Longtime fan

Love the starters for the team. The depth or lack thereof is concerning for me at quite a few positions. If they can remain relatively healthy ....I believe they have a good chance of knocking off some quality teams this year.

1. Pierre 2. Jaelen Johnson 3. Fort 4. Nelson

Morrison was a nice recruit but very light at 250 last year. The nose needs to occupy two lineman in a 3-4. The coaching staff is obviously well aware of what they have and need so I’m sure they have a plan .....maybe moving an OL to nose? Regardless....as it stands right now the most important position on D is occupied by 1! In regards to the OLB position, outside of jaxson, I don’t see a difference maker.....maybe Haas with the length. The constant safety drop down 200lb OlB doesn’t always cut it. Und installs a heavy blitz package often enough so it’s nice to have the speed on he outside but there’s more needed than just speed. With that said Tanner was a perfect drop down. He had speed , aggression, defensive mindset (which is hit the SOB across the line with every thing he had) and a heart of football gold. Very talented young man. I don’t see that in this group. Hope I’m wrong .

The Rudy “ push a circle through a square” offense is gone. 3 years too late but finally!! Great to have a feeling where maybe, just maybe, the offense is capable of mounting a comeback. Going to need it this year with the toughest fcs schedule My feeling on the positional breakdown: CBs- by far the most talented CB group und has ever had. With the exception of holm and blubaugh their are very young but extremely talented and deep! ILBs - getting verde for one more year is huge! Played great ball last year. Love the starters and depth. OLBs- jaxson is a beast and was initially high on haas before he left but the rest of the group scares the hell out of me. Jade has experience. Nose- Wow! Morrison better have all America talent or opponents will attack the gut all day. There is no depth behind him. Nose is by far the most important position in a 3-4 scheme. I’m not sure he has gained enough pounds to handle heavy productive mins. Pierre will no doubt have his shirt pulled. DL- mason is simply a stud! Losing Ott is such a big loss. Damnit! I think engwall and seguin are good athletes. Watching Jaelen Johnson in practice ....this guy could be huge steal Great body frame and twitch. If he added 20ish pds from last year this guy should start opposite of Bennett. Safety- canady is good and a healthy Nelson form a nice duo. A lot of returning players with big mins played just not a Reyes type player OL- unlike most here I think this unit will be very good. They were set up to fail in the most predictable offense the fcs has seen. There is a ton of experience. The LT is the only question mark. Qb- returning starter with a ton of d1 experience. Should be 10x the qb under freund. The depth is a question mark. Rb- JJ and Austin are nice backs. McKinney will be the X factor. Sproles like. Big potential there. Skokna will at least play 4 games. Talented group Wr- with freund running the show this positional group really intrigues me. Perfectly complemented group. Wanzek and Maag are the big sure handed mid range receivers, adeoti is the deep guy and griebel the Edelman type guy. Great group! TE- cloyd time! Devore is a stud special teams - Kicker ....hopefully the transfer is capable. Return and coverage teams need to step it up. Inexcusable what they have done the last few years Biggest positional need is Nose and it’s not even close. Ndsu could have a field day. Followed by the OLB group. Too many drop down smallish guys that talently speaking ....I’m not sure they’re ready. We as fans need a spark. The program hasnt been much in the d1 era Bubba needs to take the next step and win games that were not favored to win. Get some playoff wins! Beat the &?!@ out of ndsu. Beat e wash! Pound teams without letting off the pedal! Change everyone’s mindset to think und is capable . This schedule sets up for an exciting season...,,take advantage of it! Can’t wait!!

Wish!? My wish would be for bubba to bring a perennial winner that warrants him keeping his job

You are out of your &^#&% mind if you think anyone wants und to lose! That is about as weak of a response this site has seen.

All seeds win. ....1-8.

Msu is extremely over rated but they would have shut down Rufus’s offense. Unds backs would of done exactly nothing vs MSU. Look at the last month ..und was incapable of anything offense against way lower competition Msu is in only because the fcs is horrible this year. And btw , ndsu is on a while different planet this year ...they embarrass anyone that lines up against them...fcs speaking

You are on to something Caption obvious. The last month was a disaster....agree? Does disaster in your books equate to bitching? Do you really think fans want to bitch? Do you think they bitch to bitch? Or would they prefer a winner and be happy? Are the fans bitching because und is successful or because they are 49% winning percentage at the D1?

Nice to see Colgate win. Tough D just nothing offensively. I could them getting shut out in Fargo next weekend. Also of note. Unds home opener, Drake, lost only 24-27 @ # 23 Iowa st.

Settle down?

