UNDvince97-01

In the words of John McEnroe...."you cannot be serious". The Southland? No way. You're right, its not debatable.

Correct. I wasnt implying that they lost to the MVFC. Just that they lost. But, I can see how my post could be read that way.

The CAA specifically has dropped in quality within the last 3 years or so. They used to be the top dog not too long ago. I'm not going to argue that right now the MVFC is the best conference overall. They have proved it and earned it. The Big Sky is on the rise and probably 2nd right now. But now they have to go out and start earning it in the postseason. The top 2 ranked BSC teams (SUU and PSU) went 0-2. Montana went 1-1 against the MVFC in the playoffs. Time for the BSC to start making runs in the postseason or shutup.

Oh.... Thanks, Ralph.

I do not disagree nor am I discounting the importance. Just some perspective. I would hate to lose anyone right now given what you said. We are finally starting to turn the corner in that department since the staff change.

Per Dom's twitter, I see ndsu dismissed a kid from Sioux Falls and a player from Missouri quit the team (Nice timing on the release to the media 2 hours before kickoff of a semifinal game). Point being is that attrition happens everywhere.

Autonio Roland has all but said publicly that he is transferring recently. Outside of him, who else is everyone referring to? I'm really, really curious...

Our losses to 5-3 Weber and 1-7 Idaho State still haunt me. Weber beat us and Montana and lost by 1 point in Cheney. Idaho State beat us and had Montana beat in OT. When we entered the Big Sky in our first year in 2012, Portland State (2-6), Weber State (2-6) and Idaho State (0-8) were a combined 4-20 in BSC play. Last year, Idaho State went 6-2 in BSC play and made the playoffs. This year, Weber St went 5-3 in BSC play and Portland St finished 2nd at 6-2 in BSC play and got a seed. Crazy.

It's possible. Probably have to include Eastern Washington based on reputation and pedigree. I'll say we are picked in the 4-5 range by the coaches and the media. The biggest question marks of that list for next year will be SUU and Portland St in my opinion. As a reminder, here's the 2015 preseason polls. Bobcats were highly touted but went 5-6 with the Oregon Ducks QB : Coaches' Poll 1) Montana State (6)............................134 2) Eastern Washington (6)....................133 3) Montana (1).....................................121 4) Cal Poly..........................................111 5) Northern Arizona...............................95 6) Idaho State......................................90 7) Sacramento State.............................66 8) Southern Utah...................................64 9) Portland State...................................51 9) North Dakota.....................................51 11) Weber State....................................43 12) UC Davis........................................33 13) Northern Colorado............................22 Media Poll 1) Eastern Washington (17)...................553 2) Montana State (17)...........................541 3) Montana (5).....................................492 3) Idaho State (5).................................446 5) Cal Poly (1)......................................433 6) Northern Arizona (1)..........................399 7) Sacramento State.............................278 8) Southern Utah...................................255 9) North Dakota.....................................226 10) Weber State....................................160 11) UC Davis........................................145 12) Portland State.................................133 13) Northern Colorado............................127

Uff, this is news to me... Looking through the space between my fingers right now...

Meehan was offered a scholarship by ndsu. But your overall point is obvious and still stands.

Since we're being so objective, can't you at least recognize that Bob is shady at best and that we arent pulling all of this out of thin air? Nobody here has or has had a beef with USD. And for the record, I personally have always specifically respected your contributions here in the past.

I have nothing against you or USD (except for leaving the Big Sky at the Alter), but I'm curious how you heard that things went down? I stand by my source and story here. We disagree on how to handle this situation with your players and staff I guess. Especially the staff. By the way, the South Dakota "one year contracts" are perfect for your head football coach. It's probably why it was so appealing to him in the first place. Best of luck with Bob. See you in 9 months in Grand Forks!

I like this! Bobba Fett, the always available free agent mercenary.

