UND92,96

A potential new candidate? link

I think the timing of this game is perfect for UND. The reality is that in order to get to Florence, UND would almost certainly need to beat both UNO and GVSU on the road. Both of those teams are better than USD. So if UND can't win in Vermillion, there's probably no reason to think they could win at either Caniglia or Lubbers. This game gives UND the opportunity to show whether they're a legit contender or not. If only the Sioux had actually finished on a couple more of those many trips into the red zone against UNO, we'd be playing for homefield throughout the playoffs on Saturday.

That brings to mind this infamous Jim Mora rant : link

Agreed. The interesting thing is that if both UND and CWU were to win next week, it would result in a three-way tie for the NCC title, and it would also essentially take head-to-head out of the equation when determining playoff seeds for the three teams since the three would all be 1-1 against the other two. However, I suspect the strength of schedule would still result in the seedings being 1. GVSU; 2. UNO; 3. UND; and 4. CWU.

Way to go, Brooks!

I fear that may happen. I shudder to think what the attendance for that one would be.

UND is the better team this year. Some USD followers are still clinging to the notion that the Coyotes are all but unbeatable at home, but the truth is that they've not been destroying teams at home like they had the previous few years. They beat up on SCSU, but were just two scores better than both Western Washington and Mankato. They were also really exposed by UNO a few nights ago. Barring a lot of turnovers, the Sioux offense will put up quite a lot of points. USD can score, although Shepard's accuracy as a passer right now is questionable. I believe UND will really focus on slowing down Allen and the running game, and force Shepard to beat them throwing the ball. I believe UND will win a fairly tight game, and go into the playoffs on a nice roll. I have a feeling the psyche of the USD team may have been damaged by the beatdown in Omaha, similar to how UND's was damaged in 2005 by blowing the big fourth quarter lead against UNO. Clearly the Sioux were not the same team after that. Confidence is sometimes a tough thing to get back, and I'm thinking that the USD team may be justifiably doubting themselves right now.

There are still a lot of "what if's" involved here, but here's my somewhat educated guess: 1. If UND wins, they will not be worse than a 3 seed (probably not higher either, barring a huge upset of Grand Valley); 2. If UND loses, and UNO wins at CWU, UND would likely not fall lower than 4, which would still mean a home playoff game; 3. If UND loses and CWU wins, UND could fall as low as a 5 seed assuming an Ashland win. Ashland would be 8-1, but would have no really good wins. I suspect UND's strength of schedule would still be higher than Ashland's, but there may be some political pressure not to have a one-loss GLIAC team seeded below three NCC teams. I don't think the nickname/logo will be an issue.

IMO, the fake field goal in the third quarter wasn't a good idea. Some SCSU players clearly weren't happy about it, nor do I believe was Randy Hedberg: On the one hand, a 28-point third quarter lead is hardly insurmountable, but there's probably no point in doing something that may cause hard feelings, particularly given the normally friendly relationship between the coaching staffs and the fact that we're hoping to play them here again next year.

I haven't heard anything about UND and USD possibly playing twice next year. It might be an option if scheduling enough current FCS teams turns out to be impossible for next year, although personally I'd prefer to play once and see some different teams we're not used to seeing.

I, and a lot of other UND fans, actually have a lot of respect for SCSU football due in large part to the Hedberg/Underwood connections to UND. We know those guys can coach. I can only assume that the Husky struggles of the past two years are a combination of injuries and having fewer scholarships than the usual top dogs of the NCC.

No, I haven't seen a worse offense from SCSU, or possibly even from any other NCC team in a long, long time. Unfortunately for the Huskies, even their defense looked hopelessly overmatched today, although they've had some nice performances this year. At least your punter was good.

After watching the UNO-USD game last night, I think my assessment is correct. Miller is not throwing well at all, and McNeill didn't play against SCSU, so that makes it far more understandable how UNO only managed to score 13 points against SCSU. How much different would the UND-UNO game have been if you substitute Wurth for McNeill, and you don't have to respect Miller's ability to throw down the field at all?

If I remember correctly, supposedly NDSU and UMD had an agreement to play a few years ago, but obviously that game didn't take place. Whether or not there was a contract or simply a verbal agreement, I don't know. As usually seems to happen when anything perceived to be negative happens to NDSU, some Bison fans blame UND. In that case, I assume it's because Bubba had just taken the UMD job and so supposedly his UND ties and the "vast Fighting Sioux conspiracy" resulted in UMD backing out.

UNO is destroying USD. It's now 41-14, and UNO has 410 rushing yards.

What happened to the UNO defense on that drive? That was bad. 24-14.

Roger Thomas is scheduled to be interviewed at the half.

UNO just returned a punt for a td. 24-7.

Now 17-7. If Miller was accurate at all throwing the ball, it's probably 28-7 right now.

UNO has done next to nothing through the air, but must have 200 yards rushing. USD has done next to nothing on the ground, but a couple of big plays through the air have kept them in the game despite being statistically dominated. McNeill is already over 100 yards, and Wurth and Miller both have pretty good yardage totals, too.

Touchdown UNO. 14-0, and as mentioned could easily be worse than that but for a couple of mistakes by UNO.

UNO dominating but still only 7-0. USD is probably struggling to stop the run even moreso than UND did. The UNO kicker missed a chip shot, and Miller has been very erratic throwing the ball, but UNO already has 162 yards rushing early in the second quarter.

This game is on Fox Sports North in the Grand Forks area right now. UNO had an impressive opening drive to take a 7-0 lead.

Although I have no love for UNO, I'm kind of hoping they win for a couple of reasons. One, I can't help but think USD would be far easier for the Sioux to beat if they no longer have a potential playoff berth to play for; and two, even if UNO were to lose their last two games, I still think they'd probably be seeded ahead of UND in the playoffs anyway, based upon what happened last year (8-2 UNO seeded ahead of 9-1 UND based upon head-to-head). If UNO were to beat USD but lose to CWU, UND would still get a share of the NCC title with a win in Vermillion, and that would be pretty good considering the home loss to UNO.

Exactly. IMO, the only way SCSU keeps UND much under 450 yards and 30 or so points is if the UND playcalling is too predictable. The Sioux need to have a nice balance of run and pass. CWU, which is known for its passing, actually ran for over 200 yards in St. Cloud. USD also rushed for over 200 yards against them, AND threw for nearly 300. SCSU is a good enough defense that they can cause a one-dimensional offense problems, but I don't think they're good enough to hold down an offense with good balance, particularly one with the playmakers UND has. While I didn't see the UNO-SCSU game last week, judging by the statistics it looks like UNO just didn't throw the ball effectively enough to force SCSU's defense to respect the pass. Without McNeill, I don't think UNO can score a lot against a good defense unless Miller has a good day throwing the ball.