UND92,96

The offense looked really good today. The defense needs to step up to have a decent chance of winning next week. Too many big plays allowed today.

It's interesting that McGill may get some time in the backfield today.

I tend to agree regarding USD relative to last year's team. I'm sure there's been some improvement by players such as Gainious (sp?) and Powell, but I have to assume that Warren was Shepard's backup for the past two seasons, and not the other way around, for a reason, and Shepard was 0-4 as a starter vs. UND. They did pick up a good defensive coordinator since last year, although it does not seem that there's been a noticeable improvement on that side of the ball as of yet.

Pretty good prediction!

Strangely ironic that we come out of back-to-back FBS games in almost perfect health, only to suffer a slew of injuries against a pretty weak dII team.

While they have rallied before after a poor start to a season, it sure looks at this point that even finishing above .500 is highly questionable. I fully expect an 0-4 start with their next two games being at Nebraska and UNI. Maybe SDSU is to FCS what Virginia Tech is to FBS this year in terms of failing to live up to expectations.

24 Illinois St. 14 SDSU final Tough start for the Jacks, who I believe have Nebraska coming up. Yikes. 12 Cal Poly 21 Texas St. final

A few thoughts: -I liked the new pre-game video montage. Nice job whomever put that together. -Hendrickson is a maniac on kick coverage, with at least four huge hits. He's also really come on strong as a linebacker. -Hardin is a stud. -Was it just me, or did lifting Miller's red-shirt based upon what appeared to be Sutton getting his bell rung seem a little strange? If Sutton is good to go for next week, then how does the decision look? -I like Mackey as a corner. I believe he got his second straight start opposite Hawkins. -I'd like to see Mersereau return punts instead of Murray. Murray is too valuable to risk injury, and Mersereau did a great job last year. -Zeb Miller has quite a leg on kickoffs--one of the best I've seen at UND.

Same score early in the 4th quarter. And these are the same Illini who hammered Dale Lennon's Salukis last week.

I agree. This may not be a politically correct opinion, but my feeling is that aside from Davis, who hasn't gotten a shot yet as a receiver, the juniors and seniors have been given ample opportunity to produce over the past 13 games, and for the most part haven't come through. That's not to say they can't contribute as blockers and as special teams players, but it's highly unlikely that they'll ever be legitimate playmakers at receiver. This isn't 2003 anymore, where we could simply plug in the next guy in line and he'd produce. We're now mostly playing against the kind of competition that requires a certain level of ability to succeed, and for the most part, the only ones on the roster with that kind of ability at the receiver positions are the young players. I'd like to see more of McGill, and maybe see what Heimler can do if he's healthy.

It was meant as a joke, i.e. any school with "Dakota" in its name wants to play Brewster and company.

Congrats to Greg Hardin on his record-setting performance: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/175357/group/homepage/

I think UND is in kind of a tough spot at quarterback until one of the two true freshmen is ready to take over in a year or two. Landry is obviously a senior, and has been very up-and-down. Goska is a junior and a talented runner, but unless UND goes to some sort of veer-type offense, he's probably not the full-time answer, either this year or next year IMO. Nichols played 9-man football, and is a good athlete, but may fall into a category similar to Goska, i.e. is he enough of a passer? Hendrickson is another talented athlete, but has had to switch to receiver, and seemed to be more of a runner (albeit a very good one) than passer in high school. No quarterbacks were brought in with the 2009 recruiting class. So that leaves Demler and/or Comes as the quarterback of the future. Hopefully at least one of them is ready to contribute as early as next year. Not to make excuses, but another thing to keep in mind is how few fourth and fifth year players there are right now who would have been considered very good NCC players (and these players were recruited before Mussman was even the head coach). I count maybe six or seven, and all but one or two are on the defensive side. I believe that's in large part due to the circumstances surrounding the recruiting class of 2006, insofar as UND hadn't made any formal decision regarding whether to stay dII or go dI. That uncertainty hurt recruiting. And as far as the class of 2007, it had no possibility of post-season (other than for the few who played as true freshmen), and there has been a very high attrition rate from that class. Throw in the class of 2008 and Lennon's departure in the middle of the recruiting season, and the handful of decommitments, and it becomes clearer why UND has such a young team right now.

New roster has been posted: http://www.fightingsioux.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=13500&SPID=6388&SPSID=58566

According to the NIU web site, there's no TV.

Fair points. But since Idaho did average 164 ypg rushing last year, has a huge (but largely inexperienced) offensive line, and may not necessarily want to show a lot of their playbook against an FCS opponent, I wouldn't be surprised if at least in the first half, they come out and try to impose their will with mostly a power rushing game. That's where I feel like UND should match up quite well. It will be interesting, that's for sure.

I'm not really into making specific predictions, but I think it will be a relatively low-scoring game. I'm not sure about our ability to score a lot of points because of the uncertainty at the receiver positions, and by extension the passing game. But I don't think we'll give up a huge amount of points, either. I expect a pretty close game.

Based upon the inconsistent defensive performance of the past three years or so, I can understand why several people are predicting that Idaho will score in the 30's. But with a renewed commitment to the 3-4, Mannausau now apparently calling the shots (and very familiar with the traditional UND 3-4), and pretty talented and experienced nucleus returning, I think the UND defense may surprise a lot of people this year. My hope and expectation is that the Sioux defense will be getting after the quarterback a lot more than what we've seen in recent years.

Thanks in no small part to the oil boom, North Dakota still has the lowest unemployment rate in the country: http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/10-states-with-ridiculously-low-unemployment----and-why-535377.html?tickers=^dji,^gspc,spy,dia,udn,edv,uup

UND falls to Drake in five games: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/173696/ Still, it was a very good performance this weekend.

Well said.

I realize you were being facetious, but as you probably know a substantial portion of the mineral rights were severed from the surface rights years ago, and are now held by descendants of farmers/ranchers who haven't lived in western ND for many years, if ever. I know several UND grads who fall into that category, and I'm sure some NDSU grads are in a similar situation.

I suppose I could look this up myself, but do you happen to know whether most mineral rights in Wyoming are held by the state, or by private landowners? The reason I ask is that I'm curious whether there are a lot of "oil millionaires" in Wyoming, and whether a sizeable amount of money has found its way to the university in the form of donations from these people. In ND, I'm expecting that in time, UND and NDSU may be the beneficiaries of large donations by alums who own land in the oil-producing parts of ND.

Hard to believe JBB could be way off in his 'appraisal' of something... (sorry, inside joke).

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20100818/NEWS01/108170031/SCSU-may-give-football-the-boot