Midwestern Hawk

Do you not understand the definition of "game management"? A good game manager would have made sure the fumble happened with almost an entire minute less on the clock, unless you think USD was practicing some kind of football "MAGIC" against UND. Again, football is not rocket science. Generally when a team has the lead in a football game and the ball, they want every play to take as much time off the clock as is possible. FOOTBALL 101

This is needed desperately. It needs to be someone who can be honest with everyone involved. There have been some monumental coaching blunders this season, which affected not just the momentum of the game, but very, very likely the outcome of the game(MSU, SDSU), the outcome of the season and the direction of the program(NDSU). If coaches are allowed to speak openly at staff meetings, I would never believe that coaches are not coming in after some of these games and saying "WTF is going on".

Based on your summary, Bubba is likely not going to wake up and UND will continue to flutter around .500 with the occasional 7-4 playoff season which gets our hopes up.

Weather was bad, but the “crowd”/excitement level vs ISU as as lackluster as I have ever seen it. How about after next season (I would predict between 3-8 to 7-4), Bubba steps down, Chaves steps down and Bubba becomes AD.

Even you would have called TO when NDSU didn’t take their dline off the field at our own 20. This isn’t rocket science.

TO and 2 first downs. USD would have drained the clock.

I’m really torn on all of this. He has done a really good job on many levels, but game management is not one of them . These “details” are the difference between 10-1 and 5-6 this fall. At this point I’m afraid Bubba will be ~ 500 the next couple seasons and then we will need to start over again. it feels like this was the season to really get over the hump and we pissed it down our leg. The entire program and University was on the verge of greatness vs NDSU and Bubba froze on the 4th and 1 call. I still can’t believe he didn’t call a TO when NDSU didn’t take their DL off the field. That’s just pathetic. I said this earlier but the success of the spring now feels like it was a mirage. The D will very likely be down a bit next year from this season and and the offense won’t be able to pickup the slack . And we will still have a handful of games where the game management is at a middle school level.

Play clock does not start 'til the time clock begins. it fairly easily should have been :58 seconds before the play where Otis fumbled. I wonder if the staff even knows this? Of course its possible that MSU goes the 76 yards in 48 seconds, just a lot less likely than 1:39.

Bubba and co have got to get all this figured out.

So the fumble by Otis took 10 seconds, all things being equal, MSU would have gotten the ball with :49 seconds left in the game at their own 24. Their game winning drive took 1:24.

I'd take them all....

Hopefully this is a very short thread.

Contrast out clock management at Mo St to the USD clock management in Vermillion: North Dakota 13-20 South Dakota South Dakota at 05:52 South Dakota at 05:52 1st and 10 at USD25 SOUTH DAKOTA drive start at 05:52. 1st and 10 at USD25 Clock 05:52, Theis,Travis rush for 22 yards to the USD47, 1ST DOWN USD (Holm, Evan). 1st and 10 at USD47 Clock 05:12, Theis,Travis rush for 1 yard to the USD48 (Pierre, Chandon). 2nd and 9 at USD48 Clock 04:23, Theis,Travis rush for 10 yards to the UND42, 1ST DOWN USD (Larson, Noah;Holm, Evan). 1st and 10 at UND42 Clock 03:43, Theis,Travis rush for 8 yards to the UND34 (Galvin, Hayden;Holm, Evan). 2nd and 2 at UND34 Clock 03:00, Theis,Travis rush for 1 yard to the UND33 (Krzanowski, Dev;McNaboe, Ben). 3rd and 1 at UND33 Clock 02:11, Theis,Travis rush for 2 yards to the UND31, 1ST DOWN USD (Larson, Noah;McNaboe, Ben). 1st and 10 at UND31 TEAM rush for loss of 2 yards to the UND33. 2nd and 12 at UND33 TEAM rush for loss of 3 yards to the UND36, PENALTY UND unsportsmanlike conduct 15 yards to the UND21, 1ST DOWN USD. 1st and 10 at UND21 1st and 10. 1st and 10 at UND21 TEAM rush for loss of 2 yards to the UND23. 2nd and 12 at UND23 TEAM rush for loss of 2 yards to the UND25. 3rd and 14 at UND25 End of game, clock 00:00. 10 plays consumed 5:52. Nielsen would have run out the clock at Mo St and gone home with a win. Before swtich ing to victory formation and taking a knee, USD consumed 4 minutes in 5 plays. Football Clock Management 101

Agree on the NO PASSES comment. That was Mo ST first TO. On the 6 plays we ran pre-TO, we averaged 27 seconds per play(6 plays 2:44 elapsed = 164 seconds = 27.3. Couldn't we, in theory, have run off 39 seconds per play(and that does NOT take into account the actual time consumed by the play)? If so, the after 6 plays, there is only 39 seconds left in the game instead of 1:49 or MoSt has to burn all its timeouts. Is my math correct?

