wheelsup

Just curious if you think bubba micromanaged Danny’s offense? My totally uneducated opinion is no and I don’t know why he would micromanage Jake’s.. also.. not that it matters at all, but Jake’s dad was also a und football player back in the 70s and the family is good buddies with pawlek.. seems like a win win.

If you really think Danny will be a good head coach at UND in the future the best thing for him and UND is that he left to go learn in a good program outside of Bubba. If he had stuck around and Bubba retired one of two things would have happened. whomever the AD is would have promoted Danny and everyone would have continued to complain about how inbred UND football is. The AD would have conducted a wider search and Danny would have gotten passed over. While maybe not the best thing for 2024 UND football.. in my opinion clearly the best thing for Danny and potentially UND football long term. Im still annoyed as I was really looking forward to seeing if the offensive problem in 2023 was Danny or Tommy (by the way.. defense was still 98% of the problem with 2023).

Im quite surprised that an offensive or defensive coordinator position at a D1 school makes that little.. particularly in MVFC or Big Sky. Anyone konw an easy way to look at what the averages are across those conferences?

would love to see a run taken at Jake Landry.. if our compensation is as bad as everyone says.. seems like he would prob be getting paid more at St Thomas as their OC/QB coach.

Does anyone have the average Coordinator salaries in the MVFC and Big Sky? Just curious how we stack up overall / sounds like we stack up poorly but there has to be stats somewhere. Glass half empty.. This is really a gut punch. I was looking forward to seeing if the offensive struggles this last year were Danny or Tommy (by the way the defense was the problem last year not the offense) but i was still very excited about seeing the offense with one of the new QB's running the show. I hope the offense doesn't get gutted in the portal after spring ball. We need to get new coaches in here ASAP to stop the bleeding and keep our offensive players. Seems like there should be some real potential out there.. Jake Landry? Luke Schleusner? but I have low faith in our ability to attract one of those fellas. So we will see what happens. Glass half full.. if you think Danny has the future head coach potential at UND its great for him to go get experience in a winning organization rather than continue to promote the inbreeding within. Also this could be an opportunity for an OC with some vision to come into UND and set himself up to be the next head coach. Overall super disappointed.. no other way to take it. The strength of our team was the Offense.. the Defense is a disaster and here we are with a gigantic question mark now on the offensive side of the ball.

Hard to watch

Really excited to see Erick Paye also. That kid is a man among boys on the basketball court and I hope it translates to football. He has had some of the best most explosive dunks of the year and could grow into the size we are looking for at DE or OLB.

Based on the wide open receivers that he missed last night there are some who would disagree with u. I’ll say he had a very good year and he took some big hits and kept playing.

Roehl called the play that Danny would have called if we would have been in it.

They have won 2 road playoff games this year.. I think the Montana state game already qualifies as a win against a high caliber playoff team. Their path was no gift in my book.. can say a lot of crap about the bison but they sure turned their year around after the und game

These types of generalization (in both directions) hide the fact that there needs to be some more talent on the team. Clearly there are some talented individuals on the team.. clearly there have been some players that have developed into better players.. by the way clearly the defensive talent/scheme needs to improve and clearly there have been quite a few players that have not reached their potential. In the last 5 years how many NFL players have come from UND? 1 who actually made a roster.. The upper end teams have many more then that over that time period and we should want that from our crew as well both from a recruitment and development standpoint.

This would be a fun problem to have.. would mean we have a coach that is being recruited to a better position and we were still in the playoffs..

I’m in general agreement with all you have written.. other than it puts most of the blame on Tommy. The things I was most disappointed in this year from Danny was the unwillingness to either 1) focus on the strength of the offense and run the ball or 2) bring in feeney and give him a chance to execute. I 100% agree that the biggest problem by far in 2023 was the defense.. and not even close.

For this reason and this reason alone.. the kids should be able to hit the portal whenever they want. Im 100% onboard with the kids getting paid large sums of money at the big schools.. IF you can afford to pay a coach and his assistants 100 Million and if the school can makes millions then the kids should get a large share of that. Maybe we should stop pretending that the big schools/big sports are really about having student athletes. Maybe the kids should be getting scholarships at the schools that can be used in the future for when they arent spending 100% of their time on their sport and getting paid while they are playing. I have no idea how it should be implemented.. this free for all going on right now seems unsustainable.. but bottom line for me is that the kids deserve it and need to get paid.. Ill never have any sympathy for the schools or the coaches

Im on this page as well. Barring continued attrition in the portal it seems like we should have a very strong offense returning. At some point the defense has to show up so that the offense doesnt have to be perfect. I think the defense struggling so much put a microscope on the offense If either Tommy had played better or Danny had called better plays we all would still be laughing. Tommy had some really bad turnovers and missed plays.. If he makes those Danny looks like a pretty smart guy. Danny had some games that if he would have called runs the game was over and Tommy wouldnt have looked so bad. Ive always been a Tommy supporter.. He was a big step up from Kett.. This year he took a pretty big step back IMO and Im not sure if it was more of a Danny or Tommy issue. I know we have spent a lot of time talking about Tommy and Danny but the biggest issue by far was the defense.. and its not even close.

