Sioux_FF

My guess would be that all athletes understand how the recruiting works. I have to believe the Sioux recruiters were telling Mollberg they considered him "the guy" they were looking for. They were telling him if he came, they considered him the QB of the future for the Sioux. But, every year at every position, you have multiple offers out to the same position. You may get none of them to commit, or you may get several to commit. If you happen to sign what you consider the best player you're recruiting, you still need depth. I have to believe Bartels was offered well before Mollberg committed and the staff was excited to get both, but they consider Mollberg to be "the guy." I believe Mollberg and his family understand that too.

I got my latest Sports Illustrated in the mail this morning. The last page is always interesting. Paul Taylor's short one page stories. Today's included a tongue in cheek interview between a Sports Editor and a young, naive, "un-enlightened" applicant for a writing job. Includes a very apt mention of the Fighting Sioux saga: EDITOR: You're so naive, kid. It's not just the so-called aggrieved party you have to worry about. Take the teams at the University of North Dakota. Their nickname is the Fighting Sioux, and they use it with the blessing of many Native Americans. That's not good enough for the NCAA, which forbids teams with Native American nicknames from hosting its tournaments and the schools' athletes from wearing uniforms with the nickname or logo in postseason play. APPLICANT: Gee, if that's the way things are, maybe I should just go into another line of work. Complete, short article is at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1195704/1/index.htm

Thanks for the help Sparky! got my tickets.

Looking for 2 tickets for the Saturday game at UMD on Feb 11..... pm me if you've got a set for sale.

Might be a silly question, but does anyone know if recruiting folks at UND do searches for high school athletes who are interested in aviation? I would think maybe we could land an athlete every so often who would be out of our normal reach, but wants to be a pilot without going the service academy route. With the Roebuck announcement I'm just reminded of the back to back to back D2 titles in WBB, that probably wouldn't have happened without a Jenny Crouse, who came here because of aviation.

The 2001 NC game, with the added "pleasure" of the Al Pearson bus trip down and back has to be the ulitimate. My personal, most memorable would have to be as a grade schooler when my older brother brought me to Memorial Stadium for the first time. I got to watch a hero I had only read about it, Dave Osborn carry the ball for the Sioux. The older I get, it's still my favorite experience as a lifelong Sioux fan

Not on the ND side, but I've always thought that EGF's Kurt Knoff, Green Wave class of '72 was probably the best all around athlete to come out of the area. Great football, basketball and baseball player, even with the knee issues. MN High School Athlete of the Year in 1972. All American safety at Kansas, very good baseball player for the Jayhawks and even played a bit of basketball for them. 6 or 7 years in the NFL until the knee issues ended it for him. I beileve he scored over 30 points in a 3rd place state tourney basketball game as a junior in 1971. Basketball was his 3rd best sport. Best I ever saw.

Wayne Nelson was asked about that today on the Herald Writer's Sports Chat. He replied: "I don't believe any of the coaches will be leaving. From what I understand, one position has to be readvertised."

Me, I saw my first Sioux game in the mid 60's and have tried to make most of them since. Fortunately for Sioux football, UND and Coach Mussman (who I've never met) his status as UND's head coach doesn't matter what any of us on here thinks. There are adults who decide those type of things. But, I'm sure his job is safe, easily for a couple more years. He has had to lead UND football through a transition after a very good coach, and others on the staff left. He has also had to deal with the Sioux nickname situation as far as recruiting and scheduling. I would agree it hasn't always been pretty, but I believe the worst thing that can happen to a college football program is a revolving door on the coaching staff. Stability matters. A few years back, many college football fans 75 miles to the south were calling for the head of a certain coach.......don't hear that much right now, do we? Did Bohl suddenly get smarter the last 2 years? I have to hope and trust that the people who actually decide these things are happy with the progress, all things considered. Recruiting over the last couple years, and now for 2012 are a good indication of things to come. Stability of staff is one thing we need going forward and to have a thread like this after an 8-3 season is kind of a sad statement about some Sioux fans. In my opinion anyway. Good things are on the horizon for UND football.

I see Drake and San Diego tied at 9-2 for the Pioneer Football League title. SD was 25th in the Coaches poll, Drake got votes that would have made it about 30th. I feel better about that 16-0 early season Sioux win over Drake. I know the PFL is the only FCS non-scholarship conference, but the top teams somewhat hold their own at the FCS level.

Whew.................OK, now let's never schedule USF again.

But, that's what the coaching aspect of the game is about. To put the players in a position to make plays. The game plan and play calling was sound. Bradley was put in situations to make plays because it was known the defense was committed to the run. He just didn't make the plays. You don't just blindly run the ball because you've done it a certain percentage of times in the past. You adapt. You put the game in the hands of the playmakers and hope they step up and make the plays. We saw flashes, but in the end Cal Poly playmakers made a few more plays. I think if we would have went 3 and out on the first couple of series by forcing the run people on here would have been complaining about the lack of imagination. At some point this season they had to see if Joey B. is going to be the man or not down the road. Probably still more questions than answers on that one after Saurday.

