iramurphy

Bring some warm clothes and join the per-game tailgating. Forecast is 36 and partly sunny.

I said "we" aren't the brightest..... Doesn't mean anyone in particular and I included myself. I have been watching for 46 years and I am not saying it has never fired up the fans. I'm saying I would rather see a clean hard check that rocks an opponent but leaves our guys on the ice. You may be right, but for every time we think a fight does something positive I bet we can find 4 or 5 where it hurt us. We tend to forget stupid penalties that hurt us and remember a fight that fired us up. For the fight to fire us up we also need to win the fight. Right now, one of the keys is staying out of the penalty box. We didn't need a fight to dominate a very good SCSU team. I think our PK needs to get back to what it was earlier this year and Cam needs to get refocused before we take a chance on losing a player for a game and a half. We aren't deep enough defensively to lose Ausmus.

Don't know where you got that idea but if our team and coaches believe that we will get our ass kicked. Look what happened to Weber and Cal Poly. From here on in it is every play for 60 min. No mistakes. We can win but I would bet it won't be a blowout. We need to establish the run. Studsrud needs to avoid his first half struggles and play the entire game like he did the 4th quarter last game and second half of most of our games. We need to shut down their run and we need pressure on their QB. Special teams can't fail to cover punts and KO's. Great time to return a punt or KO to give us an edge. Should be great game. Full house will make a difference.

More than anything we need time and patience. The solution will come from within not from fans. Terrible play the last month plus but if they remain close as a team, keep working to get better we will be ok. Can't explain the weekend debacle against Michigan State but we saw the potential the week before. I do agree Cam is struggling. He needs a break.

That would only put him in box and give other team power play. If that is what we "need" we are in deep trouble and not very smart. Getting ejected doesn't ever help team. Clean hard checks can do same thing for majority of fans and keeps him on the ice. If other team scores on power play everyone will scream for him to be benched for being stupid. Gotta play smart. We aren't the brightest fans but we are smarter than that. Building will erupt with fast play, hustle and clean hard checks that leave all our guys on the ice. We have had enough dumb penalties to last the season.

That's why we should stay in the Big Sky.

Last time we played them in Fargo we got our ass kicked. That gave us 4 losses and we didn't get into the playoffs. We are much better now but with all due respect if Bubba wants to play them in Fargo I disagree. Given a choice, I would rather play anyone at home, or a neutral site no matter who the opponent is. We all need to maintain a respect for them and their success but beyond that we need to move on and build our program. I sure as hell don't agree with playing them only in Fargo. Bubba and I disagree on that point also. Bubba is doing a great job and I stated when Faison asked alumni about agreeing to playing them twice in Fargo with no return games in GF, only if Bubba felt it was best for the program. Bubba, the staff and our players have brought the program to the level that we do things to increase our chance at Conference and National Championship regardless of what the Bison do. I'd like to play them every year but only with home and home series. If they aren't going to agree to that then let's play them in Frisco.

I don't understand why anyone wants to play NDSU in Fargo. Why give them the home field edge? If we are good enough, and they are good enough we play them in Frisco and the next time to think about them would be after the final whistle of the semi-final game if we can get there. Otherwise we are irrelevant to each other until that time.

Only if they win their first round game. Anything can happen in the playoffs. Doesn't matter who we play from here on in. You have to beat the best to be the best.

In 1972 Cal Poly wasn't #1. Delaware was. During the regular season, We played poorly and got beat by the AC at home. Our All American RB got hurt and didn't play in the second half. We were ranked #3 when we lost that game, our only loss of the year. Delaware refused to come west to play us in the Camelia Bowl. They won a different bowl game and retained their #1 ranking. (we didn't get screwed by the pollsters, we "screwed the pooch" against the AC). Other games worth mentioning was the 33-6 loss to Army. Army finished 9-1-1 and UND finished 9-1 that year. Red Jarrett was an All-American. (I did not see that game). Jack West tried to schedule best competition he could. 1971 AC game in Fargo. They were undefeated in 30 some straight games, ranked #1. The fatal tragic fire at SAE house was night before game which was played in the rain. We held them to something like minus 76 yds rushing and minus 11 total yds. Their only score was a pick 6. We knocked 2 QB's out of game. Their QB May was sacked 15 times. 1975 game against AC in Fargo. They were up 17-6 and Sioux ran off 28 straight points to win 34-6. Kasowski's 62!yd TD run resulted in Bison DB Krebsbach laid out with ruptured liver after devastating block by WR John Kuklenski and bloodied Bison DB Chuck Rodgers who was bulldozed by Kasowski at about the 5 yd lline.

Sorry, you are correct

Montana and Montana State would decline the offer because it is a FB only conference and travel would not be advantageous. I also believe they both would consider that a backwards step.

I didn't say NH or WI should have gotten in ahead of us. I said we weren't good enough to whine when we didn't get it. Those schools shouldn't have whined had we been selected either. We were a bubble team. NDSU has nothing to do with my opinion. I don't have an inherent hate of them. I just don't believe we need to do whatever they do. I prefer the Big Sky and I believe we have the resources to maintain our membership. I'm as likely to attend games in Arizona, Montana, Colorado and California as I am to go to Illinios, Ohio, Indiana etc. I also prefer one conference rather than two.

