UND92,96

I guess it's not that hard to get away with a seemingly blatant antitrust violation.

It's interesting to me that a certain Grand Forks gas station owner is charging $2.95 per gallon at his station in Bemidji, but $3.20 in Grand Forks. For whatever reason, the prices get lower as you go east on Highway 2. Crookston and Mentor are at $3.05. Erskine and McIntosh are at $3.00. Fosston and Bemidji are at $2.95. There's often a small difference in the price between Grand Forks and Fosston/Bagley/Bemidji, but generally not as much as $.25 per gallon.

I agree. Frankly, I have always been perplexed as to why so many college and pro teams use punters as the holder.

Kid reminds me a little of ex-UND NG Mark Callahan in high school. Callahan was also a really big high school LB, who became a lot bigger and ended up as an outstanding NG in college.

I realize the staff is playing the hand it was dealt, but I really wish there were more young players who were healthy enough and good enough to have earned playing time on the offensive line this year. It would be nice to feel like whatever struggles the OL has experienced were due to youth, and were just a prelude to better things next season. But aside from Miller, none of the freshmen have been able to get on the field. And of course, thanks to Muss, there are no sophomores at all. Will Stockwell ever get and remain healthy? Can Cox put on 30 or 40 pounds? What's the deal with Bell not even being listed on the 2-deep? And can Francis, Taylor and/or Stiner, or even one of the walk-ons, step in and compete for playing time as soon as next year?

Based upon the fact that he graduated from college in 1972, I'm guessing Faison is around 63. I would be pretty surprised if he's still UND's a.d. much beyond next school year.

5dimes is the site. Better hurry--the line is already down to Portland St. by 1.

Massey and Sagarin actually have Stony Brook rated ahead of UND. I don't pretend to know exactly what all goes into computer rankings, but that seems strange to me.

Watching the progression of the defense compared to last year has been remarkable. All I can say is that I really, really hope that Schmidt is making more money than any division II head coach in ND. And if he's not right now, he'd better be by next season.

A bit hard to believe, but Portland St. opens as a 3-point favorite.

Woodsmall is out for the season, per Tom Miller.

Stony Brook receiving votes? I also have a hard time understanding how anybody could still vote for NAU after losing to UNC.

How about Anderson? Is he expected out for awhile?

Interestingly, Portland St. was one of the few teams last year against whom UND actually played pretty well defensively, shutting them out for the first three quarters before giving up two late touchdowns to lose 14-10. I feel pretty good about UND bouncing back from an emotional loss and putting together another outstanding defensive performance, while showing more consistency on offense. I think Mollberg is going to have his best game of the season, and UND gets the w.

Wow. They were looking quite vulnerable anyway due to their inability to stop anybody. For a team that pretty much has to score 50 points in order to win, losing Adams for any period of time could be a disaster for them unless the backup plays at a very high level.

Dev Ferguson is really starting to become a big-play threat. In the past three games, he has 7 receptions for 213 yards and a td. And that catch in the fourth quarter was pretty spectacular.

Definitely not. Schmidt has proven to be one heck of a defensive coordinator. Why were some of these guys not playing more last season? I believe Labat was injured, but I'm wondering how Rattelle wasn't starting, and Rich and C. Brown were basically not playing at all?

Mollberg will never have Hendrickson's speed. My point was more that Hendrickson (and Goska) looked awful when they were forced into action after Landry was injured. Remember when neither could complete a simple pass against Montana and SDSU? But both turned out pretty good. I see Mollberg showing similar improvement from where he's been for much of last year and early this year by sometime next year. He has a pretty high ceiling.

Mollberg's 2-point conversion pass was gutty and clutch. The reality is that very, very few UND quarterbacks have ever been asked to start as freshmen and/or sophomores, let alone to do so with a patchwork offensive line and without an especially strong running game. And yes, there have been some baffling lapses in judgment on his part. But I still feel like he has a chance to be pretty darn good. By early next season, I have a feeling he's going to progress to a point similar to where Hendrickson was as a senior.

EWU holds on for a 56-53 win. I see little chance they go far in the playoffs with that defense.

NAU is not good. Idaho St. is possibly the one team that has improved as much or more than UND from last season.

Montana had less than 50 yards rushing, and less than 300 yards of total offense: https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf9/2881277.pdf?ATCLID=209697035&SPSID=58640&SPID=6399&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=13500

While the end of the game felt like a gut punch, I am so proud of this team and this staff. The turnaround from last year's debacle is nothing short of amazing. I like UND's chances of getting to 7-5 this season, which would have seemed absurd a few weeks ago.

I think the Big Sky might be pretty down as a whole. EWU has a great offense but no defense to speak of, and Montana and Montana St. are decent, but probably not great, at least by their standards. Several of the other teams that have had some success in recent years, such as Cal Poly, SUU, NAU and Sac. St., appear to be a bit down. One surprise may be that some of the teams expected to be among the worst--Idaho St., Weber St. and UND--may be a bit better than expected.

Did anybody actually see the USD-Montana game? I'm just wondering whether Montana played relatively poorly in that game, or if USD--expected to be one of the two or three bottom teams from the MVFC, and playing with its backup quarterback--is better than expected? I thought USD looked fairly good against NAU, but that was a home game.