UND92,96

I believe the coaches' poll is the only one which still has NDSU in the top 25. For whatever reason, they've seemingly been consistently ranked higher in this particular poll than in any other.

On Sioux Sports Extra last night, Mussman's comments seemed to suggest that as between Caufield and Trenbeath, Caufield's injury may be at least somewhat serious, whereas Trenbeath's probably wasn't but that was just the impression I got.

In all honestly, this is probably the least confident I've been heading into a game since the UNI game two years ago. Obviously we know how that game turned out. But as much as I'd love to think a similar result is possible, the Sioux defense right now scares me, particularly since UC-Davis is likely far better than any UND opponent this year so far. And it only gets tougher the following week. On the other hand, UND is not used to being a big underdog, so hopefully the team will flourish in that role.

Considering all we've heard about how attendance has greatly increased at SDSU since the dI move, I was very surprised that they drew just 8311 for a night game against the 5th-ranked team in FCS. If the weather was anything like it was in Grand Forks last night, that certainly wasn't a reason to stay away as it was quite nice.

This was in the Herald today: link

Southern Illinois over Youngstown 33-0.

Four int's and a lost fumble for Nick Mertens.

The actual box score hasn't been posted yet, but according the "live stats" link on www.fightingsioux.com, WWU had 481 yards of offense, which is even more than they had in last year's game.

According to Dan Hammer it was 12,100 and change.

We've now given up over 100 points the past three games. Either the scheme doesn't work anymore; it's not being run properly; or else we don't have the talent necessary to have a good defense. Regardless, something needs to change.

Blurb from the Strib.

I noticed that this came up on the ticketmaster site as one of the reasons tickets may not be available: My guess is that there probably still are at least some tickets available, although obviously it would be great to see a sellout.

Mussman indicated tonight on the coaches' show that Saporu is questionable for the game this Saturday, and that if he doesn't play he will red-shirt after all.

Game Notes

I'm not positive, but I don't believe there are any promotions/deals this week. Homecoming attendance is generally among the highest of the season, and I don't recall any ticket promotions for homecoming in the past (although I could be wrong).

UND is #39 in the Gridiron Power Index: link Also, that same index ranks the conferences as follows: Rank, League, Total Average 1. Colonial Athletic Association (23.34) 2. Southern Conference (29.07) 3. Great West Football Conference (30.65) 4. Big Sky Conference (31.15) 5. Southland Conference (33.46) 6. Missouri Valley Football Conference (34.91)

Just curious, but is this speculation or is it more or less a done deal, i.e. Guinn's position change?

WWU has a good quarterback, but with UND's secondary presumably much healthier now hopefully the Sioux pass defense can be more effective than the last couple of games. I don't believe WWU's defense is much better than last year (gave up 50 or more vs. both Central and Eastern Washington), so even with some rust from the long layoff I would hope UND's offense can put up some pretty big numbers again.

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.