I would agree UND is favored but I would temper my enthusiasm due to the QB situation. Belmore played poorly against Central Washington and sucked against Augie and St. Cloud. He had happy feet, missed reads, couldn't get the play run when the coaches were slow getting the play in and missed a wide open receiver that would like have led to the winning TD. On that play he didn't have pressure. He also didn't exploit the two true FR. conerbacks St. Cloud had.
Has anyone noticed Manke is 13 of 16 for 138yds, 2 TDs and no Ints, no fumbles and 2 rushes for 14 yds. His pass efficiency rating is 194.95. If you add last years stats he is 19 of 23 with two of those dropped. He also got the team to the line of scrimmage with a sense of urgency when the assistant coaches were slow getting the plays in.
Belmore has thrown 7 int's and his efficiency rating is 134.52. Lest you think Manke was playing against the oppostion backups when he has been in, that was only for the last drive against Ferris. He has played with the UND two's for the most part. In high school he led a team with mediocore talent to the state title throwing for over 300 yds in the championship game and outdueled the guy who starts now for Wisconsin in the quarter finals.
He is a better QB than Belmore. Even if the coaches (who are there and I am not) think Belmore is better, how could they not have gotten him into the game against St. Cloud. Belmore played better last week and certainly deserves to start until he screws up again, but I hope they give Manke a series in each of the first two quarters Saturday to get a better feel for what he can do when the game is on the line.
The other thing Belmore needs is a bit of tutoring on what to say to the media. He was still commenting that the defense didn't play well against St. Cloud when he was interviewed after the Ferris game. If our QB had played as poorly as he did and he made that comment he would have gotten his butt kicked.