wheelsup

I had this exact conversation with an NDSU friend last night. There really arent all that many truely hostile environments in the MVFC. Yah they beat us 5 times in a row but 4 of them were in the Fargodome which is a really significant home field advantage and they struggled 2 years ago in the alerus and what a result this year!! Biggest issue for the Bison now is Entz.. I would be willing to chip in for them to keep him around.

I agree 100%. That year is one of the biggest what-if years outside of the Richmond home playoff loss year. Almost beat the bison at home.. somehow lost extremely winnable games in heartbreaking fashion to USD, Southern Illinois and Missouri St on the road and finished the year nearly beating SDSU on the road. As I recall we had some significant kicking challenges.. injuries or something, and some really bad fumbles/TO's in the road games coupled with some very strange coaching decisions/weird punting decisions.

I agree with this 100%.. Tommy can be super shifty. That little TD run of his was great and he also had that QB Sack and escape and run that was fun to watch as well. I also dont think anyone would confuse Tommy with a confident running quarterback. Romfo looked much better running the ball than Tommy does and the two NDSU QB's are both much more confident runners than Tommy is. Also.. another nice thing to point out has been the improvement in the extra point game CJ has looked great out there. I still dont understand the gameplan of not kicking the ball into the endzone on kickoffs but Im also even more convinced that they are doing it on purpose versus lack of kicking ability which is a direct reflection on the special team coordinator. Western Illinois had about 2 people with some real talent/ability and we managed to kick it to their best player every time #1.

If this is the case (I dont think it is).. Danny shouldnt be called associate head coach or whatever his title is. My opinion is that Bubba lets Danny pick the starting QB and Danny (who gets to see them every day in practice.. in film etc) has decided Tommy is the best option right now. There is nothing in the last couple of years that would lead me to believe that Bubba isnt letting Danny run the offense the way he wants to and call all the plays that he wants. Personally I would like to see Feeney more.. Danny could have played him the entire 2nd half this last weekend and there wouldnt have been any whispering or controversy or anything. After Tommy took that big hit in the 2nd quarter and it took him a long time to get up.. I thought it was his last play of the day. Instead Danny decided to put him back out there and play Romfo more than he played Feeney. There is more going on here than you or I or anyone on this board knows but I really dont think its because Bubba has told Danny which QB he is required to play.

I think Tommy might be a little too aware of his completion percentage. Every so often he needs to throw the ball and let the WR make a play. Instead of making sure the WR is wide open before throwing. I know his stats were decent against Western Illinois.. but I was at the game and the majority of his passing yards had to be YAC... it was short pass.. short pass.. short pass.. On his longest pass of the day (in the box score) I think he threw it about 6 inches to Red. On a couple of his longer throws the WR fell down. I noticed we seemed to be slipping a bit on Saturday so it would be nice to get the footwear situation sorted out by Saturday. Tommy doesnt seem to like to run but he is elusive. There were a couple times in the last game that I thought he was going to be crushed and he somehow got out of it I thought Elidor and Nate D were supposed to help fix the explosiveness issue. I love watching Red out there. I cant wait to see Vuciri out there! Ive heard a couple on here refer to Tai as well. Whenever I get too negative about Tommy all I have to do is remember Ketteringham, which also might be an argument for starting a freshman. We would have certainly won more games if Tommy had started his first year instead sticking with Kett. Somehow I would like to see more of Feeney... but my assumption is that Danny gets to see them everyday and also really wants to win games.

Has there been anyone on this forum calling Tommy an elite FCS QB? In fact most have called out his lack of ability/accuracy in the deep ball and lately his decision making has been questionable which prior was one of his big strengths. There is a big difference between calling him an elite FCS QB and thinking that he has been generally solid for us and if you replaced him maybe we should at least give Feeney a shot over the true Freshman who we all hope will be very good at some point. I happen to trust Danny a bit more than somebody biking by memorial stadium every so often.

