RD17

I agree with somebison, I don't think Lennon is going anywhere in the near future. There are very few jobs in I-AA that are a better situation than UND. Combine that with the fact that UND is Lennon's alma mater and he is from ND and I think it would take an extraordinary situation to pull him away. I'm more worried about losing all of the top assistants (Dosch is also rumored to be the frontrunner for the Jamestown College job).

First of all, Central Washington will be in UND's region- not the west. Secondly, despite several more playoff appearances, the RMAC has exactly as many playoff wins as the NSIC (one). Lastly, nobody from the LSC ever wins any playoff games against teams from outside their region, and frequently, they get blown out (TAMUK against Grand Valley this year and TAMUK against NWMSU a few years ago). Until that changes, my low opinion of the LSC won't change. You're crazy if you think the west is a stronger region than the south. I'll take teams like UNA, Valdosta, Carson-Newman, Catawba, and Delta St. over anyone in the LSC.

The NCC should really be down next year, and UND will be a heavy favorite to repeat as league champs. Here's a rundown on the rest of the teams: UNO: The good news for the Mavs is that they return most of their defense. The bad news is that the Mav defense wasn't very good. On offense, UNO loses their entire offensive line, an all-conference TE, Kammrad at RB and Krause at WR. Masek is a good QB for their offensive system and Denney at WR is a good player, but with that many holes to fill on offense, UNO will be hard pressed to have as good of a year as last year. St. Cloud: Can they replace Heckendorf? If they have an adequate replacement at QB, the Huskies could be very solid next year. They only lose a couple of other players on offense, and if Matt Birkel can stay healthy they could be very good. On defense, St. Cloud loses 5 starters, but 3 of them are from their swiss cheese secondary. With the job Randy Hedburg has done recruiting, I would imagine they'll have some talented young players to step in and at least make their defense adequate. UMD: The Bulldogs really came on at the end of the year after struggling early in the year on offense. The problem is the player responsible for the turnaround, Cash Langness (he switched from DB to QB midway through the year) graduates. They also lose All-American WR Tim Battaglia and a couple of all-NSIC offensive linemen. UMD has been solid on defense the last couple of years, but they need to get faster to compete in the NCC. If Mussman or Schweigert get the job, they'll be competitive, but it will probably take a couple of years of recruiting with increased scholarships for them to contend with the NCC's top teams. Augustana: Augustana had a young team this year, but they lose some critical players like WR Eric Haugland, DL Austin Flygger, and S Ben Naumann. Augustana simply could not stop the run against the good teams this year, and they'll have to get whole lot better on defense to do much better in the NCC next year. USD: Not a whole lot of talent and a new coaching staff. It will take some time for a new staff to right the ship. Mankato: What a mess. Not much else to say here. The very early pick: UND St. Cloud UNO UMD Augustana USD Mankato

It seems that ever since regionalization started, the NCC gets stuck with another league with great teams in it. First it was Pitt St. in the early 90s and NWMSU in the late 90s from the MIAA. Now that those teams have come back to the pack, they stick the NCC in the same region as Grand Valley. Oh well, we'll just have to get used to seeing the championship game a couple of weeks early every year.

bisonguy, What I mean by at-large is in comparison to the other regions. The NE and west will only have 3 conferences each, so those regions will have 3 at-large spots.

The new midwest region will be very tough with Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley, and UND being 3 of the top 5 or 6 programs in the country right now. There also will be 4 conferences in the region, meaning one less available at-large bid. The MIAA is catching a huge break getting out of the midwest region. MIAA teams are 2-7 in the last 4 years in the playoffs and they will be moving into a region that has sent only one school to the championship game in the last 20 years. The Lone Star Conference isn't very good and the RMAC is comparable with the NSIC. The biggest joke of all will be the new northeast region. There won't be a single school in that region that funds 36 scholarships. IUP should be in the semifinals virtually every year.

What a great situation to be in- having your offensive and defensive coordinators auditioning for the same job in a game on national TV. I expect both units to be playing at peak efficiency during the game.

UND has given up more yards than they've gained in its last 5 playoff games. In those 5 games, UND holds a 19 to 3 advantage in turnovers. Just goes to show the importance of holding onto the football and having quality special teams that establish good field position this time of the year.

