UND92,96

Not as well as they used to. It's actually very easy to see where things all changed. UND had its best attendance year ever in terms of per-game average in 2008--the first year of the transition and despite a terrible home schedule. In 2009, even with no home games until early October, through two games UND was averaging about 10,300. Then the Sioux Falls game happened. And we are still dealing with the after-effects.

I think it's safe to say that regardless of whether or not they're at their usual level, Montana was the biggest name opponent UND has had at home in a long time. UND's football stats only go back to 2006 on undsports.com, but all of these opponents (2006-2011) listed below drew more than the Montana game did on Saturday. This kind of puts into perspective, at least for me, how much the transition has killed attendance, because the majority of these came either immediately before the start of the transition, or in the first year of it. Winona St. MSU-Mankato Humboldt St. Central Washington Augustana Nebraska-Omaha St. Cloud St. Texas A & M-Kingsville Wisconsin-LaCrosse Western Washington South Dakota Northeastern St. Southern Utah Cal Poly

The 6'9" kid was Carson Hogan, an OL from Bemidji.

How in the world did Montana have EWU on the ropes, at EWU, just three weeks ago? Hard to imagine given what we saw from the Griz defense yesterday.

Portland St. is leading Cal Poly 25-20 about halfway through the third quarter.

Price for Minnesota getting out of its contract with North Carolina? $800k. Watching that same UNC program lose to perennial doormat Duke? Priceless. I hope Kill (and the Minnesota a.d. and president) were watching.

There were a few plays today where I wished there was instant replay in FCS football. That was definitely one of them.

28 Sac St. 31 EWU final 7 UC-Davis 21 N. Arizona final

As bizarre as UND's decision was to run up the middle on 3rd and 3, perhaps as odd was Montana's decision to throw a long pass with a little over 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and up 34-31. The incompletion stopped the clock, and played a big role in Montana going three and out and only running a very small amount of time off the clock. I felt that Montana's clock management/play calling in the last five minutes was terrible.

Kind of an unsung hero today was Blair Townsend. I believe he had more receiving yardage today than in the rest of his career combined.

A fun, but incredibly frustrating at times, game to watch today. If I were Mussman, I think I'd tell Breitbach that he's not allowed to call a run between the tackles on third or fourth and short the rest of the season. It just doesn't work this year.

Hard to say. But I will admit that when Mussman said that a fifth-year senior was suspended, I was kind of hoping it was Merserau. If somebody had to go, he was probably the most expendable, as he has struggled badly this year. I assume Butler is now a number 2 at safety? Or maybe Ivery?

Good question. His tweet stated "UND announced the suspension". Exactly how it was announced I have no idea.

The suspended player is Merserau, per Dom Izzo.

Someone tweets on his behalf. I believe it was Karvinen last weekend.

Now 7-6. Nelson just led an impressive scoring drive.

0 Minnesota 7 Wisconsin 9:21 left in first quarter Interesting that true freshman Philip Nelson got the start at qb for the Gophs. Some may remember that Joe Mollberg's recruitment by Minnesota essentially ended when Nelson committed.

If Goodman doesn't play today (he's doubtful according to Wayne Nelson's Herald article), hopefully the UND defense responds better than the last time he didn't play--EWU.

For those as interested in UND football history as I am, there are some parallels between the Pat Behrns and Chris Mussman eras. Both were promoted when extremely popular coaches left for higher-paying gigs. Both had ups and downs in their first four or five seasons, before seemingly having breakthrough 8-3 seasons. In the following season for Behrns, UND went 3-8 and he was let go. I don't really think UND will finish this season 3-8, although obviously it's not completely out of the question given the defensive struggles, which may actually get worse given all the injuries.

I have to assume that if RT still wanted to coach, he'd be coaching somewhere already. It's been 14 years since he last coached.

Is speed, or the lack thereof really the main problem right now for UND's defense, or is it physicality, or the lack thereof? Both NDSU and SDSU have good defenses, and to the best of my knowledge virtually all of their players are from the upper midwest.

I would submit that our best chance of recruiting hard-nosed, tough linebackers is in ND, MN and WI, not SEC country.

I think it's a possible combination of that, and perhaps too much focus on athletic ability rather than attitude, temperament and productivity at the high school level when recruiting defensive players. If you were to run today's defense through an NFL combine-type battery of tests, it would almost certainly grade out much higher than 10 years ago. But in terms of hitting, attitude and toughness, things appear to have regressed. Just my possibly ill-informed theory.

In the second year of the transition, with relatively little defensive talent, UND held current Pittsburgh Steeler running back Baron Batch to 32 yards on 9 carries in the Texas Tech game. And there are other examples of UND performing admirably against talented backs during the transition. Something just isn't adding up here. You don't recruit for four years with considerably more scholarships, and somehow end up less talented than when you were at 36 scholarships. That's why I'm not convinced that the problem is primarily that there simply isn't enough talent.

This is perhaps the most baffling part of the defensive ineptitude, given the fact that at least prior to the injuries to Brenneman and Benjamin, the defensive line of this season is essentially the same one that ended last season (after Bellmore was injured). I just can't comprehend why things have gone so terribly wrong this season.