Bison06

I think that is exactly the point I made, NDSU won a lot of games because they had better players. You "give" some of those better players to the other teams you play against and now NDSU isn't as good. What I don't understand is why some see that as a knock on NDSU. It would be very similar to the lack of real salary cap in MLB. Its rare for a team outside of the top 10 in payroll for that year to win the world series.

Let's use the example of college basketball, If overnight every team in the country had 5 scholarships total, don't you think the best teams in the country would be most affected negatively? In the short term you instantly have the best teams unable to offer their 6-10 scholarship players who play a very important role on their team and those players are now playing for their rival. A team like Kentucky or Duke this past year simply doesn't exist if they cut those scholarships to 5, in the long term the balance of power stabilizes and the cream eventually rises to the top again. Let's bring the same logic to football. I don't remember the exact numbers, so if my numbers aren't perfectly accurate forgive me. For the purposes of this example, I will use only the NCC conference. Let's say there were 10 teams and each team is allowed 45 scholarships. That's 450 total scholarships players available for the conference. Ranking the NCC teams at that time, NDSU was at or very near the top every year, so they were more likely to get a player they offered than say...morningside. If those 450 scholarship players were ranked in order, NDSU at the time probably wasn't offering many kids outside of the top half of that ranking system. So anywhere from 1-225. So now drop number of scholarships to 36 for each team. That's only 360 total available scholarships for the conference. Now a kid that would have been an NDSU player in the old system(45 scholarships) is just outside of NDSU's ability to offer them because they are now out of scholarships. So some of the kids who would've have played for NDSU if they had a scholarship available are now playing for another school within the conference against NDSU. I won't go as far as to say NDSU got the pick of the litter when it comes to every recruiting battle(kids choose schools for a variety of reason, not all of which include football tradition), but NDSU was getting MORE of the best players than any other team at the time. When you cut scholarships for everyone, it creates more parity. This seemed to throw NDSU for a loop for a while for some reason, but they eventually figured it out.

No one here cares that the team you recruit against, and will forever and always be compared to, is currently on the best run in the history of FCS football? Keep telling yourself that Darrell. You're just as bad as the NDSU fans you disparage for saying the rivalry is dead.

Even if/when NDSU becomes less dominant than they have been on the last 5 years, that doesn't take away what they accomplished during those 5 years. I guess my point is, don't wish for NDSU to get worse, because it won't have the affect you think it will. NDSU fans will forever and always be proud of having the greatest 5 year run in the history of FCS football.

Didn't qualify academically.

I also find this explanation odd by some of NDSU's critics. Name someone other than Billy Turner that should have been offered by U of M that played a significant role in NDSU's success.

While that explanation for Bohl's tenure might have worked through '09, how does it account for 2010-2013?

I didn't imply that it did, doesn't mean Wyoming wasn't counting on him to play a role on this year's team.

I agree with letting him play the rest of the season, but I can honestly say I wouldn't let him play against me either if I was in Bohl's shoes.

Fair point, but keep in mind the situations are reversed in that situation so it doesn't apply to me saying any coach in that situation would respond the same way. FCS transferring to FBS vs. vice versa. EWU is supposed to and will very likely lose to Oregon by a large margin. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but EWU had no power over where a player transfers after he graduates, or am I off on that. Wyoming losing to UND(or any FCS for that matter) would be a disaster for what Bohl is trying to build in Wyoming. He isn't looking to give UND a player that might help them win the game.

As much as people are upset with Bohl for not signing the player's release, I'm not sure any coach would respond any differently in the same situation. Given UND fans are excited to get this player on the field, my guess is he would be a contributor in the game against Wyoming. No coach is going to want a player leave, only to turn around and hurt your team in the first game of the year. It sounds like he was a walk-on for Wyoming, but for all UND fans know Wyoming was counting on him to play a role on their team and may be a bit salty that he decided to go to a team Wyoming plays.

And we were having such an honest conversation before that.

This post speaks to my point. For a team to win by 10-14 points and that is somehow an embarrassment, that's why NDSU didn't want to play this game for the last decade.

I think all of those are spot on observations. In regards to the NDSU run game, a part of me is concerned about the loss of Crockett and how it will affect NDSU's run game, and another part of me looks to our offensive line for the real reason NDSU's run game has been a strength. Given that I expect the offensive line to be better than last year, I worry less about it, but I'm still waiting to see something special out of the guys NDSU has at running back. Frazier, looked ok last year. I like Chase Morlock, but I'm not sure he is a star and then the coaching staff seems to be very high on the redshirt freshman Dunn and actually think he may push for starting time. I haven't seen him play so I can't comment, but with Morlock and Frazier at least we have some experience back at the position so I think with a couple games under their belt they should figure it out as a unit. From the UND folks I talk to about the defense in Grand Forks, it sounds like Coach Schmidt is bringing back a throwback style of the 3-4 defense that is much more of an attacking style of play. The style that UND built a national championship on. If they can get the right players(at it sounds like they are) that defense can be both very fun to watch and very difficult to move the ball against. Outside of the NDSU game, I will actually appreciate seeing that brand of defense in Grand Forks again. UND's offense, is the one I know the least about. I know the QB position is a question mark, but I've heard that if UND could get the OL shored up, these QB actually do have the skills to deliver strikes, they just need the time. With NDSU's best pass rushers graduated, NDSU's ability to get to the QB has yet to be seen. I think Menard at NDSU has potential to be the next great NDSU DE, but he's young. We'll see what another year in the weight room will do for him. I am very interested to see how the NDSU's LB and Safety positions come together. There are some names coming up through the ranks that have enormous potential form an athletic standpoint, but as we all know, the mental side of the game needs to be strong for a player to play fast. I think that is the problem NDSU coaches are running into with Board at safety and Gee-Tucker at LB(along with injuries). We'll see. This is going to be a much different NDSU team than fans are used to. Teams may be putting up points on us, especially early in the season. But I do believe that Carson has the ability to fill up the score board if needed. Should be an interesting match up. I still hold true to what I said a few years ago about this match up. It makes me nervous. Not because I'm afraid NDSU will lose, they could lose to anybody. What makes me nervous is UND has LITERALLY nothing to lose. The only fully positive outcome from this game is NDSU winning in a blowout, that's an uncomfortable position to be in.

