UND92,96

Kevin Fee blog entry.

I don't think it was all that well-kept of a secret that Buning was apparently neither liked nor respected by many within the department if one has read this board for the past year or so. The way this played out was not a pleasant situation, but it wasn't going to get any better had the status quo remained for any longer. I take no pleasure in seeing someone lose his job, but Buning is not a martyr. He brought on most of his own problems, and paid the price for them. I apologize for continuing to bring up the Wanless situation, but again, the difference there was that Wanless was basically doing a good job, and had support from many of the people who worked under him. I don't believe Buning had such backing. One can probably deduce the results of the questionnaire that was sent out to athletic department employees based upon what has transpired in the past five days.

Bollinger is an obvious candidate, but I don't think the events of the past few days are in any way related to clearing the way for a particular candidate. Buning was apparently not well-liked by many alums, OR by many people within the department. At least Wanless apparently had considerable support within the department, even though many alums/fans didn't like him.

I don't see litigation resulting from this. Buning will get paid for whatever the remaining term of his contract is. Hopefully the rumored "probationary" extension of his contract through the end of 2007 turns out to be true. Otherwise, UND will presumably be on the hook until June 2008.

I agree. I was especially troubled when Gene Murphy wasn't properly announced. That was a huge blunder.

I think this excerpt from Bakken's blog tells me all I need to know about why Buning probably needs to go: In terms of the dI experience thing, I'm not concerned about it. UND has plenty of people who are very familiar with dI rules and regulations because we've been dealing with them for years (hockey). In terms of scheduling, there's no shortage of connections, e.g. Jones and his Iowa/Alford/Jacobson/Glas/McDermott connections; Lennon being known and respected throughout college football, etc. We'll be fine there. Give me somebody who is a great fundraiser, and somebody at his right hand who can be the numbers person, and things will be better than they've been in recent years IMO.

Technically, yes. But realistically? No comment. I wondered awhile back how long Buning's contract was extended a few months ago. I'm really wondering now.

Bakken's take.

I'm a little surprised that nobody has commented on this part of the Herald article:

New injuries today were apparently Holinka, Bodoh and Stroup. According to the post-game show on the radio, Holinka is suspected to have some sort of hand injury; Bodoh a knee injury; and Stroup an ankle injury. Chappell apparently only suffered from cramps when he left the game after his last long run.

There is going to be a story on the 10:00 WDAZ news tonight about the possibility of a new outdoor football stadium at UND.

Hey, when did CWU change their nickname? I just heard a radio ad promoting the game against the Central Washington "Huskies."

Per the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, USD coach Chad Lavin will be retiring at the end of this season. He's only 52, but apparently wasn't thrilled about all the extra travel the move to dI will necessitate.

Coach Lennon mentioned on the coaches' show last night that it was possible that all the injured players (presumably Wayne, Dombrovski and Meek) could be back for the CWU game.

In a somewhat similar matchup to the UND-SUU game, Chadron State, ranked 6th in dII, is beating Northern Colorado 28-0 at the half in Greeley. Chadron is the same team that beat Montana State last year.

The new roster has been posted at fightingioux.com, and the one notable absence is Harry Boyce. Was his departure expected?

Bakken picks the Sioux to lose. IMO, just as giving too much credit for a 59-0 win over a weak opponent would be a mistake, so too would thinking that a team must be pretty good because they "only" lost by 20 at Montana in the first game of the season. True, maybe SUU is pretty decent, but it's too early to make that call, yet. As far a I know, there's not much recent history to suggest that a top five dII program should lose at a (probably) average scholarship I-FCS team.

He mentioned that Eric Schmidt was doing a good job contacting prospective opponents, but I didn't get a sense of exactly how much freedom the coaches have to actually choose opponents/dates.

Only the four Great West teams (USD, SUU, UCD and Cal Poly).

A couple things from the coaches' show tonight: * UND and West Texas A & M were very close to an agreement to play a game in Grand Forks, which would have been this past weekend. Instead, USD swooped in at the last minute and agreed to play at WTAMU, in exchange for a return trip to Vermillion next year, even though USD had to bus all the way to Texas. I'm sure Meierkort and company are now regretting that decision. *scheduling for next year is going well. There are nine games so far that are either confirmed or close to it, and Lennon is optimistic that there will be a 12-game schedule with six home and six on the road.

True. I just have a lot of faith in the UND offense to outscore most teams if there's a shootout. True again. However, it almost seems there are more problems against "lesser" opponents such as Augie or SCSU, rather than UNO (two pretty good performances) or Northern Iowa. That could be a problem. UND rarely seemed to play well in Greeley, either, although generally UNC was pretty good whenever the Sioux lost there. On the bright side, depth on offense is good, particularly with the offensive line depth being as good as it's been in many years. We may see more rotating than normal.

link

With all the examples of dII's beating FCS/I-AA's in recent years, it's hard for me not to believe a top-5 dII team like UND shouldn't handle an unranked FCS team. If Freund's play in any way resembles the way it was against Humboldt, I see the Sioux winning quite handily. If he struggles, it could be a nailbiter.

Nobody honestly thinks UND has a guaranteed win in Vermillion. It was just a tongue-in-cheek comment. It is rather amazing how predictable USD has been the past three-plus seasons, though. The pass defense always seems to be terrible, at least on the road, regardless of whether it's a spread offense or not. Didn't option team Northwood even throw the ball all over the field against the Yotes in the playoffs? On the road, against a quality opponent, USD still has a major monkey on its back. Not to the same extent as UNO's playoff ineptitude, but it's still a huge problem.

Certainly Winona's team last year was significantly better than UND's. Probably, this year will be the same, although UND should be much-improved.