wheelsup

Home field advantage in the FCS playoffs is such a huge deal and cant be understated.. Im sure somebody has more details on this. UND has been a different team in the Alerus versus on the road. Ive blocked out the 2016 Richmond playoff game as I really do put that loss on the coaches.. Look at that goofy loss to Nichols state in 2019.. I guarantee the result is different if that one was at the Alerus. In 2020 look at the thrashing of Missouri State. The fargodome is a home advantage that has to be in the top couple in the FCS.. over and over you will see a team come in and lose by halftime because they can't handle the crowd noise. At the SDSU/NDSU game all of those false starts in the first half put SDSU in a hole that they almost couldn't crawl out of. I hope the Alerus can get to that level but we have a ways to go.. opening up the endzone standing room would be a nice start. Also.. Im not taking anything away from NDSU as their run as been unreal but they have a losing record in away playoff games. Since 2010, every time they made it to Frisco.. the path went through the fargodome with zero away playoff games. (they are also dominant in Frisco (neutral site) and travel there unbelievably well). This doesnt take anythign away from the bison it points out how hard it is to win road playoff games. Hopefully at some point we will be having multiple home playoff games in the Alerus and that becomes the expectation. You have to win during the regular season to get there and be able to win big games on the road... we will have our opportunity this Saturday playing the #1 seed at home, hopefully win the games that we should, and the last regular season game in Fargo where Im sure the Bison will also be high ranked.

which I think was the correct decision.. the goofy 3rd and 1 was not.. that time-out when the Bison were going to punt also was not. Both of those calls would have been lit up if Bubba would have done them.

The NDSU/SDSU game was pretty interesting today.. couple of thoughts SDSU offense in the first half looked pretty terrible when it went away from the run. This was made way worse by all of the false start penalties. Without those penalties the first half the differential is probably a fair amount worse. The Stig timeout on the Bison 4th and 1 when the Bison were going to punt was a terrible call. Always let the Bison punt on 4th-1.. of course they rethought it and decided to go for it. Seems like Luepke will pick that up 99 times out of 100. We would have heckled bubba mercilessly for that call. NDSU offense looked pretty solid in the 1st half.. but all of that passing probably got them away from what they really wanted/know how to do. The 2nd half was terrible. The freshman QB looked like a freshman QB.. terrible throw. Watching SDSU try to figure out a short yardage run by the goal line made me appreciate even more what we have in Quincy. We are going to have a problem with both of these offenses.. The lack of Luepke in this game is baffling to me. I think our offense has a chance to put up some points Im still amazed at the difference between halves.. the fargo dome is an amazing home field advantage and SDSU was clearly not ready for it in the first half. Anyhow. both teams will be a big challenge for us but i have some hope... Best thing for us happened.. #1 team coming into the alerus next weekend. Hopefully we can pack the place and make it loud. Im excited for the game and after watching some of the questionable decisions by both Stig and Entz maybe we are a little hard on Bubba.

It clearly takes more than having a great home winning record.. I think its all about consistently winning games and regularly making a run in the playoffs. Even the Fargodome was half empty before the bison started their Championship runs in the last decade. UND could do some pretty easy things to improve the game day experience.. i.e improve the sound system.. it was totally embarrassing yesterday.. every time the ref tried to talk the feedback was so bad you couldn't hardly hear what he said. Have some decent merchandise for sale at the game.. We had friends with us at the game yesterday and they wanted to buy some UND gear and what was available was not great. Maybe dont screw up all of the timing for the intro video and team entrance Maybe send a couple marketing reps down south about 75 miles.. they seem to be able to figure out the things above on gameday. Overall, the stuff listed above would improve things around the margins and keep the current fanbase more interested.. I think it will take playing meaningful football in December/January on a regular basis to truely attract more fans.

