UND92,96

Although it would be a short-term solution at best since he only has one more year of eligibility, I'd like to see Davis moved to receiver in spring ball. I think he'd have a much better chance to contribute there than at running back.

It's amazing that Nebraska-Omaha has managed to avoid a Title IX lawsuit for as long as it has. I'm assuming they're one of the very few schools which has a men's hockey program but not one for women; women make up 52% of their students; and yet receive just 37% of the athletic scholarships. That info is taken directly from the OPE site. You would think that within a few years, they'll either have to add women's hockey, or drop football.

I'm pleased to have gotten a win against a non-transitional team on the road. Wasn't sure that was going to happen this year. But I couldn't help but notice from the box score that the four freshmen combined for 41 minutes and 0 points.

Sutton-Marcus Binns should be a very nice combo if Murray's career is over. I'm excited to see what some of the red-shirt skill position kids can do next year--Binns, Hardin, Townsend, etc. I've also noticed that a receiver by the name of Chris Roach, who is evidently either a walk-on or a transfer, has been named offensive scout player of the week twice.

On the OL, McGurran has started all year at center, and Lynch has played a lot in place of Keller at guard. I'm not sure whether Lynch's play has been entirely a result of Keller's injuries, or whether he has simply played his way into a fairly significant role. Gillson has played very little to the best of my knowledge. I don't think McKendry has played much of late. In addition to the ones you mention, another non-starting underclassmen who didn't play much, if at all last year but who has looked good is Goska. Also, I believe Justin Belotti has played a fair amount when healthy, and Wisthoff and Hendrickson have played some, also.

Although UCA has lost five of their last six games, their six losses this year have been by a combined 22 points. And they are coming off a game in which they held playoff-bound McNeese State to just 250 yards of offense.

Although I don't think anybody is happy with the way this season has started, I'm not sure this is particularly surprising. Kirstie was in her third year in the program, and still wasn't getting playing time. Jenna likely never was going to play, either. And Haring was a walk-on who, like 99% of the kids who try to play two sports, probably quickly realized that it's just too much. If we start seeing players who are actually getting playing time leave, then that's a different story.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/260150/

I didn't see the game last night--did UND play any man-to-man at all?

According to today's Herald, both Gillett's recently left the team. So even with the addition of Burck to the 2010 recruiting class, that leaves one open scholarship. Or two depending upon Sharkova's status.

Trey Demler has won the Dave Krieg award as the top sr. quarterback in Wisconsin: link

Rothfusz and Houdek are no longer red-shirting, and both have played tonight. Kind of a curious decision. 48 Wyoming 33 UND half

Not sure how relevant McFeely is anymore in the Fargo media since his departure from the Forum, but if the hypothetical NDSU-USD series did come to fruition before UND and NDSU re-started their series, he would have had a field day with it for weeks, and probably would have been far more snide that anything Bakken would write. Love him or hate him...or should I say dislike him or hate him, McFeely could rile people up like almost nobody else in North Dakota during his Forum columnist days, and this would be been right up his alley.

It seemed to work out O.K. in the old NCC, but to each his own I guess. Personally, I'd love for UND to have nine of the same opponents every year rather than the situation we're in now.

From today's Herald:

You really put me in my place, didn't you? You must have been in debate in high school. If you're actually in high school yet. Nice talking to you, though.

Sagarin has UND's strength of schedule ranked higher than NDSU's. And according to the Massey rankings, five of UND's seven non-conference opponents are ranked higher than NDSU. Southern Oregon was a cupcake, and Northwestern State turned out to be far worse than anybody could have predicted, but in reality UND's schedule was a pretty difficult one, particularly if one looks past Sioux Falls' NAIA label (they're ranked 92nd in the country by Massey).

They're both still listed on the roster, and I haven't seen or heard anything in the local media about any departures. But clearly at least one underclassmen currently on scholarship won't be returning next year, as the numbers don't add up. EDIT: There was one early departure before the season even started, but Brittany Peterson wasn't on scholarship.

Hard to believe that despite having 15 players on scholarship, we still seemingly have so little depth.

The question is: are offensive answers expected from any of the recruits signed last week? If not, things will likely get worse the next few years before they (hopefully) get better.

I'd rather just blame the NCAA for dropping the ball. Seriously though, it would be interesting to know whether many other schools are dealing with a similar situation right now, and exactly what is causing this overload the clearinghouse is apparently experiencing.

I guess my point is that once all the incoming football players and other fall sports athletes are either cleared or not by the NCAA, presumably by early September, it should provide the NCAA with roughly a month and a half to take care of basketball and other winter sports. If the school gets them the info in a timely fashion, I don't see why the NCAA shouldn't have sufficient personnel to do what they need to do pretty quickly (insert obligatory NCAA joke here).

As someone who vividly recalls the Myron Allen fiasco of several years ago, I appreciate showing caution when in doubt about a player's eligibility. With that said, considering we're now nearly three months into the semester, it would seem that this matter should have been taken care of by now--either Sharkova's eligible or she's not. I can see this being an issue with fall sports since they start practice in early August before school has even started, but winter sports that don't even start practice until mid-October? I'm not saying anybody necessarily dropped the ball--it just seems strange since I don't recall a basketball player ever being held out due to eligibility concerns (other than Allen, after he'd played several games ).

I think the men have a better chance, with home games against UMKC and Waldorf coming up. I don't really expect the women to win until the Mayville State game on Dec. 7th, although if they have a hot-shooting game it could come earlier than that.