Bison06

I was responding to Darell's post about breaking the law is against team rules and deserves punishment. I understand different levels of crimes have to be taken more seriously, that wasn't my point.

If you take the quote in context Darell, I believe GT was just fed up with the questions and decided to speak up. I will admit, he should have chosen his words more carefully. But, they had just won a huge game and after a long week of answering the same questions it is my belief that he cracked for a moment. He is human after all and I believe his emotions got the best of him.

C'mon 82, that is an awfully naive view that is fine for the papers and a press conference, but that isn't really the way it works. As I have said in past posts, of course you can't have a program completely out of control, you have to meet minimum requirements for grades, graduation rates etc. But, if you meet the minimum for those things nobody is going to fire you for not producting Rhode's scholars or Nobel Prize winner's. Now, as a guy who has pride in the program I played for, I would like NDSU players to keep their noses clean, get amazing grades, never have thier names in the paper for anything negative AND win football games. But I'm also a realist, and if you take a random sampling of any 100 18-22 year olds in the country, odds are a few of them are going to get in trouble from time to time. As an alum of the school, the football team and a booster, I have no problem with the way he has handled this situation. If our legal system doesn't provide sufficient punishment for you then feel free to contact you representative.

So should players be suspended for speeding tickets? Running a red light? Being out past curfew? Breaking the law isn't sufficient cause for suspension, it is left up to the coach.

I know this isn't a popular opinion, because in some ways it sounds like me diminishing what they've done. But, I don't think this would be a big deal anywhere but slow news ND. Look at the sentences they received, even in the eyes of the law this isn't a big deal. You make it sound like NDSU is U of Miami in the 80's. If it is truly out of control, not just UND fans thinking it is out of control, than yes even 11-0 and national championships won't save your job. But it isn't Miami of the 80's, it isn't anything. Bohl has a track record of being a disciplined coach and running a clean locker room outside of a few bad apples that every team deals with. Hardly out of control from any objective perspective. My bottom line is this: If the legal system has already punished the players, it isn't Coach Bohl job to punish the players further unless he wants to. Given it is his job to win games, why would he go out of his way to punish them above and beyond what our legal system has already done?

Football coaches are hired to win games. This isn't high school. If Mussman, Bohl or any other coach was 0-11 two years in a row, but had the highest graduation rate and highest GPA with zero criminal offenses, they would still be out of a job. They broke the law and are being punished accordingly. Do you think UND or NDSU or any other school has a team rule against what they did? I highly doubt it. Which I believe is part of the reason Bohl let the process play out. There is hardly a precedent for what happened.

Exactly the point I am trying to make. His job is to win football games within the rules, how has he not fulfilled that job description?

It would be easier to have conversation with you Darell if you didn't play dumb all the time. You are making my point for me. It would have been easy for Coach Bohl to suspend the players for those games without it hurting NDSU's chances of winning significantly. Which is why I had no problem with him letting the justice system wheels turn first. Coach Bohl made it clear from the beginning he was going to see what the punishment from our legal system would be. If he thinks that the punishment handed out by the judge is sufficient then I believe it is at his discretion. It isn't his job to punish his players above and beyond what our legal system has. It is his job to field a competitive football team without breaking any rules.

I can agree with that. I would imagine it wouldn't be nearly as toxic if that were the case.

Regardless of what anyone here may have as an opinion on ethics or morals etc. It is not the job of a football coach to teach/punish players for ethics or common sense. They can if they want to, but it isn't in their job description. If our justice system sees this punishment as fit for the crime, I am fine with them serving that punishment and there being nothing more to come from it. You think it's any different at UND? You're delusional. Mussman would do anything within the NCAA rules to win games. Don't throw the "he suspended guys for missing class" at me either. He wouldn't do that if it were the national championship and it was his starting QB. It's easy to suspend guys for small things when they either aren't important or the game isn't a big game. Winning football games within the rules that are laid out is the job of a football coach. Period.

There are times when I think it would be a good idea to start playing this game again, but reading and being involved in this thread is making me not miss it one bit. This relationship is so toxic on both sides. Both sides lose any semblance of rationality or objectivity and it is physically difficult to read. Someday I hope this rivalry gets back up and running, but I do not miss the toxic bs that gets spewed back and forth. It brings out the worst out of both fanbases.

You already used that one today, try to be more original when you come up with your insults. And seriously dude, you are mocking me for going out and making something of myself, taking a risk, starting my own business, hiring employees, providing a service and contributing to the economy? You need to check yourself man.

Must be busier than your business given our post counts don't you think? Your paperboy sits in front of a computer? Sh#$ty paperboy.

Haha, how did you know?

Nope from my big boy chair in a business I own at 28 years old, thanks for playing though.

I'm sorry, but that comment made me laugh pretty hard this morning sitting at my computer given my history here.

Agreed, any argument that could have been made in the previous weeks has been invalidated. 1-4 no matter who you play should not get you ranked.

Not by me and you know that.

You guys just can't help yourself but to disagree with anyone who has Bison in their name even if you don't even know what you are arguing for. Read what we are talking about. Then decide if you want to discuss it further.

Quit bringing up Bison fans and I'll stop commenting. Deal?

What is that supposed to mean? How many wins over Big Ten teams does the FCS have? Down year or up year the Big Ten is a BCS conference and beating one of their conference members is damn impressive.

That is no doubt playing a role in why Montana is having a down year.

I did notice. I also noticed they have a Big Ten logo on their chests when they play.

Fair enough, but I make my observations based on watching teams play not on their records. I watched UNI play both FBS games and they looked damn good to me. I watched App St. vs. Montana on Espn 3 and was not impressed in the slightest with either team, obviously with Montana losing they looked worse than App. If you want to wait until the end of the season to say one way or another that's fine, but I feel pretty confident in saying that Montana won't make the playoffs this year and it won't be because of an increased difficulty in scheduling.

It's been a couple of weeks now that you have been following my posts to keep me in line. You've got a serious hard-on for me dude, you're really making me blush.