In football terms ....I can see the hard core fans having issues with most everything being average ....actually it would be considered below average (49% career d1 winning percent ). If people on here did not have issues with being an under .500 program I would be more worried. Sioux sports gives everyone an outlet of expression. Some good some bad some not sure. Personally...I was hoping after 11 years in d1 that I would be able to experience 1 playoff win. Issue? Not an issue?

That comment from bubba cemented my “take” on if he is cut out for HC abilities. The UND connection has had 11 years leading the und football program in the D1 era....culminating a 61-63 (49%) record.....one playoff appearance and zero playoff wins. With bubba admitting that he wasn’t able to recognize the offensive fail for five years...I can not see how there will be enough change or leadership next year that would warrant und either making the playoffs or winning a playoff game. Bubba is 30-29 (nearly identical to mussman) as a HC at und. Next years schedule screams difficult. Is he up to the challenge?

This here ^^ Does the same explanation explain why kostich is still here....hasn’t paid enough attention to special teams play? Maybe next year he will notice ?

Bit torn with freund as OC. Would of liked to seen UND bring in some new blood ...but it is what it is. I’m cautiously optimistic but most of all.... excited that Rudy is no longer the OC. Major upgrade already Potential Likes/ positives with the hire: -UND returns a lot . Freund knows what each can bring to the table....including the incoming recruits. - I would expect minimal players transferring as Danny connects very well with the players. If it was a complete coaching overhaul it could of been a different story -IMO, incoming recruits should see this change as an upgrade with a younger, hopefully competent positional coach accepting the OC. - he should bring some energy to a 5 yr stale offense. Players will feed off of that - Anything is an upgrade from Rudy . Period Potential dislikes/ negatives : - he brings ZERO experience in as an OC. Being a good college QB, being a nice guy that connects well with people, being a rah rah positional coach, bleeding Kelly green ...etc ..doesn’t mean he will be a successful OC. The offense is his now. He needs to be prepared for all types of circumstances. Decisions are significantly magnified. - will we see the same styled offense as the last fives years with some minimal changes? Has he been “institutionalized”? I doubt it but we shall see Next year ...hope to see improvements across the board....hope to see Freund kill it ....hope to see und in the playoffs.

Agreed. Now that Rudy (my nemesis) is gone I feel und is very capable. This is a good time to get ndsu. They will be in full reload (still have plenty of talent) and und returns most of their starters. If , IF...und finds a competent OC, I don’t see why und cant do it. Ndsu won’t have any tape to look at as to what und runs offensively so maybe UND will actually bring an element of surprise to ndsu with a newly installed offense.

Since we know for sure who’s gone and who’s staying I’m satisfied with Rudy being gone. Four years to late but it needed to happen. Finally *please do not hire from within! New blood! * Being at e wash, the offensive capital of the fcs, Chavez must have some connections or leads. Use them * bubba has a defensive background . The new guy should be given 100% offensive call rights Give him the keys with full confidence * looking for risk taker, a guy that is able to adjust to in game situations, mix up the pass and run as needed, study film on opposing Ds to attack their weakness or weaknesses and USE YOUR PERSONAL APPROPRIATELY ! Offense 101 If the attrition holds , there is a lot returning starters combined with talent. Next years team has potential to be very good. If they are able to find a competent OC (anything will be an upgrade) and the guys are able to learn the system quickly ...this could be a fun group to watch. I’m cautiously optimistic but nevertheless optimistic. I would have to think that the defense is happy with today’s news as well UND plays @ndsu @ e wash @ Weber , uc Davis , Montana st next year. Und will need some offense to keep pace with these teams. Great move by bubba today.

Rudy gone!!!!!

Opposing defenses had no element of surprise playing und. Bring your safeties in tight and stop the run...done! Year after year after year !! Every offensive player was set up to fail. I heard opposing coaches interviewed on pre game and numerous of them mentioned ...” you know what you’re getting with und”. No &$&#....we all did!

He was not built to be a power back but Rudy saw him as a Christian okoye type.....very unfortunate.

Exactly Santiago’s stats ”15”- 1459 yards 16 tds ”16”- 983 yards and 7 tds ”17”- 717 yards and 5 tds “18”- 588 yards and 1 td ....yes 1 td his senior year He had (9) 100 yard games his freshman year and (8) 100 yard games total for his sophomore, junior and seniors years. 33 career receptions is criminal as well. He should of average all of that per season.

The last two weeks would indicate that und isnt ready for the bottom barrel of the big sky.

Opposing teams adjusted ....und unwilling to adjust. Coaching plateaued long time ago.

Should of put Santiago in at qb....he gave it all he could. Now he’s gone.

400 total offensive yards combined the last two games against junk teams