UND92,96

NDSU's fiscal year 2005 numbers are now out, and they're reporting to have broken even, with revenues and expenses both reported at $7,668,848. I won't bother trying a link after the difficulties I encountered trying a link to the UND numbers.

One of the really frustrating things about Saturday's game is that conventional wisdom says that if UNO can't run the ball consistently, they're in big trouble because their passing game isn't well-equipped to be effective without a strong running game. Similarly, they have trouble when they fall behind for the same reason. Getting behind by three scores means they almost have to abandon the running game, which usually spells trouble for them. That's one of the reasons they lost so badly to USD. Well, UND largely stopped the run, giving up less than 3.5 yards per rush, and UNO threw about 20-25 more times than they want to, but somehow they still managed to win since everything that could conceivably go wrong for UND in the 4th quarter did go wrong. Also, terrible special teams generally make winning extremely difficult--and the UNO special teams are definitely bad--but they got away with it. Not that it's any consolation, but the one thing you can probably count on is that UNO will now lay an egg either next week against Mankato, or else in their first playoff game. Behrns may have some kind of spell over UND, but he has proven time and again that when it really counts, at least against anybody but the Sioux, he will find a way to lose.

I just realized that despite the loss today, UND actually has wrapped up a share of the NCC title thanks to Bubba's Bulldogs beating USD. It's very small consolation, I know. The bad news is that if we lose in Vermillion next week, it will likely result in a four-way tie for the title, with UNO, USD and the winner of UMD-SCSU.

Something will have to give next week in a matchup of a resistable force (UND offense) and a movable object (USD defense). Which unit is struggling worse right now? Unfortunately for the Sioux offense, they're in a bad situation at the worst time of year for it to happen. Belmore has to have lost most if not all of his confidence considering the way he's played the past two weeks, and yet can you really throw Manke in there on the road with the season on the line considering how little he's played this year? I say yes, but it's unfair to expect all that much out of him. If nothing else, he can't possibly turn the ball over as much as Belmore. This program must have some kind of mental block when it comes to UNO that is simply beyond comprehension. There was absolutely no way UND should have lost this game this year. And the fact that UND could lose 5 out of 6 against ANYBODY in dII is mind-boggling to me.

Maffin has apparently been practicing, but I'm not sure whether she's 100% or not.

This is, of course, unofficial and subject to change, but my understanding is that as of now, the starting five would probably be Langen, Boese, Guinn, Jahner and Mahlum.

You may very well be right. If this were a playoff game, I'd say you'd definitely be right, i.e. UC-Davis in 2001. I STILL say there was over 13,000 for that game!

Charlie Jeske from the Alerus was on the radio this morning, and said there's roughly 2000 tickets left for the game tomorrow. Assuming a full or nearly-full student section and normal ticket sales for the rest of today and tomorrow, I would expect 12,000-plus.

Here's the [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=106884

I can't help but wonder if perhaps we're giving UNO a little too much credit. True, they've more or less had our number in recent years. But this year, which is really all that matters right now, they are a very flawed team, as has been shown by the fact that they've played quite poorly in the second half of the NW Missouri game, and most all of the Central Washington, USD and UMD games. They have a very porous secondary, and questionable special teams. And they've been poor on the road this year. Just as many people were concerned prior to the Winona State, Augie and St. Cloud State games due to what had happened in the past, it seems to be the same for this game. But I honestly expect a similar result here as in those games. UND is the better team, playing at home, and has something to prove. I look for the Sioux to play their most complete game of the year, and put to rest the talk about struggling against Omaha.

Last year it came out in the second week of November, so it will probably be a couple of weeks before the NCC coaches' poll comes out.

The TV show typically starts when the conference season starts. The basketball coaches will probably be on the radio show Wednesday nights either the week before or the week after their first games of the season. I believe the women open with Merrimack at the tip-off tournament, who beat St. Cloud State in the Elite 8 last spring. However, I don't think they return much from that team.

New regional rankings:

Benter moves well for a big kid. He actually plays receiver for the Divide County football team, a la Tyler Koenig at North a few years back.

Glas needs just one more field goal to tie the dII single season record for most field goals made. As for career records, Glas already has the dII mark, but something to watch for might be the all-divisions record of 87. Jeff currently has 76, with hopefully six games to go.

Not that all junior college guys are bad, but when you look at the Mankato roster and see the sheer number of transfers, the odds are that several of them are probably questionable characters. If you're playing juco ball in California or Texas and you end up in Mankato, it's probably because not that many other programs wanted you--and it's not necessarily due to lack of talent. I guess they felt like they needed to roll the dice to find talent, since they don't get a lot of top high school players from Minnesota. I recall the game at the Alerus last year, and they had some very chippy players who seemed to like to trash talk a lot more than actually play. You don't see that stuff at most other NCC schools.

We definitely need to play better than today, but UNO needs to do something on the road before they convince me they're back. They've had just three road games this year, and in two of them they've absolutely laid an egg. I think they've got the worst secondary in the league. Hopefully being at home will rejuvenate our passing game, because that's probably where we need to really make them pay.

You're probably right. Notwithstanding our shaky offensive performance today, I think we're substantially better than UNO this year, particularly considering all their offensive injuries. I'm really glad this one is at home though, since we never seem to play well in Omaha.

UNO wins today in a must-win situation to keep their playoff hopes alive and to set up a huge matchup next week at the Alerus. If UND can pull it out, I believe it would assure us of no worse than a 2 seed. Needless to say, the Sioux will need to play considerably better than today, but I like our chances in the friendly confines of the Al.

You're right. I hate all these Minnesota schools changing their names, e.g. Southwest State becoming Southwest Minnesota State, and of course Moorhead State becoming Minnesota State-Moorhead.

The MSU defense is pretty good, but geez, even UMD was able to run on these guys! And USD ran for over 300 against them.

Again, please run the ball!

Now please, let's run the ball!

A backup fullback for MSU returns kick for td. The biggest, and only UND special teams shortcoming rears its ugly head again. What is the deal with our kick coverage this year?