AJS

Hawks Win 35-30 In Yet Another Wildly Entertaining Game - UND Football 360 This quote I found really interesting. I did mention before, but points given up in the 2nd half the last two games has been pretty good, so not necessarily surprised, but it's nice others are starting to see some positive progress made defensively. I am in a love/hate process right now with the UND defense – LOL. They look good, fit stuff up, tackle well for a drive. Then the next drive the opposing offense goes right down the field with little resistance. They will give up a few drives like that in a row before suddenly buckling down again. But, what I am seeing is this defense seems to gel and gain confidence as games go on into the 4th quarter. They came up with a 3-and-out early in the fourth, gave up a long TD drive to make it 35-30, but then got the BIG stop on the final drive of the game to seal it. This tells me they are a work in progress, which we all know to be true. It’s getting there.

Heading into the off week UND currently sits at 4-2 overall (3-1 in MVFC). I would call their remaining schedule fairly favorable. Three home games > two road. On paper I would still call @ Indiana State your highest % chance of a win on the road out of any this year. I won't spend much time discussing this team offensively (very solid) or special teams (pretty good). Let's all concentrate on the defensive side of the ball. My question would be, can that side of the ball take a step and just be average? My hope is that this week off is just what the defense needs. Time to regroup and really study the film. There are some positives recently, they've given up 10 and 9 points in the second half's of the last two games. Which is respectable. Opponents 3rd down % has been again, respectable the last two weeks. Still high on the year 50.68%, but that's down 8% from where they were at after the SIU game. In general, they've had really good red zone defense. Given up TD's on only 55% of the time. I agree with @The Sicatoka, I think Ocansey is fine opposite of Siegel. The CB position is not my #1 worry anymore on the defensive side of the ball. I'm still convinced the overall talent is there, just get better week by week.

I thought the exact same thing. It reminds me going into the Northern Iowa game as well, I felt good about UND's chances until I listened to the 360 podcast. Both times, after listening I felt like there was no way UND had a chance. Sounds to me like Youngstown will be the best team in every facet that UND has faced so far. Outside of their passing offense. Hoping like UNI, UND can pull off the win against a borderline flawless opponent. Some more thoughts (non-360 related). Good: Like where UND's offense is right now. Multi-faceted. I feel good about the unit in general. Youngstown is a run first offense. Feel much better going up against that then a pass happy offense. Bad: This is a game that a Bubba coached team has routinely lost. This is the chance for UND to completely redeem themselves from the SIU debacle. Like against SIU, this is another opportunity game. Win and you're right in the mix of all FCS discussions. Both locally and nationally. UND's program could really use this one.

Kudos to the defense in the 2nd half! For the first time since Week 1 (first half), they actually played well. Hoping this is the turning point!

Per Miller it was Kilty. His normal jersey ripped.

He has them at 4th.

Craig Button (TSN) released his Top 32 this morning and Strathmann was #29 on his list. There are 3 players already playing college ahead on the list, but only two college commits listed before Strathmann. Perron not listed.

Per 360, on the year UND has allowed a 59% conversion rate on 3rd downs. No surprise, that is the worst in the MVFC. One week at a time, Missouri State's % this week will be the difference in the game. If they are <50% UND wins.

This is year two of the new NCAA hockey recruiting rules, but here's what happened last recruiting cycle (not counting transfers). August 21 - 3 Recruits (Strathmann / Perron / Livanavage) October 21 - 2 Recruits (Slipec / Klee) November 21 - 1 Recruit (Wiebe) December 21 - 1 Recruit (McLaughlin) April 22 - 1 Recruit (Croal)

Let's call it brand recognition. I'm not saying what I'd chose as a fan, I'm saying national eyeballs. What would be the biggest on any given year? Making the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament Winning the Frozen Four Winning the FCS Title Game Am I off base here? It's definitely making the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Which do you think it is?

Who cares if neither UND or NDSU will ever be a contender to win it all in NCAA Basketball. Just making the men's tournament will give you more press then winning the NCAA Hockey or FCS Football National Championship. Make it to the 2nd round and it's X5. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament it's all about just getting in. NDSU over the past decade has had about a 50/50 shot each year of making it. They play in the Summit League final virtually every year. There's no comparison between NDSU and UND in the NCAA's biggest tournament.

This, not much elaboration needed. Just win.

This very well could have been a Shaugabay situation. What that would be is UND is interested, but would like to see more before an offer is extended. I don't know if they offered Zellers or not, I'm guessing not, but they didn't offer Shaugabay when he committed to Duluth. Obviously there are select players that will get offered before they play Juniors (Boisvert / McInnis / McMorrow). Those all will be playing Juniors this year though. Time will tell with Shaugabay and potentially Zellers if that was a mistake to take the wait and see approach.

Well that’s enough for today. Good news is realistically it can’t get any worse than this defensively. We are watching the absolute worst of something. 2017 was worse or no?

This defense is 2017 level bad.

No injury report this week from them.

Is state funding strictly tied to total enrollment? That would be UND: 13,876 / NDSU 12,242? The number that really stuck out to me was first time freshman. NDSU: 2,513 UND: 1,753 On Campus Full Time NDSU: 9,608 UND: 7,664 (or 8,457) Clearly with all the improvements made around campus that there is still very much an emphasis on on campus learning. Hoping to see those numbers tighten between the two.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/local/und-enrollment-up-for-fall-2022

Yes. I'll update stats about once a month.

BCHL Hedquist - G - ('03) - Alberni Valley: Wiebe - D - ('03) - Chilliwack: USHL Benoit - D - ('02) - Omaha: Croal - F - ('03) - Muskegon: Dunbar - D - ('03) - Muskegon: Panzer - F - ('04) - Sioux Falls: Singleton - F - ('04) - Green Bay: Livanavage - D - ('04) - Chicago: Ausmus - D - ('04) - Madison: Perron - F - ('05) - Chicago: Strathmann - D - ('05) - Youngstown: Slipec - F - ('05) - Chicago: Klee - F - ('05) - Waterloo: McInnis - D - ('06) - Waterloo: Boisvert - F - ('06) - Muskegon:

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.