tnt

If that is in fact where we are at in our program, that we would rather not have our offense on the field, and hoping and praying for a turnover, then we are not where we should be at in our transition. It seems to me if the defense was playing that well, then you go for it, simply because you are on their side of the field already.

Wasn't Solum the top running back going into fall camp the year Murray had to sit out? Don't know why you couldn't makeshift formations for one game, especially since you only needed a series from that person every once in a while. How many rushing attempts did Miller have in that game and a half?

I too thought the team would have troubles this year being so young, which makes it all the more odd that he chose to pull the redshirt off of Jake Miller for spot duty in a few games. Knowing how Weston Dressler wasn't utilized much until his sophomore season and how great it would have been to have him one more year after the learning curve, why would you waste a year of eligibility for Jake Miller when you know a couple of years down the road is what you are building for. I don't particularly like responding with a negative comment, especially when I don't agree with the premise of this thread. Every coach makes mistakes, and he should have the opportunity to correct those, especially when most people understood that there would be growing pains.

My concern is that with young players you expect inconsistency, not stats like 56 yards passing. Yikes! If you've got playmakers, you should be able to throw for a big play every now and again. We have been told over the past 3 years that at this level of football you are not going to be able to shut down a team because of the sophistication of offenses. This was in regards to our defense giving up huge numbers in total yards. This should be able to work both ways, and even with young players the offense should have some sort of advantage. Although I'm not into moral victories, the fact that we could hang with them with virtually no passing game, gives me hope for the first year of the Big Sky when we will have a ton of upperclassmen.

I don't think anybody is going to pull the trigger on a firing when the team is so young. I'm sure he's got a year or more to turn it around.

He talks about not being into moral victories, but his actions speak otherwise. What do you have to lose? You're on Montana's side of the field, yet you don't go for it on 4th down.

If Cochran is in on the next series, I will be very disappointed in the staff. There has to be consequences for continually putting the team in bad circumstances because of undisciplined behavior.

... I hope UND fans know that the Bison are doing o.k. in a game with Oregon!! Obsession, it truly is the greatest form of flattery.

Seriously, Hakstol absolutely has to send in footage to the league time and again every time they miss a hit to the head in the favor of the Sioux. Bruneteau and Rowney had hits to the head just as evident, but they did not go to the ice, thus nothing was called. Please do this at the very least, officiate the game beyond the hits. When a player basically has a goal on a wrap around thwarted by a hook and there is not a call, the officiating becomes a laughing stock. I am sure Papa Shep can pat his boy on the back and say, "That's the way I used to miss them son".

Another thing that is a concern is undisciplined penalties. Maybe somebody has stats that could bear this out or not, but it just seems that we have taken more than our fair share of undisciplined penalties this year -- especially personal fouls. Is this what we can expect from here on out in Division 1 because of getting players from all over the country, or should this still be something that should be held in control? It just seems to me that it always seemed that we benefited from the personal fouls in the past, and now we are becoming a victim of it, if you can consider being a victim when it is self-inflicted. Anybody have thoughts on this?

One concern I have is that Mussman said a few weeks back that he was going to see how things played out over the last part of the season before he decides whether he needs to go the Junior College route for a quarterback. Does this mean that he would do this for depth reasons, or is he just not that confident in what he sees in the redshirts and beyond? I guess I assumed from the glowing comments about Demler that he might be the quarterback we needed. If none of the quarterbacks we have appear to be standing out with what appears to be average quarterbacks left in the stable, have we just not recruited well enough, or is our system that tough to get accustomed to? Just curious, because I was hoping to be hearing that we'll be upgraded next year with Demler or Comes, but the JC talk has me wondering if we have the talent in place to take our program to the next level.

Congrats, you got a player that Santa Clara and South Dakota were after. Call me when you get a player that Kentucky or Duke are after.

Just the thought of UND "helping" NDSU get into the Big Sky is enough to almost assure that it won't happen. I don't think Gene Taylor's pride would allow him to even consider a move. Just like all the NDSU fans that had visions of playing the Griz in football in Missoula on a consistent basis (the sight of one of their great wins), I don't think pride would allow them to admit that going forward the Big Sky might be the more progressive move. Hopefully sooner or later some level-headed thinking will take hold instead of the pure petty back and forth we've been seeing between the two schools over the past 7 or so years, and I'm talking about the administrators here. I could see at some point a core four including NDSU, UND, Montana and Montana State all moving up together to the next level if it became attractive and they had a nice core group of schools to join. It could very well be more beneficial to stay in a great conference with competitive institutions pushing each other to become better.

