UND92,96

Somebody needs to do a little more research. Check out the Wichita newspaper's projected UND starting lineup : http://www.kansas.com/2012/11/08/2561103/weber-set-for-his-real-kansas.html

I remember three years ago when Sutton was practically UND's only offensive weapon. Injuries took their toll over the years, but it was nice that he was able to finish so well with 11 rushing td's as a senior. I have enjoyed watching him play.

I think 99 is now Hoerchner. Not sure why he changed his number.

This is just my opinion, and not based on any purported "inside info", but my guess is that had the staff really thought the defense was going to struggle as badly as it has, you likely would have seen several red shirts pulled early in fall camp. At a minimum, I think Edwards and Konowalski could have played immediately. But when UND started 3-1, perhaps it was just hoped that the defense would come around, and that it was wiser to retain the extra year of eligibility for all the freshmen besides Golladay? Whether that was the right decision or not, I don't know. I just can't believe it was ever contemplated that 35 points and 500 yards allowed per game was going to be the norm. By the time it became clear that it was, it was too late to justify pulling any red shirts.

I believe there's a pretty good corner red shirting--Dan Konowalski (sp?). Also, Ryan Cain was a fairly heralded safety prospect coming out of high school.

As you probably noticed from the first sentence of my post, I acknowledged that statistics don't tell the whole story. But clearly the won-loss record and the statistics are somewhat at odds with each other. The offense is probably better than the statistics suggest, particularly due to the terrible performances in the EWU and MSU games, not to mention the fact that Portland St. was a non-conference game. As for the defense, there's not a lot of mitigating circumstances there. The defense is what the numbers say it is.

I was a bit surprised too, but here's the link: http://bigskyconf.com/custompages/football/2012/stats/confonly.htm

I understand that your standards haven't necessarily changed. I just want to emphasize that if your defense has comparable numbers to Idaho State's, generally speaking you're probably going to end up with a won-loss record similar to Idaho State's. Somehow UND has managed to avoid that this year. But the odds aren't in our favor if we see similar defensive numbers again.

Certainly the defense played much better in the second half. But on the other hand, SUU gained 157 yards rushing, after only gaining 23 last year against UND, and the passing yardage was almost identical (353 last year, 363 this year). I just feel like our expectations have lowered so much that 500-plus yards and 29 points seems like a relatively good performance, when in reality it would have been considered almost disastrous in any other season.

Statistics rarely tell the whole story, but in UND's case, it's pretty bizarre that it has a 3-4 Big Sky record despite being: 10th in scoring offense; 11th in total offense; 12th in scoring defense; 12th in total defense; and 10th in turnover margin. (all of the above are conference-only stats). About the only key statistic that UND ranks highly in is penalties, as it has the fewest in the conference.

20 Montana St. 17 Sac St. final

13 Montana St. 17 Sac St. end of 3rd quarter

UNC actually won at Portland St. today, 32-28. Kind of a shocker.

Currently tied for 6th. Media had UND 6th, and coaches 10th.

It seems hard to believe that UND is actually 4-4 vs. Big Sky opponents despite giving up over 500 yards per game in the process.

I have the same feeling, but on the other hand SUU did lose at home to Weber St. a few weeks ago, so they're a bit unpredictable.

Although I am a big Tibesar fan, personally I can't see him back at UND unless perhaps there's a head coaching vacancy. Eric Schmidt?

This is Tibesar's first year at Purdue. During his two years as d coordinator here, UND gave up around 13 ppg.

In fairness, there was one pretty big change made in the defensive staff after last season.

It's tough to accept the fact that UND is one of only two Big Sky teams to lose a conference game by 30 or more points this year, and it's happened twice (Idaho St. has three such losses).

They haven't had a bye week. Their season ends a week before most everybody else's (Nov. 10). I'm not sure if they've played anybody with two weeks to prepare for them like UND has with NAU and MSU.

UND and SUU have had nearly identical Big Sky schedules, with the only difference in opponents being that they played (and inexplicably lost to) Weber St. instead of Cal Poly. They haven't been blown out by anybody in the Big Sky, and their defense is giving up about 12 ppg fewer than is UND. Prior to the season, I had penciled in this game as a likely UND win, but right now I'd have to make SUU a favorite.

Here are the UND defensive numbers after yesterday (FCS games only): 39.14 points allowed per game 269.14 rushing yards allowed per game 251.43 passing yards allowed per game

High praise for the UND offense from Rob Ash: http://www.bozemanda...1a4bcf887a.html