Matt

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/misc/cfoot225poll.aspx The Sports Network FCS Top 25 College Football Poll Team (First-place votes) 2014 Record Points Previous Rank 1. North Dakota State Bison (146) 3-0 4010 1 2. Eastern Washington Eagles (15) 2-1 3865 2 3. Southeastern Louisiana Lions 2-1 3458 3 4. Montana Grizzlies 2-1 3406 4 5. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 3-0 3225 5 6. McNeese State Cowboys 1-1 3117 6 7. New Hampshire Wildcats 1-1 3075 7 8. Villanova Wildcats 1-1 2986 8 9. Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1-1 2751 9 10. South Dakota State Jackrabbits 2-1 2585 11 11. Northern Iowa Panthers 0-2 2222 10 12. Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 2-0 1861 13 13. William & Mary Tribe 2-1 1712 16 14. Montana State Bobcats 2-1 1684 17 15. Chattanooga Mocs 1-2 1624 14 16. Southern Illinois Salukis 3-0 1590 20 17. Richmond Spiders 2-1 1581 18 18. Fordham Rams 2-1 1323 19 19. Youngstown State Penguins 2-1 1129 21 20. Tennessee State Tigers 2-1 827 22 21. Furman Paladins 2-1 759 12 22. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 2-1 720 24 23. Eastern Kentucky Colonels 3-0 547 NR 24. Liberty Flames 2-1 377 NR 25. Sam Houston State Bearkats 1-3 241 15 Others receiving votes: Bryant 181, Delaware 172, Illinois State 171, Towson 136, Wofford 97, Maine 93, Albany 89, Samford 81, Princeton 81, James Madison 54, Indiana State 51, Missouri State 46, Presbyterian 43, Eastern Illinois 39, Harvard 38, Charleston Southern 35, Central Arkansas 33, North Carolina A&T 33, Sacred Heart 29, Mercer 20, Lehigh 19, South Carolina State 18, Alcorn State 18, Alabama State 16, Southern Utah 14, Gardner-Webb 8, Western Illinois 8, Abilene Christian 7, Butler 5, Stephen F. Austin 4, Sacramento State 4, Western Carolina 2, Cal Poly 2, South Dakota 2, Texas Southern 1

Going to south florida and taking chances on guys doesn't seem to fit with how bubba wants to build this thing, but who knows?

Allowing 31ppg puts them at 5th place?! Wow!

This is a head scratcher. Coaches make mistakes. It is ok to point out when that happens, and when we do point it out, it does not mean they should be fired any more than when an O lineman gets beat for a sack he should have his scholarship pulled. It is just a mistake.

Your analysis of the D makes them look even worse. The TOP by quarter is nearly identical but the MSU D got stops. The UND D did not. Not because they were on the field more (the myth), but because they couldn't get a stop. I do agree MSU has better players, but are they better than SJSU? Montana? Montana State? They are not an elite team as evidenced by how close this game was until the second half. And yes, UND will always lose when they score zero, so I will reiterate I was not comparing the culpability of the O vs D in this loss. All 3 phases had major breakdowns.

You are probably correct. But the D was able to get stops in the first half. In the second half they couldn't. Again, that's why I lost my mind for a moment and raised the possibility that Terry Allen (a coach that is very familiar with bubba) may have outcoached bubba in the second half.

Ok, where to start... First, I was addressing the issue of whether or not the D was on the field to much. I was not making a case about who won or lost the game (more on that in a moment). Fact: The UND defense was on the field for about a minute longer than the MSU defense. Fact: As you pointed out, during the time the MSU offense had the ball, they were much more effective with it than the UND offense. Therefore, if anyone wants to make the case that the UND defense was more tired, it would not be due to the fact that they were on the field longer, because they were not. This is indisputable. You could certainly argue that the UND defense is not conditioned as well as the opponent. That may be the case, I don't know. As for "throwing bubba under the bus", if the game analysis hurts your sensibilities in some way I don't really care. This game was very even at halftime, and in the 2nd half MSU broke it wide open. I raised the possibility that yes, bubba got out coached with halftime adjustments. If you want to call that "throwing bubba under the bus" then so be it. Besides, there is no shame in having another coach make a better adjustment then you. It happens. Does anyone really think bubba is immune from that? I would also argue it is an unwillingness to turn the magnifying glass on coaching moves (or lackthereof) which kept Muss in power too long. As for who won/lost this game, this is a team loss. Offense, defense special teams all had major breakdowns (bubba acknowledged this as well). Defense I thought played better than the other two (at least for a half), but not nearly well enough to win on the road.

We should probably cut bubba some slack on those comments. He's on the spot in a post game interview and hasn't had a chance to grade film. However, if he doesn't end up making a change and I'm Bartels, I start looking to transfer because it becomes clear that despite how bad Joe is I'm not gonna get a chance to start. Tough to see bubba taking that approach for a linebacker that is stinking out the joint.

I'm seeing a lot of people saying the defense was on the field too much. This is a myth. TOP was evenly split between the two teams. Given the MSU domination in the 2nd half, I think the difference is the adjustments the teams made at halftime. This was an evenly played game at half and was broken open after that. We all love bubba but there is also the possibility he got outcoached here as well.

