UND92,96

To put things in a little different perspective, at least we didn't build a football stadium that only seats a little over 4000, like a certain one of our NCC/WCHA brethren!

That's really disappointing since I think a lot of UND fans were planning on going to this game. If ever WDAZ or the FSSN would consider televising a regular season road game, this would appear to be the ideal one considering it's relatively close and it looks like a great game on paper.

I would say it's a list of all the division I teams/meets/tournaments on UND sports schedules this year.

I read that quote with some amusement, also. I give them credit for not letting the Sioux just run over them between the tackles like I thought would probably happen, but that's small consolation when you give up well over 400 yards of total offense and 34 points.

He didn't play much until the game was in hand. In the fourth quarter, he played quite a bit with the second team offense. He's one of the two deep guys on kick returns, but of course there haven't been many kick returns yet for the Sioux. On punts, he's the second deep guy on those relatively few punt returns when there's more than one guy deep.

Does anyone else think Dressler should be the primary punt returner? To me, it seems pretty clear that not only is he faster and quicker than Groeschl, but I believe he probably also has more experience fielding punts from his high school days than does ex-quarterback Groeschl. Groeschl had one bounce off his face mask yesterday for a turnover, and he just doesn't look that comfortable back there. I've been impressed with Dressler from the few times he's handled the ball so far, and it would seem that in order to make it worthwhile to have taken his red shirt off, he should at least be utilized the fullest extent on special teams.

Not surprisingly, the CW coach was really ticked off about the fake punt according to the Herald. I'd say it was probably something that shouldn't have been done. UND has a reputation as one of the classier programs around and there's no point jeopardizing that. Could it have been an audible? It will be interesting to see if Lennon addresses it on the show tonight.

Austin Pennick was evidently in town for a visit yesterday. I saw him with some of the Sioux players at the football game.

It's probably not a big surprise to anybody, but according to both Sweeney on the channel 8 sports last night and today's Herald, Bowenkamp didn't take any snaps at practice yesterday so it looks like Belmore will again get the start tomorrow.

According to the blurb in last Thursday's Herald, she is going to take an official visit to UND, along with Iowa St., Northwestern and possibly Minnesota. I don't think Minnesota will offer her but you never know. UND offers the opportunity to play close to home, for a very strong program and in very nice facilities. At UND she knows she'd be playing for a winner, whereas Northwestern is terrible and Iowa St. seems to have fallen off since the Megan Taylor, et al. days. As long as she's interested enough to visit, I'd say there's still a chance.

Central Wash. was good two years ago, as they went undefeated during the regular season, including a win at Montana St., before losing to UC-Davis in the playoffs. However, despite coming into last season highly ranked, they fell back down to earth and had a very mediocre season. They're 1-1 so far this year, both games being against Montana NAIA teams. I will venture to guess they they have nowhere near the talent of Delta St., and just as the Sioux had something to prove against Mesa last week, it should be even moreso for this game. I think the Sioux will make a big statement on Saturday. I would look for something far more similar to the 2000 game at Memorial Stadium than the 2002 game.

My understanding is that Gagner was not seriously injured last week, which obviously is very good news. He apparently had some kind of a heat exhaustion-type situation. He should play today.

Certainly NDSU football enjoyed more success prior to the opening of the Fargodome than since, but just as it's unprovable what role the Alerus has played in UND football's tremendous success in 2001 and 2003, it's unprovable that the Fargodome really had anything to do with the fact that NDSU hasn't won a title since 1990. I just can't buy the argument that the Alerus hasn't helped UND football, even if it's just as a recruiting tool. In today's Herald, for example, in an article on the hogs, Mitch Braegelmann from St. Cloud said that he chose UND over St. Cloud St. due in part to facilities. And before anyone says anything about Selke, I believe that plans for the new stadium in St. Cloud were already known when Braegelmann was a senior in high school in 2002-03 so it's not like it was simply a case of anything seeming better than Selke was. While the more sentimental of us UND fans may very well miss Memorial, I really don't think it was going to be impressive to some 18 year old kid who hadn't grown up going to games there. At least to an outsider, it just looked like kind of a dump. Not to say I didn't like it, but objectively I can see how somebody else would not have seen its charm. And considering the competition for players, especially as you get farther away from eastern ND (the Cities and Wisconsin especially), you need every advantage you can get. EDIT: I just found this quote which further supports that even opposing players are pretty impressed with the Alerus:

There's probably not much of a point to this debate since the proverbial train has left the station and UND football will likely be playing in the Alerus for the remainder of our lifetimes. However, a couple of points in response to your post. First, it's not like the money that paid for the Alerus could have been used for something else. Money to refurbish Memorial would have to have come from either the state (highly unlikely) or through donations. It was unlikely in either case. As for what role the Alerus had in the 2001 and 2003 seasons, it's really unprovable either way whether it greatly helped or helped very little. However, especially as it pertains to last year, there were probably some key players who would not necessarily have come to UND had the Sioux still played at Memorial. Facilities do make a difference in many cases, and Memorial really was not a recruiting asset. The best source of information on this would, of course, be Dale Lennon, and I believe he's on record as saying that the Alerus has helped recruiting.

