homer

A majority of our players making plays for us in our best Great West years were young guys. You look at that list and most of those players were All Conference 2 or 3 years. We were lacking those players early on during transition or if we did have them, they were dismissed from the team. I'd take some of the guys we have coming back for a year (or 3) after this year and compare them to some of the players on the list by the time they are seniors and like where we stand. Don't let the fact that we don't have any players on that list get in the way of the amount of talent we have returning. It just took some time for our coaches to build that talent. One thing this list shows is the Great West was a pretty solid conference in the short time it was around. Some very, very talented players on that list.

Its not pretty but they won again. With his specific skill set he's as good as a lot of other qb's in the league and there is a lot to be said for his "attitude" rubbing off on other players on the team and getting everyone to pull in the same direction. He's won as many games this year as Orton won in 4 years. I've been a Broncos fan for 20+ years as well and wasn't exactly high on him when he took over the job but won't argue with the results.

Thanks for the updates Ira.

I would rather play an FBS on the road and take the chance of getting beat than play a DII (non counter) and win. At least with an FBS we get a paycheck. In the eyes of a playoff selection committee the DII game never happened. Our goal every year is to make the playoffs and how our schedule is set up now we are asking our team to win 7 out of 10 games in a new conference vs. schools much more established with their depth. Not easy for any team.

They are joining the Big East for football only. Boise St. will more than likely be looking for a home for the rest of its sports. The Big Sky, while maybe a long shot has been mentioned. Won't benefit the conference for football but will be a nice name to have in the conference for other sports if it happened. Probably won't but its worth talking about.

Well, CBSsports and ESPN are reporting that an announcement is coming Wednesday that Boise and San Diego St. will join the Big East for football only. Could the Big Sky benefit from this now seemingly official shakeup?

I can't remember which kid (I think it was the runningback from Illinois) that mentioned he is coming for a visit this weekend. Should be a good weekend to bring in recruits. I hope we start to see the recruiting news pick up as we'll have a couple recruiting weekends before X-mas and than a full January.

The SEC bias is there cause they beat every team, from every other conference they play in the Nat'l championship game. There are not two better teams in the country than LSU and Alabama.

Don't bother with him Ira he's been trolling for a while. As far as recruiting California the coaches are still there. Getting into the Big Sky and finally being playoff elgible has given UND and the coaches another recruiting pitch for local recruits. Despite what some fans of other schools would like to think UND's recruiting base will remain ND, MN, WI, SD and Iowa. We've gotten back to getting more and more talent out of these states the last couple of year and this year has started no different. Doing this will allow us to be more selective in some of these other states such as CA, Arizona, Texas, NE, and now apparently Illinois. The coaches are still there recruiting and will continue to pull talent from those states when they need to. We just have to get back to getting some of the local talent first.

I don't think anyone can deny that the talent we are putting on the field is getting better and better every year. The cupboard was left pretty bare. It takes some time to rebuild the talent level to compete. Last year, we didn't have it. This year it was much better and we had a lot of youth that had to contribute. Yes, we were inconsistent but that can be blamed on lack of experience as much as on the head coach. All of this is new to Mussman as a head coach as well. When he took the team over, I feel he had to coach to keep games close as the overall talent wasn't there. Now that he is getting the talent, he needs to develop and coach to win. I think we saw him do that towards the end of the year as he gained confidence along with the team. You can look at last year and next year but I judge him on this year and I don't think anyone saw this team finishing 8-3 especially with the injuries the team had. Give the guy a little credit at least.

I agree with this and it will be very interesting to see if the city of New Orleans is going to like home town LSU vs. a one day drive Alabama playing for a national title. I'm guessing they would rather have at least one team, who will travel well and has fans that will stay for the weekend.

