UND92,96

SFI just tweeted that it sounds like Mollberg's decision could come as early as this weekend.

UND lands major recruit: http://undhockey.areavoices.com/?p=88377

One interesting factoid about this matchup is that UND radio analyst Mike Berg is a member of the Black Hills State athletic hall of fame for his high school coaching career: http://www.bhsu.edu/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Print.aspx?tabid=3454&tabmoduleid=30538&articleId=518&moduleId=5092&PortalID=0 Also, former UND football player Matt Field is a starting OL for BHSU.

This is their second year of a two-year transition. Next year, they will be a provisional dII member (and will join the RMAC). I believe they are playoff eligible starting in the 2013-14 season. Not sure if they are up to the 28-scholarship RMAC limit yet, but I doubt they are.

He's investigating as we speak. Dan Barreiro's got his "Pat Fitzgerald" schtick. We've now got the Kolpack one.

Per a Schlossman tweet, Karvinen has been cleared to play this season.

I have no problem cheering for the Yotes. Good luck on Saturday. I hope someday UND gets to play in Madison again.

If his coaching ability even comes close to matching his playing ability, this was a great hire.

I would too. But Minnesota won't schedule us in football. With that said, I still think UND's actual performance against Fresno (and Northern Illinois last year, who dominated the Goofs) was more impressive in the scheme of things than a close win over a Brewster-coached team. I also think NDSU's near-win over a Mason Gopher team was far more impressive than beating the Brewster version (not talking about "what you'd rather have"--just talking about what's more impressive), but you apparently disagree and that's fine.

If you're talking about two comparable teams, yes. But we're talking about Pat Hill vs. Tim Brewster. Big difference there too, don't you think?

So I'm assuming then that if it's "hilarious" that UND entered the poll after taking a pretty decent Fresno State team to the wire, then it must have been even more "hilarious" when USD entered the poll last year after edging the hapless Gophers, right? Or were voters thinking they were voting for SDSU? Hmmmm...

To clarify, it was Kolpack who responded to Vandrovec's tweet with the theory that it had to be due to confusion by the voters. I apologize if my post was unclear about the true origin of the theory.

Funny thing is that all this "confusion" talk started with a tweet by Terry Vandrovec of the Argus Leader, who seemed miffed that SDSU was the lowest ranked of the four Dakota teams. Given their performance last Saturday night, perhaps that dubious distinction is deserved. And now, their starting quarterback has quit the team. It's looking like a potentially disastrous season in Brookings...

58.

I don't think it's even remotely warranted at this point, but any positive publicity is good, I suppose.

I agree. The best win of the dI era was probably at Central Arkansas, and I believe they were sub-.500 that season.

One other game of possible interest to UND fans--Mary (and Josh Murray) are hosting Augie on Midcontinent Sports Channel right now.

Mollberg update: http://siouxfb.areavoices.com/

I can't specifically answer this, but he does have the title of "special teams coordinator".

Yes, on paper Fresno State should be able to name the score, but strange things happen sometimes. Look at last year--UND lost 23-17 to Northern Illinois, while Fresno lost to them 40-17. It's tough to explain how those results could have happened, but that's football. Sub-.500 SDSU only lost to then-6th-ranked Nebraska 17-3 last year. That shouldn't have happened. There are lots of other examples of huge mismatches on paper in which the score ended up being respectable for the underdog. Fresno State could be in for a letdown after a huge game at Nebraska, and let's face it--their players are not going to take UND seriously at all after watching the film of last week's game. I'm certainly not saying UND will keep it close, but it wouldn't surprise me if the game is closer than last week's game ended up being, IF (and it's a big "if", I acknowledge) the UND offense can figure out a way to move the ball a little bit.

I think DeBoer was smart to get out when he did. He now has on his resume` a highly successful stint as a head coach, AND dI coordinator experience, which on paper would seem to make him a viable candidate for an FCS head coaching job, particularly if SIU has a couple of good years. And while their offense wasn't very good last year, I noticed that they did put up 400-plus yards yesterday at Ole Miss, so things must be looking up.

Couple of things--was it Lennon and staff's fault for a couple of lackluster recruiting classes, or was it Buning's for slashing the recruiting budget? As for USD, I believe Meierkort has managed to supplement his high school recruiting with a number of FBS/juco transfers. Not sure how many are playing key roles, but I know some are. Aside from adding Bradley last off-season, that is an area where UND has not had much success going back a number of years.

I have thought for the past few years that Mussman should be his own offensive coordinator, a la Steve Spurrier. It doesn't mean Breitbach should be fired, but I just think Mussman is a much better o-coordinator based upon past results. Another thought--is there a compelling reason why Kotelnicki has been able to consistently put quality special teams on the field during the transition, but the offense and defense have mostly struggled? I mean, if there are circumstances, e.g. a lack of talent, which excuse in some people's minds the offensive and defensive struggles UND has experienced the past few years, shouldn't those same supposed handicaps similarly impact special teams? Or could it be that Kotelnicki has just done a much better coaching job than the coordinators? I don't know, I'm asking.

Obviously early season computer rankings must be taken with a grain of salt, but both Sagarin and Massey currently have Idaho as the 14th-worst FBS team in the country. Sagarin has Idaho just 18 spots higher than UND. On paper, this appears to be the most favorable matchup UND has had vs. an FBS program.

Hardee is doing a fantastic job with this program. I certainly don't pretend to be a great volleyball mind, so a question for those who may be--is there someting unique about volleyball which makes it immune to the usual excuses about why sports often struggle during the dI transition? Volleyball has the same handicaps as the other non-hockey sports, e.g. lack of a real conference, lack of post season, etc., correct? It's just interesting that a program which was never a power in dII has done so well the past three years, whereas some other sports which were powers in dII have struggled.