wheelsup

The latest undfootball360 podcast with fruechte was great. It had a lot of insight into what Isaac is looking for in a QB. His number one comment was he was looking for a QB that could push the ball up the field with his legs. Based on hearing that, I’m guessing romfos relatively poor throwing has a bit higher focus on this fan board than in the coaches decision criteria. Anyways he mentioned 3 QBs running neck and neck.. romfo, JTJ and kaminski.. very specifically said sulik needed to get better running. Additionaliy said he imagined there would be significant playing time for multiple QBs. Highly recommend listening if you have some time.

Doppler and Erickson were both pretty big reaches at the time and in reality both would have been better off going to a D2 team where they could have gotten playing time and active development. With the portal nowadays coaches will also regularly be bringing in experienced players over the top of kids that have been “developing” on the roster. until the portal pendulum swings the other direction.. it’s in the kids and coaches best interest to look for a place where they can contribute rapidly versus being buried in a development role.

Could add 70.. saved for impact big guy! I love the special number idea

What was our record again this year? Not sure if I understand the tears for our guys hitting the portal outside of Eaglestaff. Until the coaching side of things is straightened out we might as roll out an all state team from North Dakota. At least their friends and family would show up to the games. I thought sather was a good hire but it hasn’t worked out for him.. 1 winning season in 6.. it’s time to go a different direction.

seems like the running back coach at ISU is a pretty significant salary upgrade over OC in the MVFC.. I was a little suprised to see it was so much.

Gotta give him a little grace.. he has been watching UND football so the definition of awesome QB play might be a little skewed..

This is the wildcard to me.. I know we will never find out.. I also know and realize that the defense was a gaping wound all year and so QB was about 15th on the list of issues. I would really like to know whose decision it was to start Romfo all year and never give the backup any kind of meaningful time. Im not even arguing if Romfo was better or Jerry or Feeny or who beat who out etc.. How could you watch our QB play this year and not at least want to give the backup a little bit of time. Im a little surprised Jerry hasnt hit the portal. Im excited about the chatter about some QB transfers. Spring ball is going to be fun this year.

I love the portal and enjoy watching the NIL pearl clutching. Its really nice to see the players get paid and coaches having to deal with it. It could use a little regulation and visibility as I would like to see how much the players are actually getting paid versus all of the rumors. Im sure one of the guys on here has all of the stats as to percentages of players that go into the portal versus end up in a better situation but Im sure the answer is a pretty low percentage. There are always the outliers that are bouncing around every year.. but for the vast majority, its gotta be somebody who is trying to go somewhere for the last year or two of eligibility or somebody who ended up in a situation that just didnt work out for them and they would like to play.

This is why this conversation gets annoying.. clearly in fall camp the three were very close.. 1 was named starter.. 1 quit.. the other one was buried on the bench regardless of how poorly the starter played or how out of hand the game was. It was rediculous.

The selection of the starter is always debatable.. I would be very interested to know if that was bubba or fruechte. the lack of time/development for the backup through obvious times in a clearly underperforming major position like QB is the one thing that keeps me from jumping on the fruechte bandwagon even as OC.

If the qb situation was a bubba issue then I would be happy with fruechte.. if it was fruechte.. then I have very little interest in him even as OC.

He played basketball until his senior year.. started on the basketball team and then switched to wrestling about midway through the season and took 3rd in state (without having wrestled previously). Heck of an athlete.

So I get the part about interim coaches.. keeping the current team .. current recruits.. but offering new transfer guys when a new coach is right around the corner? Seems a little dumb to me

is it odd that we are offering portal guys without having a head coach?

Not just true freshmen.. but player development in general. Either the cupboard is bare or the bubba led teams were not great at player development. As bad as the defense was.. where were the young player minutes.. QB minutes.. WR minutes..

I like the idea of keeping Fruechte and Olson and maybe a couple from the offensive side. The one item that really keeps me from getting on the Fruechte bandwagon is the QB development this year.. My assumption is that he had at least something to do with selection of the starter.. and after that he could have gotten the backups into the game in a more regular cadence. QB is arguably the most important position on the field and you have to have a coach that develops that position.

