bincitysioux

You're probably right. My point is that SUU is a much better team this year than than they were last year, and UND is not as good a team as last year. Although very disappointed with the loss (and this season), especially at home, I feel no shame in losing to SUU this year.

No, it is not their first GWC win. But they have beaten Youngstown St. this season! No shame in losing to SUU this year. Disappointed, yes, but definately a much better Thunderbird team than last year. Also not as good a Sioux team as last year.

Hellevang has not made a FG in his last 5 attempts. His last make came against Idaho St. He has not made a FG outdoors this season. I was ready to throw Hellevang under the bus after this game, but after looking closer at his season numbers tonight, all but two of his misses on the season have been from 40+ yards out. And 2 of his makes have been from over 40 yards. I will say though that while I don't like to place blame at the feet of one person, as the entire offense had its problems tonight, the difference in the ball game (in my mind) was the 3 points left on the field when Hellevang missed a 32 yard FG in the 3rd quarter with an 11 point lead. That is by no means a pressure situation. At home, indoors, with a 2 possession lead, an experienced Junior kicker should make that one every time. As far as the rest of the game, I thought this was by far and away the best performance from the defense so far this year, and against a team that has shown the ability to put up alot of points. The contained SUU's running game and were very opportunistic getting 4 INTs and a fumble. Unfortunately it was a mistake by the Defense in taking the roughing the passer penalty that extended SUU's go ahead drive. The offense wasn't horrid, but the offensive line struggled. They didn't create many holes for Murray, and they didn't give Freund much pass protection, he was sacked 5 times. UND was never able to establish any tempo at all. It seemed like every snap of the ball resulted in either no gain, or a 15 yard gain. Another disappointing loss, and coming at home makes it sting more. Hats of to SUU, they've improved alot over the last 12 months.

That is a very good assessment. Personally, I feel that this is a much more winnable game than the South Dakota game. I think the offense will have a revival in this game, the rushing numbers especially indicate that. The Sioux play up a level at home too. I admit this season has been somewhat of a disappointment to me. I felt that certainly the SLU game was a winnable one, and I thought we should have been more competetive against UC Davis as well. If we don't at least get a split over the last two games here against SUU and USD, I will consider this season a complete failure.

Anyone care to guess on the attendance fo this game? I'll say ~8,500. Hopefully the hunters head to the Alerus once it gets dark out. What they should have done for marketing purposes was give half-price tix to anyone showing up in blaze orange. As far as game predictions, I'll say the Sioux win by 4 in a shoot-out. I expect Josh Murray to have a really big day after being bottled up for a couple weeks, and I expect SUU's very pedestrian QB Cody Stone to have a huge day throwing the ball. 42 Sioux 38 T-Birds

Coach Roebuck mentioned at the media day that Ball St., Vermont, Toledo, UW-Green Bay, and Northern Arizona will make return trips to Grand Forks next season.

The Friday night game is going to be on the NHL Network. They are picking up the FSSN feed. Channel 215 on DirecTV.

Looks like the Great West is already losing members to more appealing leauges........ UVU Softball Joins Pacific Coast Softball Conference To make matters worse, Northern Colorado, Idaho St., and Weber St. are joining to. Remember before we joined the Great West, there was an article stating that UVU, UNC, and Idaho St, along with UND and USD were forming a Softball conference. I guess not. What happened to the 3 year commitment? That leaves softball playing schools in the GWC numbering 3. New Jersey Tech, Texas PanAm, and Chicago St. don't sponsor softball.

Because when you play in a conference with only 5 members, you have to find 7 non-conference games to fill out an 11 game schedule. That is alot of games to find every year. Teams that play in conferences with more members like the Big Sky and MVFC need only to find less than half that number to fill out a full season's schedule.

Yes, I meant that the Saluki's are a much more balanced team on offense than was Davis who really loves to chuck it around. That said, good coaches and teams will always try to exploit the opponents weakness, but I'm just saying that SIU so far this season hasn't displayed a propensity to try and hit a home run on offense all the time. They like to be balanced, and Dale's philosophy has almost always been to control the game by running. I still think our offense can hang with pretty much anybody in FCS, so if we can limit the big plays and contain the running game at all, it could make for at least a more competetiv game than the UC Davis game.

