bincitysioux

BYU to the Big 12 seems like a no-brainer. BYU covets AQ status, brings TV dollars, and fills the western void left by Colorado's departure. UCF makes great sense for the Big East as they are one of the fastest growing schools in the country and are located in football-rich Florida. Sounds like South Florida is against them getting in.

Despite, having a normally top notch FCS program, Villanova gets crap support and plays in crap facilities. I have to think that when the Big East was begging 'Nova to upgrade that it was mostly the basketball schools pushing it. I doubt that Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse, and South Florida looked forward to Villanova going FBS.

I've always felt that the prospective fans that patronize North Dakota football games don't care much about the opponents. They want to see a winning team, and one that is challenging for a title of some sort. And we've never routinely sold out the Alerus. You could count on one hand the number of times the Alerus has been sold out in 10 years. Even the last NDSU game in '03 didn't sell out. It could happen though, assuming we can be perennial top 3 team in the Big Sky and get back to the point where we are usually making the playoffs.

After the first quarter, it was total domination by UND. But Coach Kelling's pass defense continues to be suspect at best, apparently regardless of the opponent. All those students that showed up for the Drake game, but not today, suck. But I expected it since it is opening weekend for hockey. There is obviously no way to make it to the opening face-off of a 7:30 hockey game when a football game gets over at 4:00.

Next two games will reveal alot about the state of this football program IMO. If we destroy Montana Western (because we should because we're a DI football program), and if we beat Cal Poly on our turf (because we match up extremely well against them) then I think we could say that the win against SUU was no fluke and that this team has made significant strides and is well on the way to being back to where Sioux football should be. So far, the team has exceeded my expectations this seasons. I figured we'd be 2-3 with blowout losses to Idaho, Fresno, and SUU. We're sitting at 3-2 with, by my estimation, pleasantly surprising results against Fresno and SUU. A dominating performance against Montana-Western gives the team confidence. A win against Cal Poly puts us in the driver seat for a conference championship....................

What if we lose to one of those teams but beat everyone else and finish 8-3 with a GWC title?

Winning is the most important factor to attendance. If we had been 9-2 last year, the opener against Drake and the Black Hills game would have had 10,000+. NDSU did have good attendance in 2009, but it was still a drop of about 2,000 per game from 2007 & 2008 because they were crappy in 2009. Sure, there should be alot of hype when Montana or Montana St. comes to town, but IMO the average candidate to attend Sioux football games won't distinguish much between Weber St. and Montana-Western. I worry that that this weekend's game against Montana-Western won't even crack 7,000 with it being opening weekend for hockey. Sadly, I think that the only game this season that has the potential to draw over 10,000 is Cal Poly. It is homecoming, it is a DI opponent, the hockey team is on the road, and we should be 4-2 and coming off of a 40+ point beat down in the previous game. Unless we are 8-2 going into the season finale against USD, I doubt that game draws even 9,000 since attendance seems to genereally tail off late in the season, and that is the opening weekend for deer hunting...........................

Agree that the trend for a school at North Dakota's level will be to be guard-heavy. Hopefully once in a while we can come across an effective but rather under-sized post player like Brandon Brekke looks like he could be.

Although I have no desire to see UND and NDSU play, as long as North Dakota is looking improved finally I may as well bring up the following .................... On the Jack Michaels Show today on 740 The Fan, Jack asked Scott Miller what the key would be to defeating this year's NDSU team. Miller said taking away the Bison running game would put NDSU in jeopardy. Something to chew on: UND is currently ranked 3rd in FCS rush defense..............................

They appear to have a very solid team.

If NDSU's fans, administrators, or stakeholders feel that online education is simply just a fad not to be taken seriously, then it is just another example of them being behind the times and continuing to lag behind................

Agreed. In most cases a head coaching change involves a period of transition that can set a program back. North Dakota's current coaching tree dates back to the mid-80's starting with Roger Thomas who was the last total break from his predecessor. Dale Lennon was a long time Thomas assistant, and Mussman was a long time Lennon assistant.

I have no idea what the coordinates are, but I'll bet you'll be able to scan it in. I scanned in their game against Sac St...........if it is on MidCo, it is on satellite somewhere.

Wow. 19.5? Not much respect there..............

