UND92,96

Frankly, I think we'd still be talking about how five turnovers in one game is pretty bad. I don't think anybody thinks that the ship is sinking, but clearly that was a crushing loss in terms of the way it happened and the ramifications of likely now having to win on the road at least once and perhaps twice in order to get to Florence. Losing is something that happens to nearly every team at some point during a season, but you kind of hate to just give the game away, which is essentially what happened last week.

Not that I think we should be emulating Pat Behrns, but it must be pointed out that Brian Masek was yanked for several series last week, and he's a senior and a Harlon Hill candidate. If he can be pulled when he's struggling, and it obviously didn't faze him, I don't see what the harm would be to put in Manke if Belmore continues to struggle. These are Belmore's numbers for the past two games: 36 of 63 for 354 yards, with 2 td's, 6 int's, and 1 lost fumble. I believe there have also been some other fumbles which were recovered by UND. I realize not all of the int's were his fault, but the td-to-int ratio is very alarming nonetheless.

No. I was a little surprised that the issue wasn't brought up.

I may have misunderstood him, but I thought he was talking about the 4th down conversion. I thought he originally said the missed assignment was on the 4th down conversion, and then said something about the touchdown, corrected himself, and mentioned the 4th down conversion again. I could very well have misunderstood him, however. In any event, I do think it was asking a lot of a 5'9" corner to be covering Denney all over the field by himself. For three quarters, Hoffschneider did a fantastic job. In retrospect, it may have been a good idea to have have had a safety or a nickel back double-covering him during the last couple of possessions, particularly on 3rd and 4th and long.

Regarding Denney, I personally would have double-covered him in the last couple of possessions because I don't think they had any intentions of throwing the ball anywhere else, at least on 3th and 4th downs. With that said, however, Lennon did mention on the radio last night something about a missed assignment, which makes me think somebody was supposed to have been helping Hoffschneider on the long 4th down conversion along the UND sideline in the 4th quarter.

I would say UND is definitely very interested in Cavalier's Matt Anderson. He's the top senior prospect in the state, IMO. I'd say the odds are quite good that UND is also interested in Ryan Kasowski. Probably not as a running back, but possibly as a linebacker.

I'm not always a huge fan of the playcalling, but I suppose that's normal for fans to second-guess the offensive coordinator. I felt that we didn't really attack UNO's weakness--their corners--enough. But it was the turnovers, not the playcalling, that was the real problem. One other thing Lennon said on the show last night that is quite true--and I'm paraphrasing here--is that fans want the offense to be as dominant as the defense. With just 36 scholarships, that's simply not realistic. With a couple of exceptions, UND's top talent is on the defensive side of the ball. That doesn't mean the offense has to be sub-par, and it certainly hasn't for most of this year, but it's also unlikely that it's going to consistently be a 40-plus ppg unit, either.

The issue of playcalling came up on the coaches' show last night, and Dale Lennon made a point of distinguishing between a conservative offense, and one that simply failed to put many points on the board. His feeling was that UND wasn't being conservative against UNO--they just made too many mistakes. As for the short leash comments, my feeling is that Belmore should be pulled if he has another bad turnover. He simply can't fumble anymore. And if he gets intercepted, it needs to be on a long pass attempt or the result of a receiver bobbling the ball. I've always felt that as between Belmore and Manke, Belmore has more of the "measurables," i.e. size, speed and perhaps arm strength. Manke would seem to have all the intangibles going for him, and he had a far superior high school career. I certainly don't claim to know better than Mussman or Lennon who should be playing, but I honestly feel that Manke is a winner and deserves a legitimate shot to play before his career is over.

I've always felt that aside from location, UNC had absolutely no business going dI. Their men's basketball program is a joke--terrible team, terrible facility and terrible fan support. They would also appear to be somewhat strapped for cash, with a 2004 budget of just $4.3 million. Even football, their bread and butter sport, has historically had trouble sustaining success over long periods of time. They're evidently desperate for football wins, since after playing an all I-AA schedule in 2004, they've played two RMAC teams this year. Not coincidentally, those two games count for two of their three wins on the year.

UND has shown interest in Fargo South receiver Evan Savageau, according to the this Forum [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=107507

Aside from being located in a very small town, which admittedly is a problem, I don't think USD is in too bad of a situation in terms of money. Their fiscal year 2005 budget is at about $4.3 million, and I suspect their football revenue this year has gone up considerably now that they're actually doing well and fans are interested again for the first time in about 20 years. They're averaging a little over 7000 per game now, and that number will likely go up a bit after this Saturday's game. They draw around 2500 per game for men's basketball, which puts them far ahead of Northern Colorado, for example. Their fiscal year 2005 budget is very comparable to SDSU's fiscal year 2004 budget.

This may not be an identical situation, but in the 2003 season, I seem to recall Bowenkamp being pulled a few times in favor of Joe Wilson when he was struggling. Like Belmore now, Bowenkamp was in his second season as starter in 2003, and had his share of ups and downs. If, as expected, Belmore gets the start on Saturday, I think he needs to be on a very short leash. It's not like there's some inexperienced freshman backup. Manke can play. Keep in mind that the passing game will be key on Saturday. Like UNO, USD is decent against the run, but bad against the pass. This will not be a game to go ultra-conservative, because USD will put up some points. Their offense is better than Omaha's, particularly playing in Vermillion. We probably need to score 30 points to have a good chance to win, and it will be difficult to do so without being more aggressive with the playcalling.

I don't know that he was "officially" fired, but he was definitely forced out. I suspect he was essentially told to resign or be fired. He was just too young for the job. I believe he was in his late 20's when he was promoted from defensive coordinator. I agree with you regarding UNO's probable playoff fate. I think both UNO and USD have the same problem--pass defense. UND simply didn't exploit that weakness and paid for it. Hopefully we will do so on Saturday or else another loss wouldn't surprise me.

According to the first UND women's basketball press release, the games will be on the radio.

If UND were to be seeded 3rd or 4th, they'd be playing at home on November 12. If seeded 1st or 2nd, they'd have a bye. If seeded 5th or 6th, they'd be on the road. I won't even address the one other possibility...

Another mystery of this week's poll is how Central Washington jumped up three spots to number seven. They have a win over an NAIA school, which is very costly to your quality win index, and although they do have a nice win over Washburn, their other six wins consist of five teams with below .500 records, plus the aforementioned NAIA team.

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.