Northcountry

I have spent the weekend reading essays written by 6th grade students, and although the topics are different, the final quality of these two sets of essays are different in an important way. I don't consider a recitation of statistics from a web site to pass as adequate for a 6th grade essay, and I certainly would not consider it as adequate coming from a university student.

Trevor Olson appears to have replaced Andrew McWilliam as the player who will draw at least one penalty per game for what is in essence "hitting too hard". Tonight they called it roughing, last week they called it "contact to the head elbowing" and for McWilliam it was almost always "elbowing". Apparently a player is allowed to make contact with another player, but not if the contact is too violent.

DAY - BY - DAY. Do what you need to do now to be as good as you can be. Bartels and Mollberg both redshirted with a plan to compete for playing time later - how has that worked out? Studsrud could play at EWU and get hurt, so do you play to protect players or build the program? The only game that matters is one you are playing - do what you have to do to give yourself the best chance, then start preparing for the next one.

You nailed it Sic. My old man nostalgia had me thinking I was watching a Dale Lennon era game yesterday. I realize that it was against lesser competition, but in style it was very familiar. To play that style will require more of an ability to control and dictate field position, which will require some improvement on the offensive side (Lennon always placed a lot of emphasis on the punting game, and it seems like that part of the game is coming along very well, but a 45 yard punt from your own 20 is worlds different from a 45 yard punt from the 40). I too would like to see the running game challenge the edge a little bit more (some of what used to be the base running game appears to have been abandoned). As frustrating as it may seem this offense is better suited to BUILDING than one that relies on trick plays and throwing the ball 50 yards downfield 30 times a game relying on the laws of probability to bail you out. It is difficult to find another couple of wins on the schedule and trick plays will not improve that prospect and in my mind would be an indication of desperation on the part of the coaching staff (and we have recently experienced the rewards that desperation bring).

These things are very difficult to quantify as no universal metric exists that takes into consideration differences in rules, enforcement of those rules, quality of facilities, quality of opponents, etc., but I believe that James Patrick was responsible for a rules change that in effect eliminated 3 on 3 play due to penalties. Watching him control the game in those situations was a thing of beauty. Patrick was also synonymous with championship, if I recall right he had a string of championships that spanned 4 consecutive teams he played on. Greg Johnson was the exemplar of the spirit of Sioux hockey, a great player who brought maximum effort every game for four seasons even though the teams he played on were not championship caliber. My 2 cents and my 2 picks.

I have been to several games in Winnipeg and Fargo and the attendance averages around 3,600 per game in both places. I also attended several Varmints games when they played in Grand Forks and I can't recall a single time attendance was 1,000. Winnipeg and Fargo teams both have extensive corporate sponsorship as well and I wonder if the bad taste left by the unpaid debts the Varmints left when they folded would be very hard to overcome. There is a small core of dedicated baseball fans in the Grand Forks area, but nothing to prove that there is enough support to make a non-university team viable.

I think " Chelsea Dagger" is great after a goal - Loud, rhythmic, and perfect for audience participation. Everything done at the Ralph (except 'Home of the Sioux') has been appropriated from somewhere else and if you are going to borrow, you could do a lot worse than borrowing from the Blackhawks (Sweet Caroline, for example). On another note I was wondering if the new Grand Forks ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation will have an effect on how the beloved "Kiss Cam" feature will be presented - we cannot assume that all "couples" in attendance are straight. Just curious.

Whoever paid for the hospital visit, the incident resulted in players BEING SUSPENDED and missing games - How many games did the petition forgers sit out? How many quarters? How many practices? The issue is not kids getting into situations, but how the adults who are supposed to be in charge deal with the situation when it occurs and it appears that doing the right thing in this case took a back seat to the interests of the football program. This was a situation in which the university took a position of dismiss, downplay, and deny responsibility so that these precious assets would not be made unavailable. No matter where this happens it is shameful, but we all know it is difficult to do the right thing.

