UND92,96

I think it can only help to have such a great hockey matchup that night. I can only hope that anybody in town for the hockey game would also go to the football game.

Actually, I believe it was the national committee that overturned the regional committee. Regional committees submit recommendations, but the national committee has final say. I can't remember who it was that was interviewed before the first playoff game, but he confirmed that the regional committee had UND at number 2.

That's the "beauty" of the system. Winona knows if they play a couple of decent non-conference opponents, split with them, and go through the NSIC schedule with no more than one loss, they're in the playoffs every year. At least until next year when their conference schedule gets more challenging.

Here they are: 1. Nebraska-Omaha 5-0 2. North Dakota 6-0 3. Grand Valley 5-0 4. C. Washington 4-1 5. Ashland 3-1 6. South Dakota 3-3 7. Winona State 5-1 8. Michigan Tech 4-3 9. Minnesota State 3-3 10. Indianapolis 5-1 11. Hillsdale 4-2 12. Minnesota-Duluth 3-3

The problem for the NCC right now is that the GLIAC (minus GVSU) is only marginally better than the NSIC (IMO). What that means is that GVSU has a relatively easy time running through the conference undefeated, all but guaranteeing them homefield throughout the playoffs. Not that GVSU probably isn't the best team anyway, but when you add homefield into the equation, they're going to be all but impossible to beat. If they had to travel to any two of UND, UNO, USD and CWU in a given year, plus the occasionally dangerous UMD and Mankato, would they go unbeaten every year? I doubt it. I think the only way for GVSU to get knocked off is for either UND or UNO to go undefeated, as unlikely as that may be. That would give one of those two teams homefield, and at least in the case of UND, would give them a good chance to knock off the Lakers. I can't quite bring myself to say UNO would beat them due to the playoff jinx they have going.

The regional poll hasn't been released yet, but I'm going to guess it will be 1. UNO; 2. UND; 3. GVSU. I don't think GVSU can possibly have a high enough strength of schedule right now to get the number one ranking. Remember, this is supposed to be based almost entirely on a numerical formula, with little to no human element involved.

It's hard to say, because I've only seen the home games, and besides the second half against CWU, the defense has been pretty good at home. Based upon the comments from the coaching staff after the Augie game, it seemed as though they made a conscious effort to have a much more aggressive game plan in that game, and clearly it worked well. Yesterday, based upon a few comments from people who were at the game, it sounded like perhaps they went back to being somewhat passive, but whether or not that's true I can't say. I do think Stroup's presence seems to make a big difference. I would expect that he'll play against UNO if at all possible. I have to admit that I have some questions about the wisdom of having co-defensive coordinators. Does any other program do this?

UNO is a very good team, and based upon the past decade I think it's safe to say UND will need to play extremely well to win. It must be pointed out, however, that this is the first true road test for UNO. Their two road games so far were at Kearney and Augie, and both of those games were relatively competitive.

Although I'm disappointed in the defensive performances in three of the last four games, there is some recent history to suggest that you don't necessarily need a shut-down defense to achieve some pretty great things. For example, in 2003, UND went undefeated in NCC play, and made it all the way to national championship game despite giving up 31 points to Mesa State, 28 to St. Cloud, 35 to UNO and 29 to Winona State. And that Sioux offense wasn't even remotely as good as this year's. So there's still hope that with some modest improvement by the defense, this team could still make some serious noise in the post season.

Considering how successful the UND defense was last week by being more aggressive than they'd been, I'm surprised they would have gone back to an "unaggressive"--for lack of a better word--gameplan this week.

The strange thing is that before today, the last several times UND had played Mankato, their offense couldn't score much at all. I'm not sure why today was so different. When UND gives up more points and yards against Mankato than Augie did, something doesn't quite add up.

You kind of have to wonder how much Stroup's absence hurt the Sioux defense. I know one player can only make so much of a difference, but you have to think him rushing the passer would have been a big help today. This is the second time this year he's missed a game, and an offense that doesn't seem to score much against anybody else goes crazy against UND.

I'm sure UNO appreciates being given a bye the week before they play UND for the second year in a row.

For Wayne Nelson, Lefty (UNO fan), sultan and everybody else who predicted Mankato would give UND problems, I'd just like to go on record as saying you're smarter than me. I really thought UND would win going away. I guess it shows how much I know.

Does this game remind anyone else of 2003? Every game seemed to come down to a miracle finish!

Bad play.

We need Bubba back.

27-24 Mankato.

Ironic that quarterback sneaks were a topic of conversation on the coaches' show this past Wednesday. Lennon said some quarterbacks have that knack for always getting the first, and some don't. I was about to put Freund in the latter category...

I think Mankato probably does better against teams that aren't necessarily used to seeing that kind of offense, such as probably Central Missouri and possibly Northern Iowa. Against teams in the conference that have seen it the past three years between UMD and Mankato, it's less effective. Sure, they'll move the ball between the 20's very well, but they struggle to actually get it into the end zone. That's simply a byproduct of not having any sort of a running game. I would say at best, Mankato is the 5th or 6th best team in the league this year. Of course, that doesn't mean they can't beat UND, but IMO they can't without UND giving them a lot of help, i.e. the Augie game last year.

I don't mean to imply that Mankato isn't a legit team. Any team in the NCC is dangerous on a given day. But they weren't particularly impressive in beating Augie by 10 two weeks ago in Mankato. And UNO beat them by 30 last week despite being very banged-up on both the offensive and defensive lines. The bottom line is that UND is the better team, and should win the game if they play relatively well.

October 8.

I don't think you'll have any problem getting in. I doubt Mankato has ever sold out a game.

Correct. For some stupid reason, I was thinking yesterday was Friday when I posted that.

I'm sure they've left already. They may not be there yet, but I'm sure they're at least on the road.