UND92,96

He talked to every potential new member countless times. I'm not sure what else he could have done, nor do I think anybody else probably could have saved the NCC. As we've seen countless times from Doug Fullerton, a commissioner's power to actually do anything in terms of adding members is fairly minimal. If the presidents of the NCC schools felt RT wasn't doing a good job, they almost certainly would have fired him at least a year ago.

No, the assumption I'm making is that if you're a kid growing up in North Dakota, you dream of playing for UND or NDSU well before schools like Northern State, Mary or a DAC school. I'll bet there's not a single North Dakota kid on the Mary roster who wouldn't have gone to UND had an offer been made. The fact that UND has been down for awhile hasn't changed that. In terms of the NCC-NSIC matchups of the past two years, it's obvious that the NCC is not doing as well as it used to. I don't know what the problem is. UND has passed on some pretty good kids who almost certainly would have come here had they been recruited, such as Craig Nelson and Blake Strouth (brother of UND football player Brandon Strouth), but who went to NSIC schools and flourished. Perhaps not coincidentally, UND lost to both Northern and Moorhead this year.

They did beat NW Mo. St., and lost by 1 to number 15 Nebraska-Kearney. They also won at St. Cloud State. It's kind of surprising to me that Mary's doing as well as they are since most of their players are ex-North Dakota high schoolers who presumably weren't recruited very hard, if at all, by NCC schools.

Minnesota a.p. all state team announced: link. Several probable UND recruiting targets made it, including Brackins, Veldman and Sczepanski.

I doubt there's much, if any scholarship money left, but considering the uncertain future of Ledger, and Val Sannes's history of knee problems, I wonder if Roebuck is at all interested in Steve Brekke's daughter, who's 6'2" and a sophomore at Lake Region? It would be nice to have another post player.

He turned down this job a few years ago, and with UND now on its way to I-AA, it seems unlikely he'd have much interest in it now. However, the big change since the last time Wanless called him is that UND has obviously changed a.d.'s. I really don't know what sort of relationship Lennon has with Buning.

The criteria for hosting in the semi's are the same as the criteria for hosting in the first round--it's just complicated by the fact that you could conceivably have two identical seeds bidding against each other. In any event, since the NCAA awarded UND the right to host a 6 seed (Winona State), I see no reason they wouldn't award UND the right to host a 5 seed (Delta State). I'm one of the few who still doesn't believe that dropping UND from a 2 to a 3 seed was the result of some sort of conspiracy (although I did think so immediately after it happened). I've been following these selection committees long enough to know that they are more than capable of making bizarre decisions even in situations where the victim school is not feuding with the NCAA.

Both defenses were apparently overmatched last Saturday, but on the other hand, these were statistically two of the best defenses in the conference. UND had five first-team all-conference defensive players, two second-teamers and one honorable mention selection. UNO had four first-teamers and two second-teamers. I think this was just a matter of two pretty good defenses having bad days.

I realize the odds of BOTH UND and Delta State winning are not great, but I honestly believe UND would host in that circumstance. The site selection criteria set out in the dII football handbook are pretty clear. If the NCAA did award Delta the right to host in that circumstance, I believe the NCAA would probably be found to be in contempt of court by Judge Jahnke.

I understand what you're saying, but to me, the only really difficult decision the NCAA would have to make would be in a GVSU-UNA semi final matchup. Both would be undefeated, and would seem to have an equal claim to the right to host. The other potential matchups would seem to be pretty clear cut (the NE travels to the SW no matter what; UND would go to UNA or host Delta; GVSU would host Delta).

That was a case of two number one seeds. National rankings play no role whatsover. I can understand why UNA fans were upset with the manner in which strength of schedule was calculated back then (games against I-AA's killed you), but it wasn't a matter of a lower seed hosting a higher seed. I agree that such a scenario COULD theoretically happen, although it would probably have to be due to the higher seed having an unplayable field, or an inability to meet the required guarantee to the NCAA. I wouldn't expect any favors from the NCAA if UND were bidding against an identical seed, but I really don't think they would be able to turn down a UND bid in favor of a lower seed's bid considering there would be no problems for UND having an adequate facility or a large enough guarantee. If not enough people showed up, UND would just have to pony up for the difference between the guarantee and the actual gate.

I agree that in terms of football, the Manke's are the best. I believe Ryan was the NCC's most valuable db his senior year; Reed is probably one of the best UND quarterbacks ever despite not starting a regular season game until his senior year; and Rory has already made numerous big plays as a sophomore. One other good brother combo in recent years is the Brennan's (Ross and Steve).

Allow me to elaborate a bit on my original post--UND's offense is averaging 37 ppg over the past five games, whereas it seems many times in the past by late in the season, the offense was really struggling to find a way to score 20. I certainly can't say whether the late season struggles of the past were due to scheme, playcalling, players, etc., but I felt it would be patently unfair not to praise Mussman during this unprecedented late season run of outstanding offense, because he's certainly taken heat by a lot of people when the offense has struggled. Obviously the players deserve much of the credit, as well, but they are being put in good positions to succeed. To me, an example of being unfair would be to call out Mannausau/Kelling for yesterday's defensive performance, considering the defense has generally played well this year. While I was very disappointed in allowing that many rushing yards playing a team where you knew exactly what they were going to do, I have faith that the problems will be addressed, and that the defense will play better next week.

Exactly. UND actually outgained GVSU last year, but three fumbles killed us. GVSU didn't have any turnovers in last year's game.

I see that USD did manage to gain 400 yards of offense against GVSU (UND gave up 413 today by way of comparison) but had two turnovers to GVSU's none, and the Lakers had a punt return for a td. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic, but if the Sioux offense can continue to play the way it has in recent weeks, UND can win this game, although it will probably need to be in a shootout similar to today.

I know it's a moot point, but just think if we had last year's defense to go along with this year's offense...

For all of us who have been critical of Chris Mussman's playcalling in the past, let me be the first to say, great job today and really all season. This offense is a machine right now.

As effective as UNO's running game is, this was a good example of why it's tough to win in the playoffs with it. When UNO had to score in a short period of time at the end of the game, they simply couldn't pass well enough to get it done. THE CURSE OF PAT BEHRNS IS BROKEN!

RORY MANKE PICK!

Jr.

How things change in one year. Miller played a couple of possession against UND last year, and did nothing. This year, he's like Michael Vick (minus the fumbles).

I certainly don't pretend to know what the problems are with the defense based on listening to the game on the radio, but if you're Dale Lennon and arguably the best defensive coordinator in Sioux history, that first half had to be extremely difficult and frustrating to watch.

I considered it seriously, but the 16-hour round trip was a bit too much for me.

In Vermillion last year. But at least that USD offense wasn't completely one-dimensional.

That penalty was effectively a turnover, but I just think there's too much talent in the UND front seven to allow a team to just run up and down the field without doing anything tricky.