wheelsup

I think the D-line has been stout this year.. malechi mcneal and buckner have been making some nice plays. My tactic on 3rd or 4th and long is now just to close my eyes and pray. seems like roughly what our secondary is doing.

It will be interesting to see the attendance for all of the games this weekend. I think first round attendance is usually pretty poor overall. I would expect that NDSU attendance will be pretty light with the additional challenges of a super weak game and the holiday weekend. I hope that UND bucks that trend and the fans really show up for this game as it should be a good one.

Seems about right. I think you could run the same poll with the bottom 4 seeds (Albany, Montana ST, Furman, Villanova) and there would be 50+% of people thinking they shouldnt have gotten a seed. NDSU belongs in the same discussion as those 4.. all of that being said, Im super happy they got left out. Im loving all of my Bison buddies talking about how they just dont know what to do with a game on thanksgiving weekend and having to spend $50 on a totally crap game.

This was the sentiment of everyone in our section. I would love to see the chart that they are using

yah.. you are right. Must have been for something else. Hopefully we get a good turnout this weekend!

Ive blocked the 2nd half or at least the 4th quarter of the richmond game out of my mind. Also the scheduling was bad.. quite a few people left to get to the hockey game thinking it was over. I would maybe prefer a 1 or 2:00 start, but im fine with the noon start for all the reasons mentioned above.

While not getting seeded or an official bye.. the Bison got as close to that as you can get with Drake. I expect that they will beat them by as many points as they want to. Their 2nd round game though against MSU.. not so much. I heard that MSU was a bit banged up which was why they got drilled by the Grizz.. if they are healthy that will be a tough one.

A couple of thoughts from the game on Saturday.. maybe only interesting to me. Whatever cheat sheet they are using to decide if we go for one or two they should burn. They are either reading from the wrong row or the wrong column.. Terrible Kicking game has certainly improved. CJ has a big leg and fun to watch kick FG's On kickoffs our guy can clearly kick it through the endzone as he did it prior to the last drive.. so all of the short kicks are on purpose. Im not a fan of that approach.. Im sure there are some stats somewhere as to how impactful it is so maybe Im wrong.. we seem to be the only team that I watch that consistently does that so maybe we are just ahead of the curve.. I wish tommy was more of a runner. Last drive was again masterful.. say whatever you want but that guy is awesome with the game on the line. I wish we saw that version of Tommy/Danny more often. Im more convinced than ever that running the ball to set up the longer pass is the path forward this year for the team. Hopefully we will stick with that in the playoffs. We had some really nice plays on saturday with Belquist in motion to get the defense moving and then inside run with Gavin / Luke / Isaiah.. All teams have figured out our outside passing game... please stop. I think we have done it so much that the d-backs just sit on it. They usually get there as soon as the ball gets there. I think our d-line has really improved this year.. and Malechi McNeal is super fun to watch. Our coverage on 3rd and long.. 4th and long etc is still baffling. I am super excited about the playoff game on Saturday. I think we have a decent path. Sac St will be tough but at home.. USD is also a game where we should have a chance. Meaningful football games in November/December are awesome.

First round is a tough game for UND but I love our bracket! Win the first round and get redemption in vermillion!

USD #3 seed and we should have beat them on the road..

Will be really interesting to see how the seeding works out. We beat NDSU.. we should have beat USD on the road other than an inept offensive performance and gave sdsu as good of a game as anyone else (not saying much). The narrative that this team isn’t any good is just not true(Kelly green glasses firmly in place)

I think if the offense commits to the run and throwing the ball downfield we will be just fine. That’s a big if.. as if u watch the USD / UNI games we clearly don’t do that. Yesterday when we ran the ball we did very well.. all those crappy little outside passes behind the line of scrimmage are totally defeating. ndsu has clearly stepped up its game after playing us. If we commit to a similar offensive template as we used against NDSU we will be fine.

