Irish

I can understand the new economic reality - I don't like it much but I get it. What I absolutely hate is the barrage of Bison football and Gopher Hockey stories that we are now subject to as we continue to get the Fargo Herald.

At this point while I believe there is frustration with this call, most of the venting is about Bubba's body of work in these situations.

A new week and we have a great chance at being a very respectable 4-2 at his point in the season. The good news from last week is that we showed a lot on both sides of the ball in the first half. Let's play a full game and come home with a win.

Thanks for the analysis - here's what I see - and I would include the series right before half - the one where we took a knee. - As I count this we had 10 first down plays before the final drive. Of those we ran on first down 6 times results in yards: -1, 5, 2, 0, 0, 1. When the game started to get interesting (series 4,5,and 6) we ran all three times on first down for a total of 1 yard for all 3 plays. Up until the very nice last drive our longest play that was not called back was 10 yards. Included in the passing attempts are 2nd and 8, 2nd and 10, 3rd and 5, 2nd and 9, 3rd and 14. Although we had a mix of pass and run plays we kept no one off balance and were usually second and third and long.

They do, however, recruit and coach the guys who do.

I can see why this is a tough thread for some especially after we won a big game at home. And I agree that many teams have had second collapses. However, for others it was confirmation that Bubba was still Bubba - I think when he finally got rid of Rudy we thought maybe he had grown some. He will always be the guy who gets the ball before half with a reasonable shot of getting into field goal range with a time out to use and instead starts thinking about how the other team might in some bizarre way get momentum if we try and mess up. He will always be the guy who with a lead at halftime starts to look at the clock and starts to figure out ways to milk it. He will always be the guy who is usually out-adjusted for the second half. He will always be ultra-conservative - every time. For many of us this is very frustrating. We were two very stupid Davis penalties away from letting this game get away.

It's ironic that a nice home victory over a tough opponent also shows us the extremely frustrating side of Bubba's game management and strategy.

Bubba has shown that he is totally incapable of introspection, change, or learning. If we keep him this is exactly what we will get until the end of time.

Nobody wants us to miss an extra point. However .........

I sit on the end and there is absolutely no way I want to move -

MIshmash

This sentence is the key part of almost everything. And we've been waiting for what seems like forever. Most towns used to be close to evenly divided between Sioux and Bison fans (with some pockets strongly for one or another based on proximity or having a local kid playing) and game day was a blast. Remember when we thought Bubba and by extension Bubba Ball would challenge the Bison? Now we are desperately hoping for an above average season.

I think it helps if we have a good product on the field - more people available who want to see a great game. However, if we have a hard to watch team it hurts because up until last year people could go to the hockey game and see a great game.

We have a long history of getting those types of guys - until recently.

This describes last year's team to a T.

We were intense and worked hard, but Duluth was way more physical. It was hard watching Duluth bully us. In my mind there are only two ways to defeat this - hit them back or put a large number of pucks in the goal. We did neither.

Could not agree more - In order to run Bubbaball successfully you have to have the horses up front on both sides of the ball. We don't. In my opinion this is a combo of recruiting DII level of players and poor development. I'm trying to picture the off-season meeting on player conditioning where we came up with this gem "hey, how about having all of the O linemen lose weight for the upcoming season?" Why would Bubba, who is almost pathologically adverse to change allow this one thing in player development to change for this season?

We recruit the best DII players available.

Bubba being Bubba - He will never change.

The story of the Bubba era - Enough talent each year to be hopeful and take care of most of the cupcakes, but usually with a serious weakness that costs us against good teams. It's almost always the QB and now the undersized lines, but for a while it was the DBs - especially the corners. Special teams are always crappy. I think recruiting is a bigger problem than we realize. Add in some head-scratching coaching decisions - game decisions, schemes, and personnel and you have a thoroughly mediocre program. In spite of this there are many crucial games that we could have won had we made key plays, made adjustments, called a better offensive game, not gotten a punt blocked or turned the ball over. The fact that this happens so often is alarming.

Thanks for the response and ideas.

You are correct - and I didn't expect a full discussion of any coach's contract via email to an alumni he didn't know. I did, however, feel that my input was not valuable to them - this may be my own interpretation but that formulaic "your input is valuable to us" crap was a real turn-off. And your Bubba encounter in my mind sums up what I think of the program. All we get is Bubba speak from the football program and silence from the AD. This is frustrating. I'm not suggesting the AD come out and blast Bubba, but some honesty from Bubba would be refreshing - especially now when the frustration with his program is building. Other than more money (and for my budget I think I am giving plenty) I don't know how to be part of the solution when no one in power ever admits there is a problem.

Your approach sounds sensible and I'm sure it works very well for you. However, from my perspective as a Captains Club member and season ticket holder in two sports the Athletic Department has not been very interested in my input - I have never asked for an appointment but either get no reply or some formulaic response thanking me for my input from my emails (including those to Chaves). Chaves may be very different, but in general the Athletic Department has been glacially slow to change and almost impervious to input - see Coachs Jones, Idalski, Mussman, and now the 6th year of Bubba. The fact that Bubba held on to Rudy for 5 years is a monument to our commitment to stick with what doesn't work. If I felt that there was some kind of input I could give that was actually listened to I would be the first in line. This thread is certainly a place to vent, but that doesn't mean many posters aren't absolutely correct about the program. We as a group recognized Rudy long before anyone on the coaching staff or administration decided to do something.

I don't know - it seems like we are recruiting the very best DII athletes we can find.

I am a season ticket holder who would love to move more to the middle. I'm sure there are many others like me.