Hans8891

Paul needs to tell these guys it’s ok to pass without holding it or dribbling for 5 seconds every time they touch the ball. No flow or movement whatsoever. Scrap that offense and try something different. Not a coincidence that our shooting is miserable year after year. Ball movement equals open looks equals better shooting. Not that complicated…. I still think there is more there than we are seeing but that offense is atrocious and has been year after year. The only way it works is if you have 2 lights out slashers as everyone else stands around and watches. We don’t have that. They had 9 blocks against us tonight.

Totally agree. Mal still doesn’t get when to substitute and when to call a time out. Blow a 20 point lead and wait until it is damn near tied before finally recognizing there is a problem and calling time out. Plus not seeing what is going on on the court. Played well in the first half. They go zone and we continue to play an offense designed for man that allows them to sit in one spot and watch us hand it off 32 times at the top of the key with no accomplishment. Finally switched to get the ball in the middle but way too late. Stopped the ball movement that got us the lead in the first place. In subbing, she seems to have her subs set by time - somebody hits 3 in a row or makes great defensive plays? Doesn’t matter because the preconceived game plan says sit. For Gods sake, keep the hot hand in the game and get her the ball.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when everyone was talking about needing someone young and hungry that wants to bring the fire and win. That is actually Isaac, which is why the players are all in on him. He has made it clear with the players already that there are changes coming and the level of intensity and aggression needs to get ramped up and ramped up hard. It is that kind of intensity that makes me want to give him a shot. I’m not all that interested in bringing in a 50 to 60 year old coach at his last stop in a career mostly developed prior to the addition of the portal and NIL money. My hope is that we get someone in place that understands the reality of present day college football and is so damn good we are having to look again in a few years. At our level, that tells us we have had success in getting the right coach and will need to keep repeating the process the more success the program has. While I get the experience level at head coach is lacking, he does have perspective from both the FBS and NFL level and not just whatever we have done at UND for the last 30 years. I also get that he was part of a staff that did not have the success we wanted globally this year, but he managed to take an offense with an entirely decimated and inexperienced offensive line and a rookie quarterback with a whole lot lot of limitations and still put an impressive number of points on the board. The problem this year was not the offense. Talk to the players. Isaac has the fire and determination to win and won’t be scared to make the changes needed to make that happen. I really hope he gets a shot.

I am guessing Bubba is well aware of the fact that nearly the entire fan base is calling for him to be done. Even the football 360 crew, which used to include his brother, has run out of good things to say and are calling for change. His quote is an emotional reaction, albeit not a very smart one, to the pressure he obviously knows is there - and is warranted. There are a lot of things to say about his coaching (which has been said over and over in this blog and which I think is generally accurate) but to say he doesn’t care about his players is not right. The players will tell you that. The problem is he does not recognize his own shortcomings in coaching at this level and changing to a more modern brand of football. At his core, Bubba would still prefer the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust 1970s football he advertised when he first came - and a defensive scheme to stop that which nobody runs anymore. Couple that with an inability to recruit players with body types to play that scheme and here we are. I would love to see Bubba do some soul searching and decide for the sake of his players and the University that he should resign and go to the alumni office. Retire on his own terms rather than have his own personal legacy being canned after a 4 or 5 win season next year. In spite of all of the negativity surrounding Bubba, some of which has been consistently by me, he did help bring us out of the Mussman years. There was improvement in the program and the culture. Unfortunately that improvement had and continues to have a very low ceiling. It is time to move on and I would love to be able to thank Bubba for his contributions to the program as he makes a decision best for himself AND the program and resigns on his own terms. For all his coaching flaws, I continue to believe Bubba is a good guy - just not the right guy for this program. That may be a pipe dream but I am still holding out hope for now…

That is the defensive scheme we want on 4th and 2. Make sure our entire secondary is damn near in prevent defense. Is anyone actually coaching this team????

Nice play Navratil to create a turnover. Good for him in his last game as well.

Glad to see Bo and Quincy getting some looks today. Without all of the PI penalties, Bo would already have 60 plus yards. Would love to see both of those buys get at least one more TD pass in their last game in a UND jersey..

Actually it was a good call. Their entire secondary was about 2 to 3 yards off the line of scrimmage and Bo 1 on 1. They have no respect for our passing game. Have to take advantage of that. Stacking 11 guys against us is not a good recipe to run up the middle.

Agreed. Lack of ream concept on defensive switching, and rotation with help side leaves too many open looks at times but hopefully that is a work in progress. They play hard and have better chemistry than we have seen the Hooker years. Eli’s tenacious play ramps up the intensity for the rest of the team. Great to see. 2 big road wins so far and other than the CSU game, playing like they belong. I think this team is very fun to watch. Hope we can get some butts in the seats and get them a home court advantage at the Betty…

And in a surprising turn of events, the opposing team makes halftime adjustments and we do not. Do we have 20 yards of offense in the second half? We still have the same 59 yards of passing we racked up in the first half. And the defense will give up 500 while we will hope to get 225…. We looked like we were giving it a shot - and then Bubba ball emerged again.,,

My god. Our lack of tackling skills is only eclipsed by the ugliness of our coverage schemes.

