UND92,96

I'm listening to the coaches' show right now, and Jones mentioned that this year's freshman class is even better than he expected. He loves Mertens' relentlessness and knack for scoring, and Mitchell may be the team's top athlete and isn't afraid to shoot. Regarding today's signees, he loves the upside of Brandon Brekke, and he said the kid out of Ohio is a great shooter with an extremely long wingspan.

Even with the disappointing crowd for the SUU game, UND has set a new single season attendance mark of 10,167 per game. And that was despite a pretty unattractive home schedule, and a down year in terms of won-loss record. The previous record was set in 2001.

Reading the Game Notes, I couldn't help but notice that Lehnertz wasn't even listed among the primary reserves (listed just under the projected starters). Is he injured, or have other players such as Mathison simply played their way ahead of him in practice?

It should be pointed out that SUU has beaten Texas State on the road this year, also. Not a GWC game, but an impressive road win nonetheless considering Texas State is presently tied for second place in the Southland Conference.

Game Notes UND's projected starting lineup is Joseph, Harkins, Porter, Harrison and Mertens. To call this a small lineup would be an understatement. I'm very surprised Bledsoe isn't starting.

I think there may be some NDSU fans who would disagree. Freund has been a good quarterback for us the past two years. But over the past three games (obviously all losses), his touchdown to interception ratio is just 1:1, and he's been sacked 15 times. Those are the kinds of numbers I'd expect from a young quarterback, not a senior. He's holding the ball too long in many cases, and he's trying to make some things happen that aren't there, resulting in very costly int's. I'd just really like to see whether Landry has progressed from a year ago. I thought he showed some positive signs against Grand Valley. I'm not convinced that practice alone tells the coaches what they need to know about a player (especially a quarterback), or else Mertens probably wouldn't have been counted on 100% by NDSU this year, and Reed Manke probably wouldn't have had to wait as long as he did to become UND's starting quarterback a few years ago. I think Freund deserves to start and play at least half the game against USD, but maybe not take ALL of the snaps unless he's producing like he did last year and earlier this year.

Good points, but the other side of my thinking is that the Sioux offense is struggling pretty badly right now. Not that it's entirely Freund's fault, but with Landry you have more of a chance to stretch the field because of his arm strength. I would still play Freund in the finale, but I tend to think giving Landry some snaps may be a positive both in terms of seeing what he can do for the future, and giving their defense something else to think about. I love the thought of Landry chucking it deep to Bamba a la Cunningham to Moss circa 1998 (I had to fit in my own Vikes analogy ).

Just a thought, but might it make sense to rotate quarterbacks every second or third series vs. USD? I'm not sure we really want to head into next season with a quarterback who hasn't taken a meaningful snap since the Grand Valley game in '07.

I've added 2008 records for all but the unknown dII opponent.

I doubt the loss was a big deal to too many of these kids, but can you imagine having had potential recruits at the game in Brookings yesterday, with the bitterly cold, windy weather and 3000 fans?

In case anybody was wondering about the source for the Weber St. and SFA games, last night at the Alerus when they had "other scores of interest" on the jumbotron, games against 2009 opponents were denoted with an asterisk.

8,082 in Carbondale last week.

Completely agree. I had really expected to do fairly well this year (7-3 or even 8-2), and then struggle next year due to losing a lot of seniors and a much tougher schedule. I am very surprised that we've struggled so badly the second half of the season.

Two more 2009 opponents to add: Weber State Stephen F. Austin

I'm watching the SELU-Texas State game right now. This one is interesting not only because the Sioux played SELU, but also because Texas State was Southern Utah's most impressive win this year.

Wayne Nelson's score prediction from today's Herald: 30 UND 24 SUU

Not that it matters, but on the anygivensaturday Great West board, the consensus among non-UND fans is that SUU will win.

Anybody know why there wasn't a coaches' show last night?

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.