There were many things that bother me today.. Im really sick to my stomach over the team crapping the bed in another big game. It was really a terrible game and not even close. I even talked myself into thinking they could come back in the 2nd half.. the worsts.. Complete inability to stop the run.. I don’t get it. We have been in the MVC now for a few years and we still don’t seem to have adapted/recruited different on the d-line from the big sky. Its terrible. If we play like this, NDSU will drop the plow on us again in 2 weeks. I don’t get the beginning of the game. How could we not have been better prepared. After shitting the bed on defense, How could Danny not have dreamed up a better offensive series for the first series. Really.. his best idea was that stupid play with Q on down 2? I don’t think that play works in FM athletics.. Our scoring sequence in the 2nd quarter was almost wrecked by somehow trying to turn Isaiah Smith into a power runner.. cmon man! I don’t get the offensive series at the start of the 3rd quarter. Opportunity to get back into the game. Offense cant step up. Where is our vaunted offensive line. Where is the pride and tiredness of being kicked around Im ready to try a new QB.. I think Feeney deserves a chance. I still think all of the Kaminski talk is delusional. Tommy would be a decent QB if we had a great defense. Since we don’t.. we need a more dynamic QB. Tommy has played 2 games in a row against top teams and has played very poorly.. its time to try something new. I still believe if Tommy had played our last year of Ketteringham we would have been a better team. SDSU was just all around better than us.. bigger.. faster.. more athletic.. better coached. I think Ill see Isaiah Davis in my dreams tnight running through holes in the UND line that even an old guy like me could wander through. I was hopeful that we would play better than we did on defense and disappointed that we didnt.. I was shocked that our offense was so inept.

At the risk of bringing in a semi-optimistic take. We get the ball to start the 2nd half. On last possession (not counting the possession right before the half) we moved the ball well and scored.. The defense stabilized in the 2nd quarter.. at least compared to the first quarter we made an extra point Lets score to start the 2nd half and lets see the defense actually get a stop and then lets have a game..

new kicker today? and the extra point looked easy. ok.. lets have the defense show up now!

Obviously. Most coaches would be starting Jerry Kaminski instead of having him #4 on the depth chart. So when you say most.. are those the coaches that are above or below us in the rankings this year? What seems to get lost in all of these comments is the general fact that UND is currently ranked 11th or 12th, depending on what poll you decide to follow, in the nation. We had a very reasonable chance to win our last game against a decent Boise State team and I expect us to have a chance to win against the #1 team in the nation on the road in what will likely be a tougher game than the Boise State game. Not too bad for a coaching staff that cant recruit and also cant figure out which true freshman to start. Probably what annoys me the most is you kissing some random SDSU fans butt and going out of your way to say how big of a disappointment Tommy is when that person actually had the nerve to say Tommy is pretty good.. Hope you are wearing your Jackrabbit colors this weekend. I am really excited about the game/opportunity this weekend SDSU is #1 for a reason. It will be a very tough game for us.

So what is the slant of this enlightening take? I thought the previous takes were that Bubba and Company cant recruit good talent. Now the take is that our backups & freshmen are so good they should displace all of our starters at all skill positions but our coaches are just too dumb to see it every day in practice? Any starters we should keep? Hopefully at least the offensive line . SMH

sounds like he got a little banged up in the UNA game. I believe he was dressed on the sidelines for Boise but did not play.

Ok.. Ive marinated in the despair of the Boise game for long enough. I still think this team has potential to make some noise. I think we bounce back and Im excited to see how the crew responds to an obviously disappointing loss in another tough environment. I wont rehash the kicking game challenges. Im excited to see our running backs continue to improve. The return of Skokna has brought some real excitement to that group, Ziebarth has done very well and I hope that Isaiah is recovering nicely on the bye week. In addition to the passing game I really hope Danny takes what is given to him and pounds that rock! Our o-line and RB's can get the job done.

Other than that.. how was the play Mrs Lincoln? i guesss u are generally correct.. kickoffs were mostly good.. I recall one pretty mediocre punt but I think most of the other ones were good.

I disagree with this statement.. I think there are at least 4 that would win (NDSU, SDSU, MSU, Sac State) and another 5+ that "could" win.. Boise was very beatable yesterday. I aso dont understand the statement of UND being where they or us want them to be. They certainly arent where I want them to be.. and Im reasonably confident that they arent where most of us want them to be including Bubba. I would have been much happier this morning if our losing effort didnt include the special teams struggles and the turnovers. My hope is that these issues are all fixable issues (botched snaps / missed xtra points / turnovers), and that this was the teams bad game on the road this year. Tommy and the offense are way better than they showed yesterday.. the defense looks like its continuing to improve and its time to have a great game down at SDSU.