Our draw was pretty decent overall. Sac State (clearly the toughest matchup in the first round) and USD. If we cant beat Sac State at home then we just have no complaints. We almost won that game in spite of one of the worst defensive showing in history and Danny being unwilling to pick up free money laying on the floor. After watching Montana State's special teams/kicker I think we might want to extend Kostich. Im also a bit baffled by the Montana State play calling.. up by 7.. killing them with the runs by #22.. 3rd and 1.. better do empty backfield run by Tommy Mellot just seemed like there were much better 3rd and 1 calls. I think if it had been 3rd and 4+ it would have made sense. Between watching the MSU/NDSU game and USD/Sac State.. if you are going to play with a running QB you better have the other guy staying warm

maybe he wants more than 1.5 catches per game?? I was looking at his stats and he has had 18 catches per year for the last 3 years.. Maybe that was a Tommy problem or maybe it was a scheme problem or maybe it just didnt work out for him. Looking at the overall catches this last year.. The passes pretty much went to Belquist or a RB.. Belquist had more catches than the next 3 WR's combined. It was certainly more pronounced this year than the previous years He always seemed to work hard out there when I was watching. I wish him the best. Im pretty excited about our WR room next year.. some good experience and some good young people to push them hard (Tai, Vuc)

agree 100%.. IF you dont think the offense was part of the problem you are giving way to much credit to running up scores against crappy teams against UNI 0 pts First half against Indiana state.. 7pts South Dakota - 3 pts (7 was ko return) While our Defense was clearly the weakest link.. Our offense was terrible against all decent teams except NDSU. The frustrating thing is that our offense had the template to win games this year (NDSU game plan) and Danny must have just been too bored with that. Hopefully 2024 will be a better year.. Im not expecting much in the way of changes in the coaching staff.. hopefully we dont lose the OL coach as he seems to have some talent/recruiting ability. Somehow the defense has to get better and Im hoping for a change at QB and/or Danny is another year smarter. I think our Offense has a chance to be even better in 2024.. good OL.. good RB's.. (Ziebarth, Isaiah, Siedl) good WR's (Belquist, plenty of returners, redshirt freshmen (Tai, hakim)).. better QB.

Not sure if there are any real sides to be taken here. Seemed like he played his butt off when he was out there and was an asset. Tommy was clearly locked in on Belquist this year as he had more receptions than the next 3-4 WR's combined. Im sure Wes was disappointed in this year as he was hoping to play a big role in an explosive offense and our offense couldnt really figure itself out this year. Im not a smart enough football guy to know if that was more Danny / Tommy or Wes. If I would guess.. I would say that it was a Tommy/Danny issue as we didnt really feature the downfield pass.

If the metric for popularity of UND football is judged by the ability to give tickets away then this year was certainly worse than most years. Outside of the NDSU game it was a struggle to fill my group of tickets. Im sure Ill talk a big game and then still renew all my tickets as I still have dreams of a relevant UND football team and my friends and family as excited for the games as I.

agreed.. He was a slippery little runner.. but also very clear that running was about the 4th thing he was interested in doing.

The idea of having Tommy back with an open competition is baffling to me. As bad as he was in big games (outside of NDSU) there was plenty of opportunity to try something different. Danny was unwilling to give the other guys a chance. I have zero faith that he would have a truely open competition. Too easy to just keep rolling with the statistical leader in every offensive qb category. I hate piling on Tommy.. I think he was a gigantic upgrade over Ketteringham.. At this point thought his limitations are obvious and well planned for by apposing teams. At some point you have to find out if the younger kids can play. Prob similar comment with Bubba/Tommy.. Both raised the floor but have a pretty obvious ceiling.

While I dont disagree with any of your points.. I was happy with our draw. Clearly the toughest first round matchup, but the chance for a rematch against USD made it a decent draw for us in my book. If the defense had a pulse outside the 3rd quarter and if the offense had just run the ball we would all be happily heading down to USD next weekend. If you cant beat a team like Sac St. at home the rest doesnt really matter.. but I generally agree with your points.

100% this.. Tommy/Danny regressed this year for some reason... If you throw out the games against the lower teams the offense did not produce outside of the NDSU game and maybe the Northern Arizona game. The offensive identity/template this year for success was pounding the rock.. just like the NDSU game. This is why Im down on Danny this year and not sold on him as head coach of the future.. Tommy was what he was, if you werent willing to give somebody else a try then pound the rock. If we do that yesterday we win that game even with the poorest showing by UND defense Ive just about ever seen. (Yesterday is still on the defense)

So having been at the game today... The defense was to blame and anyone who tries to say anything else didnt even watch the game. One of the worst defensive showings I have ever seen by a UND Defense. Im old enough to remember when we were good at defense (thought bubba was a defensive coach). 35 pts should be enough to win. That being said.. If Danny would have just called running plays we would have won the game.. Defense stiffened in the 3rd quarter and I thought we might pull it off. Danny overcomplicated the gameplan and didnt play to our teams obvious strengths. Tommy regressed this year but Danny could have hidden all of that with just having him turn around and hand the ball off. Even our last series.. plenty of time to run the ball.. Tommy did not look good.. gavin.. skokna.. Isaiah.. were carrying the squad. Time to be done with Tommy.. His shortcomings are obvious and while his is the statistical leader in pretty much every category due to his longevity in the program its time to try something else. As I said earlier.. Im not sold on Danny being the answer as a HC.. I believe if he had adapted to our teams strengths this year we would have won this game and the South Dakota game at a minimum. The crowd was also not the problem to day.. entirely predictable.. but also the people that showed up were into the game and loud. Which says alot considering the defense was about as strong as a wet paper bag. Until the 3rd quarter we could have left the defense off the field and had the same impact.. Also I know it didnt matter but I hated the punt in the 4th quarter.. with the defense playing like a wet paper bag it was reasonably obvious we would never get the ball back. If Danny hadnt called two crap pass plays and if Tommy hadnt taken two crap sacks in a row.. maybe a 4th down would havent been 4th and forever.. cmon man! Im sick of this team and investing my time and money into it. Even with our obvious deficiencies I still thought we would pull it out today.