Same as I thought before the season started. I have a better chance of winning the lottery than Mussman does of being let go before the end of the 2012 season. The powers that be see this as a process, over years, and we're building for next year in a good way. Down the road, 2011 will be looked at as the year we turned the corner in FCS.

I heard a discussion about this article (from the Atlantic magazine by Taylor Branch) on Sports Talk radio. They were calling it the best article ever written on the state of the NCAA and college sports. Very long, but worth the read. The main premise is that it's time to once again pay college athletes. But, a lot more on how the NCAA operates. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/ A litany of scandals in recent years have made the corruption of college sports constant front-page news. We profess outrage each time we learn that yet another student-athlete has been taking money under the table. But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves. Here, a leading civil-rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes

from the Herald sports chat today: wayne: This just in: Saturday's UND-Idaho game will be televised by Midco Sport Net (channel 323)

Any ideas what the major announcement is going to be today? From WDAZ.com this morning. Is this UND related? Scheels President Steve M. Scheel will make a "major" announcement today at a 5:00 press conference according to a press release. The announcement will take place at the Grand Forks Scheels location at the Med Park Mall on Columbia Road.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/214028/group/opinion/ Always great to see people of Sioux heritage give their opinion using honest, personal feelings.............rather than regurgitating spin that has no common sense reasoning behind it. "I was raised to be proud of my Sioux heritage. My grandfathers are Baptiste Lambert, Struck the Ree, Rain In The Face, Wabasha and Burnt Thigh, among others. They were strong men and proud warriors, men who stood unwavering by what they believed. But now, once again, the dominant culture is saying the Sioux name and logo are bad. Being Sioux is not bad. The logo shows a proud, focused warrior. What is there to be ashamed of? I have yet to be convinced that the FIghting Sioux name and logo are harmful in any way. And at every game, the name of my people is shouted in the spirit of pride of belonging to something good. How great is that?" Thank You Harvey!

I think it's becoming clearer that the Sioux nickname matter is less about the NCAA - they have already spoken- than it is about conference affiliation and scheduling of games that we really need to be scheduling. I think the timetable for settling the entire issue was just moved up. http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/206310/group/homepage/

I absolutely agree. NDSU of 2010 is a good example of what can happen. I expect us to compete for a BSC title in year one. We lost at Montana by 10, basically without a quarterback, to a team that finished 3rd in the BSC. UND football is close and will be increasingly competitive at the FCS level. I love the Sioux name as much as anyone. I've had season tickets for football for many years, attending most games for more than 40 years. The team will get stronger and recruiting will steadily improve. I think we saw that this year. Selfishly, I want to see UND host football playoffs in my lifetime once again. Home field matters. Absolutely and even in year one. I see the general public, and even a fair number of Sioux fans, getting numb to the whole battle over the nickname. A consensus of Sioux fans in my circle believe that even if we can win a battle or 2 in court, the debate will never die until the name changes. Unfortunate, but true. Spirit Lake voted 2 to 1 in favor. But that also means one in every 3 Spirit Lake voter was in favor of dropping it. I'm willing to bet 10 years ago it would have been 75-25, or more, in favor of the nickname. There has been gradual erosion for years and I don't think a court ruling will change that. Unfortunate, but true. It's like a bad toothache. It's not going away. UND and UND football is bigger than a nickname. "If I'm not mistaken, the University, the State Board of Higher Ed, and the State Legislature has been sorting through this mess for 5 years or so................how long do they need?" I think the realistic opportunity to save the name was years ago. Mistakes were made years ago that crippled the process. It's almost sad for me to say, but a year from this fall I'd rather be watching a North Dakota football playoff game in the Alerus, than listening to a Sioux football playoff game a 1000 miles away from Grand Forks. In either case, I'll be cheering for us. (and wearing my lucky Sioux shirt).

from http://siouxfb.areavoices.com/2011/03/09/spring-grab-bag/#comments oskie says: March 22, 2011 at 9:39 am We have heard the Sioux are in contact with some existing players from the Omaha program. Anyone who knows anything about their program knows that they usually have pretty good players. Whether they can put it all together is another matter. There will be a ton of schools trying to get those players, you can bet on that. We have seen where a couple MAC schools have already been contacting them. Would be surprised if UND didn

Mr. Faison: The purpose of this letter is to express to you my frustration, irritation and disgust with your testimony against the use of the Fighting Sioux nickname. As a former Fighting Sioux Athlete with 2 NCAA National Championships, 1 Runner Up, 3 WCHA Championships and a 4-year degree from the University of North Dakota, I find your testimony in favor of retiring the nickname unacceptable behavior for our

Sorry Lomack but that's a silly argument. You can find random examples of crude people of all ethnicities treating others poorly. It happens everywhere, always has. But, that has nothing to do with the respectful way UND has used the Sioux name for decades. Or, the incredible educational opportunities and programs for Native Americans on the UND campus. The history of treatment of the Native Americans over the last 200 years isn't always something to be proud of. But, the use of and respect for the Sioux nickname by UND and Sioux fans has always been about connecting our athletic teams to a strong, proud and regional people group we want to be identified with. Using a few random anonymous postings to justify your argument shows how silly it is.