I expect a closer game than many others. UND's defense seems to be on the rise and NDSU's offense will be their strength next year. So it's strength on strength there. Not to say that they are a wash, because I believe NDSU's offensive line will be able to win most of the battles, especially as the game gets into the 3rd and 4th. But UND's defense will definitely be formidable. The matchup that will decide how close this game will be is UND's offense against the NDSU defense. NDSU is young, but extremely talented and UND's hasn't proven it can consistently move the ball in quite a while. I think that the first two games for both teams might clear up a few question marks and clarify how this game might play out a bit. But as of now, I expect a 10-14 point margin of victory for NDSU. With that said, the intangibles of playing in an NDSU/UND game have played a role in the outcome of this game before. So we'll see.

Despite what many internet personalities might have you believe about how the average NDSU fan feels about UND, the rivalry is alive and well. Even if you believe that on a regular weekend 18,500 is maxing out the NDSU fanbase(which I would disagree with), this game is not a regular weekend. I don't think it is too far-fetched to say that if this game was being played in a 35,000 seat stadium, it would sell out. I think a lot of these younger fans who think they've seen what an intense rivalry looks like, will be in for a surprise as this game approaches.

What do you mean by 18,500 maxes out the NDSU fanbase?

Whose bragging? The win is what it is, I'm not making it a bigger deal than it was. It's ok to point out that a team is a good team even though they were thoroughly beaten. If you want my opinion on Ferris State from last year, I will say they impressed me more than Delaware State.

You don't think they were? Ferris was 8-3. Lost to NDSU, obviously not a bad loss. Lost to Saginaw Valley State, Division II playoff team. Lost to something called Hillsdale. Looks like the loss that kept them out of the playoffs, if I am reading their schedule correctly. Beat Grand Valley State who was a national semifinalist last year. Are NDSU fans wrong by saying they were one of the toughest Division II teams last year? And BTW, NDSU beat the absolute piss out of them last year, so it isn't as if NDSU fans are trying to justify a bad loss.

Wow, I thought I made it pretty clear why I brought it up. Thanks for the helpful comments though. So this thread is about UND vs. SJSU you say? In that case. UND 17-SJSU 34.

Hoping not to cause a thread drift here, but Darrell's incessant obsession with NDSU's downfall forces me to point out what NDSU's "dark decade" looks like. NDSU 1990-1999. Overall record 88-27 4 conference championships 1 National Championship 6 trips to the division 2 playoffs 5-5 record in games against UND UND 1990-1999 Overall record 81-27 0 National Championships 6 trips to division 2 playoffs 5-5 records against UND Couldn't quickly find how many conference championships. But given NDSU won 4 and I believe UNC won 1 or 2. I'll guess it's 4 or 5. I'll tell you Darrell, if this is what you call the dark years, NDSU is in for a pretty decent decade coming up.

Brock was experienced when he took the team to the playoffs his freshman year and sophomore year? People seem to forget that Brock was considered a liability by many his first 2.5 years as the starter. He was viewed by many as the biggest beneficiary of possibly the best FCS defense in history. Now, he turned out to be one hell of a QB, but IMO and in the opinion of many others in the know, NDSU won many games despite his performance in those early years, not because of it. Brock is an excellent QB, his accolades are undeniable. He is one of the all-time greats at NDSU and from the things I have heard from people that know him well he is also a good man off the field. But, he certainly wasn't flawless, especially those first 2.5 years. In a few games he gave up more points than NDSU's defense on pick 6's. Let's not act like his skills, strictly as a QB, aren't replaceable. His leadership skills on the other hand may be.

I am hearing some UND fans say, "Wentz is untested how can you say he'll be good?", while others are saying "he doesn't have what Brock Jensen has". You can't have it both ways fellas. He can't be both unproven and have us drawing conclusions about what "clutch" skills he may have. The fact is he has never had the opportunity to show any intangibles. This is why he is a question mark coming into this season. NDSU fans are hopeful he'll live up to the billing, while NDSU opponents are hoping he doesn't, no surprise on either side. Reality is, if Carson is 3/4 the QB Brock Jensen was, NDSU will be a difficult game for any team on their schedule this year. As others have said, NDSU didn't lose as much as their detractors would have you believe.

Correct, I agree with the poster who said it can be a good motivator. Not sure if NDSU still does it this way, but NDSU used to have everyone with just a plain helmet during spring ball and fall camp until the spring game and the opening game in the fall, respectively. Nothing wrong with letting players know that your position needs to be earned year in and year out. I like it.