bincitysioux

Congrats to NDSU for making the playoffs............. On a side note, I find it rather ironic that Montana losing to NDSU in 2003 is what essentially kept the Bison out of the DII playoffs that year, and now 7 years later, another Montana loss is essentially what put NDSU into the playoffs.

If Faison wanted the game so bad and was "begging" for it, I suspect he would have taken Taylor's every other year offer.

Things I like: -He's a great offensive mind -It looks as though we have recruited well overall under his watch: Hardin, Sutton, Mackey, Goodman, Andrews, Bennett, Z. Miller -He seems to expect alot from his players off the field: Murray was rewarded for correcting his problems, Bamba was booted for not despite being the best player on the team. -If we were 9-2 this year, we'd all love how he pisses and moans about officiating. Things I don't like: -Apparently wasn't aware that Jake Landry was graduating this year -Inconsistent play from his squad -Too emotional on the sideline I don't know if Mussman is the guy to lead us long term or not. But I don't think he should be fired for having one losing season in which his starting QB was lost for a good part of the year. Also, programs that change coaches often don't tend to do all that well. I don't like the prospects of turning to a new coach with a bad team that is filled with players that probably wouldn't fit his system. Then we have to sit and wait three years for him to get his players in to judge him.

They made the playoffs last year and have been regularly ranked the last several seasons, including in this seasons preseason polls. They haven't had any signature wins like NDSU did, but overall have played much tougher FCS competition throughout their transition, and had success doing it. Their transition on the football field was really quite remarkable considering their mediocre history in DII.

Kramer Returns to Big Sky This is a good hire by ISU in my opinion. Hopefully the Bengals can right the ship.

UND won't agree to that, that is why Taylor is willing to offer it. I don't care if they play every year, every other year, every 5 years, or never again. As long as Gene Taylor is at NDSU, it ain't happening.

They didn't have advantages per say, but I think Mussman was hurt by the fact that his first head coaching job was for a first year transitional DI team. Stiegelmeier has been at SDSU forever, and Bohl took over at NDSU a year before the first transition year. Mussman took over the program when the athletic department was in a state of flux with no A.D. and the football program's staff and incoming freshman class was largely gutted by the outgoing head coach.

I'll take a DI non-schollie any day over a DII or NAIA opponent.

I've felt for the past several seasons that if there is coaching problem at North Dakota, that I think it is moreso with the assistants that it is with the HC. I've stated many times that I have not been a fan of the Co-Defensive Coordinator situation. There was a flop in play-calling roles between Mannasau and Kelling this season, but the pass defense continues to be a glaring problem. Run defense was still suspect at times as well, but there was a far better pass rush from the Sioux on opposing quarterbacks this season than in Mussman's first two seasons. Lennon started the Co-Defensive Coordinator experiment, but I think Mussman needs to end it. Offensively, Mussman needs to take over the play calling. I'm not ready for Mussman to be dismissed because the deck has certainly been stacked against him during his HC tenure here, but I think he needs to man up and make some tough decisions regarding his staff. The biggest concern to me about Mussman leading North Dakota football is not that he probably doesn't handle the media all that well following an ass-kicking, or that he tries to find the good things in 45-point drubbing of a season opener...................but what has me the most worried is that he apparently thought that Jake Landry would be quarterbacking the team in 2011, because there was obviously no plan for replacing him......................

I'm not as high on the OL after this season as you are. They gave up the 2nd highest number of sacks in the league this season. I thought Sutton had a rough year (albeit injury plagued), and it was partly because he is not as explosive or patienat as Murray. He is more of a scheme runner that needs to wait for his blocks to develop, and they often didn't. As a top teir DII school, UND could easily recruit the biggest guys at their level and often get the best ones that made guys like Chris Beatty and Adam Roland look really good. It is much more competetive at this level for the best OL out there. As far as "Building Blocks", I agree that we have a nice stable of running backs, especially with Murray for one more year. He is a real gem. IMO, he is easily the most valuable part of the offense in more ways than just carrying the ball. Obviously Hardin has the potential to do some great things during his time at North Dakota. McGill got better as the season progressed and I hear good things about a couple of the redshirt WR. I don't think we will enter 2011 with the glaring concerns at receiver position like we did in 2010. I really like the way the defensive front 7 will look going into the next couple seasons with proven DL Bellmore and Benjamin and talented LB like Hendrickson and the youngsters Goodman, Bennett, and Andrews. I think we should be good at corner back next year with Hawkins and Mackey. Safety is a concern though. But what do I know................I've said for the last two seasons that the secondary should be a strength of this program.

I'm not an apologist for Mussman as I'm still on the fence, but given the fact that we have had zero passing game leads me to believe that establishing the run would be a priority. If North Dakota's offense has had any "strength" (I use the term loosely) it would have to be in the run game. That was both before and after Landry's injury. As far as when he was asked about his goals for South Dakota State, his first was to win the game. Watch the tape. They wanted an opportunity to win. Doesn't every team want that?

Gene Taylor will never allow NDSU to play North Dakota in football as long as he is A.D. It is a moot point barring a playoff pairing or legislative intervention ..................................

Bingo...................... He seldom offers any substantial input, so I closed it before he could detour it to a full blown smack-a-thon.

Locally, it's being advertised as a televised double-header that starts with the women vs. Gonzaga at 6:00. DirecTV has just the men's game listed with a 7:00 start. Not sure if DirecTV is only going to have the men's game or what.

