bincitysioux

Schmidt has no clue what to do about Nicholls run game

Basee on what I've seen, would probably have more luck doing that than handing it off another 20+ times

I'm not sure Moody played at all in the second half.

Unless something has changed in recent years, UND rarely gets to any of their road games 24 hours before kickoff.

Ralston mentioned on pre game show that Ramsey and Hazenkamp are likely redshirting.

I never really understand the odd Thursday night opener every few years. Maybe if the Alerus was sold out every game, but obviously attendance is not great, so why handicap yourself by doing this? Not a real exciting opponent either that is going to entice fans to make an extra effort to get out on a Thursday night. Home opener is typically one of the best attended games of the year. 2018 was also a Thursday against Mississippi Valley, and drew 8,900. Probably could have cracked 10,000 if that game would have been on Saturday.

Final attendance average comes in at 8,340 per game. Almost an 11% drop from the 2018 season. First time since moving into the Alerus Center that not a single game went over the 9,000 mark. Highest attended game was UC Davis with 8,987. Lowest turnout was 7,485 for the finale against SUU. Hopefully the successful season translates into more butts in the seats for next year, like it did following the 2015 & 2016 seasons. Attendance Wiki has been updated.

2,500 hotel rooms locked down in Nashville for an early season hockey game that is a year away. Football team is camping for a playoff game this weekend.........

Been doing some stat sheet scouting this evening, to get an idea of what to expect from Nicholls. The Colonels are literally 5th or 6th in virtually every statistical category in the 11 team Southland conference, with one exception being rushing offense. They like to run the ball as they led their conference in rushing. This could potentially be a bad match up for us since UND would have finished 9th in the Big Sky in rushing defense. In fact, we played the top 3 rushing Big Sky teams this year - Montana St., Cal Poly, and EWU. We held the Bobcats a bit under their final season average, but both Poly and EWU ran wild against us. Nicholls scored 33 of their 45 TDs this season on the ground. On the other hand, Nicholls is 9th in their league in pass offense. They did get pretty efficient QB play, probably thanks in large part to solid running game all season. UND had the #1 pass defense in the Big Sky, so this should favor us. I would say UND needs to have faith in our secondary, stack the box, and make the QB beat them with his arm. Sam Houston beat them 17-0 when they met. They did it by holding Nicholls to 55 yards rushing, and forced 3 turnovers. Buckle up for some turnovers in this game. UND is -7 in turnover margin on the year, good for 13th of 14 Big Sky teams. Nicholls is -5 on the year, 9th in the Southland. Nicholls was 4-1 at home this year. Their one loss at home came on homecoming in overtime to 5-7 Abiline Christian. Overall, on paper they seem like two pretty evenly matched teams. According to Massey, they are #30. They have a very impressive win over Central Arkansas who is seeded in the playoff field. They seem alot like us, sort of all over the place. I expect an entertaining game.

Both of the Hero Sports guys are picking Nicholls.....

If UND can't afford to outbid Nicholls, then HPC2 isn't getting built in my lifetime.

Obviously this is false..........

More evidence that Chaves is doing a questionable job. If he can’t put together a bid that will trump Nicholls, I’m not sure what to say........

ESPNU at 11:30

Updated Massey Ratings. North Dakota up one spot to #19. Fellow bubble teams Towson and Southern Illinois a few spots above us.

Brian Rivers is great, we are lucky to have him. I have been to many road venues, and there are a lot of bad PA announcers across the country........

Couldn’t agree more.

I really think all the Big Sky teams will be seeded. If that happens, the three teams left from the “west” are UND, SDSU, and San Diego. Given that the committee wants to try to keep things “regional” while avoiding a first round matchup between conference foes, I think there is a good chance SDSU draws San Diego, and UND gets matched with one of the other Valley schools. I think UNI will get a seed, so I see North Dakota playing either Illinois State or Southern Illinois (if they make it). Good chance of hosting either of those games.

NDSU wins over SIU

Could happen. I would think Montana will still get a seed with 9 wins and the 2nd most difficult schedule in the country. SDSU might be in a more precarious situation as far as a 1st round bye goes

SDSU falls to the Yotes

It's been reported all week that he'd be questionable for this game ....,.....

Regardless of how one feels about Bubba and this coaching staff, one certainly positive thing I will say is that they have had this program in the playoff conversation on the last week of the season in 4 out of 6 years. I do feel that by now I had hoped we would be in the conversation for getting a seed every year rather than just making field, but it is a welcome and exciting change from the previous regime. Although the program wasn’t eligible for the playoffs for most of the Mussman era, none of his teams were playoff worthy IMO........

46 UND 8 SUU

We are fighting against SELA now, not Nicholls. I think we would have been better off If SELA would have won the AQ. Instead of bouncing around on the bubble with what would have been a 7-5 Nicholls, who was shut out by Sam Houston, and is 16 spots below us in Massey, we will possibly be measured against 7-4 SELA, who's resume is more comparable to UND's. SELA shut out Central Arkansas. That is a comparable win to Montana St, IMO. Southland probably doesn't deserve to get 3 teams in, but we've seen how this can play out in the past.