UND92,96

According to Bennett's bio, he only played one year of high school football! If he's already among the most impressive of the true freshmen, imagine what he may be like after a year of lifting and learning. I'm excited about the potential of this group of freshmen LB's (Bennett, Goodman, Finley and Otto).

I'm actually a little more optimistic about the talent level on offense than I was prior to the TT game. I think Landry has a chance to be quite good, particularly playing against FCS teams that probably won't be able to produce as much of a pass rush as TT did, and I have a feeling that Sutton is going to be the next great UND back. Not that I'm expecting him to put up better numbers than Murray did last year, but he was far more heralded coming out of high school than was Murray, and has been impressive in practice from what I've heard. If Bamba can improve at all on his late season performance from 2008, we could be in pretty good shape in terms of having playmakers. It will be interesting to see if Davis gets into the mix, particularly as a receiving threat out of the backfield. Finally, I think we may see Goska get some playing time, which provides a whole different dimension at quarterback (a Zach Miller type, perhaps?).

If UND plays well, I think this is a winnable game. I would compare this to the SE Louisiana game last year in terms of the caliber of opponent. NW St. has a new coach (from LSU) and a lot FBS transfers, but clearly UND has already played against better team speed. And if the Texas Tech o-line couldn't move the UND d-line, I certainly would expect us to more than hold our own up front.

It doesn't look like last night's show has been posted yet, but here's last week's show: link

You have to hand it to the kid. He's had extensive playing time in exactly two games--two years ago in a playoff game at Grand Valley, and yesterday at Texas Tech. And he played solidly on both occasions. I wasn't sure before yesterday, but it certainly looks like he's capable of having a big year.

Yes.

I'm sure that was part of it, but there may also have been the issue of having three veteran backs returning in Strouth, Beatty and Brady, and not wanting to simply hand the featured ball carrier role to a red-shirt freshman no matter how much more talented he was than the incumbents.

Nice pick!

I agree. Also, with all the young talent UND has right now, it may be a few weeks into the season before we start seeing what some of these kids are really capable of. For example, I recall the first game of the 2006 season when UND opened the season at Central Washington, a red-shirt freshman running back named Ryan Chappell was fourth on the depth chart. A week later, he rushed for 121 yards and two td's against UNI.

Does anybody know for certain whether Murray is enrolled at UND this semester? Even if he is, I would be surprised if we ever see him play again. However, with Sutton, Magstadt and after this season Binns, there is some good young talent at running back. Even though he's not starting, from everything I've heard Sutton is the back who has made the most big plays in practice.

It certainly doesn't hurt that there's already something of a relationship having been established between the two athletic departments, with the women's basketball team playing in the tournament there last year, and the men's team playing in Ames last year and this year (thanks to Mac no doubt). Besides Minnesota and Wisconsin, this is probably the regional FBS opponent that makes the most sense for UND to eventually play in football.

Oh, I guess I didn't realize that wasn't common knowledge. I kind of expect UND will eventually play Iowa State in large part because of that connection.

I have to ask, what comments of Mussman were being discussed? Please don't make me go to Bisonville...

It will be very interesting to compare the seasons Mertens and Landry have this year, particularly considering both are local products, and the fact that there was some disappointment expressed on this board when UND didn't sign Mertens. I don't think there's much question that Landry is the more physically gifted of the two, but hopefully he won't have the same problems Mertens has seemed to have in terms of mental mistakes and/or turnovers.

St. Cloud lost 38-16 at Augie last week. I didn't expect this one to be this close.

13 Maine 10 SCSU at the half 7 Iowa St. 0 NDSU

Some interesting games tonight, including NDSU @ Iowa St. and St. Cloud St. @#19 Maine. St. Cloud is up 10-7 in the 2nd quarter.

I thought it would be interesting to resurrect this thread, because I believe it helps explain why the offense is probably not as strong as we'd like to see in terms of talent and/or experience. By my quick count, we've had the following early departures from the past five recruiting classes (counting only those who signed letters of intent and therefore presumably were receiving some scholarship money): 2009: 2 2008: 3 2007:11 2006: 7 2005:11 I think these departures are felt most prominently on the offensive line, receiver, running back and to some extent linebacker. It's hard to consider the classes of 2005 and 2007 as anything other than a disaster in terms of retention rates.

link This has to be the most players ever on a UND basketball roster. I wonder how many freshmen will red-shirt? I'm guessing we may see Smart and either Houdek or Kuehl play this year, but that's strictly a guess.

Realistically speaking, staying dII was not an option because of a number of factors, including the successful transition of NDSU and SDSU, the inability to find additional members for the NCC, and the general direction of dII with all the former NAIA schools moving up and many of the former dII powers moving to dI. Football probably would have been O.K. for a little while longer at the dII level, but recruiting was going to be extremely difficult with 36 scholarships, considering all the competition within our traditional recruiting area. I think the quality of the product we see on the football field would have gone steadily down, which would have impacted attendance and interest in the program. We are very possibly going to take our lumps this year (particularly this Saturday), and maybe next year, but within a few years I'm confident that UND will be a strong FCS program.

I'd like to think that UND's talent on defense this year is better than it's been in several years. Texas Tech had a better offense last year, at least on paper, and scored 56 and 49 points, respectively, against UMass and Eastern Washington. So in theory, UND could hold TT under 50 with a good defensive performance. The problem is, I'm assuming those teams had better offenses than what we'll likely have this year, so I'm concerned with the defense getting worn down by the heat and lot of 3-and-out's by our offense. 49 Texas Tech 3 UND

I like it! I had forgotten just how cheesy Rocky sounded in that NFL Films segment.

I wouldn't say you weren't being objective, but it seems to me that the only person who can really, truly give UND's side of the story is Roger Thomas. Did he ever give reason for Taylor to think that a contract would be signed? I can't say, because I don't know. I do think it was rather foolish and short-sighted that the two schools ever stopped playing in men's and women's basketball, but the football issue is a complicated one.

The exact answer will of course depend on which school the answerer supports, but I believe the main reason, at least for football, was that at the time, games against non-division II competition (whether won or lost) not only didn't help, but actually hurt the playoff chances of the dII school due to a complicated "strength of schedule" index in use at the time. There were undoubtedly some other contributing factors, but the playoff issue for football was a big one.

I never get tired of watching that. I wonder if Rocky still wants to be buried at the 50 yard line at Dacotah Field?