UND92,96

Homecoming last year vs. Augie drew just over 12,100. I'm guessing at least 11,500 this year, and hopefully more.

I suspect this is true, although there may not be a contract signed yet. FWIW, I checked the future schedules on the official Hawaii athletics site, and they do not yet include a game against UND.

Impressive.

Just a hunch, but I suspect the juco recruiting is only going to be a temporary thing. The reality is that we are thin at certain positions, and playing young kids before they're ready may not be in anyone's best interests. We have a ton of scholarship money available this year, so we should hopefully be able to get some immediate impact help via either juco or FBS transfers. The interesting thing to watch for is whether the offense can reload next year despite the losses of Freund, Trenbeath, Braegelmann, Troen, etc. Whereas once UND known mostly for its defense, the past three years have really reversed that trend, as the offense has obviously been the team's strength. Can that continue? Or is the defense ready to become a dominant unit again to take some pressure off the offense?

Unfortunately SELA ended up losing 48-45.

The UND Foundation had a very good year: link

I would say that the job is probably Landry's to lose, but I am very curious about some of the younger quarterbacks, particularly Goska and Hendrickson. I believe both would provide more running ability, but less arm strength, than Jake. Hendrickson is reportedly very fast, and when Goska signed Lennon compared him to Grand Valley's Cullen Finnerty.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Had this been a non-conference opponent and UND would have been in a position to demand a return trip, I suspect the game may have happened. But with Cal Poly, the future games are already scheduled by the Great West. I'm generally not in favor of travelling to play an opponent two years in a row, unless it's an FBS team and a big guarantee is involved.

I thought I would revive this thread--not to talk about the coordinator situation; but rather because it had some good discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of last year's defense. Through the first half of the 2008 schedule, do people feel like progress has been made compared to last year? One positive is that we haven't given up the huge rushing numbers so far this year, which was a problem for much of last season. Of course, we probably haven't really played a great running team yet, either.

I wasn't the one who said Freund is the best quarterback in the Dakota's. I think he very well may be, but the post saying that was made by someone else.

USD travelled to McNeese last year, I believe. They were evidently able to get a home-and-home with them, with a one-year delay.

Sorry, typo on my part.

Interesting that Kolpack voted SE Louisiana as no. 23 in his submission to the media poll: link.

And yet somehow USD managed to get a home-and-home with them? Strange. Obviously this season is a situation where we just needed games and couldn't be too demanding, but I certainly hope this is the last season in which we accept a one-game road-only contract with any FCS opponent.

I didn't see the show last night--are you saying this was a one-game contract in which UND presumably got a small guarantee, or just that SE won't be coming to GF next year (but will in a future year)?

Sagarin 106 Southern Illinois 150 UC-Davis 162 SE Louisiana 164 UND 165 Southern Utah 184 Idaho St. 186 USD

Another rather surprising result yesterday in a game featuring a former UND rival: 42 NW Mo. St. 0 UNO The game was in Omaha.

Has anyone heard whether Ryan Dressler, Chris Anderson and/or Noah Dombrovski are going to be able to play this year?

Not sure how I was dragged into this discussion, but I'll just say this: one person's "excuse" is another's "mitigating factor." I think the factors I listed are perfectly accurate. Are they an excuse for UND's near-collapse? Not entirely, but I certainly do believe the the first half was a truer measure of the caliber of team UND is than was the second half.

Mussman just said, and I'm paraphrasing, "the injury situation doesn't look it will be better until the Western Washington game." In other words, we probably shouldn't look for Otto and/or Saporu this week.

Congrats to former Sioux Emmanuel Little for being drafted 7th overall in the CBA draft. link

I was actually talking about the USD line. I don't know anything about the SE Louisiana o-line. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm no great USD football mind, but didn't you guys graduate nearly the entire line from last year? The rushing numbers really haven't been there so far, which could be attributed to some of the competition, the line or the caliber of backs you guys have this year. In any event, I do think UND has a better running game than does USD this year, but that will be either proven or disproven as the season goes along.

Agreed--the polls are meaningless at most any level of football. But then again, what else is there to go on if one were picking a game and they know nothing about one of the teams? I will admit that if SE Louisiana were ranked in any of the polls, or hadn't played a close game against a team we're all very familiar with, I'd be more apt to think UND was a clear underdog. Maybe that makes some sense, and maybe it doesn't.

I'm sure that's part of it. Of course, if people want to base everything from one game, I will do the same and continue to believe that we're better than USD, and if USD can come within a few feet from winning there, we can pull it off. Judging by what I've read from some USD fans, the USD offensive line is considerably down from the caliber it's been in recent years, resulting in an inability to run the ball effectively against decent competition. I don't believe UND has a similar problem, and I believe Freund is every bit as good as USD's quarterback Sheppard.