I haven't seen evidence that the conference or either of the Montana schools have belittled UND. What their fans say on blogs is irrelevant. NDSU has treated us disrespectfully more than the Montana schools. I haven't seen evidence of anti-UND bias. We have been a good addition and competitive in FB, MBB,WBB and VB. We are one of the new FB teams and lower budget schools aren't excited about the travel. The issue of last years play-off snub is sour grapes. Don't lose 4 games and don't lose to crappy teams. If we need the league to get us a playoff spot we aren't that good and last year we weren't good enough to whine when we didn't get in, I like the Big Sky and the schools in it. The travel costs reviewed in Sunday Forum didn't look to be such an advantage after all.

I prefer the Big Sky because as an athlete I would rather play in Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Portland and Montana. Recruiting is the key to success and as soon as we were accepted into the Big Sky our coaches commented on how that was helping recruiting. Has that changed? I also don't like the idea of joining the Big Sky and just as we start to establish our identity, we crap on them and move to the MVC. If the Bison weren't in the MVC I doubt we would be discussing a move there. I would not count on them staying FCS. Money talks and Fargo is growing fast. We need to develop our own business plan and strategy. We dicked around with the Fighting Sioux name for so long we still are losing thousands and maybe over $1million due to not launching our new brand.

No, playing them would have had negative playoff implications back then. We would have been penalized for playing regardless of the outcome. There were no good excuses not to play them in other sports.

Obviously coaches make the decision and you may be right! They could very well start Heidelbaugh. The questioned was posed for bloggers to opine. Doesn't mean we don't trust coaches. They are the ones at practice everyday and they are doing a good job. If they never made mistakes we would not have lost to a crappy Bowling Green team and maybe not to SB. Right now I don't trust our special teams play. We can't cover a kick off, or return a punt. We finally returned a kickoff. Our punting and place kicking has been inconsistent. We need to improve or we will get beat in a close game like we did at Stony. No excuse for continued poor special teams play.

I will take these receivers everytime. Give me same talent with 4.3 or 4.4 speed, I agree that's better, but these guys who have caught passes all year even when they weren't great throws are money. They also block well. I don't care if we can't run the reverse or sweep with them, they are usually open on the break which is when the ball should be there. We have three very good RB's we shouldn't have to rely on our receivers very often to run the ball.

You go with the senior Bartles. He has played when we didn't protect QB's or have a running game. He hasn't played with a line that protects him and a running game. They need to move Mollberg back to QB until Studsrud is healthy. He is a good enough athlete and smart enough he will be ready to play if needed. Hanson also could move back to QB. We need to be able to throw the ball and Bartles can do that. We need to win next game no matter who is at quarterback. Need to have 3 QB's ready. I would play Mollberg cuz he can make all of the throws but he hasn't practiced at QB and Bartles has so I would go,with Bartles. I wouldn't watch either Bartles or Heidelbaugh struggle for very long. They would both be on a short leash.

Cheap shot. I have never respected people who hide behind blogs and cheap shot people who are in the mix. Hakstol was and is a great coach. I tend to give more credence to the players who played for him than fans on a blog. The ones I talked to thought fans who didn't think he was a great coach were clueless. He earned the job here and he earned the job in Philly. He put his team in a position to win it all year after year. Time will tell in Philly. You don't make crap remarks about someone's family especially when you don't know what you are talking about. Gutless, no class post.

I'll take that bet. Jack and Joel are media guys. The toughest game on the schedule is the one we are playing each week. I bet the media wouldn't have picked SDak. As your toughest game last year. Style points? Wins in the MVC and Big Sky are still wins against teams in good conferences .

Good point but I guess I'm still more focused on winning the game we are playing. That is the best way to influence the polls.

Winning is more important. If we win the polls will catch up. Big Sky team at 8-3 won't be left out.

No I don't. I don't think they were very good but I didn't think we were that good either. We were decent. I thought we were going to get in. If we are on the bubble, then we have to depend on someone else to get us in. We didn't get in, cuz we lost a couple of games we could have won. This year we are playing through adversity with the injuries and are playing well right now. We lost a game at Stony Brook with a poor start offensively and a punt block. We lost at Bowling Green with a poor start offensively and a missed 2 pt conversion. Similar play for TD against CP with better thrown ball and better technique and catch by receiver would have been helpful at BG for the win. If we don't get in this year it will be those 2 games that will haunt us. Guys are playing hard. Studsrud played his best game of career against CP and followed with very good game against Sac St. O line dominated Sac St and we are loaded at RB if we can stay healthy. We have very good possession receivers and they are good athletes. Defense remains of ur strength. If we continue to improve each week, minimize penalties and get healthy we will be in and we I think we can take a run at a title. I don't care what happened last year cuz it doesn't matter anymore. Go Hawks!

I do. The polls are important at the end of the season. Not so much right now. If we keep winning we will keep moving up. I worry more about beating SUU than where we are in the polls right now. We have a tough game each weekend but they are all games we are capable of winning. We do that we will find ourselves top 10 probably top 5.