320 lbs.. interested in playing dt/ng and our coaches didn’t switch him over? Either this kid has some struggles or our coaches are really inept..

Let’s say this slightly differently.. last game of the year.. really meaningless game at this point.. close game at half (10-14).. then 10-21.. then 10-28.. then 10-35.. then we kick a meaningless fg to make it 13-35.. never a sign of the back up qb.. romfos numbers 11/25 135yds.. 1td.. 1int.. what is the excuse for not putting in the backup at some point? Defense is clearly the biggest issue.. but why no change at qb or attempt to develop the backup? If romfo is the best we have the other two must be really bad. It’s mind blowing to not at least give the other guys a look.. this similar scenario repeated regularly thought the season.

preach! I would even be willing to acknowledge that Romfo looked better in fall camp.. Miller seemed to think it was close.. i think I recall Kelly stating something about it being close. There is still literally zero explanation for the backup QB playing so little particularly if it was close between them. I personally only recall Jerry getting in 3 different games and 1 of them was for the final kneel down. Based on the score alone he should have gotten in 7 or 8 games.. not counting the USD game which was a bit of a wild ride. Romfo literally played to the end of games that the opposing teams had gotten 3-4 QB's into the game. The reasonable part of me says that the OC (Fruechte) gets to pick the QB and also focuses on overall talent development.. the conspiracy nut part of me says that Bubba is so invested in the small town ND boy starting QB at UND that he forced this to be the case and forced it to continue throughout the year. By the way, both versions of this story are basic football team malpractice.. If Fruechte picked Romfo and also refused to give the backup any reasonable playing time in obvious situations he is an idiot.. if Bubba cut the legs out from under his OC and forced Romfo into every game he is also an idiot.. but then I would guess Fruechte would be leaving at the first chance. Both reasons are terrible.. one is just more terrible than the other.. and by the way players see this and also get it.

make sure you ignore the pertinent fact where you lost to USD in the last game of the year.. I guess it was a quality loss.

good news.. I just got the email UND/REA Ticket Office saying my playoff ticket credit will be applied towards my next years bill :).. I had forgot about that dumbass thing where we prepaid for our playoff tickets this year as season ticket holders.

I never bet against the bison at home.. best home field advantage in fcs

Central Connecticut (7-5).. and then a whole bunch of 8-4 teams.. starting 5-2.. this should have been easy.

I think to be an even decent coach at a high level you have to believe that you can fix it.. Expecting a coach at a high level to be able to look in the mirror and give up doesn't align very well with the skills that made them the head coach to begin with. Barring a season like this most recent collapse, I would guess most head coaches have a drive/desire to fix this. This is also why the AD has to have a brain and it cant be a friend group at the top. The blame for the current season is 100% on the headcoach.. His contract situation, the undeserved extension, bad buyout and him being around next year is 100% on the AD.

This is really splitting hairs as Ive said multiple times but I would have done it in the order that you listed (USD, SDSU, NDSU). The 3 teams USD, NDSU, SDSU are all very close.. I would even throw UC Davis in there as well as 4 teams that all have pretty much the same resume and a great argument for the #2 seed. Personally, I dont understand leaving USD as the #4 seed after they beat the #1 seed.. that just doesnt make sense to me. Its not like they were the #20.. They moved up 0 spots after beating the #1 seed. My argument (again its super close).. they were 1, 3, 4 heading into the weekend.. 2,3 and 4 all win the last weekend of the year.. 2 moves up to 1.. 4 jumps 3 based on the magnitude of win and how close the 3 versus 4 game was (OT) and based on the head to head game (4 versus 1) literally the day before, USD has to be higher than NDSU. If you swapped your favorite team into the #4 seed heading into that game... every single one of us would say the #4 should now be #2.. NDSU and SDSU are getting credit for name recognition/previous years. This hair splitting about strength of schedule boarders on a discussion about quality losses.. (this is just my opinion)