How long do you suggest we let him play it out? 9 years of .500 football seems like he has been given a pretty fair shot? By the way.. the game today was super fun. I believe almost everyone would love for bubba and UND football to succeed. I know I sure do.. but how long do we wait? 9 years.. 10 years? Maybe he will figure it out in his 11th year and string together two winning seasons in a row. im going to enjoy the victory today.. I’m going to hope the team keeps rolling.. but the idea that there are a bunch of bubba haters or that he hasn’t been given a fair shot doesn’t line up with the facts.

Awesome Win! The team was incredibly resilient. All of the haters might have to give bubba a little credit for a close victory on the road. couple of thoughts the officiating was a gigantic challenge.. many terrible crucial calls.. terrible how many games are we going to have to watch KK get worked over for a big TD. Ive always loved watching the heart of that guy but he is really struggling in coverage. Everyone was ripping the D.. through 3 quarters they had outscored our offense :).. Feed the Hoose! My two favorite things about UNI.. getting the hoose.. and beating them last week bubba was alternately awesome and infuriating.. that FG attempt at the end of the 2nd half was a terrible coaches call. I like winning a close one on the road.. its a new experience :)..

And starting off the half with technical difficulties by espn+.. perfect

Jack and the crew are really complaining about the officiating.. it’s not just us.

Which given his history of kicking.. a lot of blame goes to the coaches.. should have gone for it. Poor coaching.

This would be a fun game to watch with synced up volume and down and distance.. thanks espn+

How about that defense!

Our jersey numbers suck.. even jack can’t figure out if it’s maag or zavalney.. every time.. it’s comical

Great answer by the defense! Let’s get rolling!

The espn+ subscription is really paying off

Also has there been any news on skokna? Would be nice to see him back returning.

The Big10 channel has replays of the games in 60 mins. It’s a fun way to watch the game without all of the dead time. I watched it again last night.. we were in the game until that stupid duck jump ball 3rd and 15 and then the air seemed to go out of the defense and they killed us on the ground. Even though it lead to another TD for Nebraska and made the differential worse than it was.. I’m happy we went for it on 4th. If our WR comes up with that catch maybe it’s a different ending. I still have nightmares about bubba punting late in the game when we are down. im excited for the rest of the season.. let’s have a great game next week!

Go back to bisonville buddy.. you missed the point completely. Nobody said the bison aren’t good and won’t make the playoffs and aren’t favorites to win another natty. Beating up on drake and whatever high school team you play next week sure is fun for the fan base.. even the poor FN hawks beat up on those guys.

Reading through this message board reminds me roughly of the picture below. I happen to believe you can be happy with the game yesterday and yet disappointed that we fell apart/ran out of gas in the 4th quarter. The most worrisome part of the game to me was our lack of willingness/ability to throw the ball down the field. Other than the 1 attempt to Belquist (who was very open) early in the game I dont remember another attempt to throw the ball over 10 yards. Every so often you have to at least attempt a longer pass and trust our WR's to come up with the ball even if they arent wide open (hello Nebraska 3rd and 15). Our running game looks solid.. the O-line should continue to improve.. the defense showed some promise.. our kicker didnt miss any extra points or FG's.. the Punting needs to improve and for goodness sake Danny/Tommy.. chuck that pigskin further than 10 yards down the field. I am super excited for the game next weekend against UNI and believe and expect we should win that game. I will have a strongly different opinion if the Fn Hawks get beat next weekend. By the way.. everyone in Bisonville would have rather been playing the game we played in rather than playing the vaunted nonscholarship Drake Bulldogs. I, for one, am surprised that Drake scored 14 points.. Fn Hawks played them twice and Drake scored 7 points total between both games.. Next up on their schedule.. Horace High School. Im sure we will continue to hear.... "but nobody will pick up the phone.. Alabama wont schedule a home and home with us.. blah blah blah.."

I think u are thinking of legendary coaches with great records.. ours has been here for 8 years.. is 47-40 and coming off a losing record 5-6.. I don’t think most programs lose too much sleep over that kind of record.. career 69-61. This is the definition of mediocre. again.. I like bubba.. I want him to have this next year and I HOPE he does great. There was still zero reason to extend him.

