BigGame

It was horrible for me yesterday, but the week before out of Portland it was great.

Wow, this is an unbelievably stupid comment. You don't win four college football games with luck!

Webcast was brutal today! Very disappointing defense in the second half. The refs sucked the entire game but that isn't why UND lost.

Tibesar, super smart and I think he could tell you what the offense was doing before the ball was snapped. Anderson, Instinct is what comes to mind and was always near the football. Ratelle, I am not certain he is the most physically talented but he is certainly the most physically developed. I love his consistency and that every time he makes a tackle it is a done deal, the ball carrier is stopped or going backward. I can't speak for the players before this but I do think the game has changed and that should be taken into account. LeClair has a son that started at Kansas (Andrew I think) as a true freshman in the mid to late 90's. Decided to transfer to NDSU and couldn't crack the starting lineup his first year. Did become a very good starter eventually but it always amazed me a starter at Kansas wasn't good enough to start right away at NDSU. Sometimes the system the player is in makes a difference as to how good they are.

Boy, I remember that game a lot differently. UND had two of the most explosive players to ever play at UND on the field at the same time and that was the difference. I liked Manke as a QB over Bellmore but he wasn't a real difference maker at QB, he was solid QB. Mollberg had a lot more bad than good when you look back but before the injury he was playing some very good football. At first I was somewhat surprised Studsrud was named the starter this year but he is a Bubba recruit and that does make a difference sometimes (even though it shouldn't) I will say he has progressed faster than either Mollberg or Bartels in relation to INT's. I don't think we would see a dramatic difference in game results if either of the other QB's played but Studsrud is clearly improving so I am very happy with the direction of things but I do feel for the other guys and hope they stick with the program because I think they will likely be important to UND football either this season or next.

At this point I fully expect UND to play well and win but I think Idaho State does some damage through the air.

Yep, and those plays aren't something you can run and have success more than a few times during a game and that is if the guy catching the ball has the ability to run after the catch. I think they should be sprinkled into the offense but not a major staple.

If you watch most of his inaccurate passes have to do with his feet and pressure. It is very correctable and I am not in the camp of the people on the board that think he doesn't have the arm talent, I actually think he needs to learn to throw with more anticipation and touch a lot of the time. I have seen improvement and as long as it continues I think we are in pretty good shape because of what he can do and did do with his feet today.

I agree to some extent but he was a big, big part of controlling the ball today. I get that he needs to improve more, but I have seen some improvement over the last several games which is a very good sign. Hell, the defense put them in a hole to start the day today. I think you need to give a little credit to the kid.

After reading this thread I almost feel like I must have watched a different game. I thought the play calling was good, and you always have some questions with play calling because sometimes they call plays in order to set something up later in the game if it is needed. That last drive was great and Studsrud still has some work to do but this was a very good game for him. He was much more decisive and made a lot of plays with his feet.

That isn't what I was saying. QB play in relation to passing was bad in the first half yesterday. Timing was late almost every play until a completion right at the end of the half. The Adler TD was late but the ball was thrown well. He had a much better second half and I am good with him playing because he hasn't been a turning the ball over but if UND wants to be at the top of the big sky QB play overall has to keep improving. It's a joint effort and WR play also needs to be better but they can't do anything if the ball isn't delivered when they get open either. I guess I don't think you need two years to figure out if the QB will take you to the next level, I think it will likely be pretty clear toward the end of this season as he gets more comfortable with the speed of the game.

Agreed, and hopefully with see more QB play like the second half and improvement from that point. If it doesn't happen UND really needs to start looking at other QB options.

So is this how you picked your user name?

Well it basically means we are moving the ball on the ground, not as likely to turn the ball over, and playing good defense. Bubba ball! It works but it would be nice to take advantage or DB's playing up tight to the LOS.

When I see comments like this it makes pretty clear that people don't really get UND's Football Philosophy under Bubba. His philosophy isn't much different than what NDSU is doing just difference in athletes and time to implement them. Play great defense and control the ball on offense. The defense is greatly improved in a little over a year but still has a lot to improve upon going forward. The offense needs upgrades and improved play almost everywhere and the bottom line is that the offense needs to first and foremost not turn the ball over to the other team. That has been pretty good this season up until now. Running the ball to control the clock has been very mixed results so far. The passing game has been pretty much terrible and most of that lies with the QB but also the WR's, OL, and OC need some of the criticism. I think the play calling needs to be somewhat more creative but not at the cost of turnovers which make the defenses job a lot tougher and that is the real difficulty in this situation. Studsrud throws the ball just fine at times and this is usually when he gets the ball out on time. If he hangs on to it I would rather see him just tuck it and run because his accuracy and chance of a turn over go up dramatically.

I don't really disagree but his second half was better and he has cleaned up the INT's which the other two QBs struggled with. Bottom line is, you are really going to have a tough time benching the guy that is winning games no matter who they are against. I think the topic is valid and should be looked at if he costs us a game down the road.

I thought the secondary played a pretty good game today. Sometimes a good throw and catch happens in spite of good coverage but the issue today is that is always seemed to happen in key situations.

Studsrud played better in the second half and the WR did actually drop a couple passes and normally this year the incompletions have just been bad passes. I think the game plan was better this week and he ran better as well. The entire first half he was late with is passes and in the second it seemed like his was hitting his back foot on his drop and throwing on time. Could another QB play better? maybe or maybe not but if he keeps improving like I saw in the second half I will not be nearly as concerned as I was after the last couple games. Davis isn't great but they do have some players. The defense needs to create more 3rd and longs in order to get off the field and I don't think it was a great day overall because Davis got a lot of push in the run game. I don't think the OL got a lot of push up front but they were much better finding who to block and staying with the blocks. Fiedler had a couple really nice blocks today. Ratelle is a Stud in spite of being held like crazy. Santiago ran better today, got up field quickly and took what was available before putting a bunch of moves on. Watching the game I was thinking are run game should at least mix in a few quick hitting run plays to go along with all the slower developing stuff.

I have mixed feelings about the game. It's great to win and the offense looked better and Studsrud had a much better second half. The defense got pushed around a little today and UND lost a lot of 1 on1 matchups on 3rd and 4th down which is concerning. I don't think the Davis defense is very good but I thought the offense looked pretty solid.

Special teams hasn't been very good so far overall, need to have a better second half.

Well, he has only played one series today. I have seen it work both ways so I guess we will find out at the end of the year.

The first throw Studsrud has made on time today was the pass Cerriteno (sp) caught on the 5 yard line. He has been late with everything today. Guys get open but the window closes because he is late with the ball. He has looked a lot better running the ball today! At least the offense looks better overall and the Davis OL is pretty dang good.

Even if the line doesn't get push that have to be better. Just looking at a handful of plays the missed assignments and getting beaten off the snap can't happen. I think most of it is correctable but it looks pretty ugly. I think the lack of running game has really been a team effort or lack of to this point.

With Brown, he was in a tough spot and I imagine it is very difficult to lose a starting spot to a true freshman after all the time and effort put in. I wish he would not have quit because I really feel it is not the right response to the situation, but I am not in the guys shoes. Good luck to him and I would guess he is upset and also a little relieved to now be outside the inner workings of college football.

I am sorry but Jer was not a good RB most of his career. I don't want to talk bad about him so I will leave it at that. He was quick and could cut but he had a ton of room to run at the end of last season.