dlsiouxfan

I would be extremely disappointed if Lennon doesn't give at least an apology to his players. They deserved better than what they got from him regarding this.

When Holley left Mankato, the job was Mussman's if he wanted it. He turned it down and they hired Jamrog. If he chose to pursue the job this this time around he'd get it as well. Lennon's departure caught the assistant's by surprise as well, for all he knew Lennon could have coached the next 10 years. There are a lot of head coaching positions he could have if he wanted them.

It would be a big jump for both of them. I can't see where either of these guys would even have an idea about the type of athletes we need to compete at this level. The NSIC hasn't really prepared either of them for the level of competition they'll see in the FCS division. Tesch hasn't even been able to put together a consistent winner in the NSIC and Sawyer's gimmick offenses won't work against the superior athletes seen at programs of our level.

As for the 3-4 defense I think another coach from K-State with UND ties would be an excellent choice. Josh Kotelnicki probably should have gotten the job when Tibesar left but didn't have enough experience when the position opened up. I think if either Tibesar or Mussman get the job he'd be given strong consideration for the DC position.

From the discussions I've had with players both Tibesar and Mussman would be welcomed. Between the two and I don't think we could go wrong with either one. Any other candidates either internal or external probably wouldnt' be a good choice.

Mussman is the front-runner and Tibesar would be given consideration if he is in fact interested (which seem doubful). Mussman would be an excellent choice. He's turned down other head coaching jobs in the past. Mankato has offered him their job twice and I'm sure some other schools have knocked on his door as well. He's recruited a lot of the kids on our roster and even though Lennon won the awards, Mussman was out there doing most of the legwork. Plus, the evidence speaks for itself when he's been given free reign to run the offense as he has the last two years. Besides, other than Tibesar I can't think of a compelling outside candidate who I'd find better than Mussman. I mean really what have Tesch and Schweigert shown as head coaches. Neither has really had tremendous success. Sawyer would be a poor choice unless you'd like to see UND running gimmick offenses and hoping to bore their opponents to death. We stand more to lose than a single recruiting class by wasting time on an external search that may or may not turn up a candidate better than Mussman. Their isn't anything keeping our current players here. You risk losing alot of them if you bring in an outside candidate who wants his to do things his way and with his players.

A UND- SIU game would be interesting wherever it's played. Hopefully, it gets done. Right now I can't say anything would please me more than to see the Fighting Sioux hand out an ass-whooping to their old coach.

In 5-10 years, if we pull off the Division I move the way we are capable of, the UND head coaching job will be a lot better job than the SIU job. Unfortunately, at 47 Dale Lennon probably doesn't have that kind of time if he ever wants to get a big- time FBS job. This is the right move for him if this is his ambition and if so then I wish the best of luck to him.

Woden, I couldn't have said it better.

Mussman and Tibesar would both be excellent choices. They both are excellent recruiters and both should receive as much credit as Lennon for our success over the past 5 years. Both have brought a lot of excellent recruits in from Wisconsin (Tibesar) and Mussman (MSP). That being said I would hope Coach Lennon would at least have some interest in making sure the coaching change goes somewhat smoothly. Cherry picking the coaching staff before he leaves will almost ensure that it doesn't. He owes the players at least this much.

Will the press conference be on the radio and if so what station?

I hate to break this to you, but The Phoenix is one of yours.

Blais may be the right guy. That's the new president's decision to make. If he is the guy then it's imperative he forget his past allegiances and move football to the forefront in terms of the athletic pecking order at UND. There's too much at stake for him not to.

Well, maybe if we actually did some marketing for football and basketball instead of spending all our marketing dollars on hockey we'd draw a little better for football and basketball. You can't tell me if we actually marketed football and basketball the way NDSU does we couldn't sell out the Alerus. People attend hockey games at UND because it's marketed as an event, not because they're die-hard hockey fans. Your average fan at the Ralph on a Friday night doesn't know a lick about hockey, but they love going because it's seen as the "the place to be in GF". If we did this with football we'd see even better results because your average sports fan is going to be a lot more inclined to attend a football game than a hockey game. That's how we need to approach this D-1 move. Football and basketball need to become the focus. They're the best two draws nationally and believe it or not they're the best two draws in ND as well. East of Devils Lake and South of Thompson, football and basketball are king. As much as it absolutely pains me to say this, NDSU had the whole state's attention when they beat Minnesota. Did we have that this weekend for our game against the Gophers? I'd say no. Outside of GF not many people cared, just like most people don't care nationally. The exposure we can gain from hockey is limited, the exposure we can obtain by defeating a BCS team or reaching a NCAA basketball tournament will dwarf it by comparison.

