Hardcore Hawk

That's what I was thinking too when I saw the replay. Usually 6-8 weeks of recovery, I don't know if he wants to push it, but depending on how severe, he could be back in three weeks for the Frozen Four.

I saw those two students come up during the game intros and immediately turned on Jack Michaels and synced it up with the ESPN+ stream. I knew I wouldn't be able to get through the game listening to that the entire time.

Saw the story by McFeely on Tommy Schuster, and I got curious on Cedric Case, so I took to Instagram. Looks like Case isn't even at Texas State anymore, he's now at Central Missouri, a DII school. No disrespect to Case, he's made his choices, but how fortunate was UND in that whole situation? It's been said time and again, but Tommy is a straight up winner. So thankful how that all played out.

I'm a teacher at a small ND town, and the seniors I teach would have been born in 2003/04, the last time NDSU and UND were conference opponents. Listening to them talk trash back and forth, you'd think the teams never stopped playing each other. There absolutely still is a rivalry here. A person can downplay it as much as they want, but even when the teams didn't play between 2003-2015, there was jawing back and forth between students.

Their 6’6” nose guard was a big problem, and they had some extremely athletic ends. I’d agree, I was impressed. If UND wants to do well, they need to a. Force pressure on the inside b. Stay home on the edges

Thanks! Virtually zero chance Zeb is the starter next week, right? #7 gives them so many more options

Watched NDSU/ISU and took some notes

I have more thoughts on this one too: -time for Griebel to be replaced as a returner -the screen game was definitely snuffed out -defense didn’t get home quite as well in this one, need a better effort against a better OL next weekend -for God’s sake, ball security -definitely not the same energy as when they’re playing at home in front of 3500 -All said, as long as Bubba keeps doing the Griddy, I’m happy

This is conjecture, obviously, but I think this was a pretty vanilla game intentionally. The defense didn’t pressure all that often, we played a lot of off-coverage, and our offense was moving the ball well enough to not need to do much pre-snap. There wasn’t much in terms of trickerations, and it seemed almost like a preseason game. Hate week now, I think there will be a little more fire under their asses

I’ll be honest, this was the most disappointing part of the game lol

Bubba has been doing this dance after each win this year

42-7, Otis runs for 200 on his own, and the Hawks become the number one team in the country in the next polls.

I watched Bubba's press conference, and one of the factors was playing in front of a limited crowd, and needing to bring the energy. I think especially with a team UND should beat handily, it's important to have that energy from the opening kickoff and not let an inferior opponent hang around

On top of that, it gets the ball into playmaker's hands quicker and gives them much more space than just running slants or curl routes.

I'm sure it's something that UND noticed they could take advantage of with USD's defense. A lot of them did really well too, i.e. Belquist's one he nearly took to the house. I was just surprised at the sheer amount of them. It was nice to see some of the big boys move down the field and crush some smaller DBs too.

Noticed a lot of screen passes when I was watching the game on Thursday, and I finally got a little downtime tonight, so I rewatched our offensive series. Presented without commentary: 16 of 24 completed passes were screens Bubble: 6 Tunnel: 4 Slip: 6 Q1: 5 Q2: 3 Q3: 4 Q4: 4

It is a little ridiculous that anyone would put NDSU ahead of UND at this point. Team 1: 3-0, wins over three Top 25 teams, beat each team by 10+ points Team 2: 3-1, wins over bottom of the barrel MVFC teams, got spanked by a team which Team 1 beat by 22. Obviously there's historical factors going into it, but anyone voting by a blind resume alone wouldn't put NDSU above UND.

I think he took a couple of shots during the ISU game too, and with the short week, he really didn't get much time to heal up. Especially when he was under fire all night long

Credit to Bubba on his hiring now, he's gotten rid of mistakes (Rudy) and kept guys who he knew had potential (Kostich). I love the energy the 3 coordinators have as well, all high energy guys. It's a good partnership with Bubba's even-keeled approach.

I think our linebackers have been the highlight of the defense so far. With depth a little shaky on the DL, the backers have stepped up big time. Larson is a stud, and Krzanowski was such a huge get, he's been fantastic. Haas and Navratil have been great in run support and Turner has been awesome rushing the QB. I'm loving this group.

Agreed, we'll keep the Payton influences to strictly kitschy motivational tactics, nothing else.

I need Bubba to pull a Sean Payton and put some mousetraps in the locker room. Don't eat the cheese, gentlemen! Don't take games for granted, need to have the same mentality from the first 3 games playing ranked opponents as you do playing Western.

I think you can be critical and appreciative at the same time. I'll agree that Tommy probably gives us the best chance of winning, just based on his high football IQ and ability to avoid costly mistakes. However, if UND wants to go deep into the playoffs, he does have to be better than these first three games. To add to it, however, I'd still argue that a complete game by the offense hasn't been played yet. Maag misread or was bodied off a couple of deep balls, and Skokna wasn't nearly as active as typical offensively. We're bulding though, and if things keep progressing, I think UND hits a stride offensively right as we get to March 20th.

I'm excited to see him back, I'm just wondering when the Brockstar does come back, who does he step in for? Obviously not Maag. Richter? Belquist? Preston? Even Cochran played well today. It's a DEEP receiver corps, maybe the deepest ever, since the only senior is the grad transfer Richter

I'm not sure it can be overstated how good Freund is at play calling and play design. Still no sacks through three games, and it's all due to moving the line of scrimmage, getting guys open for Tommy early, and getting creative at the right times. We're finally have a modern offense with guys who can run it.