Midwestern Hawk

The injuries are one thing but so many parts of what is North Dakota football are just not right.

Have to give Jack credit for staying so upbeat.

Parts of the team are an absolute train wreck.

Hard to do much worthwhile in life when you are not focused and that certainly includes football.

Have we had a first down since the opening drive?

Seems like a lifetime ago.

What a different atmosphere surrounding this team in every way compared to the potato bowl. So much promise at that point. Now just shoot it and put it out of its misery.

EWU 200 yards rushing in first half. Good way to put the spotlight on a backup qb.

I wonder how many games have been missed by guys this season in for reasons other than injuries. I have never seen anything like it.

The team is so unfocused in football. Bubba needs to get that figured out pronto.

I was thinking that last week. Has hardly played and certainly has not been targeted much when he is in there. Mercer is out? What happened?

Defense is ugly as usual.

That was my point. What do we think is going on that 3 members of the UND football team have been arrested by a drug task force in the last 6 months? It is not like they were all pulled over in a car and they had a baggie of weed and were busted.

I don’t think anyone expects 85? young men to all be angels, but there is lots of crap going on that is not conducive to being a focused football team. I bet when you got your dui yiu had tempted fate dozens if not hundreds of times, maybe it was a fluke but it usually is not. We have had 3 out of 85 players arrested for drug dealing in the last 6 months in two separate incidences. Think about that and use the same probablilities.

Who was talking about family? As far as the season, there are always reasons other than dumb luck for a collapse like we have experienced this season. Most of the injuries could not have been avoided however the rest of the debacle including the poor game planning, adjustments and execution, the arrests, the discipline problems, the lack of focus and all of the games missed by multiple players for phantom reasons that are never explained or reported on, that is all on Bubba and his staff.

It’s not the philosophy it is the lack of wrinkles and execution. The weapons we have are vastly underutilized. Santiago should be on the field either in the backfield or slot on every play. Adeotti should be used to stretch the field and loosen up the box making it easier to run.

There is evidence that the UND-NDSU rivalry is very cyclical in nature. Most rivalries are somewhat cyclical based on the coaches and programs involved or they would not be rivalries. UND was on top when NDSU decided to jump to D1 and Roger Thomas and the university made a strategic mistake not joining them for a few years. About the time UND became D1, NDSU was getting a huge roll and UND is still trying to catch up. I think NDSU program is faltering a bit and many thought UND was ascending, that is one of the most frustrating things about this season for so many of us.

I agree that significant changes are needed. Phase 2 of HPC does need to be the new AD priority. More importantly Bubba needs to make some changes, including some staff changes of which have been discussed on here plenty. He needs to get his program back on track on the field and off the field. The product on the field has been soft and unfocused and when that is combined with the injuries we end up embarrassed in Cedar city and Davis instead of winning another conference championship. The ugly defense has been a combination of injuries and coaching with me leaning about 70/30 on the injuries. The offense has been 80/20 in favor of the coaching being the problem. Offensive production has been terrible and absolutely unable to compensate at all for a depleted defense. Rudolph does not seem to be able to get Santiago, Oliviera and JJ(our 3 best offensive threats) on the field at the same time or even 2 of them on the field with any consistency. IMO Rudy does not even have a good system as to which one is on the field at which time and they all bring much different strengths. Not going to win many games scoring 20 offensive points in the Big Sky, unless the defense/special teams doubles the total like it did many times last season.

That 30% you talk about will jump on whichever bandwagon is on top. Late 80's was NDSU, late 90's, early 00's it was UND. It will be UND again soon.

I think everyone in the athletic department feels some new pressure after Faison's departure. I am confident there will be changes. Does Bubba think he would survive another year like this? There have been tons of issues with this team that don't involve injuries.

I agree with this. Bubba will make a few key changes starting a week from today, next year will be a playoff season and then one of the next two seasons will end with a lot of happy F'ng hawks in Frisco. Two coaching changes S & C changes Tighter controls on players and better leadership from within.

Overall there is definitely a leadership deficit with the team. Guys not focused on football and the peer pressure is not there to deal with it. With the injuries we just flat ass are not very good at some very important positions when you are running this style defense. IMO tank needs to put the weight back on and we need to come up with another dl that can make big plays once in awhile. the ilb position is probably the biggest and deepest whole on the team, especially again when they are the core of this style defense. Losing Donnel was huge and really exposed disterhaupts lack of size when he was playing. Rastas while giving it all is just not big enough and really does not have much speed for his size. We desperately need Rodgers back healthy, Hunt to become the player I think he may be able to become and larson to be as good as advertised. in the secondary, I think the potential exists to really excel next season getting Harris back and everyone else healthy. They would all look way better this season if we were ever getting dl to qb or if any of our ilb blitzing ever got home. pPotential is there to have a riches to rags to riches story on defense.

Sloppy offense and the defense can't stop anyone. I understand that Rastas and Disterhaupt are undersized but man they are not even close to getting it done out there. Almost every time I just watch them out there it is ugly. Lots of the bad secondary play being caused by NO PRESSURE on the QB. Last season was the opposite, QBs under constant pressure causing turnovers. Lots and lots to work on in the off season. Have to find a couple DL and blitzing LB that can get to QB next year.

Eliminate turnovers. Have a plan to roll QB(Studs with a short leash) out to assist the OLINE blocking. Run JJ more. A couple deep throws to izzy early, make EWU at least think about it. Defensively we need to bring 5-7 guys every play, take some chances.

This is so painful. Just take a knee and get out of cedar city. This is so ugly. Not sure where we start.