Totally agree with you. I was thinking the same thing. It is fine and probably necessary for bubba to believe that, but he CANNOT continue to go around publicly saying that. The marketing department must be pulling their hair out reading those quotes.

the things we know about the BSC is that you must be able to score points. Even if your defense is reasonably good you need to average about 20. Maybe more. Conference season may be worse than last year. I think I heard MSU had 6 pass deflections at half. A number like that means your receivers are not getting separation. Can't run, can't throw, and for good measure the special teams were unusually bad tonight.

Serious question: how does MSU compare to SJSU?

I think this just has a lot to do with the new style of play. They used to lose by 20+ but they'd score 20+ themselves. You can say all you want that you are now gonna win with defense and a smashmouth running game, but that don't make it so. It may be a couple of years of this before it works.

There's always the possibility that MSU is more than a lower tier valley team this year?

I know this is really searching for a ray of light, but we all must admit that's the best half of defense we've seen a UND team play in a long time.

sounds like shaugabay is dinged up too. he had a career high for carries tonight with 19. wonder if he can hold up for a season either.

Gotta be a tough realization for the guy. You go from being the bmoc, playing at a stadium with your name on it in DL, and now he can't get out of his own way.

True I will be interested to see how many 3 and outs the offense has.

The tough part of this for joe is that the staff has simplified things so much for him. They aren't asking him to be Vernon adams here.

Don't you think though if bubba is committing to this style of play the D will need to win low scoring games? edit: I admit, no scoring games are a tough task.

Looked great for a half anyway. Day by day. edit: although, there is no law against winning a game 10-7 or 7-3.

If Joe looks better than Bartels in practice, then how God awful would those performances have to be? He must be totally incompetent.

UND 13 MSU 34

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll Last Updated - September 8, 2014 FCS Coaches' Poll 1 North Dakota State (25) 2-0 649 1 2 Eastern Washington 2-1 619 2 3 Southeastern Louisiana (1) 2-0 600 3 4 Montana 1-1 536 5 5 Coastal Carolina 2-0 528 4 6 McNeese State 0-1 521 6 7 Villanova 1-1 514 7 8 Jacksonville State 1-1 441 9 9 New Hampshire 0-1 430 8 10 South Dakota State 1-1 416 11 11 UNI 0-1 408 12 12 Furman 2-0 294 17 13 Bethune-Cookman 1-0 287 18 14 Southern Illinois 2-0 252 25 15 Sam Houston State 1-2 242 13 16 Youngstown State 1-1 202 21 17 Chattanooga 0-2 193 15 18 Montana State 1-1 185 23 19 William & Mary 1-1 166 24 20 Maine 1-0 153 22 21 Richmond 1-1 146 20 22 Tennessee State 1-1 121 16 23 Fordham 1-1 112 10 24 Eastern Illinois 0-2 102 14 25 Eastern Kentucky 2-0 92 NR Dropped out: No. 19 Towson. Others receiving votes: Towson 56, Northern Arizona 40, Central Arkansas 36, Liberty 27, Missouri State 17, Alcorn State 13, Lafayette 10, Illinois State 8, Bryant 7, Princeton 7, James Madison 4, Sacred Heart 4, North Carolina A&T 3, Albany 2, Harvard 2, Samford 2, Abilene Christian 1, Charleston Southern 1, Wofford 1.

A little late, but... http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/misc/cfoot225poll.aspx The Sports Network FCS Top 25 College Football Poll Team (First-place votes) 2014 Record Points Previous Rank 1. North Dakota State Bison (137) 2-0 3928 1 2. Eastern Washington Eagles (21) 2-1 3744 2 3. Southeastern Louisiana Lions 2-0 3613 3 4. Montana Grizzlies 1-1 3249 4 5. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 2-0 3023 5 6. McNeese State Cowboys 0-1 2971 7 7. New Hampshire Wildcats 0-1 2964 6 8. Villanova Wildcats 1-1 2919 10 9. Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1-1 2790 9 10. Northern Iowa Panthers 0-1 2682 8 11. South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1-1 2407 12 12. Furman Paladins 2-0 1523 19 13. Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 1-0 1473 18 14. Chattanooga Mocs 0-2 1460 13 15. Sam Houston State Bearkats 1-2 1376 15 16. William & Mary Tribe 1-1 1325 21 17. Montana State Bobcats 1-1 1289 20 18. Richmond Spiders 1-1 1229 17 19. Fordham Rams 1-1 1223 11 20. Southern Illinois Salukis 2-0 1180 NR 21. Youngstown State Penguins 1-1 863 23 22. Tennessee State Tigers 1-1 762 14 23. Maine Black Bears 1-0 635 24 24. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 1-1 549 25 25. Eastern Illinois Panthers 0-2 479 16 Others receiving votes: Towson 261, Liberty 235, Central Arkansas 204, Eastern Kentucky 142, Wofford 100, Delaware 84, Princeton 75, SC State 73, Samford 72, Albany 61, James Madison 50, Harvard 41, Alabama State 36, Southern Utah 35, North Carolina A&T 33, Charleston Southern 32, Missouri State 22, Sacred Heart 22, Illinois State 21, Southern 14, Alcorn State 12, Sacramento State 11, Cal Poly 11, Gardner-Webb 8, Florida A&M 8, Bryant 7, Western Illinois 7, Central Connecticut State 7, SE Missouri State 4, Texas Southern 2, Western Carolina 1, San Diego 1, Duquesne 1, Bucknell 1