AJS

What I would consider the biggest unknown current recruit David Klee (May '05) is on the Waterloo opening day roster. He is the 2nd youngest player on the roster, with defensive recruit Keith McInnis being the youngest. Klee is going to be an interesting one to watch. He's listed at 6'3". USHL season starts tomorrow.

To SIU's defense, Incarnate Word looks like a legitimate Top 5 FCS team. The SEMO game would be the head big head scratcher for them.

This game has a different feel then the first three to me. I had UND going 7-4 on the year, starting 2-1. UNI / NAU I had as "must wins". One of the four loses I predicted was @ SIU. This game feels like "the opportunity game" to me. What I mean by that is this week, a win and you'll see an energized fan base. I don't want to understate how important that opportunity is. Reasons why I feel this is a winnable game. Lost a 50/50 game @ SIU just last year. Sticking to last years game, that was one of three games (Utah State / Missouri State being the other two) where UND's defense was awful. Very familiar place for this team. Rare going on the road to the same place in back to back years If UND's offense plays clean (which it did not against NAU), they can be tough to stop. UND's defense has struggled overall, but I genuinely believe that is mostly inexperience. Why not this week to really see improvement? UND's defense although it has struggled, has played pretty good red zone defense. As bad as some of the stats look, their points given up hasn't really followed that trend.

Miller mentioned four guys. Coley and Krzanowski returned. Schultz / Ball was on the 2nd to last drive. “UND safeties Ethan Ball and Jayson Coley, linebacker Devon Krzanowski and defensive end Casey Schultz each needed extra time to get off the field”

UND 27 NAU 13

Yes, usually about 24 hours before the game.

They only gave up 193 passing yards, which isn’t terrible. Or are they most to blame for the 244 yards on the ground? Or are you really fixated on that 3rd and long completion that Nebraska had?

From where I'm at, what we're seeing is an overreaction based on the UNI game. UND's secondary is not "scary bad", they'll be just fine. Defensively as a whole they were not great against UNI. Like I said originally in this topic, I think what we'll see is that more had to do with UNI's offense (which is really good) and their O-Line (which is really good). Guess we'll see this weekend. If UND defensively looks anywhere near what they did against NAU, then I'll start to worry.

I'm feeling good about this week and I think the betting line is pretty good. I think it's a closer Idaho State game from last year. I'm really excited to see this D-Line go to work against what appears to be a fairly average FCS O-Line.

So, you think UND is going to lose by 21 points to a team that's scored 13 points combined in two games? Or am I reading this incorrectly.

Only change to the Depth Chart this week is Bryant is back on it and listed backing up Anderson at Left Guard.

I would set the ticket prices for the end zone sections at 1/2 of the others, which I think would be $12.50.

It does appear that Northern Arizona has a solid FCS team. When you have a decent amount of turnover, we're still in question answering mode for UND. Honestly, this match up should give us a much better outlook what to expect the rest of the season. You have UND's offense, which looked really good in the 2nd half against UNI against NAU's defense which appears to be a really solid unit. UND's defense which looked very average / below average against UNI's offense, vs NAU's offense which has seemed to struggle early on. How good is SHSU? How good is UNI? I do want to point out, is although UND's home vs road record is fact, last year UND although they didn't win on the road, outside of USD didn't play that poorly. They played pretty well against Southern Illinois and Missouri State and I thought one of their best games at SDSU. I like this UND team, I think they are a legitimate Top 15 team. If that proves out, they win this game by 10 to 14 points. This is me putting a lot of eggs into the thinking UNI's offense is legitimately really good, and their O-Line is a Top 3 to 5 FCS O-line. If that is fact, then we'll magically see a much better performance on the defensive side this weekend.

Looks like seats have been added. Will be interesting what the total is today. Miller mentioned it as well when on Izzo’s show, that UND usually gets a good walk up crowd.

24 hours out and Ticketmaster shows about 2200 available tickets. About 1/2 of those being in the 3 end zone (non-student) sections. A nice walk up crowd should fill in everything between the end zones.

The #1 seed guarantee is based on a few things. Defensively they'll be elite. Goaltending above average. Offensively, an average / slightly above average NCHC Top 6, but where I really think this team will shine offensively is the bottom 6 / depth. I was thinking what forward group this team reminds me of and I thought 2019 had a lot of similarities. Coming off a very down year, they would come at you in waves. This is going to be a fun year.

This team is going to be really good this year. They will be a #1 seed in March.

UND opened as a 2.5 point favorite.

If you are ranking the top two recruits of each school on this recruiting cycle, Boisvert / McInnis puts UND in the Top 5. They might be Top 3. This would be talking the average recruit ranking (based on 'stars' given by PuckPreps / Neutral Zone). There's still so much talent out there. Get an Emery, Swanson or Zellers next and you start to get the quantity along with the quality.

Wish I could like this more then once. What I bolded is my least favorite take on siouxsports. Any word on Mac Swanson? Fargo Force tender this year, had a great 5 Nations Tournament, dad was an All-timer at CC. Him and Zellers would be an amazing compliment to Boisvert in this cycle.

As much as you try not to put too much into Week 2, this does seem to be a season defying game. After last year, you can't start 0-2, you just can't. In general, you have to like where UND is at coming into this game. The team has to be energized after playing Nebraska well through 3+ quarters. Potato Bowl always gets a crowd of 10K+. Things that UND needs to do better. Offensively, I actually thought they were pretty sound against Nebraska even though they only scored 17 points. Clean up some penalties, but I was encouraged. Defensively, do something the 1st drives of each half. It makes winning increasingly difficult when the opponents have a built in 14 points. Be better after UND scores points as well. I do think UND wins, but not really sure how the game will play out. I don't think the Air Force game told us a lot about UNI.

Usually, I would agree, definitely more-so at the end of the year where they don't change it at all, regardless of injury. The only reason I posted, is because there are some differences from week 1. The injuries to Bryant / Fort are taken into account. Anderson > Lotysz (which isn't as big of a surprise considering he had 2X the snaps at Nebraska).

A few things that caught my eye. How young this team is offensively. 5 Seniors on total on the Depth Chart (2 Starters) 6 Upperclassman to 5 Lowerclassman starting 13 Lowerclassman listed to 11 Upperclassman No Buckner at Safety No Bishop at CB I like the Depth Chart, Tom Miller in his mailbag column today said that this roster might be missing some star power, but it's as deep as he can remember.

I would say having that game being played in Ireland would be a net negative for Nebraska. If I had to chose between this being both teams first games or Nebraska playing in Ireland the week before, I would chose Ireland.