Bison06

Hmmm, I suppose you could argue that I’m stupid, but I’m neither fat nor lazy.

I’m not sure I even follow the point here. Whether NDSU did or did not add a wrinkle for this game? What does it mean if they did? I don’t understand why this even matters. As if adding some sort of special game plan means that the coaches took the game seriously? That’s absurd.

I mean, of course they changed it, they change it every game to suit the team they’re playing. Clearly the offensive staff for NDSU saw a weak point and successfully exploited it. This week they’ll do the same thing, but that weak point might be different than it was this week. For the record, I’ve always held firm, even through 03-15 when the schools weren’t playing that UND is NDSUs biggest rival. I’ll I’ve said is I doubt the players see it that way since they’ve never played in the game or when they have UND wasn’t as competitive as they historically have been.

dramatically changed the offense? I believe that is referred to as gameplanning, it happens every week.

It’s hard to say what’s working and what isn’t when you are so successful with the running attack that you don’t even go to the passing game hardly at all. I have no illusions about Zeb being all of a sudden a stud, but with each passing week these guys get more practice together, more game experience etc. It seems to be coming together a bit. As far as a playoff run, who knows. I haven’t seen a single team that looks head and shoulders above the rest. This years playoffs will be a get in and see how it all plays out. Could be interesting. If the NDSU team that played on Saturday keeps showing up, I’d say that have as good as of a chance as anyone to make a run at the title.

I am. The problem with that is those losing teams in a normal season would still have to play the games. Illinois state shutting it down early has a ripple effect on everyone in the league. Advantages and disadvantages. I suppose reasonable people can disagree on this one, but I don’t see any way that FCS history just doesn’t look at the 2020 season as an asterisk or whatever you’d like to call it. This season is different than any that came before it and any(hopefully) that will come after. The simple fact that a team is a playing less games is enough for me to say this season somehow means less. And I’ll say the same thing if NDSU wins the title.

You could be right, but to my eye, they seemed to turn a corner in their understanding of how to run this offense. Every team comes together at different times and it looked like to me Saturday could be a turning point. Also, I’ve been watching these teams all play each other for a long time, I don’t see any reason why Luepke wouldn’t be effective against the upcoming schedule. Might be hard to repeat this weekends performance, but he isn’t some sort of gimmick that only works against UND’s defense.

I agree. SDSU is a toss up almost every year for ndsu regardless of records.

Obviously I’m biased, but I see it the opposite for NDSU, they finally woke up last week and I see them continuing that moving forward. They seemed to find a rhythm that wasn’t there previously and I think they are gonna be dangerous moving forward. I see them rattling off some wins 3-0 or 2-1 the next few weeks is what I expect.

Who said they played hard?

Maybe it comes down to what peoples definition of an asterisk is I suppose. A “not normal” season for me is an asterisk. It doesnt fully delegitimize the championship for the winner, but I do believe history will see the 2020 champion as slightly lesser than given the circumstances.

People here love to disagree with me simply because I have Bison in my handle. If you stop for a minute and look at what is happening right now around the country, teams opting out, a lot of teams choosing not to play at all, many seniors opting out of the season, random bye weeks as a result of teams opting out you’ll see that this isn’t a normal season and won’t be seen as such. And, by the way, we aren’t at the end yet. Playoff games could easily get cancelled due to covid. Is it because UND is having a good season or why are UND fans so opposed to the idea that this simply isn’t a normal season?

It could be argued, but I would counter it with, as long as the playoffs actually happen, somebody has to be named champion. Regardless of the quality of play throughout the season, a champion will be named. If there were some threshold of quality to be reached then I’d agree with you.

Well, then you’d be quite wrong. I’ve said it on many other threads and I’ll say it here as well, I don’t care who wins this season, NDSU or anybody else, you’re crazy if you think in 50 years when people look at the schedules and the timing of this season they won’t put an asterisk by all of it. The champion this year will likely only have won 10-11 games total vs 15-16. You think what you want, but history will absolutely be putting an asterisk on the “2020” FCS season.

Fair enough. I’ve watched football at all levels for 25 years and I’ve never seen it called.

And this is reason 139 why this season will have an asterisk on it.

How so? Watson had a nice game and if UND had less focus on him wouldn’t it have given him even more opportunities?

You can call it selling out for the run, but no disrespect meant I would refer to our defensive approach as we didn’t feel threatened by your passing game. It looked to me like our coaches felt comfortable with man coverage as they liked the matchups athletically. That just allowed an extra defender in the run game. I realize that seems like splitting hairs, but I think it’s what made the difference in the game. Others have said this again and again here, but UND needs a burner/big play maker on the outside to keep defenses honest. It really is amazing what a single player can do to change a game at times.

That’s correct. On a punt return there is no such thing as defensive PI. As a previous poster said, you could run a fake punt every time and just throw it up and get a PI call because the defender is blocking the gunner all the way down the field. Special teams plays routinely have special rules. eg. can’t hit the long snapper when his head is down or line up directly over him.

It’ll definitely happen, now that they are playing every year it’s a mathematical certainly in my mind. I was just talking a little friendly trash that it hasn’t happened just yet.

I’ve never like NDSU’s use of that hand signal. I remember when NDSU beat Oklahoma in the NCAA basketball tourney and Saul Phillips used the horns after the game toward the ndsu fans, the Oklahoma fans were extra pissed because they thought he was adding insult to injury and using the hand signal of their rival.

Regardless of how well UND is doing or poorly NDSU is doing, I’m not sure it’s even arguable that this season will have an asterisk on it. I’d say the same thing in May if NDSU somehow wins another championship. Look around the country, some teams aren’t playing, we’ve completely gotten rid of the non conference schedule, players opting out all over. An asterisk is going on this season whether you like it or not. That doesn’t mean that UND isn’t playing great and deserving of the 2020 national title of it comes to that, but 50 years from now when people see a national champion with a record of 10-1 or 11-0 they are gonna ask why so few games were played.

Let’s start with one and go from there

Got it, I misread your post. I would agree, that’s a fair amount of upperclassmen.

Excuses!