tnt

Yeah, one day and one loss after Guerin said it is up to the players to pull themselves out of it. Once again the old vote of confidence for the coach is the kiss of death. Of course the buyouts didn’t give the coach much room to maneuver, and giving out new contracts hasn’t worked out as well as they would have hoped.

So to stop the inbred nature that people complain about, we will hire someone from within who will in turn give UND applicants a higher priority than "outsiders".

If there is a next in line from within, does Bubba hand down his two point conversion charts?

He’s probably contemplating how many more years he will want to get out and support the team, when they can’t manage a stop by blind luck every once in a blue moon. Also figuring how many years left on Bubba’s contract, then how many years to get up to speed after that. With our luck Bubba will pull out just enough for Chaves to give him another extension, and more people will be doing the math. Maybe Bubba should just do the right thing, because he isn’t getting any younger himself, but then again he doesn’t seem to be too stressed about the Ground Hog’s Day results we are forced to live year after year.

The fact that we have consistently given up 3rd and 13 or more with a porous secondary and no pass rush, while when we are in the same situation on offense we basically throw a bubble screen and hope to get a few yards is an indictment on the coaching staff’s passive mindset, and recruiting deficiencies. They do nothing to inspire confidence in their players and it shows, just like Bubba does nothing to inspire confidence in the fan base.

But Bubba uses his same old line that he has done time and again with Rudy and our bad defenses that he knows they have to be better and the coaches need to figure it out. Of course he gets rid of anyone he has to for him to keep his job, but when does it fall on him when none of the things he identifies as problems, like getting off the field on 3rd down, remain as problems year after year? They just keep pushing the problems to another year, and now we’re even back to play calling on offense when the game is on the line.

"Our football program is in great hands under Bubba's leadership," UND athletic director Bill Chaves said in a statement. "His commitment to the student-athlete experience is tremendous while also being an outstanding ambassador for UND and the state of North Dakota." Don’t see anything here about being an exceptional coach or recruiter, so maybe a lot of us can apply next time. I can make a great student-athlete experience. Don’t see anything about him motivating his players to take their talent to the next level. Seems like low bar to get an extension. Maybe Chaves figures the same bar would be applied to him.

Minnesota shoves the Michigan State guy into his own goalie as Minnesota scores, so goal disallowed for goalie interference. Should have been a penalty for interference period.

The thing that bothers me is that Bubba thinks the fans comments about running the ball at midfield with a chance to take the lead were hindsight. Most everyone on this board and the announcer himself were adamant that they needed to stick with something that was working so well for them. Sometimes I think Bubba is delusional wondering about fans concerns about some of the very strange calls and plays they make with odd two point conversions and just general play calling. When you know as an offense you can’t get behind the chains, because of how limited they are, you better get some yards, and at the very least get rid of the ball fast. If this is a one off situation it is one thing, but you learned nothing from the South Dakota loss.

It’s sad, because he is a likable guy, but I hear the same thing, which makes you wonder if that has something to do with the fleeting confidence his teams have demonstrated, and the huge disparity from the home and road records. You need supreme confidence to win on the road consistently.

Always thought we wouldn’t know a turning point until we win on their soil, much like the Ryder Cup. It’s too soon to know what can be done in the off season to improve, but who has any confidence that we could go into the FargoDome and not be embarrassed by them putting up 40-50 points? The confidence from the game here seemed to be an emotional flash in the pan, which pretty much summarizes Bubba’s tenure.

We see how hard it is to defend a dual threat quarterback, but we are totally limiting our offense because we throw most of our passes within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage and our quarterback only runs when he is forced to do so. It is surprising that we can run the ball as well as we do. Like I said before, having a game manager quarterback is fine if you have a lights out defense. Our defense play like the lights are out, because they can’t seem to find anybody.

So we keep running a 3-4 defense and we don’t have the personnel for it, but we did in the D2 days, so it should work in Bubba’s mind.

Danny is really happy with the leadership, but if he was being a leader himself he would take responsibility for preventing us from taking the lead.

I just think it constantly shows that this team doesn’t carry itself as a team that can win a championship. Their “oh no not again” body language gives it away. Even with middle of the pack talent, you should be able to get off the field on third and long situations.

Then why build all the facilities if it is a geographic problem?

Don’t know if our adjustments worked that great, as Sacramento dropped a wide open pass, and we guessed right on a play that put them in a long yardage situation, and odds were that at some point we would get lucky in them not converting. To me the game was lost when we had a chance to take the lead which would have really had them questioning themselves, and Danny, was, well, Danny!

So trust our defense to stop them? Maybe if you would run the ball, you wouldn’t be in 3rd and long.

How about Bubba micromanage and override anything other than a run on first down.

Questionable? Downright incompetent! NDSU didn’t win their championships by going away from what was working.

Now, he’ll try the delayed draw play.

Just wonder if Bubba is singing Karoke into that headset, because it sure doesn’t appear to be good for anything else, like relaying adjustments.

Season’s over after this game if they don’t come back, so I would think you would use him enough to at least get back in the game.

So we’re not that great at being a physical Missouri Valley team, and to top it off we don’t have the athleticism to compete otherwise.

The thing that gets me, is that I don’t see any leaders on defense yelling “let’s go” and actually looking pissed off at what’s going on.