UND92,96

Is this more or less a make-or-break game for the season? I say yes. A home loss against a program we beat 37-10 on the road last season would put us in jeopardy of finishing 5-5, which would have seemed unthinkable to most of us a few months ago. I really hope the offense comes back to life, and the defense plays to the absolute best of its ability. We really need this one.

I'm not familiar with them by name, but according to the box score the officials were Ben Fransen, Jeff Henry and Randy Wolden. I know at least one of them routinely did NCC games, as I've seen him officiate UND games for years.

One thing I forgot to mention was the fact that the game was tough to watch because of the ridiculous number of fouls called--58! Maybe it's just me, but when you're officiating a meaningless exhibition game, is it really necessary to call so many ticky tack fouls?

Starting lineup was Bergan, Youngblut, Guinn, Bagaason and Kimbrough. But besides Kimbrough, who had a monster game, the best player on the court was Seay. She was very aggressive and seemed more confident offensively than last year. Guinn has indeed changed positions, and apparently isn't playing the point anymore. Privatsky will be backing up Jossy. She's definitely got speed and quickness. She didn't look for her own shot very much, but I assume that will come when the rust comes off and she gets more assertive. Both Gillett's are injured, but everybody else except Thingstad played a lot. At least initially, it appears that we may see a 10-person rotation, with Seay, Ledger, Lof, LaFrance and Privatsky coming off the bench.

The last time we went head-to-head with the deer opener was two years ago vs. USD, and attendance was 9078. On the bright side, this is a night game, and it's the first dI opponent we've hosted. The negative, of course, is that in addition to it being the deer opener, for the first time since 2002 we actually have more than two regular season losses. Will that keep some away? Hopefully not. I'm going to predict 9500, but I certainly hope it's more. You'd have thought this game would have been marketed heavily for the past two or three weeks, but I haven't heard/seen much, if anything in the media.

The last time I checked, this board had a strict "no politics" policy, didn't it?

Regardless of the struggles at Kansas State, I think it would be a huge coup to get Tibesar back.

Many of us did notice the problems of the defense last year (and to a lesser extent the year before), but winning has a tendency to overshadow shortcomings. Now, with three losses in four games and five consecutive poor defensive performances, it's becoming harder and harder to ignore the problem. I certainly can't fault Mussman, as he inherited the current situation. But obviously he now faces the challenge of fixing what is clearly broken. The offense may very well take another step backward next year with the losses of Freund, Trenbeath, Nicholas, Braegelmann and Troen, among others. Throw in a likely much tougher schedule, and next year could be fairly ugly unless the defense becomes much, much better by next fall.

The saddest part is that USD bussed all the way to South Carolina for a game against a bad dII team. I know scheduling games this year was tough for all of us, but given a choice between having yet another week off and taking this game, I'd vote for the week off.

Has anybody heard anything about the possibility of Ron Prince being fired after the season at K-State? The reason that would potentially have some signficance to UND is that it would presumably put Tim Tibesar in the market for a new job. Just thinking/wishing out loud.

For some odd reason, SIU's offense has scored just three points in the third quarter this season. Hopefully that trend continues.

17-7 SIU.

So much for my hopes of not giving up 30+ again this year. We may give up that much in the first half.

Here's a random, fairly obscure statistic: only once in the past 30 years has UND given up 30 or more points more than four times in a season. The 1986 defense gave up 30+ six times. As most are aware, this year's defense has given up 30 or more each of the past four games. It may seem like a fairly modest goal, but I'd really like to see us not give up 30+ again this year. We've seen quarters and even halves of decent play, but there's unfortunately also been some horrible stretches the past four games. It's time to play a full 60 minutes.

All of UND's freshmen class will red-shirt this year: link

Hopefully SIU's problems with turnovers and penalties continue. Also, while I am fairly impressed with their talent on defense, it's not as though they're totally shutting teams down. They give up 21 ppg, and allow more than 100 yards per game rushing (the Bison had 184 yards against them). And while I don't say this intending it as a cheap shot, let's also remember that even Nick Mertens, for all his struggles this year, had a pretty good game against them (16-24 for 195 yards; 2 td's and 0 int's). Murray should be able to get his yards if he's given 20-plus carries, and if Freund has a good game, UND should be able to move the ball and put up at least 20-something points. Particularly if SIU turns the ball over a couple of times (they avg. nearly two per game), this could be a competitive game.

McFeely blog.

Probably because Southern Illinois is going to be more of a running team, and UND is likely better against the run than the pass. This is probably the first game we've played against a run-first team, so it will be interesting to see if our run defense is better than it was last year against teams like UNO and USD. I watched the entire SIU-Missouri State game last week, and I do think the Sioux have a chance to have success throwing the ball. I just wish Trenbeath was 100%.

Just to show that it's possible to turn things around in one year, remember how horrible Minnesota's defense was last year? They brought in a new coordinator, but I believe only three present defensive starters weren't on the roster last year.

In case people are wondering how this year's defense ranks statistically compared to past years, here are the numbers (regular season only): 2000 217 ypg 13.3 ppg 2001 191 ypg 13.0 ppg 2002 276 ypg 19.2 ppg 2003 304 ypg 19.3 ppg 2004 250 ypg 10.5 ppg 2005 262 ypg 13.0 ppg 2006 314 ypg 17.9 ppg 2007 320 ypg 19.7 ppg 2008 368 ypg 25.3 ppg Over the last four games, UND is giving up 432 ypg and 34.8 ppg. EDIT: I should also point out that 1986 was statistically the worst defense in UND history--449 ypg and 36 ppg.

I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but I think one thing should be abundantly clear--the co-coordinator experiment has now lasted nearly three seasons, and I don't think anybody is particularly happy with the defense during that period of time. Mike Mannausau is the associate head coach, which I interpret as being second in command of the entire program. Why not give him a chance to completely run the defense? Or possibly even bring back Eric Schmidt?

Coincidentally or not, 2005 was also Tim Tibesar's last year as d coordinator.

Missouri State just scored with 19 seconds to go to tie the game. Southern Illinois is a pretty talented team, but between turnovers, personal foul penalties, dropped passes and some generally stupid play, I'm not impressed. FWIW, Missouri State lost to unranked dII Washburn earlier this year. EDIT: SIU just won on a miracle last-second play, but that doesn't change the fact that they didn't look very impressive.

This doesn't look like any Lennon-coached team I've ever seen. SIU has five turnovers, and just had a punt blocked and returned for a td. Missouri State is up 7-3 with just under 4:00 to go in the third quarter.

Wow. SIU is dominating, but due to four first half Saluki turnovers, the game is still scoreless.