UND92,96

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.

This game is on right now on Fox College Sports. It's channel 315 if you have digital cable in Grand Forks.

I've been wondering for awhile when we might see wr Chris Anderson on the field, and it sounds like it may happen tonight: link

While your prediction is not necessarily unrealistic, this score would be the most lop-sided UND loss since 2002. I think the game will be decided by 10 or less.

Wasn't it Ron McNeil himself who floated the idea of "Roughriders" as a replacement for Fighting Sioux? From Theodore Roosevelt's wikipedia bio: I don't honestly think the Board would ever allow "Cavalry" anyway, but if it did happen and some Native Americans didn't like it, as far as I'm concerned it could be blamed on Ron--both in terms of the dropping of the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo, and the replacement name. I'm comfortable with that.

Here's the new Gridiron Power Index: link. 6. Cal Poly 18. Southern Illinois 22. UC Davis 24. SDSU 34. NDSU 35. UND 38. SE Louisiana 41. Southern Utah 72. USD 94. Idaho St.

Apparently Trenbeath didn't practice yesterday, so perhaps his injury is more serious than previously believed? link

Game Notes