid to ask some tough questions either. All that said...I really like what we've done this offseason so far. I'm optimistic that those efforts will pay off on the field in a few months!

I'll give them credit they lost quite a few close games last year...but if they are picked in the bottom half of the Big Sky for 2023 (which I assume they probably will be) then I really think that we should be able to comfortably take care of business at home if we are going to be a "Championship Caliber" team in 2023.

I'll say this...I expect us to curb stomp NAU at home to the point where I can relax for the entire 4th quarter. Something like 36-17 sounds about right. That SHOULD be the expectation of this program if it wants to go where we all think it's going to go. If that's not what happens I'll be sorely disappointed... That being said...I have 9 years of a body of work to fall back on that tells me that what my expectation for that game is likely won't happen. Not saying we won't win...but it'll likely be a 4th quarter game. We were pumped with a last second come from behind win last year, and the Skydome is a tough place to play...but NAU went 3-8 last year and hasn't had a winning season since 2017.. If we want to be a perennial contender we have to take care of those 3-8/4-7 type teams handily. Sorry if ya'll disagree with that assessment. Why does it feel like it's against some kind of unwritten law within the UND fandom to want more from a program then you're currently getting?? That seriously bothers me...and it happens across many, if not most of the programs. I get it...we were the 3rd best team in the mighty MVFC last year...that's pretty good! Also we made the playoffs and finished in the top 25...that's in the top 20% of FCS! Problem is...we are 5 rungs on the ladder below the two closest FCS programs to Grand Forks, and some of our most core supporters aren't willing to look holistically at the program and ask what we can do to close that gap! I'm not advocating for any particular change...but just once I'd like to see us have 1/3 of the drive that the NDSU fanbase has! They're off their rockers 50-60% of the time down there, but they always want more from their programs, and would never settle for Top 25-ish. I hate them so much but I respect them for that. I wish some of that would flow upstream.

Agree 100%...I really like what we've done this offseason so far. Hopefully we can see it pay off next fall!

I get what you're saying...but I will say I don't view NAU as a "huge" game. I view it as a game that we should physically dominate at home and win going away. If we lose that's a sign of a much bigger problem in my eyes...it's time to expect to win games like this one going away. On that...I will say that I actually agree with UND-FB-FAN.

But is he wrong though??? I get beating the dead horse is annoying to some...but NAU at home is a game that good teams win handily. Will we do that? I hope so...but knowing this program's knack for close games against teams that maybe shouldn't be close I won't hold my breath...

Normally I'd be all in on comparing the two coaches...but one has had to deal with the portal...one didn't have to. It's not quite apples to apples in my eyes. Would Jones have been able to hold his best teams together if the portal was available? I kind of doubt it...to be fair that's not a critique of Jones either. He just never had to deal with that as a head coach.

At Northern...absolutely! At Hills I think it was a different story...If you can win there...you can win just about anywhere. Interestingly enough their current coach Ryan Thompson has done an absolutely unreal job with the Jackets...he has them at 12-0 and #3 in D2 (after a D2 final four appearance last year). They also draw significantly more fans than we do. If you build it fans will show up, I guess. And if you can do it in Spearfish, SD...then you sure as heck should be able to do it in Grand Forks imo!

I'll preface this by saying I went into this a huge Sather fan...and I think I still am. If UND makes a move after the end of this season, I won't be the least bit surprised to see Coach Sather go and have success at another school. You don't just elevate a program from nothing to National Title contender (BHSU) and then take a successful program and push it further (Northern) if you don't know how to coach. That being said...the portal (and how we've handled/adapted to it) has been a significant detriment to this program. I see one D1 and one D2 transfer into the roster, and a bunch of juco guys. Compared to what's transferred out, the talent deficiency is significant. Of course...if you were a transfer portal D1 talent...is UND a school you'd want to play at? It's cold, isolated, not overly successful and posessing very average facilities. This becomes an issue of if you cut bait on Sather, who are you going to get to replace him that's any better, based on the resources being put into the program? I wouldn't hold my breath for a miracle worker, because Sather had a pretty good resume coming into the job. Maybe he was just a "D2 coach" as some say...but I'd argue that Northern supports basketball at a higher level than UND does. They have a nicer arena, much better fan support, and a high-profile coach for a D2 school. This seems to be similar to the discussion on the football side with Bubba. Difference there in my opinion is that we support football at an average to above average rate in the FCS from an institutional level (although we lag far behind NDSU and SDSU so it doesn't feel that way). I don't think we come close to even average at the mid major level when it comes to institutional support for basketball, and we are "getting what we paid for" at some level. If I was evaluating our AD, this trend in perhaps the two most popular sports in this country would be a major issue. Can it be fixed? I don't know...hockey gets so much emphasis I'm not sure there's a stomach for anything more. But when I see the impact that building a solid mid-major basketball program has had on other schools in this country...it sure is awfully sour tasting to see us not even attempt to get there.