Can we run up the middle for no gain on 1st and 2nd down just a few more times??? We have to show some offense - defense is not going to win this for us…. Time for a tight end sighting? Q had a beautiful touchdown catch on the one rare opportunity we have given him.,,

Awesome catch. Good for Q. Nice pass Simon…. Don’t let up D….

Would love to see a great day for Q, Bo, and Navratil who elected to come back for another year with the program…

Nice stop for the d to force a long missed field goal. Great run by Sawyer.!!! Let’s see if we can prove we belong!!!

Simon is playing scared. Guiding the ball like a wounded duck rather than throwing it with authority and confidence.

I know significant contact has become obsolete in practice to avoid injury, but do we do anything to develop tackling skills. This is worse tackling than the Mussman days - and that was not a high bar to pass…

If we don’t have more than this, we will be lucky to win 2 games in the conference. We have zero team defensive skills. Not much for individual defensive skills. An offense that doesn’t generate anything. We have 5 assists so far. 30 percent shooting when we don’t turn it over - which is a third of our possessions. No shooters other than Trey. Ouch…. Finally a few minutes of pushing up the floor resulted in a couple good looks. Need that more - half court offense is nonexistent. CSU is good but we don’t look like we belong on the floor with them.

Struggling defensively down low as expected. I was hoping that we would look better offensively. Paul needs a different offensive look. Way too slow with limited movement. We don’t have BJ and Ihenacho this year to simply create on their own. Will likely need to be running this year or we will be in trouble relying on this half court offense. Some good athletes, but not much for shooters that I am seeing other than Treysen. Not a good recipe unless we can really create off the dribble. That hasn’t happened and we have way too many turnovers. 15 at the half has to be near a record. Eli seems timid. He is going to have to create for them to have success, especially if this is the offense we are going to continue to run

Maybe this is the catalyst to actual change in this program. If Chaves is really accepting of this as expectations for this program, he needs to find a new career. I am very happy with what Isaac has been able to do with his side of the ball. We lost our entire offensive line, had no idea what was going to happen with quarterbacks, and he made it happen for the most part with offense in a difficult situation for returning players. Our “defensive minded” head coach and his in program protege did not lose everyone in the portal but managed to give up more yards and points every week. By the end of the year, we should be able to give up 60 - and we will still be playing the same schemes. And the press conference after the loss will contain the same platitudes we have grown accustomed to. The notion of insanity has been defined as doing something over and over again and expecting different results. Welcome to UND football insanity.

There is your answer as to why they haven’t run the ball. Not much there. Other than a few drops, passing has been fine. When we haven’t gotten it, we have drawn a penalty. 2 running plays in a row there with no room at all. I would have rather seen a pass - those have been open plus give Simon an opportunity to run against a stacked box.

Somehow I suspect that even Bubba will recognize that we need a change at DC with the disaster we have seen the last two years, partially to take the heat off his own involvement in this debacle. If that happens - and it certainly should happen - for god’s sake, get someone other than the usual Bubba disciple on the defensive side of the ball. This needs an overhaul - badly….

Just when I thought our defense couldn’t look worse, our adjustments from halftime prove me wrong. Poor tacking, nobody sets the edge, no pressure on the quarterback, and in spite of not putting pressure on the quarterback to contain him, we can’t contain him either. Our schemes suck and our tackling is worse. We are returning to Mussman football where the offense looks good, but has to in order to offset the 40 points given up by the d every week. This d is just painful to watch. Again, against a very poor team on the road. Unless we have a miraculous change due to the Alerus, there is now way we give the South Dakota schools a game unless we just don’t punt for two weekends in a row.

Hands down the “4th down go for it in our own end with a lead” against the Bison. I just assumed in the stands we were trying to draw them off and call a timeout if they didn’t bite. Nope. I was wrong…. Even the biggest of Bubba fans were left scratching their heads in confusion on that decision.

This can’t really be a surprise to any of us. We have gone exactly as expected other than a very pleasant surprise with Montana. The O line has been better than expected with all of the transfers but a better program stacked the middle with no real threat downfield at quarterback. Not much we were going to do without showing any potential to back 10 off the box. Even going to the outside their corners sold out every time knowing there was no risk. Defensively their offense is just better than our defense. We got manhandled at the line. They do have a dual threat quarterback and he made plays. And it’s a road game that Bubba has never shown an ability to be ready for. Disappointing but definitely not a surprise. Need to find a way to unstuck the box against us or playing top level teams will not go well.