Midwestern Hawk

I agree with this. Season changing call.....

I was listening to this weeks podcast and Kelly brought up some of the OTHER 3rd and 4th down calls vs the Bison. Going for it on 4th and 1 at your own 20 with the lead was so bad it had overshadowed the other 3rd and 4th down calls. We use 2 QBs, a maize of sets and motions, many "trick" plays and have scored 10 vs NDSU 13 vs USD 21 vs SIU 28 vs MSU In the MVFC stats, we have the 3rd highest YPC at 5.25 and the 2nd LOWEST total rushes...only Western Illinois has less. Football isn't rocket science. http://www.mvc.org/football/stats/Valley Football Stats.pdf

A great case can be made that coaching was the difference in 4 of the losses.

Hopefully UND is discussing this and planning. Soon P5 will turn into P4 and the gulf between P4 and G5 (G6) will get wider. No question FCS will get watered down substantially as the top 10-15 FCS school make the jump to FBS. IMO, UND can’t make the same mistake it made 20 years ago and wait several years to make the jump to FBS.

I say if Saban and his entire staff is coaching since 1/1, UND is a minimum of 7-1 with the lone loss likely being USU. Saban and staff is worth a minimum 10 points per game. When the "Jimmies and Joes" are in the same ballpark it comes down to coaching. Some of the "Jimmies and Joes" were noticeably different in our games vs USU and Drake. 99% of the staffs in America would have managed the end of the MSU game better and not called for the "razzle/dazzle" with an 11 point lead, ~ 6 minutes remaining, ball at opponent 27, 4th & 2 and averaging 6+ yards per carry.

A decision needs to be made at the very top of the University about the direction and if being the true "flagship" is important. IMO it can be done, but it will take hard work and $$$$.

If UND ever really wants to be the 'Flagship" U of North Dakota, it will be done on the football field. I travel quite a bit and if you talk about the University in ND, 99% of the time NDSU is blurted out by the person. In the US outside of Minnesota and Boston and the Red River Valley of the North, college hockey is on the same level as college lacrosse.

Does anyone think if Nick Saban and his staff had been hired at UND last January 1st, and been working our same personnel we would be 3-5? Drastic example, but hopefully you understand the point.

AND UND GAVE them 3 with the red zone punt fiasco.

10 vs NDSU 13 @ USD 21 @ SIU(7 was recovered fumble in EZ) 28 @ MSU

I disagree, not sure if it was always this way with Danny but our offense is not a championship offense. We can argue as to why that is, but way too many gadget plays all season. 41 carries for 270 yards in the game vs MSU, 6.2 yards per carry. If we were averaging 10 yards a carry would we have just run the ball? Right now we have 14 TD passes on the season... 9 for Tommy 2 for Quincy 2 for Brock 1 for Richter I'll take heat for this, but when has that happened at Alabama under Saban? It's indicative of the entire offense. One of Tommy TD passes was a gadget play too. The 4th and 2 play is at about the 57 second mark....with that play call we deserved to lose. https://missouristatebears.com/watch/?Archive=1772&type=Archive If you watch the play Belquist was going to throw it to Quincy. ......and then maybe Quincy was going to lateral it to Waletzko?

I agree with this for the most part. There is a time and a place for everything and 4th and 2 and 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 is not the place for "tricks" when we can run the ball very effectively and/or we have the lead. In a much different way, our offense is just as predictable now as it was under Rudolph, just in a completely different way scheme-wise. 2 formation shifts, then a back comes in motion across faking the jet sweep and we throw a 4 yard crosser or hit the motion back in the flat. At some point all the motion just causes motion penalties and the defense no longer cares because we always end up in the same sets.

I agree, just hard because we have likely reached the ceiling under Bubba. Everything goes our way, and we are 8-3 and make the playoffs. Rash of injuries or things don't go our way and its 4-7 to 6-5.

It's all on the coaches. After the play call on 4th and 2, Holinka should have kicked Danny and Bubba in the nuts. Do you realize how few "winning" football teams would make that call with the lead, on the road, averaging 6 yards a carry? NONE. The answer is teams that win consistently don't rely on BS. They had to TRY and lose that game.

Not if NDSU chooses to run a "trick play" on 4th and 2 with a 2 score lead. The more I watch it, the worse it looks. I'm not sure if Otis and Belquist were sure it was a pitch or a handoff. Kind of like going for it on 4th and 1 at your own 20 with the lead in the 3rd qtr or coming out of the half and calling timeout before a play is run.

This is 100% on the coaches. Anyone with a grain of football knowledge, knows it.

The team never got its mojo back after the exposure @NDSU.

This is a football truth...actually a truth in life. At times our offense is like watching a circus. Football at this level is 90+% coaching.

The 4th and 2 call is a summary of the UND program. The pieces are there to be a great team(5-0 in MVFC), but the mindset, game management and discipline is not. The talent will never be in Grand Forks which is good enough to make up for the lacking in those 3 areas. On the 4th and 2 , UND not only snapped it to a RB to hand off/pitch(were they sure)? but the starting QB(Tommy) was not on the field to handle the ball either.

I for one am not blaming Otis . He fumbled. It happens. He should have NEVER been put in the position to muff the exchange on the the 4th and 2. That is 100% on Bubba and the staff and everyone surrounding the team, including staff and players can figure that out. Like I said earlier you can watch D1 college football for the next 20 years and that move combined with the 4th and 1 call vs NDSU will always be as bad of coaching/game management as one will EVER see. As for the Otis situation, with how that game ended yesterday, I doubt that situation will get better over the next 3 weeks.

Yep. It was the same "football brainfart" thinking which went for it on 4th and 1 at our own 20 vs NDSU with the lead. In the football world both those coaching decisions just scream total incompetence. I would love to see us win out and finish 6-5. I just can't imagine there is not some serious morale problems on that team at the moment.

Imagine being up 28-17 vs Missouri State with under 7 minutes in the 4th qtr in a must win for your team's playoff hopes. Your offense is running for over 6 yard per carry. It's 4th and 2 at the MSU 29 yard line. Instead of just handing off the ball to Otis Weah or having Quincy Vaughn keep the ball and likely run for the first down, at the last moment QV steps to the side and the ball is snapped directly to Otis who turns to run to the right on outside zone play. Instead of running for the first down, he is supposed to hand the ball off to Belquist on a reverse to the left. The exchange between Otis and Belquist is very bad to say the least and the ball is turned over to MSU at the MSU 37. Did I mention we had a 2 score lead? Did I mention we were averaging over 6 yards per carry? Did I mention we direct snapped it to someone who I don't think has EVER taken a direct snap for the Hawks in a game and assumed he would cleanly hand it off to a WR about 7 yards deep in the backfield on a 4th and 2? That is how good teams lose football games to lesser teams.

The big problem is the tendency to lose games which should/could be won. UND was good enough to win all 4 MVFC games lost this season. In each loss, there are some "duh" coaching moments in each game.

May lose quite a few.... Maag, Waletzko, Canady, Turner, Larson, Krzanowski, Galvin, Holm, Morrison have all started all season. Haas was injured in the first game. A few may have come back but many either can't or likely won't. Definitely some holes to fill.

You are right. It wasn't great. The defense did give up almost a third of MSU total yardage on those las t2 drives. Just seemed like a total collapse, at least it did over the radio.