Sorry, cypress, I was about to give you the benefit of the doubt until I found this posted by you on the GLIAC message board (posted on 12/7 at 7:37 a.m.): If you don't intend any disrespect towards UND, you sure have a funny way of showing it. Injuries, mistakes, penalties, and the bounce of the ball are all part of the game. I don't have time for anyone that whines about what could have been or blames losses on injuries.

I think that UND92,96's scenario is probably what will happen. Personally, I would pick Heckendorf. His numbers weren't quite as good as last year, but I think he's the best player of the three. Also, when you consider the injury to Matt Birkel that made SCSU pretty one dimensional, and the fact that St. Cloud only had 4 home games and played UND, UNO, Pitt. St., and SDSU all on the road, he still had an outstanding season.

You've got a great website, Lakerfan. Thanks for the invitation to post on your message board, I'll have to sign up and talk about the game. I think the two teams match up pretty well in all areas- talent, coaching, and big game experience. I'm looking forward to a great game next week.

It's funny. My seats are just to the south of the student section and I exited the Alerus Center through the same exit as a bunch of the UNA fans. I struck up a conversation with a couple of older UNA supporters as we were walking out and they said they thought it was a great atmosphere and they enjoyed the game even though the wrong team (for them) came out on top. If you want to talk class, I noticed a few UNA players refused to shake hands with the UND players after the game. #21 and #40 just stood on the sidelines, waited for the hand shake line to clear out, and then joined the rest of the UNA team at midfield.

I thought it was great to see the two star NDSU receivers (Burrell and Johnson) at the UND-UNA game. It had to have been great for them to be able to take in the playoff atmosphere that they won't otherwise have a chance to see, UNLESS they're considering transferring? Let's see, they could transfer from a I-AA school (wouldn't have to sit out a year), they could contribute at the one position UND will need to fill for next season, they could avoid having to play in the dreaded "Transition Bowl", and they could play their home games in a stadium where the lighting is actually good enough to see a pass thrown their way. Too good to be true?

No, I don't think it made a difference one way or the other if Anes played. David Kircus was the guy that made GV go on offense because of his ability to take a short pass and turn it into a TD. The UND defense never let Kircus get loose and make a big play on those screens like Valdosta did last year. There are many QBs capable of making that throw and watching someone else do the work. IMO, Kircus was the most explosive offensive player I have seen in D2 football, and Anes was an above average D2 QB who had the benefit of playing with him. I agree the game next Saturday should be a great one. It's remarkable that GV has been able to win three road playoff games with such a young team. I have nothing but respect for Brian Kelly and GV, I just think it's out of line for someone to come on the UND message board and give us the woulda, coulda, shoulda crap from a game two years ago.

The bottom line on the game- UND was a much better team up front on both sides of the ball. You can have all the speed in the world, but it's useless if you're getting manhandled at the point of attack. The fake FG was a brilliant playcall by the coaching staff. Glas wasn't having his best day and the difference between having a 13 point lead and a 17 point lead was huge at that point in the game. For as much team speed as UNA was supposed to have, UND dominated in the special teams. The wall that the return team set up on those two long punt returns by Lueck was a thing of beauty. I'm not sure if there is a better defensive coordinator at any level of college football than Bubba Schweigert. He adjusted to those fake screens that were pulling the corners up and that led to the big interception by Manke. The DL and LBs did a terrific job of recognizing the middle screen and backing off on the pass rush. Bubba even had the NT playing a short zone a few times. I was a little worried when Lueck and Ahlers went down and the Sioux had to play a couple of receivers short in the second half. I thought Mussman did a nice job of going to more conservative playcalls and two TE sets and relying on the OL to control the game. A great job all the way around.

You've come to the wrong place if you think we're going to follow along with the "if Anes would have played GV would have won in 2001" garbage. GV scored over 30 points in both the quarterfinal and semifinal games with the "WR playing QB" and threw for over 500 yards and 6 TDs in those two games. The GV passing game got shut down against UND and the better team won the game.