I have my fair share of concerns with how things are currently going with our program...but I feel like we've adjusted as well as we could hope for with the portal! To add the USD receiver and two drop down DL (one a 300 lb NG thank you Jesus!)...has me encouraged! Good work to our staff for addressing some needs and using the portal as a source of opportunity. Of course...these things don't pan out until they do...but to get these types of kids signed is a good first step imo!

This is very encouraging!

I wrote the checks...as a consumer I've decided it's no longer worth it. I can follow the team with a similar fan experience for a lot less $$$. Call me a bandwagon fan...call me whatever you want...but I'm not Elon Musk, and at some point potential needs to be realized to make my investment worth it. Also beyond that, UND doesn't really do a dang thing to engage donors that live more than 100 miles from the RRV. It is what it is on that front but my local university's foundation department has taken the time to build a relationship with me, and they get my money now. I will say I like the portal additions we have today...the portal seems to have been a net "W" for us this year. Hopefully we can keep adapting.

You missed the memo MH...you're not allowed to be a UND fan and publicly question how things are done with the program! We're just supposed to coach the same way, recruit the same way, administer the program the same way...and expect different results will just come! We have to #TrustTheProcess for ten years and it'll eventually pay off! Or at least that's what I've been told both here and on social media...

Tough break...but I'll never fault a kid for choosing a higher level opportunity. If anything, I hope we are encouraging...if it doesn't work out for him in Lincoln, I'd hope he has a positive memory of our program when the portal opens...

Kennedy was a goofy freaking dude...but as time goes on his legacy at UND will be more and more positive. At least he had some stones on him...in the end he got chased out of town for it. But sometimes what is best isn't what is popular. I think we see that a lot at UND...

Sorry been a busy week at work so I missed a couple days here. First...I started the term gray hairs...I'll own it and I'll double down on it. Look at the average lower level seat holder between the 40s...it's not a young bunch. That's not abnormal...older folks have more $$$ to shell out. If you took offense to the term, well sorry I guess. I didn't mean it in a derogatory sense. Second...The core UND folks get so damned defensive about anything critical it drives me nuts. In my line of work, if my company was happy with the status quo we would get buried eventually over time by competitors who are bigger, better, and richer than we are. Many of my coworkers are ok with that. Well ya know what? I AM NOT! I don't understand why it's so damned vilified on a message board of all places to question why we can't do better?!? I don't always agree with UND-FB-FAN on many things, but I think him and I are on the same page here. I think what's worse than the shortcomings is the apathy that gets displayed from many of the "Pledge Your Loyalty 100% of the time" folks. I will tell you this, I'm not rich, but I was donating $2500 per year plus my season tickets on an annual basis. I discontinued this year. Multiple hour road trips just aren't worth it for me to follow this team the way it's currently run. It's easy enough for me to buy single game tickets, and I actually made it to all but two home games this year. Flame me for my lack of loyalty if you want, but people vote with their feet. I figure if I decide to get back in, I won't have any problem buying season tickets again given the apathy that's set in both at UND and nationwide. Do I have some ideas? Perhaps...but that's not my job. There are people in administration that are in charge of those types of things...and I'd like to see them earn their paycheck every once in awhile. Maybe this is what's best for UND sports, and if it is I won't question it. But as a consumer it's not a product I feel the need to consume at a high dollar amount.

Finding other things to do I'd guess. The days of blind loyalty are over...you have to compete for those people and have something to offer. Doesn't matter if it's a workplace or a football arena.

1 - When I think of our program...the first word I think of is "stagnant." Nothing changes...the band plays the same songs, the gray hairs sit in the same seats, the coaching philosophy hasn't changed (with the exception of Danny who provided some excitement for awhile), and (lately) our ability to show up in big games completely disappears. Now to be fair I look at NDSU/SDSU and see "stagnant" as well, but for very different reasons. Their fans take their success for granted. They stay home from playoff games because they assume they will win convincingly. It's been that way for 7-8 years now, and believe me when I say it KILLS ME TO SAY THAT! I'd LOVE to stay home from any game because I knew UND was going to win by 3+ scores...but their track record doesn't allow for that...even against low level D1 teams like say Drake. My wife didn't go to UND, and I told her about how wild the atmosphere was when I was in college and was excited to show her that again. It took five years of us going to games until we had an atmosphere like that again (2021 NDSU). How do we fix it? I honestly don't know...and that scares me...because maybe we can't. Like you said, we dug ourselves a hole with the D1 move. I'm guessing a lot of folks on here have long since digested their crow on that subject. 2 - Are we a bad program? Absolutely not. I'd say we are in the top 25% of FCS. But we lag a long way behind NDSU...and that gap isn't closing very fast (if at all). Is it fair to compare what we've done to NDSU (and to a lesser extent SDSU)? No...but that's the world we live in. UND is a great place. It served me very well. But if we are going to recruit the same kids, and use the same schemes, and coach the same way as we did last year...then why would I think we'll be better than this year? Lucky breaks?? That's not going to inspire me to open up my wallet any more than I currently am.