The bad.. Schuster had his worst game that I have seen him play.. poor passes.. bad fumbles etc. the snaps were very poor many times we were able to run the ball.. Danny just didnt seem willing to take what he was given kicking game and lack of confidence in the kicking game is inexcusable.. bad punt as well multiple missed pics.. right in the DB hands really bad game by siegal. the decent our defense kept us in the game for 3 quarters while the offense really struggled we had chance after chance to make this game competitive.. super painful Other if we struggle with a running QB.. NDSU will roll us to all of the special teams apologists.. I dont see NDSU or any other college team regularly missing extra points etc. I realize Kostich didnt miss the extra point.. but he is the special teams coordinator and has been for the last 10 years or so.. he recruits and coaches these players.. somehow the extra point is still an exciting play for UND.. ITS TERRIBLE.. ITS AUTOMATIC FOR MOST, many high school teams dont have this level of excitement in the xtra point. Spare me the kostich didnt miss the extra point B.S. The extra point miss didnt lose the game.. but it put pressure where there shouldnt have been.. at the end of the 3rd quarter it should have been 21-28. this game was totally winnable.. totally winnable.. By the way.. Im not as negative as some.. I expect us to be very competitive against SDSU and have a chance to win that game as well. A week off will help this team and we should be ready to rock . This game was winnable.. Im super disappointed... unforced errors

A couple of thoughts.. KK has taken a lot of crap on this forum.. he has played a lot better this year. He had a great pass breakup during this last game and I havent seen any plays yet like last year where he was running across the field behind somebody on blown coverage. Also.. kid must have some shoulder issues as he comes over to the sidelines multiple times a game looking like he has dislocated his shoulder. Seems like a super tough kid. Defense continues to improve. Obviously this trend needs to continue but I am more optimistic about the defense based on the two games so far. Our talent and depth seems to be significantly improved over last year. I wasnt worried for a single minute during the game that we were going to lose it. We can complain about the last 5 minutes (for all the haters out there.. Bubba also expressed signficant disappointment in the finish).. but overall compared to last year this game was smooth sailing. It was great to see skokna back in there.. the kid runs hard.. is super fast and fun to watch. I feel very good about our RB talent, I wish they would have skokna/red returning kicks and punts instead of Belquist and Siegel. I hold my breath every time those two guys are back there on punts and kicks The kickoff game continues to baffle me.. I cant believe he doesnt have the leg to kick it into the endzone (if he doesnt there are probably 10+ North Dakota High school kids a year that can and do) and so it must be on purpose. Not what I would pick but Im only an old guy on the internet. Sometimes Danny still gets too cute for my liking.. sometimes when you are ripping off 8-10 yds a carry you do that until they stop you. I love how they are involving Quincy. They already have shown a nice progression of options on the Q sneak play. I think Siouxfan97 has point on Tommy's deep passes.. I also think he is completely delusional on replacing him with a true freshman. Danny sees these guys every day in practice and games and if he thought we had a better chance with one of our other QB's i think he would replace Tommy in a minute.. Tommy is awesome and we are lucky to have him. He is tough as nails and makes great decisions over and over. I wish he would have played his Freshman year (2019) versus having to suffer through watching Ketteringham (who also threw a nice deep ball by the way) Im looking forward to an upset in Boise.. Defense has to keep improving.

I remember when you used to wait for a crappy loss to jump off the bandwagon.. this year you jump off after a 55-7 win. The game wasn’t perfect and there were clear improvement areas.. it was also totally dominant. Drake never even looked like they had a chance. I wish you would save the bubba ball reality comments for when something bad happens. People are pointing out, reasonably so, that northern Arizona has some good players.. a lot of transfers that have some talent. It was their first game of the year and so they probably aren’t as bad as they looked against Arizona and they might give us some trouble. Bubba has changed a lot in his time at UND.. you don’t give him enough credit. I’ve given him as much crap as many.. I still think the extension was undeserved.. but he has changed.. he was a defensive coach hoping the offense didn’t lose the game. Now he lets Danny roll. I wish we had one of our old defenses. as I said before.. I expect a good victory.. we will see the margin based on our defense which hopefully continue to improve.