Do you remember Darren Kelderman? JUCo transfer who threw for a million yards and a thousand TDs at an Iowa JC, played two series at UND in which he was sacked three times because he could not move in any direction and would throw only to a primary receiver. Big JUCo hype has never translated at QB.

Time to fire Jones!!!!!!!!

Prior to this season what frame of reference did the coaching staff have to make preparations against? What selling points did they have for recruits? How do you sell a program to kids when you can't tell them what they will be competing for and who they will be competing against? How quickly do we expect recruits to become ready? What I am saying is that now, after a season in the Big Sky, most of these questions now have answers and if the coaching staff cannot move upward from where we are - THEN we need to start thinking about changes. As I said there is evidence of problems (I am not a Pollyanna) but to expect instant perfection, then not allow for adjustments to be made is to exclude every coach not named Rockne. As for the glowing from the co-championship - That team won the only thing available for it to win - what more would you want?

And like all who talk in an echo chamber you keep hearing the same voices saying the same things and think that is the true picture of reality. There are problems that need to be addressed - the empirical evidence exists. If adjustments are not made, I may walk into the chamber with you but am not willing to do so based on the disappointments of one season in the conference.

I see parallels in this situation and the state of the program when Roger Thomas took over. It was a long, miserable process for Thomas to get the program back on track, with lots of gaps to fill and if not for Kurt Otto there would have been nothing to be excited about. We have just recently completed 5 years of recruiting pergutory and it will be 3 years before the "Big Sky" recruits are upper classmen and the leaders of this team. I think it is a promising picture when players recruited under a DII umbrella (half of the O line, almost all of the D line, running backs, and linebackers) were able to find their way to the middle of the Big Sky pack while playing perhaps the most difficult schedule in the conference. Dale Lennon decided that this transition was something he would rather not endure and left the program leaderless - in the interim, I think Chris has started the program on the right course (just as Roger Thomas did) and when he gets the pieces in place, people may have to find something else to bitch about (maybe the slow starts and disappointing finishes of the hockey program - I say that tongue-in-cheek).

If my fading, old - age memory still serves me, I believe the official name for this character (one of the most ridiculous mascots ever conceived - or maybe second to the year we had Kermit the Frog on the ice) was THUNDAR - the Bleacher Creature.

But you are great at delusion, in fact I bow to you as the grand master of delusion and your dedication to suicidal martrydom would have been greatly admired among the kamikaze and strap-a-bomb-to-your-body-and-blow-up-a-marketplace Muslims. There comes a time you need the serenity to accept the things you cannot change.

Please don't read anything into this but I was recently reading some comments from William Shirer on the 60th anniversary of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and found some of his commentary on the "Fall" to be a little familiar especially these three points: 1)"We must stand fast no matter what the peril" even tactical retreats were forbidden because victory is our destiny 2) Glorification of suicidal martyrdom and its refusal to recognize the "delusion of defeat" and 3) Adherents are blinded by a murderous faith and loyalty that either disregards or encourages the slaughter of innocents. Please regard this as just a comment on history and how in many ways and forms history has a way of recurring and we have a capacity for ignoring history if it does not fit our mindset. There is a difference between going down with the ship and bringing the ship down with you.

I think the Big Sky Conference, the NCAA, and several individual institutions have made it very clear that they don't really care what the majority of North Dakotans or their state legislature thinks in regard to the Fighting Sioux nickname - as far as they are concerned if UND or the state of North Dakota wants so desperately to keep the nickname they can do it and play intramural athletics, or form their own association. If you want to a part of a large association you must abide by the rules of the association, convince them to amend their rules, or change their bylaws. Changing the North Dakota consititution is like telling the world that you like strawberries.

Would you please ask him to make me a large beef and sausage pizza with a double order of Mojo potatoes? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!