Apparently when the state has a billion dollar surplus it gets pretty boring as a legislator.

21-0 SDSU Both the Sioux and BIson games are on channelsurfing.net

What could be any possible downside to letting him take some snaps?

Yuck. I have tickets waiting at will-call for me as I planned to be there today but some unforeseen circumstances prevented it. Perhaps it was a blessing.

Automatic berth to a BCS bowl. They're the front-runner the day that they join.

An announcement of Utah St. to the MWC must be coming within 3 weeks doesn't it?............................................

IMO it is all about wins & losses. Back in the early 90's the Hyslop was the place to be because the men's basketball program was the top notch sport at UND, at a time when hockey and football were down. Attendance to men's basketball rivaled and even outdrew hockey during that time. Men's basketball has been rather insignificant since the mid-90's and attendance has suffered while during the same time hockey from the mid-90's on and football from 2001-2007 experience great success and both programs have recorded record attendance throughout those periods. Great facilities have helped a great deal, of course. I shutter to think what attendance at football could have dropped to the last two seasons if we were playing at Memorial. When trying to make the facility arguement, the Betty is a great example. When comparing to our DI peers in the Big Sky, the Summit, or the Great West, it is probably among the finest basketball venues that any school from one of those leagues would step into, but since moving in we've drawn diddly-squat by our standards because we've had mostly bad teams playing in there.

Actually, it's a comedy................ As far as the game itself, North Dakota has a decent chance, but it will be a battle. The stud bunny is out with injury. SDSU likes to run more than pass, in theory that should bode well for the Sioux..............................however in reality, not theory, we got torched by the run last week. Yes Hardin needs the ball, but the quadruple-reverse-triple option-halfbalk pass-flea flicker on two isn't the way to go about it. That never works. If we're in a postion to hand it off to Murray and Sutton all day, I like our chances.....................................3 yards and a cloud of dust baby.

Also should be mentioned that with the eventual formation of a Pac 12 Television Network, the western-based Fox Sports and Comcast networks will surely be looking for more programming in the future. The FSSN and NAU TV will be in great positions to "feed" larger networks, and by cooincidence, both UND and NAU have aready established relationships with Fox.

The only concern I really had about the move to the Big Sky was how their media agreements would affect what we already have in place, as I was I under the impression that in DI, it was the conferences that did the negotiating for the most part. However after doing a little digging that doesn't really appear to be the case, at least at our level. Northern Arizona basically has what we have with the FSSN..............actually it is more like what BYU has with BYU-TV. They have NAU TV which airs on Dish Network. As far as the actual distribution of BSC athletics, the following is from the Big Sky's website: Now, that sounds great, but you have to remember that about half of those games are referring to the fact that all Montana & Montana St. games (except when they play at an FBS) are aired on local television in the state of Montana. Also a local station broadcasts most of Eastern Washington home games. But beyond those locally covered games, "national" distribution this season would include 5 games on NAU TV, 5 games on Altitude, and 11 games total were either picked up by or simulcast from Altitude on regional Fox Sports and Comcast Sports channels. Men's basketball does really well for national coverage, mostly because of Northern Arizona. Similar to our arrangement with FSSN & FCS, either Fox College Sports or Fox Sports Arizona picks up all the games that are already being broadcast on NAU TV on Dish Network. This year, that is 10 NAU home games. Altitude will broadcast 8 Big Sky "games of the week" as well as the conference tournament semi-finals. Fox Sports Rocky Montain & Fox Sports Northwest will air 4 live games this season. And of course the Big Sky Championship is on ESPN. Fox College Sports will pick up all 10 of the women's home basketball games that are airing on NAU TV. The Big Sky Championship will be on Altitude. Now considering NAU's TV package, it is easy for me to see that as star2city has said on many occaisons, our own TV capabilities probably were not an insignificant factor when the BSC decided to extend North Dakota an invitation. If we continue a similar arrangement, we'll likely add 3 or 4 football games and anywhere from 10-15 M/W basketball games to the national schedule for the Big Sky. For increasing our own exposure, at a minimum per season we'll likely gain at least 1 away MBB game and 1 away WBB game on FCS via NAU TV, 1 MBB on Altitude, 1 annual away FB game from the state of Montana on local FSSN, and then hit and miss with Altitude football games and other games that could get picked up by the Fox or Comcast networks here and there. And of course ESPN will regularly being broadast from the Big Sky Men's Basketball Championship in The Betty starting in 2012. And since we're not in the same conference as NDSU, our hopefully soon-to-be annual men's & women's basketball games will always be aired on either FCS or teh state-wide microwaves . Keeping the rivalry going with USD will likely ensure TV games for basketball and football on Midco Cable at the very least. At minimum, it looks like we stand to gain a minimum of 6 game broadcasts that we don't have scheduled now. Additionally, the Big Sky's internet provider Big Sky TV airs all constests held in Big Sky venues for free. All in all, I like it.

Ironically, those are the same type of issues that are plaguing Zamberlin right now, as ISU was recently cited for APR infractions resulting in the loss of 6 scholarships and reducing practice time to 4 days per week. However, for some reason if you visit the Bengals or Bobcats boards, the overwhelming consenus is that Kramer would be a great fit to turn around the dismal Idaho State program. It would be a great thing for the Big Sky conference to have ISU become relevant again. They do have a fairly proud history as a "large-ish" state named school that won a BSC title in the early 2000's, has a I-AA national title to their credit from the 80's, and had great success on the basketball court in the 70's.