UND92,96

I agree that the defense did give UND the chance to win on Saturday. I actually expected to give up more points than we did. But I must admit that seeing a UND defense give up 340 yards rushing is disappointing. That would have seemed almost unthinkable not too many years ago, back in the days when even Lamar Gordon and Josh Ranek were held to less than 100 yards.

This post is not meant to affix blame to anyone, but the reality is that even last year's defense, which had five first team all-NCC players, and two second teamers, including the defensive lineman of the year and linebacker of the year, wasn't really all that dominating. The playoff game against UNO, in particular, simply wasn't a very good performance. There were several other games in which the defense gave up a lot of big plays. It was still a good defense, but not a great one. This year, the defense is much younger, and lacks the star power of last year's defense, and the results are fairly predictable. Maybe having a dominating defense in this day and age of offensive football just isn't realistic. I don't know. But I would like to think that we can at least get back to being dominant against the run. We have a ways to go in that regard.

[url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=53847

Yes, I'm quite sure this is FMLA leave. Of course, that means this is an unpaid leave, except to the extent he had accrued vacation or sick days.

Therein lies the problem. However, it has seemed to work well at GVSU, and even though UNO has no playoff success to speak of, it certainly seems to have worked out for them in the regular season. I really don't know the answer, but I feel pretty confident that but for the impact of transfers, neither GVSU nor UNO would have had the success they've had against UND. It would be kind of interesting to know what percentage of starters on national championship teams over the past decade have been transfers.

This is just my own personal theory, but when you look at the two programs who have winning records against UND over the past decade--GVSU and UNO--the biggest difference I see is that both of these programs have had numerous talented transfers who have played big roles, whereas UND has had relatively few (Jeff McElroy, Glen Mathews, Travis Lueck and Jared Enger come to mind over the past 10-12 years). Yesterday, for example, all of UNO's touchdowns were accounted for by transfers--Zach Miller (Nebraska), Brian McNeill (juco) and Keith Eloi (juco). Additionally, one of their top defenders was Nebraska transfer Jeff Souder. GVSU has also had numerous transfers who have been difference-makers, including Cullen Finnerty. UND has done a tremendous job of high school recruiting, IMO, but should a bigger effort be put into getting transfers who may be difference-makers? Is it even realistic given our location?

I don't have any knowledge of Smith in terms of research dollars, but in my opinion he'd be an extremely popular choice in the athletic department, among a lot of alums, and probably among a lot of students. A lot of the faculty, however, probably wouldn't be happy for some political reasons, e.g. the Sioux nickname and the fact that he's not opposed to it. If I were on the state board of higher ed, I'm be far more concerned with how students and alums feel than faculty, but I have no idea how the board actually views things.

It's my hope that starting this recruiting season, now that UND will have full scholies to offer, that we may see some Nebraska players here. Time will tell. Aside from Chad Mustard, I'm not aware of any Nebraska players who have been in the UND football program, and of course Mustard didn't play until his UND basketball career was over.

They certainly seem to develop offensive linemen better than anybody else in the NCC. To me, that's the key to UNO's regular season success.

He had 11 receptions for 192 yards. Both he and Trenbeath (10 receptions for 115 yards) had huge games. Unfortunately, the rushing numbers just weren't what we're used to seeing, due in large part to the called-back Chappell touchdown. I realize it's very, very small consolation right now, but through four of five home games, UND is averaging 11,158 fans per game. If we can somehow avoid a home playoff game and the notoriously small crowds those have drawn of late, we should exceed 10,000 per game for just the second time ever.

No question UNO's o-line is very good, but I'm frankly shocked that McNeill is even good enough now to beat out UNO's other backs. I think you almost have to have followed North Dakota high school football back then to really understand what I'm talking about. The odds of a North Dakota high school back who's not even the best in his conference even playing running back in the NCC, let alone putting up big numbers, are extremely remote. I doubt it's ever happened before.

I'm still trying to figure out how the heck McNeill went from being a guy who probably never rushed for 200 yards in a game in high school; a guy who finished just 6th in the EDC 100 meter dash (nearly a half a second behind Ryan Chappell) as a senior; and a guy who wasn't considered a good enough offensive player to actually play offense in the Mon-Dak and Shrine games; to putting up the kinds if numbers he has so far this year, and running away from the UND defense on a 79 yard td run? Had you asked me about him coming out of high school, I'd have said he was a marginal dII prospect as a defensive back, but that no way was he an NCC running back prospect, and I'm willing to bet most coaches felt the same way at the time. I guess he's just a late bloomer.

When UND lost to UNO in 2001, I felt it was just a fluke since UNO somehow managed to finagle 27 points despite just 144 yards of total offense. When UND lost to UNO in 2005, I felt it was our quarterback's complete meltdown and umpteen turnovers that caused the loss. This year, UND just plain lost. No excuses. I don't know how or why it is, but UNO just has our number, at least during the regular season.

NW Missouri's offensive numbers are heavily skewed by the 86 they hung on woeful SW Baptist. Had UND not called off the dogs against Humboldt, I'm sure they could have put up similarly ridiculous numbers, but it wouldn't have accomplished anything. IMO, UND has the best offense in dII this year, so this game should be a good gauge of UNO's defensive capabilities. BTW, Mr. Souder certainly sounded confident in the article in yesterday's Omaha paper. To the extent the UND offense needed any extra motivation, I think his comments may have done it.

That is exactly my point. Those things always seem to play a large role in these games, and that's why it's so difficult to predict a winner. It's fine to be confident in UNO's defense, but by the same token, you have to at least acknowledge that until a team plays an offensive power on the road, there's always going to be a question mark. A good example was the UND defense of 2005. They played quite well all year, then ran into big problems in Vermillion. If the same thing happened to UNO today, I wouldn't be all that surprised.

I highly doubt a new a.d. will be hired until a new president is in place, anyway.

A.D.'s are fired often, and I strongly suspect that in many of those cases, they are first given the choice of resigning, to save face, or being fired. But how many of those A.D.'s choose neither, and instead take a "leave of absence" to delay the process? Should that reflect poorly on the school, or the individual?

Seeing as how these games are seemingly always decided by 3 points or less, I don't think fans from either side should feel overly confident about the outcome.

Here's an Omaha paper article on the friendly rivalry between Ryan Chappell and Brian McNeill. link.

Just when I was finally getting used to the idea that capacity was in the 12,200 range rather than the 13,500 as it was originally listed, the article in yesterday's Herald stated UND hopes for 13,000 for the game tomorrow. I wish they'd go back to actually counting the suites. How hard is that? Those people have tickets that are scanned too, don't they?

The 2005 game, played roughly two weeks later in the season than now, drew 10,728. I'd expect more than that for this one.

While I understand that people may want more of an immediate sense of closure, and I don't personally understand what Buning is gaining by taking a leave of absence instead of resigning, it doesn't really make a practical difference to me either way. Regardless, Buning is no longer carrying out the duties of athletic director, and won't be again at UND. No matter whether Buning was out in July or in September, or whether he took an extended leave of absence starting in July or in September, there still would have been an interim a.d. (or a.d.'s) for several months, wouldn't there?

Yes, it was a red flag. A red flag that problems existed within the department. It seems to me the other option was simply to fire him/not renew his contract in July. I don't think people who are upset about the way things played out would have been any less so had that happened, but perhaps I'm wrong.

PCM is correct. I'm afraid a lot of people are assuming that having Buning report to Harmeson was a cause of the problems, rather than a result from problems that already existed within the department.