Some very nice comments about three Sioux recruits. Never realized that Schmaltz was possible top ten material. http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.php/ci_id/16980/la_id/1/ss_id/68000/nr_id/149785.htm

I guess this footage from the Wisconsin blog was from a year ago during his freshman season, so he must have indeed grown a bit. http://noalibisnoregrets.blogspot.com/2010/05/recruiting-update-part-5-aj-michaelson.html

He must have grown since the times I've seen him play on tv and such. He might actually not be that big, but he must be in that range. Doesn't seem to be that physical for being that size. Maybe that is why he chose Minnesota, as per his "the way they play the game" quote.

It sounds like Michaelson has or will be commiting to Minnesota according to GPL posters. No big surprise, but would have been nice to add him. Still really like the crop coming in the next few years with Grimaldi and Miller, who are cream of the crop recruits, then adding Rowe, Koules and Matteau. I really thought the Sioux had a good shot at him, but in the long run, the Sioux had their fair share of smaller players coming in already with Grimaldi, St. Clair, Mattson, and then Rowe and Koules, who aren't really big now, but who knows in a couple years. Parks and MacMillan are probably average size and O'Donnell probably more of a power forward by the time he gets here.

They have played at Michigan and at Minnesota. Yes, Minnesota is down, but how many times have the Sioux swept Minnesota at Minnesota in the last 30 years-- once? Bottom line is it doesn't matter who is favored at the time, because it can change fast. St. Cloud could get things together. The Sioux should know above anyone how teams can improve from one week to the next or from the first half of the season to the last. The Sioux are not the only team that has second half surges.

I think you will have a lot of hits that aren't intially hits to the head that end up becoming hits to the head because of momentum. The NFL didn't overreact to Brett Farve's chin shot because the guys helmet rode up the shoulder pads and it couldn't be avoided . I just don't see many games where you couldn't call a few hits to the head, unless you want to take away the checking completely.

I think you make a good point. I think the maliciousness of Marvin's penalty was the issue. You can have a player skate with his head down, and it is impossible not to hit him in the head if you want to check him, unless the player doing the checking is 4'10". Look at the first period of the Sioux game on Saturday when Bruneteau clearly got hit in the head. You can look at Minnesota's Cepis getting an elbowing penalty against Wisconsin and that too was a hit to the head. I am seeing hits to the head in every game, however they are not being called. If Lamoureux's penalty would have been called a hit to the head instead of checking from behind, I think it would have been time for Hakstol to start taking the tact of other coaches and send in video to the league about the calls that have been missed that could very well have resulted in concussions and in Rowney's case, perhaps did.

Except that most of the goals Duluth scored this weekend were against our best defensemen, not the replacements.

You can say that about just every team. Duluth has five players with as many or more points than our leading scorer, so I hardly think they are a one line team. They also have a number of great defensemen. Just because we don't see them every night, doesn't mean they aren't good players. I'm sure other teams don't think of Lamoureux, Rowney, Cichy, Bruneteau, Davidson, as good players because their numbers aren't such that you would think they are big threats. So far this year if you look past the top three of each team, Duluth has better production-- pointwise.

The next four games are very important. If they come home under .500 for the season it will be very disappointing with a veteran team. Hopefully they can go 3-1, but Wisconsin and Omaha are playing well right now. With all the players Wisconsin lost, I didn't think they would have started off so well. The Sioux should be favored with their talent, but it seems even with good talent the Sioux just are not that great before Christmas. The Sioux need to do something to break the trend of playing mediocre or worse before Christmas, go on a tear after Christmas, and come up just short at the end of the season. Hopefully they start changing that trend this weekend in Wisconsin.

I've seen way too many receivers with nobody within 15 yards of them and many have resulted in touchdowns. Is it young players making the wrong read? One concern for me is the fact that Brent Goska has been our #2 quarterback for a couple years, but he doesn't appear to have the touch in the long passing game. At this level of football, you have to have a quarterback who can throw the ball to open up the running game. What have the coaches seen in practice that would compel them to have Goska as the # 2 guy and Hendrickson moving to receiver? I don't want to jump the gun based on Hendrickson throwing the ball better on this occasion, but I have a decent sampling on Goska and he doesn't seem to have the arm to keep defenses honest. The fact that you have to totally retool your offense to his talents doesn't seem justifiable when Hendrickson appears a little better fit into our normal scheme. Again, short sampling, so who knows how he performed in practice before he was moved to receiver.

Personally I didn't really see that in Jones, and Radke and Prpich didn't really do anything but instigate like Hextall does. Yes Prpich could drop them, but I don't think people feared him any more than they would MacWilliam or Blood. I can do without all the undisciplined penalties those two took also. I like the style of play that most of the Sioux play with now, and that is being tough to play against by always being in your face and making sure you finish off a hit and let the guy know that when he has or dishes the puck, he is going to take punishment. I think that is the essence of being tough. You can count the number of times Prpich and Kaip threw down on one hand. I don't think anybody was truly intimidated with them being on the ice or that it stopped anyone from doing something. I can't think of a circumstance this year that warranted somebody taking on the enforcer role, but I have no doubt that someone will step to the forefront once it becomes necessary.