Yep. Bubba and the staff has done many great things, but we are chasing the greatest dynasty in the history of college football and we will NEVER have a good enough roster to compensate for the continuous game management/ clock management mistakes. I went back through the MSU game, someone tell me where I am wrong. 40 second play clock in college football correct? We run the "dipsy doodle" reverse pass play on 4th and 2 at the MSU 29 with a 28-17 lead and MSU takes over with 6:36 to go. They score 6 plays and 2:03 later to make it 28-24 UND. UND takes over with 4:33 to go. Here is what transpires: North Dakota 28-25 Missouri St. North Dakota at 04:33 North Dakota at 04:33 1st and 10 at UND25 NORTH DAKOTA drive start at 04:33. 1st and 10 at UND25 Weah, Otis rush over left end for 34 yards to the MSU41, 1ST DOWN UND (Braswell,Montra). 1st and 10 at MSU41 Weah, Otis rush up middle for 4 yards to the MSU37 (Stewart,Jaylen). 2nd and 6 at MSU37 Smith, Isaiah rush over right end for 4 yards to the MSU33 (Joe,Lemondre). 3rd and 2 at MSU33 Weah, Otis rush up middle for 1 yard to the MSU32 (Manuleleua,Ferr;McDonald,Kyriq). 4th and 1 at MSU32 Vaughn, Quincy rush up middle for 5 yards to the MSU27, 1ST DOWN UND (Williams,Jalen;Goree,Devin). 1st and 10 at MSU27 Weah, Otis rush up middle for 4 yards to the MSU23 (Johnson,Eric;Ellis,Kevin). 2nd and 6 at MSU23 Timeout Missouri St., clock 01:49. 2nd and 6 at MSU23 Weah, Otis rush over right end for loss of 2 yards to the MSU25, fumble forced by Young,Von, fumble by Weah, Otis recovered by MSU Johnson,Eric at MSU24. At even 35 seconds per play shouldn't the clock have been under a minute to go when Otis fumbled? Their game winning drive took 8 plays and 1:24. What am I missing here?

The NCAA also does NOT want a final 8 composed of 4 MVFC teams, nor a final 4 composed of 3.

The roster can always improve, but overall, this was a damn good team. IMO we did NOT play an FCS team this fall which had a superior roster from top to bottom, and that includes the nemesis to our south. Were teams better at some positions, absolutely, but that will likely always be the case, as it was for NDSU this fall. Was there an FCS team this fall, where a UND win would be considered lucky or a fluke? My answer is no. I felt JMU was the only team we played in the spring with a real roster advantage over us, the NDSU game we just "!@#$ the bed", which ties right back to the coaches.

Nope. Just the MSU football highlights, which is not the greatest angle. Just gave the freaking game away.

I'm not a proponent of wholesale personnel changes and would rather build from the ground up. My larger point was how important coaching is in football. UND beat itself when playing Petrino team @MSU this fall. Pretty difficult to agrue with Petrino record over time. If Petrino was coaching this team we would be posting on the first round playoff thread instead of "could haves" and "should haves". Pretty hard to argue that. I'm tired of waiting for Bubba and co to get "over the hump". After this fall, the success of the spring is looking more and more like a fluke and/or a mirage.

You are likely correct about the committee. Feels like UND snatched "disappointment" this season with one of its best, deepest teams ever. Will take me quite awhile to get over the "no timeout" vs NDSU. That play changed the trajectory of the team and program we all love.

Its not all coaching, but in football coaching is by far the most important element. A very recent MVFC example: 2015 Missouri State 1–10 0–8 10th 2016 Missouri State 4–7 2–6 T–8th 2017 Missouri State 3–8 2–6 T–8th 2018 Missouri State 4–7 2–6 9th 2019 Missouri State 1–10 1–7 T–9th 2020/Spring 2021 Missouri State 5–4 5–1 T–1st 2021: 8-3 and 6-2 Now ask yourself what changed after the 2019 season?

Looks like richter was not expecting the ball, which makes no sense. Not a bad throw, just a really bad play. Are you happy now?

I’ve said it before and it’s a very extreme example, but if nick Saban and his staff coached this team from Jan 1 of 2020 it would be at a minimum 10-1 at the moment, MVFC champs and a top seed In the tournament . Again an extreme example with maybe the best college HC who has ever coached, but in football coaching is incredibly important. Look at MSU. Perennial doormat, Petrino shows up and boom! Playoffs every season.

I see players looking a bit confused after the sack, not all by some. We used 39 seconds on a first down sack and when we finally got down to running the next play, the receiver did not appear to be on the same page as his QB. the NDSU, MSU and SDSU losses are all directly blamed on our game management/time management. For the record, I love Bubba and the staff, but if they take an objective look back at the season they blew some games.

The same staff that choked against NDSU and failed to call TO when they didn’t take our bait on the punt, was calmly telling Tommy to take his time after the sack? Really?