Danny is associate head coach or something like that.. I realize Bubba still "runs the show" as the head coach but I would guess that while its bubbas team its Dannys offense through and through including all play calling / strategy etc. Also when it comes to D1 football.. I dont think anyone "deserves his chance" to be the head coach... as the next argument will be.. he needs 4+ years as they were bubba's recruits.. and then it will be.. we dont have enough money for the buyout. Whenever there is a head coaching change at the D1 level there should be a search for the best available candidate unless there is some overwhelming reason to stick with a current staffer.. i.e history of success / continuity. I dont think UND football fits any of those criteria. This isnt a promotion to the manager of your local subway restaurant that you can fire in 6 months if it doesnt work out.. its somebody you are going to pay 1 Million+ over the next 4 years to lead the squad hopefully to greatness.

I was very excited about him as a head coach until this current year. Based on the offensive performance since the NDSU game Im not nearly as sold.. UNI / USD /first half of Indiana St were complete debacles from an offensive perspective. At least some of that has to rest on Danny's shoulders.

agree 100%.. anyone that really hates Tommy needs to go back to when we had Ketteringham. Tommy has leveled up the program in my book and deserves a lot of credit. That being said, Im ready to see a new guy back there next year and maybe even yet this year. The combination of Tommy and Danny have lost their Mojo in my book. My guess is its a combination of both. Tommy would look a lot better if Danny would follow the NDSU win blueprint. Danny would look better if Tommy could complete some of the downfield passes.

Agree 100%. Defense has done enough this year.. maybe a little surprising as bad as they have been in stretches, but neither of the two terrible defensive games have cost us as the offense bailed them out(by the way Tommy played great in both of those games). Its been the failure of the offense in big games that has been the story to me. They completely failed at UNI, USD, two quarters at Indiana State. Before this year started, I was 100% on board and excited with Danny as our future head coach. After this year I am not. He hasnt been willing to adapt to the strengths of this team. Tommy has looked great against mediocre/terrible teams and has looked terrible against good teams. The outlier has been the NDSU game where all he had to do was turn around and hand the ball off. AT times I wonder if our unwillingness to throw quick slants or quick passes over the middle has been Tommys inability to see over the linemen and so its why he hold the ball so long. Anyhow if those are his limitations.. and you arent willing to bench him.. play to his strengths and run the ball.

UND showed the template on how we can win this year against NDSU. For some reason Danny has been unwilling to build on that gameplan. If we went with that yesterday we would have won the game and the UNI game would have been substantially different as well. The o-line is one of the strengths of this team particularly the run blocking.

IMO the problem is not the RB room, although we could use a couple more talented bodies in that room.. yah it would have been great to have Ziebarth at full strength but Isaiah was also running super hard. The RB's were not the problem.. the lack of calling their number in the 2nd half was the problem. Committing to the run solves a ton of problems when the QB struggles to throw the ball downfield. It helps the O-line out.. it helps the defense out.. and it actually helps the QB/WR out. This game was as frustrating of a game as Ive watched all year although there have been a few.

A good chunk of this one is on Danny in my book

yep.. they are very good.. particularly when you try to run a bunch of short little passes to the outside. They had great speed and clean tackling on our little outside plays. This game was there for the taking if we kept running up the middle..

not a great take.. Tommy ran 7 times for -6 yds.. we were 22 for 101.. 4.6yds/car

Man I hate the at least we have hockey comments.. have they showed up this season? Might want to watch the next couple weeks before you make that comment.

While the pass defense almost unexplainable, Defense did enough to win and exceeded all expectations. Every single person on this board would have been happy with 14 points by SD. Danny's play calling was terrible.. Calling runs would have won the game. we were slicing and dicing them on the run and it wasnt close. Tommy is what he is.. but should have run the ball. 3 pts from the offense in a game is terrible.. 3pts in the last two games against a decent opponent is unexplainable. Tommy can run up a ton of points against crap teams.. clearly struggles against good teams. ALL OF THAT BEING SAID.. IF DANNY RUNS THE BALL JUST LIKE WE DID AGAINST NDSU ITS AN EASY WIN. Tommy is what he is.. IF you are going to play him.. play to his strengths. I ahve lost a lot of faith in Danny this year. The game next week against Illinois state is not a gimme.. they are a good team and could easily knock us out of the playoffs as they will be playing to get into the playoffs. What a disappointing game for UND.

Offense needs to finally show up

Defense while frustrating today has kept us in the game. Offense needs to show up. Play calling and passing execution has been terrible