Devils

Almost as bad as student teaching

First time I've checked here today; I'd like to hear what the whiners from when it was 21-10 late in the first half have to say now...

Doesn't Kostich teach them not to fumble at the end of a 60 yard return!!

Lots of great execution on that drive - OL looked much, much better than the first quarter

Thought for sure you guys would be trashing Bubba if he thought about kicking it...like the call to go for it

Gonna be a long year if you post this every page...

First quarter thoughts - Belquist is gonna be a stud, D Line looks good, new WR Wilson looks like he has some speed. Thought Smith would grab the RB workload, doesn't appear to be the case yet, not sure we have many playmakers outside of Belquist, OL looks overmatched.

Have seen the western ND guys play quite a bit - I think Dissette will be a very solid D1 guy. Long, explosive and just a good player. Probably wouldn't be a big scorer in college but a very solid player. I don't think Doppler is athletic enough to play D1, strikes me as more of a middle D2 or NAIA guy. Erikson has nice size (~6'8 240) but would be a project.

How do these offers to 7th or 8th or even 9th graders work? I assume it's basically a school's way of saying "we wanted you first" but in reality the school could back out of it by the time the kid is a junior or senior if they wanted to?

Can still remember the time a friend of mine, about 6' 180, tried to body Kuper up in the post in a noonball game at Hyslop...not smart!

Let's not get too carried away here.

My goodness man, we get it, you think UND should be better. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. Just because you have high expectations doesn't mean things automatically happen. Does the rest of the MVFC not have high expectations? Why isn't every team in the top 10 consistently? It's not like Grand Forks has a ton more to offer than most places.

There's hardly a fan base in America that doesn't complain about their team's coaching or play calling - go look at the bison boards, they trash their OC endlessly. Coaches have to make the decisions which inevitably are not going to work at times. Certainly not saying ours does everything well. #1 is always an improvement point, if it's not your coach should probably quit. 2-4 I'd definitely agree on and add the OL needs to improve. There really wasn't a game this fall where we physically overmatched an opponent, other than Drake and maybe WIU.

Hindsight is always 20/20 as they say. Sure, a timeout wouldn't have been a bad call but this quote is just Bubba deflecting the blame off of the QB onto himself.

You try just a little too hard to rag on this team.

Seems a bit of a stretch. It could be, but that's a little like comparing Vikings teams of the last 20 years.

Couple postgame musings: - Odd how our defense lets teams go right down the field to begin games. Generally seems we're good after that, except this game where it was the first two drives. - Tommy looked good once we sped it up down 21-10. Wish we would do that a bit more. - 3rd & 10 conversion with about 9 minutes left from around our own 25 was a game changer. Down 21-10, we don't convert that the game is probably over. - Like everyone else, I wish we could hit a deep ball. Seems like the couple of times we do throw the ball deep a game, the receivers have no separation. Tommy is no all-star but not much he can do about that. - I also wish we would stop with the bubble screens. Seems our average gain on them is 1-2 yards.

The backup quarterback is always the most popular guy in town. If the coaches thought Quincy was better I'm sure he'd be playing more. That said, at this point we may as well give him a try; gonna be hard to bench Tommy after the numbers he put up yesterday though. Seems our offensive problems (granted we scored 28 pts on the road yesterday which should have easily been 34) are equal parts new/makeshift OL and the weak running game that goes with it, no receivers who can create space, and Tommy's inability to make plays.

When's the last time you saw a UND receiver make a play like the leaping catch the SD receiver made on the last drive? We just have a bunch of #3 receivers.

Pass rush is doing a great job after that first drive. Not sure why SD isn't running the ball more, we really haven't stopped it.

Was thinking the same, seems he's often got a good seam and then he just kind of runs into the LB for a gain of 5.

Just not a lot of weapons on O and an average OL. Otis didn't create much today but he didn't have a lot of room - seems like he would do well in space sometimes instead of always going between the tackles. Maag and Boltman with, what, 1 touch each? Build the passing around the young WR if those two aren't healthy.

Brutal field position all half. Would be huge if we could keep the ball the rest of the half here. Will be a big letdown if we kick it away and let them take the lead going into half.

Scary that we have to blitz to get any sort of pressure but it's working so far.

I think a lot will have to go right for us to win, similar to beating SDSU in the spring. A big play in special teams would be huge. I also fear the trenches - I worry they'll wear us down like in the spring and gain 5-6-8 yards a pop on the ground. I think we'll have a hard time running the ball consistently, hopefully not left with 3rd and 8 all the time. Tommy needs to be good with a big play or two mixed in.