Their defense has been a liability in their big game losses. Ask Kevin Sumlin, Gus Malzahn, Hugh Freeze, Bob Stoops and Urban Meyer. Dont ask Les Miles, he and his offenses will probably have a different answer.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Had to get through recruiting weekend. Wish I could say I was surprised. <a href="https://t.co/wkY12cOEhS">https://t.co/wkY12cOEhS</a></p>&mdash; SiouxFootballInsider (@SiouxFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/SiouxFootball/status/676455835992649728">December 14, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> But wait, there's more.... Nielsen held a staff meeting 2 weekends ago and told his staff not to worry about or listen to the USD rumors because they simply weren't true. Told them to continue recruiting as usual and said he was leaving town to go watch WIU play hoops at Iowa, who they played on December 7th. He made it clear to them that he was NOT hitting the road to interview in Vermilion. Then he hopped into the car and headed to Vermilion for the interview. After that, he expressed interest in the job in Carbondale. He also looked into the Concordia - St. Paul HC/AD job. Bob is "fast". Real fast. The guy is a POS. Feel bad for the WIU staff and their players. But I am excited to host Bob next season at The Alerus. EDIT: Can anyone help a guy how to figure out the proper way to embed a tweet! Asking for a friend...

You referred to their QB situation as a joke under Saban. Clearly it hasn't been. The good "NFL QB's" debate is a whole different discussion. You dont have to be good in the NFL to be a good college QB.

I'm not ripping the kid on this. However... My grandpa always told me when I was younger that your word is your bond. "You look a man in the eyes, shake his hand and give him your word." He's old-school obviously and I know some on here are as well, which is why I'm surprised by the sentiment that it's no big deal. A kid gives a coach a commitment, the coach in turn doesn't offer another kid at the same position because of it. This causes problems. This is a societal problem more than anything. When parents encourage their kids to back out of their word they have given, then I have a serious problem with that (I'll leave the parenting thing at that). On top of that, the whole NCAA recruiting system is inherently flawed. I wish coaches "way-back-when" specifically wouldn't have gone down this road of recruiting kids who have verbally committed. But, unfortunately that's the nature of the beast today. And again, this is not the first time nor the last time it will happen and is not unique to UND, or any kid specifically. But that also doesn't make it right. This leaves me torn. On one hand I wish UND would go after SDSU's verbals because it will never stop and is part of the recruiting world today. On the other hand, I wish UND's staff would respect the verbal and not talk to other schools commitments. A person's word should mean more nowadays. It does and should matter. I wish the kid the best at SDSU.

And Greg McElroy. Even Blake Sims, who set the single season record for yards thrown last season and had 28 TD's and was named SEC championship game MVP.

Against 1 common opponent, UND did much better than Western Illinois: UND: ndsu @ Fargo 34-9 (week 3) WIU: ndsu @ Fargo 59-7 (week 10)

Montana's 3rd string QB looked ok against us too... Without a talent like him at 3rd string to go to, I dont think the Griz make the playoffs this year.

I'm pretty sure gfhockey has never been more correct on here than his analysis of the Jones "just ball" offense. Makes me giggle too. I have always called it the "noonball" offense, but I guess I have to yield and "hail" on this one.

I believe it's in UND's best interest to sign a scholarship QB this class. We need to learn from our past experiences at this position specifically. Count me as shocked and disappointed if we don't sign a scholarship QB in this class, regardless of Heidlebaugh's progression or lack thereof at this point. I just want what's best for the program and gives the team the best chance at being successful moving forward and signing a scholarship QB in this class helps with that in my opinion.

I dont think I saw better sandbagging than this in April of 1997....

I typically don't chime in on this thread for a variety of reasons, so if this has already been discussed 30 pages back, I apologize in advance... The state of Illinois is in a budget crisis and education is apparently one avenue they are looking to cut back on. I've heard a couple interesting things regarding a couple Illinois schools recently: - Eastern Illinois is being looked at to potentially shut down campus completely. - Western Illinois is looking at the possibility of dropping down to D2. "Snake" Nielsen was also apparently promised a new football facility prior to being hired in Macomb. It is painfully obvious that will never happen now.