iramurphy

I didn’t use a double negative( saying “it is not irrelevant” isn’t a double negative. That hiring decision was made almost 10 years ago and there is nothing we can do about it now. If you feel it’s important to complain about it year after year then go ahead. Of course past is important. I have indicated my opinion of the importance for decision makers to review the programs every year for what went well, and what didn’t go well. Hopefully, we can then move forward learning from our past mistakes as well as past successes. I may be wrong, but I believe we are better served by learning from that past rather than dwelling on it.

It’s not irrelevant, but you’re screwing a dead horse.

Word distraction? There were no big words in my comments. If DeBoer will take the UND job I would recommend we hire him. What happened 10 years ago is irrelevant today. We need a present day solution. My questions were besides the obvious coaching change, what were the culture, game management, and X’s and O’s Changes MW referred to? We need to avoid previous mistakes and also maybe apply some new strategies to improve our chance of success. If you disagree, then we disagree.

Nope. This isn’t about Bubba. It has nothing to do with DeBoer other than I am asking MW what were the changes he said were made. This is about positive change. So if there was culture change, X’s and O’s Change, game management change what were those changes? If we aren’t going to learn from programs that have successfully transitioned, then we can sit around, complain, talk smart and we may not transition as successfully. Otherwise it’s just the same complaints with the only solution being fire the coaches. Before we do that we need a transition plan that maximizes our chance of success. Our athletic decision makers need to look at other programs to see if we can benefit from things that worked well for successful transitions. It goes way beyond fire the coaches and plug in what a bunch of rubes like us think is the answer.

I don’t believe we have any idea of all that went into Washington’s success. We are far removed from the inner workings of their program. How did the X’s and 0’s change? How did the culture change? What about the game management was different? If you really want to model your business or program after another, I would think we would look at what happened previously to have led to failure. How did admin address those issues? What changes were brought about? Head coach, assistants, resources, but also team leadership. Key players back with another year of experience. Change in player leadership and team captains can also be a major factor. So what changed for Washington? How did their X’s and 0’s change. What about their culture changed before this season? What is different in game management this year? I’m not disagreeing with you but I’m not able to make those claims cuz I’m not close enough to the program to know.

Wasted scholarship?

Drop in production was after “Achilles injury”. That is a concern if not a red flag. Did he fully recover?

No.

That was a huge program error. We can’t afford to miss on guys we already have in our program. Hopefully there was an in house program review to see how that happened. His Dad played at UND. Maybe he just knew he could play up and wanted to. I don’t believe TEs who just want to block. They want to catch the ball and score.

Player has an obligation to themselves and the team to have those conversations with coaches. If they feel they can better help the team at a different position. The coaches have an obligation to listen to the player and consider the request. Coaches initial response tends to be no. A better answer would be to ask the player why they would be better at a different position and then tell the player the coach will discuss with staff, consider the request and get back to them in a couple of days. If the player isn’t happy with the response, they can ask what they can do to move up on the depth chart. Every player on every team deserves those courtesies at a minimum. We can’t to not have our players in the right positions.

Every program needs to reevaluate the performance and progress of every player on the team at the end of each season and in FB again at the end of spring ball. Coaches need a self assessment of what went well and what didn’t, strengths and weaknesses and whether or not they have the right personnel in position for the team to be successful and for the player to be successful. They also need to reevaluate whether or not they have the right personal to run the schemes they plan to run. Every team has players lingering behind others for whatever reason that can contribute better at a different position. Teams also need to evaluate whether or not they as a staff are developing these players to their full potential. We had Nordby, Zalvaney, Steckler, Gunderson, Klein, Ihry, and 3 younger guys at TE. How often do we ever run a double TE set? How many times do we throw to the TE? Can Ihry or Gunderson play LB or DE. That’s what spring ball is for. Can Koshiol play LB. 3 very good athletes, that may provide depth at some key positions and get them more playing time. The Coaching staff needs to do self evaluations and answer the question: are we developing this player to their full potential? If not, why not? If so is there any other position the player can play to better help the team. That should also get the player more playing time. In my opinion those evaluations and decisions are as important as recruiting. I have no idea if our staff does this, if so, to what extent or are they doing a much better evaluation? I used TE as an example but OL and DL is an example of guys who may better contribute from the other side of the line of scrimmage. Our staff wants conference, and national championships as much or more than anyone else. It’s harder than we think, but it’s not impossible.

Paul Muckenhirn, All-American. He was a HS qb. We used to sign a lot of QBs that ended up as RBs, TEs, DBs, LBs, DEs, and occasionally in the line.

