Matt

way too many bad throws so far tonight.

Might be a long season.

He's only a freshman...only a freshman...freshman...

Again, same story as last week.

Great start again this week.

The crowd looks terrible at kickoff

It would be. A TV audience watching a premier FCS matchup with UND on top would go a long way.

The costs of not moving up with them just continue to grow... exponentially.

Maybe, depends on who they draw in what round, and where they play.

I picked the Jacks to win last week, so since the staff is telling me Montana is even better than the Jacks I can hardly pick UND. Montana-42 UND-27

A playoff matchup between the Jacks and Griz may be the only way to prove that. A UND win over the Griz certainly doesn't help the argument.

You may be more correct than we all know.

That is based on a quote from the coach himself, and if I hadn't already deleted Muss's show from my DVR I could provide it verbatim. Here's as close I can come: "I will announce the starter later in the week, but both guys will be taking reps with the first team." Making the point that he is purposefully limiting first team reps for both guys isn't speculative. That's fact. One guy isn't getting the first team reps. Two guys are.

Narrow? Indeed, as is the margin between winning and losing.

And yet he's purposefully limiting the first team reps for both guys. Look at it from this perspective: you have a huge game this week with a team you think is even better than the #6 ranked team that just beat you at home. So, do you get as many first team reps as possible for your freshman QB? Nope. You purposfully decrease his first team reps by splitting time with the other QB. I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by saying that's not every coach's formula for success. Even if you think Bartels will play, for goodness' sake Muss, give Joe as much time with the first team offense as possible!

Muss referenced something on his show with Hammer which underscores another reason I don't like rotating QBs. He said they'd settle in on a starter later this week and both guys with play with the 1s this week. This team, particularly with a freshman starter, cannot afford to limit the QBs reps with the 1s. He needs all the practice reps he can get with the 1s if UND is going to beat Montana this year, IMHO.

Maybe we are caught up in the semantics of "rotate". They had other LB that played what I would refer to as "meaningful minutes", which showed up on the stat sheet.

Well, they were responsible for 3 turnovers last week so that's not a bad strategy.

The only backer they don't rotate is Olson. They've had various LB injuries the last 2 years but have been able to overcome that due to depth and playing experience.

Matching Montana's intensity will be paramount this week. The Montana players seem to have had this week circled for quite a while. For UND's part, I hope for their sake they've shaken off the disappointment and mistake prone play of last week or they'll run into a buzzsaw. One of the hazards of playing young, inexperienced guys-they often haven't yet learned to shake off bad play and get themselves off the emotional rollercoaster to play with consistency. http://missoulian.co...19bb2963f4.html

"I was amazed at how much noise was in that facility, with the number of people that were only left."--John Stiegelmeier on the Alerus Center crowd on Jackrabbit Insider. Hopefully Montana's coach isn't giving us backhanded compliments next week.

...except for the first ranked team they played...at home?

Reading that I'm questioning how it's possible UND lost that game. It reads like it was written by the UND marketing department. I watched that twice as well and here's my analysis. SDSU is just better.

Bracketology http://www.sportsnetwork.com/fcs/FCS_Bracket.pdf

Then. (can't believe I did that)