Did you just say "Lamar"?...........

Although I am not expecting a win, as this is without question the best team we will face this season, I do feel that North Dakota matches up better with SIU than we did with UC Davis.

Dan Hammer said on the post game show of the UC Davis game tonight that "we will be back here next year". I wonder if he meant simply California in general, or specifically if UND plays UC Davis on the road again next year?

But wasn't very good the last 2 years of DII either.

I agree, and I don't also want to throw anyone under the bus, but "Co-Coordinator" Kelling is responsible for the secondary, and that has been our weakest spot the last couple years. And this year, with Hawkins, Otto, Manke, Watkins, and Ankenbauer, I feel we have more talent in the defensive backfield than we had in 2006 and 2007.

Stats: Total Offense: UC Davis 415, UND 245 First Downs: UC Davis 28, UND 14 TOP: UC Davis 33, UND 26 UND held to 68 yards net rushing Murray: 11 car 82 yards Denham: 321 pass yards Somewhat curious to me is why UND did not seem to try to run the ball more. They seemed to go away from it rather early. Murray was having success in the first half. It seems to me when your defense is allowing the opponent to walk up and down the field at will, you would want to pound it at them on offense, to keep the D off of the field. It seems to me like Murray's carries were limited by our own coaching staff, rather than what the Aggies were doing.

At least the defense has been consistent all season. Crappy against all divisions......

I know, no playoffs for the Sioux for a while. But the march for the Great West Conference Championship starts today! Good luck to Coach Mussman and the boys!

I agree whole-heartedly. You will not hear much college hockey talk anymore on the Fan unless the Gophers are in the Frozen Four. Certainly, a good portion of the Friday shows will not be devoted to the WCHA like it has been, and their won't be any more visits to GF by the Fan.

Chicago State Accepts Invitation to Join Great West Good deal. The more the merrier.

As of 10/22/08 VOLLEYBALL North Dakota 22-4 South Dakota 19-2 Houston Baptist 19-5 New Jersey Tech 12-10 Utah Valley 6-9 Texas PanAm 4-12 SOCCER Utah Valley 9-4-1 Houston Baptist 8-6-1 South Dakota 5-9 North Dakota 3-13 New Jersey Tech 2-14-1

After delving further into the numbers for these two teams, I've decided the game is almost just too close to call. The two best pass offenses in the league pitted against the two worst pass defenses in the league. Also, these two teams have the top 2 run defenses in the GWC. Davis is 2nd in the league in sacks, but North Dakota is 2nd in sacks against. Davis has taken alot of sacks on the season, but UND doesn't get to the QB a whole lot. UC Davis and UND are 1 and 2 respectively in time of possession in the conference. The Aggies are definately battle tested as they have obviously played a much tougher schedule than the Sioux and have lost a couple heart-breakers to very good teams, but still the strongest team they have defeated is SUU. UC Davis is undefeated at home this season. UND has played all right in their two road games this season. (Idaho St. should have been blown out.) A couple of apparent advantages I can see for the Sioux are that Davis is prone to turn the ball over and they take alot of penalties. If these two teams met on a neutral field, I think they'd play to 49-49 tie. With the game being a road game, outdoors for UND, I am going to reluctantly pick UC Davis to win by 3-6 points in a high scoring affair. UC Davis 44 Northh Dakota 40

I agree with all those sentiments. But as the season has played out, it looks like UC Davis is not as tough as we all they'd they be. Don't get me wrong, they will still be the best team we have faced to date. The biggest worry is the fact that they are a pass-happy team, and UND has proven to be vulnerable in the secondary. Hopefully we step it up. I expect an entertaining and close game.

Yes, and we host SUU on the weekend of the Deer opener. I worry that could be our only game to dip below 10,000. We'll see.

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