UND92,96

He meets pretty much every criteria from the job announcement, AND Faison knows him from their days at New Mexico St. At 57, I don't know how much longer he plans to coach, but I agree he'll likely be getting a call from Faison if he hasn't already. http://en.wikipedia....i/Barney_Cotton

I don't foresee that being much of a deterrent to firing him. There will be alums with deep pockets who will pony up to get rid of him. Even the ABC/ESPN guys are saying how he's said and done all the wrong things.

I'd say today's debacle on senior day in Lincoln may be the last straw for Pelini at Nebraska. I still feel like the Nebraska situation could impact a lot of things regarding the coaching situations at UND and NDSU.

Take this for what it's worth given the source, but on the Bobcat board there is some speculation that Ash actually wants him to go. Maybe this is completely off base, and admittedly I'd probably be less skeptical if he'd waited until late in the game to apply like the other true contenders for the job are expected to do. Again, this is hardly proof of anything, but it doesn't seem like many on the Bobcat board would be disappointed if he left.

I guess. But it might be a tough sell to negotiate a raise at MSU given how this season played out. Regardless of the injuries, when a preseason consensus top five team doesn't make the playoffs...

Marshall's application is interesting to me. He's spent his entire career as an assistant to Rob Ash, first at Drake and now at MSU. Ash is 62. How much longer will he realistically coach? Marshall is quite young (36 I believe) and presumably would be Ash's heir apparent given the fact that he's assistant head coach. I guess I'm just a little surprised that he's looking to move on at this point.

Wouldn't you expect that other programs would be similarly affected? I would be interested to know whether there is another college basketball program in the country that has seen as many head/face injuries over a two-year period. In addition to Brekke's significant problems, and now Schuler, I can recall Anderson getting his bell rung after a hard screen and missing a little time a year or two ago, and Huff's broken jaw. I actually think it has been more of a problem at UND in basketball than football, which is hard to believe.

Unusual basketball injuries have really plagued this program for whatever reason in the past three or four years. I suppose a big part of it may be the increased awareness of concussions lately, but I honestly can't recall any concussions or broken jaws to UND basketball players before the last few years.

Perhaps the most ironic applicant is Robin Ross, who was Muss's o-line coach from back in his Iowa St. playing days.

I'm going to go way, way out on a limb and say that none of these people are going to be UND's next coach, but in case you want to know who actually has applied so far, here's the list: http://kfgo.com/blogs/so-many-opinions-so-little-time/953/montana-state-defensive-coordinator-among-those-whove-applied-for-und-head-coaching-job/

Agreed. And let's also not overlook how critical it is to hire the right person after a successful coach moves on or retires. Many once-great programs have experienced down periods because of one questionable hire. If it can happen at Alabama and USC and Michigan and Florida and Nebraska, anybody is potentially vulnerable.

My guess is that we will see a handful of players leave, and some were probably going to leave anyway for various reasons, such as homesickness or just not wanting to put in the time football requires. Anybody who leaves primarily out of loyalty to Muss and/or the staff without at least waiting to see who the new coach is, particularly considering that it may be announced within a few weeks, is not very smart IMO.

The one situation like this I can recall was when Durene Heisler transferred from Lake Region to UND after her freshman year. Of course, that was a pretty unique recruiting situation given Roebuck was making the same move at the same time.

Not that I've seen. I imagine there are probably a number of formerly big name FBS coaches out there who don't really need money after huge contract buyouts. But it seems rare that you ever see them attempt to resurrect their head coaching careers at lower levels. I see he was with Montreal in the CFL this past season, after being a broadcaster for awhile.

NAU is hosting SDSU in the first round of the playoffs. That should be quite a matchup of running backs.

I think it helps having another shooter. Whether he can be more than just a zone buster remains to be seen. With regard to the minutes of the seniors, if anything I think that class has been asked to play too many minutes their first three years due to the lack of depth the program had. That was one of the reasons I felt so strongly that Hooker should not red shirt. If Anderson and Webb had needed to play 34 minutes a game, I don't think that would have been a positive.

Speaking of Kill, it's actually kind of surprising he ever got the SIU job in the first place, given his 49-25 record at Saginaw Valley St. and Emporia St. By comparison, Lennon was 90-24 as a dII coach. Now Kill is making seven figures, and Lennon is fighting just to keep his job. It's hard to explain.

Per Wayne Nelson, NCAA has ruled that Stefan is eligible immediately.

Seems like he would be a pretty controversial hire given how his tenure at Montana ended. I can't really see it happening, but who knows?

Zenner had 39 touches as it was, which I think Stiegelmeier would acknowledge is way too many. After his long touchdown run early in the fourth, he carried the ball six more times, for 1, 1, 6, 1, 3 and 2 yards. He was probably worn down from overuse, so giving it to him even more was not the answer.

Actually, Brooks now has two years experience as quarterbacks coach. Kingsbury was promoted to co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Houston in his third year of coaching, so at the same point in their respective careers there are some similarities. That's certainly not to suggest that by his sixth year of coaching, BB will be a head coach of a BCS conference school like Kingsbury managed to do. But I would certainly not be surprised if he's an offensive coordinator or co-offensive coordinator at Pitt within the next couple of years if he isn't hired at UND.

Based upon this year's game, I think the home game with Portland St. is quite winnable, as well. Anything above and beyond those four games is gravy IMO.

I just want improvement, and that may not even be reflected in the overall record. Fewer penalties. Fewer turnovers. Be able to run the ball a little bit. And be competitive. Just give us a reason to think better things are on the horizon.

I would like to see one or both of those guys retained in some capacity. I realize many feel there needs to be a complete reboot, but as you mention, Kotelnicki has been a very good special teams coordinator in the past, and you really saw that area struggle this year once he was no longer in charge. Freund is a really personable guy, and had the unenviable task of working with all freshmen quarterbacks this year. While obviously there were a lot of struggles there, I have a hard time holding him responsible for the fact that there were no upperclassmen at that position, and no running game to take the pressure off the qb's. I suppose his retention may depend in part on whether the new coach has a lot of contacts himself in Wisconsin.

It's certainly a concern. I suspect such a coach would stay with his current team through the playoffs or bowl. Which would presumably mean his newly-hired staff would have to be doing all the recruiting until the post-season was over. I recall both Muss and Bubba being interviewed for the UMD job during UND's 2003 post season run. But the final decision wasn't made until after the national championship game. Of course, that was early December rather than early January.