UND92,96

While obviously he wouldn't be a candidate to replace Carey, it would be great if a place could be found for Brooks Bollinger on the coaching staff: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/190348/group/Sports/

For some reason, I had always thought Nielson was quite a bit older than what he actually is. At 50 or so, he may yet be interested in moving on to a higher level.

UND shot 28% from the field.

Completely agree. As we've seen, it's probably much more difficult to restart a series once it's been put on hold than it is to simply keep it going in the first place. I will be very disappointed if USD isn't still on our schedule in 2012 and beyond.

Agreed. I really think we should keep the series with USD going on a yearly basis.

I think they're both very impressive. DeBoer was smart to take the SIU o-coordinator job to get himself some different experience, as it would have been all but impossible to maintain his winning percentage at Sioux Falls with the impending dII transition. IMO, either would be an excellent choice for any midwestern FCS head coaching job.

With regard to Leipold, he has quite a bit of experience with recruiting scholarship athletes from his time as offensive coordinator and associate head coach at UNO. I think the route he's taken is similar to what Dale Lennon did back in the mid-1990's--go from a coordinator at a dII national power to the head coach at a lower-level program. It worked out well for Lennon, and I suspect that if Leipold wants to pursue opportunities to be the head coach at a higher level, it would work out well for him, as well. My concern with focusing too much on a candidate's alleged recruiting ability, and not enough on his actual coaching, is that you could end up with another Tim Brewster.

I certainly hope UND isn't looking for a new head football coach anytime soon, but I would think it's only a matter of time before a dI program takes a serious look at this guy: http://www.uwwsports.com/coaches.aspx?rc=451&path=football 57-3 and three national championships in four years is pretty amazing, regardless of what level it is.

While it certainly won't be easy, I think UND needs to win all the home games next year. And UNC could be a winnable road game, although it's very difficult to project how improved they might be with a new staff.

Tom Miller blog on 2011 schedule: http://gfsports.areavoices.com/2010/12/17/sioux-football-schedule-draws-criticism/

I wonder if USD is also eventually getting a home game against Montana State? They played at Montana State in both 2008 and 2009, which may suggest that was a 2-for-1, but I don't know that for certain. Aside from McNeese State, which I believe bought out their contract and never played in Vermillion, it would appear USD has had, or will possibly get return games against all the FCS opponents they've played on the road thus far. Granted, some have been 2-for-1's, but I'd rather have a 2-for-1 than a contract which doesn't result in a return game at all.

USD has gotten UNI, SE Louisiana and UNC at home so far through home-and-home deals. That was kind of why I'm a bit irritated that we haven't had similar success in that regard. I assume they've had some buyouts and road-only deals too, but it does seem like they've done a little better than we have scheduling-wise.

I'm just going off memory, but my recollection is that SDSU wanted a 2-for-1 (which was what USD agreed to with NDSU), but UND held out for a home-and-home and SDSU agreed to it. I don't have any proof of this, however.

I agree that it's a mistake and a waste of money to attempt to get home FCS non-conference games by paying a guarantee. I'm just wondering why we haven't had a bit more success scheduling home-and-home's? Off the top of my head, we've played at SIU, SE Louisiana and Stephen F. Austin and won't be getting a return game from any of them. We never got Idaho State here due to a poor decision by a certain former administrator. And although it's nobody's fault, we gave Montana a free game. Now, we're apparently doing the same to UNC. So we're now four seasons worth of schedules into the dI transition, and the only home-and-home's we've managed to schedule that have or will actually result in a home non-conference return game are 1) Northwestern State; 2) Central Arkansas; and 3) SDSU. Have I missed any?

Doubt it. I believe the lesson was learned from the Idaho State debacle, i.e. the extremely low buyout the previous a.d. agreed to.

I recall last off-season when it sounded like UND would have a 10-game schedule (before the SDSU game was added late), Mussman sounded comfortable with it. It would seem Faison doesn't feel the same way, as IMO a 10-game schedule with one fewer NAIA/transitional dII opponent would have been preferable to playing three of those opponents as part of an 11-game schedule. And maybe you get lucky and add a good home-and-home at the last minute like what happened last year.

I believe Black Hills is transitioning to dII--not sure if they're on the same timeline as Sioux Falls, or one year behind.

Must keep reminding myself--this is the last year of this kind of schedule...this is the last year of this kind of schedule...this is the last year of this kind of schedule...

Is Haugen not getting many minutes due to sickness or injury, or is it just due to coach's decision?

I expect this could be a tight game. Mayville gave a pretty good Northern State team all they could handle, and likely will be a better 3-point shooting team than what UND has shown thus far. If there's one thing I've learned about UND men's basketball in the past decade, it's that there aren't many gimme wins against DAC teams, whether we're dII or dI.

I've really come to hate that expression--"we went toe to toe with them". At least Wayne was referring to the first half, and not the whole game.

There's one player from Fargo South on the roster, and one signee, so I'm not sure where you're getting three. This is the first season a Roebuck team has really struggled badly, so I don't see how that can be used as an example of expectations being low, or that poor performance is tolerated. Has recruiting been sub-par for three or four years? Yes. I don't know whose fault it is, but certainly a coach of Roebuck's stature isn't going to be fired at this juncture of his career for that. He'll go out on his own terms. He's earned that. Had you used men's basketball as an example, you may have actually had a point, as that's the one major sport at UND which has struggled for more than a season or two. And I highly doubt it will be tolerated much longer if it continues.

It was on the road. USD is having a fairly nice season so far. Their schedule hasn't been as difficult as UND's, but they're 6-5 and have four dI wins, including two on the road. Northern Arizona has an RPI quite a bit higher than UND, so that was a pretty good win for the Yotes.

It's obviously good that this series is starting up again. I'd just feel a lot more enthusiastic about it if we had a stronger team. I feel a little like I did before the football games in the mid-to-late-1980's in terms of the apparent disparity between the two programs right now.

Miami?