Regarding Mussman, I think coaching wise, he does just fine. I don't have a problem with his "conservative" style, such as running the clock out in the 1st half with a lead against Idaho, or punting on 4th & 16 in the 4th quarter against Fresno. Mussman proved to be a helluva offensive coordinator for the better part of a decade. I can't recall a game situation since he took over where I thought "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?". Like any good coach, he adapts to the talent on the roster, at least offensively. When we have 3 quality running backs, a huge offensive line, and a green QB, we become a running team. We we had Danny Freund, Reed Manke, John Bowenkamp at QB, and Weston Dressler, Brady Trenbeath, and Dan Grossman at WR, we were a passing team. Good coaches adapt, and Mussman has done that in his time here both as OC and head coach. What I don't like about Mussman is how he sometimes carries himself on the sidelines and through the media. I don't like to hear how we'll be "going down to Southern Utah and see if we can get a win". I didn't like when he laughed in an interview about the Texas Tech game and said "it'll be nice experience for our players to see that atmosphere". I hate how in several interviews over the last couple years he's basically thrown the defense under the bus on occaision for not "getting off the field" when the offense hasn't been able to stay on the field. I hate how occaisonally he can be seen on the sideline bent over, head down, with his hands on his knees after a bad play by our team. Lastly, I sort of question his ability to make tough decisions as an administrator overseeing his assistants. I know he inherited the co-defensive coordinator situation which is a pet peeve of mine itself. IMO, despite some great athletes in the secondary, the pass defense has mostly been atrocious the past 4 years. At the same time the run defense is one of the best in the country for two years running I believe. One co-coordinator is in charge of the front seven, the other in charge of the defensive backfield. One are has continued to improve, while the other has not really improved at all in four years. Something needs to be done about that. Having said that, I do give him credit for abondoning Breitbach's pistol offense experiment.

Pretty nice that 4 of the first 5 games have been televised..............

That's a fairly significant drop for USD............... I believe they only have around 9,000 students or so............

I'm sure to SUU and their fans, beating UNLV is not unlike NDSU beating Minnesota. The big bad FBS team down the road ya know............. Good for them. It is nice to see SUU having success the last few years. They strengthen the Great West and will strengthen the Big Sky. Now let's go kick their ass on Saturday.................

Personally to me, if St. Cloud ends up in the Summit, that would make it worth allowing their hockey program to join the NCHC...............

On the home theatre subject, I used to hook the laptop to my TV, but what a pain in the butt I thought.....................so about a month ago, I got an Acer Revo. It is quite awesome. It's a PC with wifi, HDMI output, Blu-Ray player all in one. About 6 in. by 12 in. and 1 in. thick, it fits nicely in the entertainment center, and has about a 4 in. by 5 in. wireless keyboard/mouse that is basically your remote control. It was about $400 bucks, but totally worth it. I can just plop my butt in front of the TV and watch video on Fightingsioux.com, ESPN3, or whatever with no more hassle than it is to pop in a DVD. I really like it.

Good synopsis RD17................

But using last weeks Kolpack-Logic, UND should have vaulted upwards in the polls significantly, since both schools with "North Dakota" in their name won...........right?

I think it is awesome that North Dakota is ranked for two consecutive weeks now. For a team in transition, cracking the polls and hopefully working your way up is perhaps the best tangible goal (along with a GWC title) that they can hope for. Now, my big question is: If the only possible way that North Dakota could make last week's poll is due to the utter confusion of the voters mixing up North Dakota and NDSU and thinking that NDSU lost to an FBS team hence dropping NDSU in the poll and allowing North Dakota to sneak in by voting for the wrong team, shouldn't North Dakota have moved way up in this week's poll rather than dropping for the same reason? NDSU beat an FBS team. Shouldn't all or some of those confused voters mistakenly voted for North Dakota, thinking that they were the team to defeat Minnesota on Saturday? What say you, Jeff Kolpack?

I think the Sioux can win this game. But SUU is a terrible match-up for North Dakota. If a guy starting his first collegiate game can throw for 200 yards on us, then I fully expect Sorenson to approach 400 yards passing on Saturday. Basically we need to play exactly the way we did against Black Hills. Need to have alot of success running the ball to keep SUU's offense of the field. Need to have one or two big special teams plays, and either a defensive score or multiple take-aways. Basically we need a perfect game. On the plus side, we have put together two very good games in a row. If we can't establish the running game early, it'll be a long day. Also need to get alot pressure on Sorenson. I don't think our db's can cover their receivers, so we need to make the qb uncomfortable.

Nice to see North Dakota destroy a team that they should, and the way that they should. Defense did give up a couple big plays, and didn't like the Bumble Bee's last touchdown. Running game was awesome. Passing game was adequate...........I think that's probably the most we can hope to expect the rest of the season. Offensive line was great. I believe we scored in every facet of the game: offense, defense, special teams. Two more blocked kicks.