And it certainly doesn't help the effort to buck that trend when you run your marketing and several other functions through a co-mingled arrangement with a non-profit that has a major vested interest in the continuation of hockey sucking up the vast majority of the available resources at UND. Not a hockey hater by any means...but that arrangement hasn't been very good for the non-hockey sports imo...

At the risk of getting myself flamed on here...I actually agree with you on a lot of aspects related to UND sports. One thing I've found this fall is wanting better for this program than 7-4/6-5 is not popular with a lot of people! The solution involves a lot of people and a lot of resources that starts at a level much higher than Bubba, and that's a vicious cycle. UND's results don't inspire people to go to games/commit $$/etc...and without those $$ it's hard to invest more into the program to give it what it needs to thrive. Meanwhile 7-4/6-5 isn't enough to make wholesale changes, especially when the current way of doing things is "cheap". So from a business perspective the ROI is "acceptable"...but to fans like you and I who see NDSU's success and say "Why can't we do that?"...well it's a hard pill to swallow... If UND is going to catch up, it needs to catch lightning in a bottle and sustain some success at a level that's higher than they should currently be able to expect given their level of support. Is Bubba in year 9 going to find that? Doubtful...but if you make changes there's risk it could get much worse. Seems like we are too risk averse to do anything different...so until something changes, my expectation is 7-4/6-5 and a further stagnation within the program.

Those are the cherries on top that make a recruiting class special. NDSU has been absolutely ELITE at developing PWOs into pro-level talent. UND has had plenty that have done well in the program too. The problem I see with our recruiting is sometimes we are too reliant on diamonds in the rough. There are a lot of PWOs in the portal looking for drop down homes these days too. You need a mix of both studs and diamonds to excel at this level. NDSU has that market cornered...we need to catch up. And yes that means I'm agreeing with UND-FB-Fan's assertion that we don't have enough "D1 bodies" on the roster. We need to get better at winning some battles and not relying solely on evaluation of under the radar kids. That's always going to be a big emphasis for us...and I like how we did in some of the higher profile battles we had last year, but progress needs to continue to be made in my opinion.

Can you knock "boots" with her if you don't have all of a foot?? Or would "knocking a boot with her" be more grammatically appropriate??? Just kidding of course...

I'd assume that Port wrote this article with pending FOIA requests to determine how much money has been paid to the Berry's for this trademark. This will likely get worse before it gets better...Heads roll over this kind of crap a lot...

If we aren't going to give Ziebarth a chance to be the guy, then I expect to see his name in the portal. I get where Hoos came in and stole the job, but I've always been impressed when Ziebarth has gotten his shot. I hope to see him be RB1 next year, with a portal addition for depth and Smith/Wilson in 3rd down/scat back roles.

I'll try to keep them realistic without sugar coating things... Drake - Win by 40+ against a non-scholarship team NAU - Win by 10+ at home against a lower-level Big Sky opponent not at altitude Boise - Loss but competitive (similar to Nebraska but hopefully a bit closer) SDSU - Loss in a tough game on the road, hopefully we can put the fear of god in them. I think we need to win 1 of SDSU/UNI/NDSU WIU - Win by 20+ against a bad WIU team at home NDSU - I don't expect a win here but I would argue we need it. Being objective I'm going to a say a loss but my heart hopes otherwise UNI - Tough road game against a team that underperformed their talent level this year...must win on the schedule ISU - See WIU Murray State - Win by 10+ - see ISU and WIU but game is on the road USD - Dakota Dome is our Kryptonite - this is a must win ISU - Will hopefully have a ton to play for that weekend, game is in the Alerus so I feel good. I see 4 losses minimum in that schedule thinking realistically based on what I've seen in Bubba's era at UND (Boise/SDSU/NDSU/one of UNI or USD). A good performance would have us 8-3 (beating both UNI and USD on the road). If we do that, I doubt we'll be seeded but we SHOULD get a home game and win one playoff game. If we go 7-4 it'll be very similar to this year (one of the last teams in or out of the field, no favors on a matchup). Parts of this schedule are easier than last year (Murray not as good as ACU, NAU at home, swap out Youngstown and SIU for WIU and ISU-r), but parts are tougher (at UNI, at SDSU and especially at USD where we NEVER seem to play well). It's basically "wash rinse and repeat" in my book. Should our expectations be better than that? Absolutely! The hard truth of the matter is that if 7-4/8-3 is the best we can do, we will get left in the XDSUs dust even more than we already are. I get that people like Bubba and that the players work hard, but this is D1...winning is important. 7-4 is the bare minimum in my book, and I'd certainly like to see us look competent accomplishing that. There are aspects of this program that are absolute head-scratchers to me...and that can't happen going forward if we want to compete at the level that I think we should be at. My expectation for this program next year is 8-3, seeded or not we make the round of 16. Anything after that is gravy. I think it's realistic...but I'm not interested in another repeat of this year. Also if we mail in a 4th quarter for a moral victory like we did against NDSU ever again I'm done with this program. That was ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE in my book!