This to me is the entire issue.. I dont really think I should have to call someone to say hey.. do you think we could have a decent amount of new UND football merchandise at the UND football game. Fans might be interested in buying some inside the stadium and not have to go over to the UND bookstore or Hockey Arena to get some gear. By the way I dont care if they sell a single shirt.. its more of an image thing. Ive had multiple friends/family members/alumni come to the games with me and comment on the lack of ability to buy merch at the game so I would guess they would sell a shirt or two. hey.. new idea for you.. at the football game would it be possible to make sure the PA system worked well enough so that I can hear what the ref is saying when he/she makes the call after replay etc? hey... it would be really fun to be able to see the stats on scoreboard during the game.. you know like you can at every other college football game and even some high school football games these days These "ideas" seem like no brainers to me.. entry level marketing type stuff (Ive heard we have a good business school). When I hear someone say that it was supposed to work, but it didnt, it really seems like an entry level effort.. not a Division 1 athletics effort. This is one of the areas I tend to agree a bit with UND-FB-FAN.. its an attention to detail thing.. its an image thing.. its an effort thing. If they can figure it out at concordia or the other school close by we should be able to figure it out in Grand Forks.

I don’t think the current state of UND football aligns with your bubba ball comment. Back when our defense led the way I would have agreed but now I think our offense will put up a bunch of points and defense will hopefully continue to improve. I hope to see a dominant offensive effort, continued improvement on defense and significant improvement on special teams. My prediction is 41-whatever our defense can do. I’m not sure how many missed field goals and extra points are in that 41.

The alerus really needs to get their crap together. There were a couple issues during yesterdays game that should get fixed immediately! 1) the PA and the ref were both on at the same time. You could not hear what the ref was saying for his calls/reviews 2) I saw an usher chewing out a group of boys for having the nerve to stand and cheer while our team was on defense. They must have been blocking some grey hairs view of the game. 3) is it too much to ask to have a little merchandise for sale at the game? there were like 3 small racks.. and we are still selling the same GameDay shirt from about 10years ago. 4) seems like we could put a little more effort into the entrance. there were 8500 fans there.. might as well kill the spirit of the faithful that showed up. I know this is heresy but go to a bison game.. they have stacks of merch for sale all over and their entrance stuff is pretty cool. Feels like the alerus and/or our marketing group are just mailing it in for UND football. These seem like short putts easy to fix with a little effort.

In addition to the dominant win Im hoping the new uniforms have a readable font so my old eyes can tell the difference between a 3 and a 8 and a 9 etc. LGH!

You are right.. the season is over if we start 2-2.. even if we beat NDSU and run the table.. smh It’s foolish to even think anything other than a 4-0 start could allow a successful season. If we lose on the road to the preseason favorite in the mountain west and/or the overwhelming favorite in FCS the season is over.. fire bubba.. kostich and the rest of them. There is no hope of a good season! SMH.. These black/white, lack of any nuance arguments u make are really old. I’ll continue to believe 2-2 still gives us the opportunity to have a great year.. to beat NDSU and a deep playoff run. As I said earlier.. I’ll have a different opinion if we start out 3-3.

I think you struggle with a simple logical argument. The entire point of schlossmans article and our previous comments, was that 3-3 is way different than 2-2.. if we start at 2-2 it is still possible to get to 9-2 and a home seed. At 3-3 obviously that is no longer possible. In order to get a home playoff seed we need to start knocking off teams that we would have historically lost to. In rough order our toughest games this year are Boise State (on the road).. SDSU (on the road).. NDSU (at home) and UNI (on the road). One can make the argument that BSU and SDSU might be about the same with respect to toughness (we need to win at least 2 0f those 4 games). So it is reasonable to not throw the season in the trashcan if we start out 2-2 whereas I will be quite disappointed if we start 3-3. I havent read any commentary from anyone on this site that doesnt want to go 11-0 and doesnt want to beat BSU, SDSU, NDSU etc.. but it is clear.. 2-2 is way different than 3-3. The only person misinterpreting the article seems to be you.

So a true freshman has more ability this year and would give the team a better chance this year, than a guy who is on the preseason Walter Payton Award list.. Preseason All-MVFC.. and will likely own every UND QB related record. oh.. and jumps Feeney. Need to think that one through again.