Although I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for Memorial, I don't miss the metal and wood bench bleachers and decrepit bathrooms. The Alerus isn't perfect, but I think Dale Lennon would be the first to acknowledge that it has helped recruiting, and there's no denying that two of the three seasons played there have been the two most successful in UND football history.

According to today's Herald, Kimbrough is planning on taking official visits to UND, Iowa St., Northwestern and possibly Minnesota. However, she did say that at this point, she's leaning towards going division I.

Hypothetically speaking, IF UND were actively seeking membership in a dI/I-AA conference, and IF it stands to reason that the Carr Report NDSU commissioned would similarly apply to UND, then it would stand to reason that conceivably, UND would send a letter of interest to the Big Sky prior to announcing any formal move to division I/I-AA.

I'm pretty sure it's Weston's brother, but at least at this point, he's not anywhere near the player or as fast. I think he's a junior.

I'm sure we all remember what happened in this game last year in Grand Junction. Three UND turnovers in the first three possession, including one returned for a touchdown, put the Sioux in an early hole from which they could never completely recover. This year, I look for a completely different game. Primarily because Mesa wants to run the ball roughly 80% of the time (probably 100% if they could get away with it), and I don't believe that the Sioux defense is going to be giving up many rushing yards this year. Plus, there's going to be the revenge factor and the fact that it's no secret that the Sioux seem to play far better on turf. Frankly, if UND doesn't win this game rather handily, I'm going to be pretty disappointed. Hopefully Bowenkamp and the passing game can do far better this week. The receivers--other than Johnson--and the tight ends were almost complete non-factors last week and that needs to change.

Isn't there enough UND vs. NDSU smack already without you injecting it into a thread in which the acronym "NDSU" had yet to be written?

I have heard that UND is very interested in Chappell. He may be this year's version of Dressler in terms of what kinds of numbers he'll put up barring injury. He's got some serious wheels as he's already the overall state record holder in the 300 hurdles and is also one of the best 110 hurdlers ever in the state. He's definitely not big, but he's an excellent prospect nevertheless. There's no question in my mind that he's the best skill position kid in ND this year. It's actually a pretty good year for area prospects. The Mertens kid from EGF is very talented, along with Wahlin from Crookston, Oksendahl from Cavalier and Lee, the 6'5", 315 pound all-state lineman from Park River. I'm sure there are probably others but those are the ones I'm aware of off the top of my head.

I agree that a t-shirt isn't really a big deal one way or the other. What I find disappointing, however, is the stuff I referenced in the earlier post about the Green Mill and the flood. Just as I would find it appalling if UND fans heckled Amy Ruley about her health problems a few years back (not saying anybody did--just an example of something similarly crass). Some things are just going over the line, and reveling in someone else's non-sports-related misfortune is very immature.

As it pertains to UND going division I or not, I think the fortunes, both competitively and financially, of UNC, SDSU and NDSU are very germane to the issue. Throwing football out of the equation, since I have no doubt that ANY strong dII program would do fine in I-AA with a full or nearly full complement of scholarships, if the aforementioned schools really struggle in basketball, etc., have difficulty getting home games against dI opponents and in particular, can't find a conference, then obviously it would or should make UND think twice about moving to dI across the board. If UND simply announced that it was going dI, then it would be doing the same thing that NDSU and SDSU did--disregarding the recommendation of its consultant that a conference should be lined up BEFORE a move is made. To simply dismiss this advice as being unrealistic would be to claim that Carr didn't know what it was talking about, and I don't believe that's true. It's a bit risky to simply follow that part of the advice that supports what you wanted to hear in the first place.

Frankly, that's a good example of why I would never visit the bisonville board. I know full well in advance that much of the stuff posted there would irritate the hell out of me, so I don't go there. Making light of a building and business burning down (owned by a Fargo resident, by the way) is just sad. It reminds me a bit of the 1997 Sioux-Bison game in GF when I had the misfortune of witnessing a group of NDSU students laughing about and making light of the flood in GF. That may have been the closest I've come in my adult life to actually punching somebody out. Fortunately, I had some restraint. I'm not going to impugn an entire university based upon the actions of a few, but there are some people out there (on both sides) who need to get some class.