Don't know how he could. With what we have returning at WR, all junior or younger, I don't know if he would help next year. What I would like to see is him redshirt, get some time as a redshirt freshmen and be ready to contribute as a sophmore when McGill and Hardin are done. If he's good enough to play before than, even better. NDSU is a run first offense, always has been and always will be. They have the rb's to do that and get a good one every other year. It will be interesting to see how he fits in there if the report is accurate. On after watching the MN games this weekend I'm hoping Taylor Grant can work some magic and get Eden Prairie's running back to UND. That kid was a good player and looked like he would be a pretty good college running back at the FCS level, maybe the highest level if he was a little bigger or given the opportunity. Very athletic kid. Minnesota has a lot of talent throughout the state this year.

Agree, we need to fill that Central Arkansas game with a counter and drop the Mines game for a counter. Right now, not including the Central Arkansas game, we have to get 7 wins out of 9 games that count and 1 is a FBS. Thats a tall task to 3 of 5 on the road and sweep at home. I know everyone is working on it but getting this scheduling figured out will help keep the momentum rolling the team brought into the offseason.

Thanks for your interest in Fighting Sioux athletics.

I think that is one of the most underrated parts of getting early verbals. These kids talk to one another and sometimes hearing it from another recruit instead of a coach can be all it takes.

I know that but apparently someone else didn't. There are also a couple more out west that are pretty talented. The kid from Kindred is good, he'll probably have a decent college career, but he's not top two players in the state.

Take Rob Morris, play them 3-4 times in the two years prior, including the opener that season. Beat them by 40+ each time. Put the game on statewide TV. And than figure what your attendance would have been. That was what Winnona was for us that year. It may have been slightly more than 5,000 but I guarantee it wouldn't have been 12,000. I'm glad you finally admit that the weekend and opponent really does make a difference. If it makes a difference if its your 1st playoff game ever in the dome, imagine it being a common opponent when you were making the playoffs every year like UND was at the time.

Still was well below your season average attendance. ndsu also probably had the highest regular season attendance average of all teams hosting playoff games last year. Wouldn't you have thought it would have been higher since it was the 1st ever playoff game in the Fargodome?

I love ndsu recruiting logic. Always brings a smile to my face. I hope you don't think the OL from Kindred was one of the top players in the state. He's good, but not even the best OL in North Dakota.

Thanksgiving weekend is a tough weekend on attendance. Teams don't draw well the way it is, factor the fact that we had beat Winona by 40 the 3 games we played them previously along with the game being televised and its tough to sell tickets. The 2nd and 3rd rounds will be better and I'd imagine the fargodome will be sold out, or very close, for those games.

Staying healthy definately factors into not only the regular season but definately the playoffs. This year we had an offense that was pretty banged up all year and lost our second best defensive linemen with a handfull of games left. For us it may have been a blessing as it gave 3 other o-linemen and a few WRs some valuable playing time to build some depth for next year.

Illinois St beat 2 FCS teams with a winning record, USD who was 3-5 vs. FBS or FCS and Indiana St. who finished 6-5. They lost to Eastern Illinois. I don't think them being left out was a suprise after they lost to UNI at home.

NDSU wasn't playing real well last year heading into the playoffs either and strung some games together. The physical ground game played in the midwest is tough for some teams to match up with. Along with earning home field and ndsu will be tough to beat.

You guys are both correct and I apologize. I forgot about Casey. Both are taller WRs who will fit in nicely with what we have returning. I couldn't help but be very impressed with Irey over the last couple games. He started slow but really showed why he had high expectations coming into the year. Kid is a good player. I also really liked the 3-4 WR sets and hurry up we ran in the 4th quarter and wouldn't mind seeing that as our offense next year. We could run 3 WR with Wistoff as a wingback and motion him into the backfield to change formation. Could still run out of that formation or motion our quicker backs out of the backfield and throw those 5-10 yard routes we chewed up USD with in the 4th. Our offense looked comfortable running that set.

I believe there were 15-20. Not sure who but they saw a good game. Hopefully Woods from Bemidji was in attendance and saw an offense that throws the ball and see's he would be a great fit. He'd be a nice player to have with Molberg for four years. I had a chance to watch their semi-final game on TV and that kid is impressive. He'd fit in nicely with the young, athletic WR corps we have.