I agree, Wanless did a pretty good job here and basically got ran out of town because he somehow got on Ralph's bad side. Many of the coaches I think would support his return. I also think he'd have the guts to stand up to REA, as often times what's best for REA isn't best for UND. Roger Thomas never got this and it was really his major flaw as an AD. Buning was a little better, but he gave little or no interest to other parts of the position and upset a lot of the coaches with his laziness. That's why he's gone now.

I don't think Blais would be a good choice at all for the new A.D. position. We need someone with D-1 experience or at least D-1 connections. Blais may have been a great hockey coach, but what does he know about scheduling teams like Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska for football or basketball. The D-1 move is really about getting more exposure for these sports and through that the university as a whole. We need someone who's going to make success in these sports a number one priority. The days when these sports play second fiddle to hockey are over and our next choice for AD must agree with this.

Coach Lennon with a full set of scholarships scares the hell out of both of these programs. Most of the kids we've lost the last few seasons we've lost on dollars alone and we won't lose many of these when we can match their offers. Lennon is just a coach that kids want to play for, Bohl comes of as a guy looking to get out of Fargo and the rumors of him leaving won't help that reputation much, and Coach Stig's is infamous in coaching circles for his inability to recruit. I expect another excellent class this season (though we may have to travel a little further to get kids this year) and for each recruiting class to only get better. The Ag college is making a big mistake by not getting us on the schedule this year, (just like we made a mistake in not playing them), their best chance of beating us is this next season and if the series isn't resumed for few recruiting classes they won't even touch us.

Thank you.

Is there another link out there?

Taylor and Bohl probably can't even spell integrity. If there is any question as to what would have happened one only needs to look at what happened in baseball. The bison thought they'd pound UND in every sport just because they had the brand new DI label on their teams. UND beat their pants off in Fargo and embarassed them so much ndsu decided to break the contract. The bison only wanted to continue the games if they were assured of winning every year, if not they'd just cancel the games and spin some BS about wanting to play games against "better competition." It's also why they won't play now, ndsu doesn't want to lose to their in-state rival so they spin lame-ass excuses like the "academic standards" thing. The funny part is such statements only make Taylor look like an even bigger idiot than has already been proven, due to the Sioux's significantly higher athletic graduation rate and UND's considerably stronger academic reputation than ndsu's.

Another reason for the lack of Top 25 DII vs Top 25 FCS matchups is due to top FCS teams not scheduling strong D-II's. There are a few exceptions which have come back to bite FCS teams in the ass (UND vs UNI, ndsu vs Montana), but for the most part when an FCS team schedules a D-II team their looking for a "little sisters of the poor" to beat down. For example look at how many FCS teams have played Oklahoma Panhandle State and other terrible DII's the past few years. Any AD who does his homework won't put his teams up against an evenly matched team from a lower division for risk of embarassment. If Grand Valley State went to Montana and offered to play them in Missoula, $100 says the Griz turn them down because it's a game they might get embarrassed in. They'd much rather beat on Fort Lewis and get a gimme win, or take a shot at a FBS team, than risk losing to a strong team from a lower division. On a side note, "Anyplace, anywhere, anytime" must not apply to the Sioux I guess. If Taylor and Bohl could find a pair between the two of them that slogan might actually mean something.

Make no mistake there is more than enough blame to go around. Why shouldn't we blame those public officials who are charged with protecting us? It's their job isn't it? This bridge didn't fall down because of some natural disaster or horrifying accident. It fell because of neglect and incompetence by those in positions of leadership. It fell because for the past 10-15 years the people we've elected have put tax cuts, corporate handouts, entitlements, and massive defense spending ahead of our safety. What good is a long drawn out war supposedly for our protection if the bridges we drive on everyday give way, letting us plunge to our deaths? Why should we spend millions to build a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, if we can't even take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of one that serves a metro area of nearly 11 million people? It's not politicizing the tragedy, it's taking a step back looking at what happened and saying "How in the hell could anyone who could have done something about this have let this happen."

Why not give credit where credit is due? Under Bush state funding for infrastructure has decreased every year while funds are diverted to Halliburton's bank account for the war in Iraq. Couple this with Pawlenty and the legislature's obstinance on the gas tax and you have a MNDOT that's woefully underfunded. Our bridges and roads don't maintain themselves and yesterday was a sad reminder of what happens when you let them decay.

These two sports don't statistically have more offenses. Football players and basketball players are no more likely to be rapists and criminals than hockey players, tennis players, swimmers, frat boys, doctors, lawyers, or any other group of men. It's just these two sports receive a great deal more media scrutiny than other sports, so when a few bad apples show up it's shown on tv nationwide. Remember other groups have their incidents (DU hockey, Duke Lacrosse, heck there's even been stories about HS women's teams that are fairly disgusting), it's just these, with the exception of the Duke Lacrosse incident, didn't get the media attention other cases involving FB and and BB players received.

Doesn't anybody else find this an absolute waste of police force and taxpayer money? Doesn't the GFPD have anything better to do with their time?