Did anyone hear the interview with Roger Thomas earlier in the week? He offered some great insights into how the NCAA operates. For example, all issues are assigned to ad hoc committees that work through a specific task, with guidance from member university presidents, then new committees are formed to work on new, related tasks. He said that he has worked on several of these committees dealing with different aspects of college athletics and the findings are presented to the entire membership for action/inaction/approval/disapproval. We keep referring to the NCAA as if it were some monolithic entity with an emperor/dictator issuing edicts at will, when in fact it is the membership that drives it. Roger also made the point that the NCAA HAS TO BE politically correct because whether we like it or not social issues become a part of college athletics - the example he gave was Title IX and how that issue was resisted and debated until finally being (reluctantly) accepted. As a heads up he said that the next issue the NCAA was going to have to address is the issue of transgender athletes - apparently the NCAA is seeking information on how the membership is thinking and probably soon will have to begin creating procedures to deal with the issue. I don't mean to sound like an apologist for the NCAA, but this interview has me looking at the organization in a little bit different way.

Florida State is not sanctioned by the NCAA for its use of the "Seminole" nickname and imagery - On a flight today I picked a copy of Sky Magazine and in browsing through it found an advertisement for Florida State's College of Business and Management. The ad was a professor with maroon and yellow war paint striped on his face with the caption -" FSU - war paint for the business of business". What the hell is the definintion of "hostile and abusive" and how can any organization that does not censure this kind of publicity from one of its (acceptable nickname) members, penalize an institution that goes out of its way to avoid such uses of native imagery? Did the Turtle Mountain Tribal Council fully appreciate what they were approving when they passed their resolution supporting the NCAA policy on native nicknames and imagery - the "war paint" ad from Florida State will not even appear on the radar of the NCAA, yet is exactly the kind of stereotyping the NCAA, nickname opponents, and tribal councils such as Turtle Mountain claim to be most offensive. For the NCAA to ignore examples such as this, while promising to enforce all its sanctions against another institution in its membership is hypocrisy of Biblical proportion.

I agree totally with this assessment. The days are probably gone when there would be a large contingent of Sioux fans at away games, so fans (and the football program) need a voice that will describe the action in a timely manner, accurately, and with some insight without assuming that the fan listening to the radio is so familiar with the x' s and o's of offense and defense that they can keep a picture of all 22 players throughout a play. The voice of football is going to be instrumental in keeping the interest that already exists and building a new, younger fan base at the same time. Half the games they do will be road games and the average fan will not be able to attend many of those so accuracy and enthusiasm for Sioux football will be very important.

Please, NO, NO, a thousand times NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! He drives me crazy trying to follow his basketball play-by-play (I say that toungue in cheek because he cannot keep up with the pace of a basketball game) and he often seems to be grasping to find a suitable cliche to describe a situation, stumbles over the presentation, misses several aspects of the action, and the score magically increases by 4 to 6 points as he rambles on about something having nothing to do with the game. If you give another 5 years he may be able to actually describe the action of the game with something more than "OH WOW, what a play by ____" without describing what the play was. You want to kill Sioux football broadcasts this is your man - if basketball was more popular he wouldn't have made it this far.

I have one ticket in Section 315 Row B for Friday and Saturday of the Minnesota series. Face value for them. Call 701-894-6539 if interested.

Amen, Amen, and Amen. Where and when we got started on the idea that a QB needed to spend three years in a basaball cap with a clipboard so that he could learn an offense that he never got a chance to direct, therefore requiring another half season to be comfortable in the position, I have no idea. It is a system which has produced some success, but I am tired of being beaten by teams who have freshman quarterbacks and watching sophomore and freshman quarterbacks leading teams deep into the playoffs and having NAIA teams with QB's starting for the 4th year beating us at home. This is the most important postion on the team and we seem to reagard it as a legacy postion that goes to whomever has stuck it out the longest.

And Standing Rock should be feeling a sense of urgency because _________? (fill in the blank). For 80 years Standing Rock has been uninvolved as far as the UND nickname and logo are concerned (They were not consulted before the new logo was revealed, were not solicited for input before the NCAA lawsuit, and were basically included in the settlement without their permission but by agreement between the SBOHE and NCAA). Now we are dropping the whole thing in their lap and saying hurry up and decide this for us. We really do need to respect the integrity and sovreignty of Standing Rock and let them decide on their own terms, in their own time - Our desperation is not necessarily their desperation.