bincitysioux

I agree. If I were an un-biased observer (which I am not), I'd pick the home team in the next 5 games. But that was before I saw how atrocious North Dakota's run defense is. I doubt there will be any "comfortable" wins upcoming with Northern Arizona, Cal Poly, and Montana forthcoming. Prior to the season, I thought UND would have the edge in these 3 games, but I don't feel that way now. Only advantage is home field right now as far as I can see...............................

I vote on AGS, and I had UNI in my Top 10 the first 3 weeks. I don't have them in my poll this week. Do I think UNI is a bad team? No. But they don't have a DI win and it is now week 4. I understand that they have had arguably the toughest schedule in all of FCS thus far................ But when I fill out my ballot, I'm thinking of what teams will be playoff teams. Right now, UNI has a tough road to hoe as far as making the playoffs. UNI would likely throttle the OVC, NEC, and Big South leaders, but right now those schools have a better chance of participating in the playoffs than does Northern Iowa.............................

Because they play them next week................

He must have been confused............................

So 200,000 constitutes a major metropolitan area? Who thinks of Fargo or Sioux Falls as major metropolitan areas? And kudos to UMKC for being a whopping 40 miles from the next closest DI school. They have reached the big time for sure......................

Hendrickson has also looked excellent in the playing time that he has had. Who knows? Perhaps if Hanson had not been injured, maybe the team would be having the same success or even more success. I cannot say. All I know is that this team is 3-1 and the offense is clicking with the personnel that has been out there. Another thing to consider is that Hendrickson has way more college experience than Hanson. If guys like Drew Bledsoe and Joe Montana can lose their jobs due to injury, then I think so can a guy that has only played two college football games. Not comparing Hanson or Hendrickson to those NFL guys or their successors, just using it as an analogy............... My biggest fear is that the chemistry of this offense could get messed up if a change is made..................

Excellent road win to begin conference play. Ecstatic to see the run game emerge tonight. Need to keep that going. Hendrickson didn't awe anybody like the last two weeks, but he again played very well. Happy to see that the team cut down on the penalties tonight. Defensively: Opportunistic. That was good. Also nice to see them get into the back field and apply pressure from time to time. Pass defense played pretty good, but the run defense continues to get gashed and that is more than alarming. The next 5 games will be a meat grinder for North Dakota. All of the next 5 opponents will probably be ranked in the top 25 come Monday. 3 of them love to run the ball, and defending that has been a problem thus far.

I don't mean to sound like a "Hanson-hater" at all.................. He has great credentials, looked awesome in the opener, and was good enough to be named the starter prior to the season kickoff. But I'm kind of a "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" type of guy. I don't think the fact that Hendrickson did not throw for 300 yards and 5 touchdowns tonight, it warrants him being benched. Bottom line is, he is 2-0 against Big Sky teams, and we have 7 Big Sky teams left to play................ Don't rock the boat when it is floating along nicely...................

Surely, you jest..................

As Mike Leach would say, "If you have two quarterbacks, then you have no quarterbacks".

FWIW, I'd rather have our football team on a two hour plane ride en route to Greeley, CO than on a 7 hour bus ride to Cedar Falls, IA. Big Sky detractors always point to the travel involved with Big Sky membership. In reality, it may cost the University more, but I bet the players enjoy and benefit alot more from short plane rides versus long bus rides....................

Hardin is averaging 26 yards per reception. And that is not even good enough for first place among Big Sky recievers! The thing that impresses me so much about Hardin, is how he is always gets open it seems. After watching him for 2.25 years, I'm confident in saying he is better than Dressler, and that says alot in my book.

Is voter fraud a valid subject? I suppose not...................

Make that 4 wins over FBS schools this year.................

You may be right. All I know is it is hard to get to Houghton....................

I think the writing is on the wall that Idaho is headed to the Big Sky for ALL sports in the near future. Given that, I think that the Big Sky will be done with pre-emptive expansion. Geographically or instituitionally, I don't think NMSU is a bad fit for the Big Sky. Just think there won't be room for them. Fullerton doesn't want to go beyond 14 full members, because if you do, you basically have two conferences: See WAC circa late 1990's.................

All the teams will fly to Big Sky venues. The football team charters for every game. The rest fly commercial. I believe UND has policy that if it is more than 500 miles they have to fly, whether it is golf or football. I don't know what the hockey team does, as far as charter vs. commercial when they fly. I know they hate going to Michigan Tech, because they ride a bus to somewhere like Duluth and then hope that they can find a plane willing to land in Houghton...........

I don't know................... Since both AGS and CS are devoted to discussion of FCS football, seems like a good place to talk about an FCS football team.......................

I'm thinking this will be another close, high scoring game. North Dakota and Sac are pretty evenly matched. They don't have the type of rushing attack that we have faced the last two weeks, so it will be interesting to see how are defense plays in that regard. Our D has actually been so-so against the pass so far, and Sac can chuck it around a bit, so it will be interesting to see how that unfolds. Scheme-wise, the Hornets are polar opposites from the last two opponents that both wanted to grind it out on the ground. I wouldn't call them "pass-happy" or "high flying", but it looks like they rely on running the ball far less than PSU or SDSU do. Defensively, they've been pretty good against the run, which doesn't bode well for UND considering how we've run the ball the last two weeks. Against the pass, they've struggled, which should be in our favor. The scariest thing to me is that they have 9 sacks, most of any Big Sky team. And 7 of them have been against FBS teams. I say it pretty much every week, but if North Dakota can establish the run, I think they win handily. If Sac shuts down UND's running game for a 3rd straight week, I think it will be a high scoring nail-biter. I like the Sioux to win this one. Personally, I'd like to throttle this team, more than any other Big Sky team. Just to stick it to all the Hornet fans that have been whining for the last two years about North Dakota being added to the Big Sky due to travel concerns. I'd like to show them that they don't even need to make the trip to Grand Forks to recieve a good old fashioned beat-down.

Considering that North Dakota had a good showing in a loss to an FBS team in a close game, and NDSU was idle, I am shocked that the Bison didn't didn't drop a few spots in the polls. I understand that it is the norm for pollsters to confuse the two schools.....................

Do we know that? Given how Hendrickson has played this season, do you think Bradley worried he may have been the 3rd stringer and that's why he left?

It is almost scary to imagine what Hendrickson's numbers could be if he had any sort of support from the run game the last two weeks................

I thought that was NDSU that lost to Fresno................................

Hope you are right. But that fire should have started burning after PSU embarrassed them...........

Their pass defense seems pourous. Hendrickson can exploit them there.............