I listened to most of Lennon's part of the show. A few of the highlights that I remembered: DL talked about UNA having good team speed, especially on defense. He noted that Carson-Newman moved the ball very well last week against UNA but 4 first half turnovers and other mistakes kept them off the scoreboard. DL also said that UNA is very aggressive defensively and that UND will have to be patient and try to hit some big plays on them. On offense, DL said that UNA runs almost everything out of the shotgun and their QB is smart and plays mistake free. He also noted that the UND defense has seen alot of the shotgun/spread type offenses and some very talented individual players the last couple of seasons so the defense knows what must be done to contain UNA. DL noted that the Sioux defensive scheme is a difficult one for the younger players to perfect and that it only takes one or two guys a step out of position and the offense can make some plays against them. Lennon said that the 2001 playoff experience should help UND. He noted that UCD came into that semifinal game with even better offensive stats than UNA has this year, but the Sioux were able to contain them by playing solid football. Lennon said that UNA is probably the best team the Sioux have seen all year, but at the same time, DL seemed very confident that if UND plays solid in all three phases of the game the Sioux have a very good chance to win. DL wasn't pleased about the team being flat in the 2nd half against Winona. He said that Winona did a nice job in the 2nd half, but that UND needs to learn to make the plays necessary to put teams away. No significant injuries- a caller asked about the O-Line being banged up, but Lennon said everyone should be ready to go on Saturday. There was some conversation about the game with UNA in '94 and the extra scholarship controversy down there, but I didn't catch much of that conversation.

I have nothing but respect for what Winona St. has done. I know they're in the NSIC, but they stepped up to the plate and beat some good teams in their non-conference schedule and won a playoff game- all with about 15 scholarships. I expect they'll bring a solid team and be ready to play next Saturday at the Alerus.

bisonguy, That's interesting, I suppose it makes sense that a floor could be put over the fieldturf, but I had never heard of it before. I think it would be great to have fieldturf at the Alerus, but like you said, setup time could be the limiting factor.

I thought the one guy that really stood out on offense for UND was David Wisthoff. Man, did he ever have some crunching lead blocks for Roland in the second half. Pitt St. decided to play that wierd double zone on the outside receivers in the second half to take away the passing game and the Sioux were able to run the ball well enough to get the win. Pitt St. reminds me of Nebraska. Their power running game is enough to beat 90% of their opponents into oblivion, but when they play a team with talent on defense, they aren't consistent enough passing the ball to score points. The Pitt St. defense was pretty much as advertised- outstanding DLine, good LBs, so-so secondary. It's a credit to the coaching staff and offensive players that they didn't force things and turn the ball over against a solid team.

You can't remove fieldturf whenever you want like you can with regular artificial turf. Since the Alerus is a multi-purpose facility, it's not feasible to have fieldturf.

How would you know? He had offers from other DI schools but chose Green Bay because the coach showed a commitment to him that the other schools didn't. His whole family has ties to UND- his brother graduated from there a couple of years ago and his sister (along with his 2 1/2 year old nephew) is there now. It wouldn't have taken a whole lot of effort for UND to recruit a kid 75 miles down the road. Who knows, maybe he changes his mind like Scott Guldseth did a few years ago and decides he wants to be closer to home.

Grand Valley has played home and home with UC Davis the last two years. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't (or couldn't) play UND. I've heard SVSU and GVSU mentioned before, who knows whether it will actually happen or not? Dale Lennon did mention again on his coaches show the other night that if the 2004 schedule UND is currently working on comes together, the fans will be very happy.

The two things that really concern me about the basketball program are player retention and the high number of jucos being brought in. When you have in-state players that are 5th year seniors suddenly decide to leave and play elsewhere, it should be sounding the alarms that something isn't right. I realize Glas has always brought in juco players, the difference now is that they're depended upon to be the whole team versus bringing in guys like Rico Burkett and Bo Powell to compliment the situation and fill a hole on an already solid team. Yes, UND hit the jackpot with Jerome Beasley, but for every juco that pans out, there seems to be a couple that don't like Myron Allen and Robert Lollar. It's my understanding that UND never even made much of an attempt to recruit Tyler Koenig (the Fargo North star that is now a freshman at DI Wisconsin- Green Bay). Now maybe Koenig had his heart set on DI all along, but at least by actively pursuing him, there's always a chance a player like him might come back to UND if things don't work out.