UND'er

Believe it or not, as a visiting team, we are allotted only 300. I think that is the standard D-1 allotment. The real problem here is that unlike the Bison vs. Gophers type games whereby thousands of Gopher fans had no interest in going to that game and subsequently alllowed for more Bison fans to buy tickets, with Texas Tech, they are rabid fans and sell out each game regardless of the opponent. I am hoping there can be some more tickets available but I think it may be "dog eat dog".

UND Football Spring Practice begins on Monday, March 30th with the Spring Game being held on Saturday, April 25th. Go Sioux !

While I would like to see the next 2 games end up in the win column, I have not been disappointed by the FCS games that we have had to date. I have been traveling with the team and have been at every away game. While I feel we could have won a couple of those games, we demonstrated one very important thing...... we are at least at a competitive level. We don't have that far to go. Each game that we have lost has come down to 2-3 mistakes that if they would have went the other way, the outcome may have been different. Sometimes the score does not reveal have close a game really was. We actually had a good game against Southern Illinios except for the interception Danny threw, the missed holding call ( completely obvious to everyone in the stands including the SI fans sitting next to me) against SI that allowed the little speedster to get a 75 yard TD. While I am not saying we should have beat them, the fact is we are in a state of transition and we are only going to get better each year. I think it is important that we grow competitively and incremently each year. We could learn from the Bison fiasco whereby they had such success the last couple of years that the fan base developed unrealistic expectations and now wonder what is going on. The fact is that there is a lot of parity to this division which, of course, makes it that much more exciting. On any given Saturday, any solid team can beat another solid team. Let's give the team time to grow but in the meantime. let's throw our unconditional support to them. Let's go Sioux !!!!

Hammer is correct. We will be back in Davis next year again. Not a bad thing. I was at the game and it is a great venue for a game. They were beatable, we just will need to sharpen up . Cal Poly will be coming to GF next year and I would presume that we will be out to Southern Utah next year.

I asked the AD that very question recently and apparently we have one last game to confirm and ink the deal and then they will release the schedule. In other words, I would assume that we will hear something very soon.

Bellmore's number were 415 lbs on the bench 570 lbs on the squat 368 lbs on the clean ( new historical record for the position) Anybody know of any other player's numbers ? Ebanks continues to improve as well as many others. It should be an interesting year !

Most of the players will be checking in over the weekend of August 2nd and 3rd in preparation of the pre-fall camp.

Yes, it is always unfortunate to lose highly recruited red-shirts. Matt Simmons decided that playing college football just wasn't going to be his "cup of tea" and moved back to Racine. He would have been a great O lineman and had the size we needed. Troy Bryant struggled with a bum ankle and any further injuries would have jeopardized his future health. I think he moved out to California to go to school. I met him a few times and he was one of the most personable young men you could ever meet. He would have represented the program well. Oh well, we will move forward and I am sure the staff will continue to bring in top notch talent.

I think the whole point here is that there are some very strong positives to playing teams that we have never played before. This is regardless of their stature. It is exciting to see what other teams can bring to the field. Naturally, as we advance along the years, the fans will want to see the level of competition grow but let's not wait until the future to pack the Alerus. I live in Fargo and went to some early Bison games. I think people want to see what the transition is all about so we need to market to them and get them to the games.

I live in the Fargo area but I am curious as to whether there is any GF and/or statewide marketing going on yet for fall sports such as football? I see that the Bison program has started their big push. Is it just me or does it appear that we lack an aggressive marketing campaign? We need to fill the Alerus this fall and build the excitement surrounding the football program. Anyone have some thoughts ?

I don't think there is any question that we will indeed be playing the Bison again. Due to the escalating fuel/travel costs, the AD's will make sure this happens in 2009 or 2010. I spoke with Brian Faison at his initial meet and greet when he took our AD position and he thought it was ridiculous that we were not playing each other. Mostly because of the rivalry and proximity.

Coach Mussman will stay the course with the dismissal. He must to make sure he has set the right tone for what he expects out of his young men.

Hang on before someone jumps on me on this. The Clean stat mentioned above was around 365# not #465. That would be ridiculous!

I am looking forward to next year also. On the noseguard subject, I believe we have the personnel to be successful. We need to get Nate Wayne healthy. There are certainly two solid backups in Boyle and Bellmore. Bellmore impressed a lot of people during the March Strength testing with good numbers. Squat 560lbs, Bench 425lbs? and Clean 465lbs? or something close to that. Not bad for a freshman! Wayne,Boyle and Bellmore will all improve over the next couple of years.