UND92,96

One thing was made abundantly clear in the past two weeks--you can never have too many quality running backs. Even though Chappell has two years to go, and both Murray and Solum were brought in this past year, I think it's imperative to bring in a couple more good backs in this recruiting class. I wonder if Brady will be back next year?

Probable UND opponent McNeese State was beaten badly on its home field last night in the first round of the FCS playoffs by the second-place team from the Big Sky, Eastern Washington. It was a very good day for Washington schools in the playoffs!

Unlike a certain GVSU fan, I'm not going to make excuses ("if Anes would have played in 2001..."), but I really wish we would have seen the "real" Sioux offense today. I would have had far less of a problem with losing today had I felt like UND played a good game and just were beaten by a better team. That's not to say that GVSU isn't necessarily the better team, but I think we all know the UND offense is far better than what they showed today.

What makes this all the more amazing, aside from the fact that UNO killed them on the road two weeks ago, is remember how terrible the CWU rush defense looked when UND played them? How the heck did their defense improve that much? BTW, Behrns is now 1-7 all-time in the playoffs.

I have nothing whatsoever against CWU, and I'm normally a UNO football hater, but I can't say I'm happy about this. All this does is benefit Grand Valley. Now they're at home instead of travelling to Omaha to play against what is normally a great rushing team. I can't believe UNO laid yet another playoff egg.

Yes, I'm at a loss to explain why we didn't make more of an attempt to run the ball.

I almost feel sorry for Pat Behrns right now. I never thought I'd say that.

McNeill and Miller have combined for just 59 rushing yards today!

It's now 17-7 UNO.

Here's the UND-GVSU box score. The rushing and rushing defense numbers are really ugly for the Sioux. And remember, GVSU was giving up more than 150 yards per game on the ground on average.

Well, I guess it IS the playoffs, and UNO is still coached by Pat "Regular Season" Behrns...

Here's a link for the "live stats" for the UNO-CWU game.

UNO is up just 14-7 early in the 4th.

Barring injuries to Miller or McNeill, or new injuries to the UNO o-line, I don't think it will be that close. UNO will control the clock and the game running the ball, and I don't think Iciek (sp?) is a good enough passer to really burn the UNO pass defense.

We need to go out and find some impact players for the front seven. We were neither effective stopping any decent running team this year, nor did we have much of a pass rush in most games. I am proud of the way the team battled back today, and the secondary played well I thought, but our front seven needs upgrading.

Maybe Murray can't play anymore due to injury, because that's the only possible reason I can think of as to why we seemed to completely abandon the running game in the second quarter. Running between the tackles seemed like the only way we were going to be able move the ball. I can't help but think this isn't really a case of the GVSU defense just being that good. Their defensive numbers are basically the same as ours.

I don't believe he is, at least at this point in his career. He didn't seem to hit the hole very hard last week IMO, despite decent numbers overall. Lennon spoke of options A, B and C this week, without naming them. Obviously Chappell and Murray are options A and B, but I still think Dressler would get a look before Battle. If we're going to give GVSU our best shot today, we need our best player to touch the ball as much as possible.

According to the UND media guide, Chappell was timed at 4.42, and Dressler 4.44. I suspect those are hand times rather than electronic times, but I don't really know exactly how they do their testing in the spring.

A win is a win I guess, but this is the same UMC team that lost by 46 to Augie, and who lost by 15 AT HOME against Valley City State.

Geez, don't get your panties in a bunch. Obviously I was referring to kids like Matt Veldman, Landon Smith and Matt Anderson, who many feel may have gone to UND had all else been equal in terms of scholarship money and post season eligibility. I never insinuated that UND was going to get everybody they want. It stands to reason to think UND may have a good chance at kids with a family history with UND, e.g. Veldman and Smith, or from towns close to GF who have sent a lot of players to UND over the years, e.g. Cavalier or Stephen-Argyle. Congratulations--that's one of the dumbest statements I've ever seen posted here.

Yes.

It sounds like Cal Poly WILL be on the schedule next year. Also, one of the Texas FCS schools will apparently be on the schedule, as well. Not sure which one.

This is unconfirmed, but according to posts on the ndpreps board, both UND and NDSU have offered scholarships to Seth Nichols.

Northwood, which finished 5-5, rushed for nearly 300 yards against GVSU a few weeks ago. Granted, they run a different kind of offense (wishbone, I think) but still, they actually exceeded their season rushing average against the Lakers. Whether it's Chappell or Dressler or whomever running the ball, it appears UND may have more luck running the ball than in the past few meetings between the teams.

This game had disaster written all over it considering UND was just coming off a rather difficult road trip this past weekend. Still, 0-3 is tough to stomach.