There seems to be this disconnect where people think you cant support Bubba this year and yet be really annoyed that they extended him based on his Current performance/Current Record. I know Im not a "football coach at this level" , although I am a mediocre armchair QB.. but it still seems like a reasonable argument to me. Ive heard some pretty interesting arguments lately The idea that the 2 years remaining isn't enough of an opportunity for Bubba to prove himself and recruit.. If he is kicking ass halfway through the upcoming season extend him.. otherwise we are in a doom loop where no head coach at UND will ever be held accountable for on field performance The idea that there is some back room agreement for bubba to retire without finishing his upcoming contract. If that is the case and its not written down Chaves should be fired immediately.

I would really like to hear Chaves answer the question of why Bubba was extended. What in gods name are we doing extending a coach who has just come off a 5-6 season and has a 47-40 career record and has 2 YEARS REMAINING ON HIS CURRENT CONTRACT! By the way I like Bubba and think we should keep him this year. I just have no idea what the rush was to extend him. Whomever is Bubbas agent must be a heck of a salesman.

I know we like to complain about Bubbas play calling/decisions.. but the Bobcats punted from the NDSU 28 when it was a 0-0 game on a 4th&2.. in the national championship game and just kicked a FG down 35.

Fellas.. this seems like a circular argument to me. If the QBs were told not to audible.. they wouldn’t put audibles in the offense. This would be an OC/HC problem. I can’t imagine an OC putting audibles in and then telling the QB not to audible.. I would also be very surprised that a QB with as much experience as Tommy has had in high school and college doesn’t know how to recognize a defense by now and change the play if required.

YouTube tv doesn’t have the deal with Disney sorted out so we lose the espn networks until they do

It was an entertaining and yet frustrating game to watch today. We missed most of the first half due to EDC VB and made it just in time to watch our kicker doink it off the upright to close out the half. Im not one to blame all of the missed kicks by a backup kicker on Kostich but a more accurate kicker would have won at least one more game for us this year and there are multiple times where we didnt attempt a FG where we probably should have. For me some of the head scratchers Tommy's inability to run.. early in the 3rd quarter he could have easily run for 10-20 yards and instead threw a ball into double coverage. Later that 3rd down run.. should have been an easy first down.. but that half slide came up short. He just doesnt look like a natural runner... if he was the offense would be a lot more dangerous. punts from the opponents 35 yd line.. Im sorry.. I dont get those. turnovers.. yowza.. takes two TD's off the board. Lack of targeting Maag and Zalvaney.. seems like two significant size mismatches. The o-line did not look great today.. probably had something to do with Waletzko being out of there.. Entertaining parts How about that defense.. I know the redbirds arent exactly good on offense.. but except for that one long play for a TD they could not move the ball. We have some very good young players and have been developing some depth. We have had significant defensive injuries this year and still are fielding a very competitive defense. I love watching #44 out there.. glad he is coming back. His family sits in our section and they are the most active cheerleaders in the stands. Tommy was throwing a nice ball out there today.. although the brockstar bailed him out on that catch into double coverage. The brockstar is looking good. Otis.. Otis.. Otis.. Man, his last big run when he dragged that poor little d-back about 15 yards.. He also had a big catch and run. Our RB room is deep but it sure is fun to watch Otis. Im looking forward to watching "the Gavel" (credit Jack) Gavin Ziebarth over the upcoming years as well. If we are going to keep going with the dual QB approach.. I want to see more of the Quincy package around the endzone. The apposing team clearly focuses on him running the ball (hello QB as a running threat) and it leads to wide open receivers that can adjust even on a significantly underthrown ball. This team has clearly not quit this year.. so hopefully all of the bozos that were predicting that they would fold and quit after the losses shuts up. They are clearly still playing with pride and energy. The biggest frustration I have with this team this year is unmet expectations. They are close.. I dont see a path to the playoffs even if they win next week and so this is a woulda coulda shoulda type year. Of their 5 losses 4 were very winnable