Could be LB or DE. Great athlete, tough kid. He should be on the field. I think they should include TE’s in passing tree more often.

Look at the athletes at TE. Find a way to get them on the field at the same time. Our best athletes need an opportunity to play. We should be doing that during spring ball. Steckler comes to mind.

I hope they allow all 4 to push for the starting job. We can improve at every position and that includes QB.

Then the AD should have a meeting with him/her.

Minot kid should have had game misconduct. 5 min major. Minot coach should have benched the kid for additional game. If coach didn’t do that, the Minot AD should make that happen.

Correct but the same can be said for all HS recruits. He has the intangibles: leadership, winning program, Championship. These are the guys who can develop in QBs who can carry a team. Schuster had those intangibles. Feeney does. Kaminski seems to. Romfo does. They were all winners and leaders. This has been one of my concerns. Can we develop these guys in our program to reach their full potential. Is that more of an issue for us than X’s and O’s?

What happened to Hindbjorgen?

FB and hockey deal with Army could be fun.

I’ll share some thoughts. I don’t believe at this point I am qualified to call X’s and O’s anymore (or any less) than others here. It’s easy to second guess and all fan bases have plenty of “Monday morning QBs”. Some calls are inexplainable (4th down call against the Bison) and others are great calls or terrible calls depending on whether or not they work. I’m not sure why we are still hashing out calls from 2,3 or 4 seasons ago. If your point is you have no suggestions other than coaching changes you may be correct. Correct me if I’m wrong, but some of the comments about how how many times we have practiced certain plays, how well we ran them in practice and whether Danny or Bubba call certain plays could only be known by someone who is at practice every day. The folks who repeatedly accuse those who don’t agree with them as being satisfied with mediocrity or responsible for UND not winning a National Championship yet haven’t a clue about the passions and support any of us have for winning. Talk is cheap. My concerns have little to do with play calling. My concerns since we moved to FCS have more to do with support and resources available to help move the programs forward. We are better positioned than most FCS teams. Our immediate priorities are finish Phase 2, raise coaches salaries, and deal with the challenges of the transfer portal and NIL. My biggest concerns with the program (since FCS) including staff, is more related to how well we develop the guys we recruit that we think can help us reach our goal of a Nat. Champ. Is our program helping all of our kids reach their full potential? Have all of our guys improved their fundamentals? Do our guys understand how to break down and study film? Have we improved our tackling skills, blocking skills, ability to secure the FB, improved our ability to know where the weaknesses are in zone vs man to man defenses in order to get open? Are we learning how to close gaps and man up when receivers come into our zone. Is our game awareness improved so we know the importance of first down yardage in our routes and when running the ball on third down. Do our QBs and receivers spend the extra time to develop timing on pass routes so the ball gets to receivers as they come out of their break or move into the seem of the zone. Are we getting our players the necessary speed/strength/nutrition to maximize their speed and strength potential. Lastly are we matching all players to the positions where they can best be successful and more importantly help the team be successful. How many outstanding athletes are stacked up at TE? How many of those guys could play DE, LB, or OL? Moving forward I believe we will also need to better compete with FBS teams to hang onto the guys we have, to recruit guys from the portal and to recruit our share from the top FCS schools and even some FBS schools. We also need to be prepared to move to FBS if necessary/opportunities with the other Dakotas/Montanas arise. That in my mind should be our focus and they are attainable goals. If we do that, the X’s and O’s get a lot easier. Merry Christmas all and remember it’s just a game but still a game we should strive to win.

Looks like ICW ball.

I didn’t say they were good. I didn’t see on the replay who recovered the fumble. I’m not sure they missed that one.

ICW turned it over 4 times. Poor special team play. Missed open receivers. Missed opportunities. Miller carried the team with his run game when they needed him. Bison won a game when they weren’t playing their best. I didn’t see who recovered the fumble but refs were sure of the call the one I disagreed with was the TD pass but I could be wrong. ICW lost a game they could/should have won. Bison won one they could/should have lost. More than refs I thought ICW had too many unforced errors and missed opportunities.

Started with punt returner not fielding a punt. Another punt the blocker commits the mortal sin of letting a punt hit him. Two bad snaps fumbled by QB cost points and stopped a drive. Bison also dropped 3 passes and screwed up the KO return. They also lost a TD on the holding call. The TD that was called no catch I thought should have stood. Receiver caught ball took 2 steps then bobbled ball slightly as he went down but I don’t think lost control. In college I thought rule was it was catch if you don’t lose control. Bison have ICW reeling and they get ball back to start second half. If they score on their first drive, I don’t think ICW will recover. They looked awfully good for a quarter.