siouxfan512

I think the talk is more that it would be nice to rest the starters, and it would be beneficial to get other players some experience. Not that it will necessarily happen.

Pretty bold, since we're playing Sac St.

Agreed, and that is not to say the SHAC is bad, but maybe a few different pictures of the SHAC would help. I'm also not a big fan of how the new seats blend into the olds, looks a little tacky. The Betty is a very nice facility, especially with the new video boards. I've never been a fan of the temporary seating behind each end, and wish they could upgrad that to make it a little nicer, but overall, its a pretty great facility.

Gambling isn't even fun when you already have that much cash in the bank.

Agreed, at all positions. But I'd really like to see Heidelbaugh get some chances. Plenty of other positions that could use the experience as well.

Agreed, want to make sure he is fully health and ready to go, but I'll trust the medical staff. If he travels, maybe they intend to use him as more of a decoy. I wouldn't think they would want to risk re-aggravating the injury, especially when we have other very capable RBs.

Cmon man, don't be like a Bison fan

haha jeez, how do you really feel.

Each team picks a player, and they rock, paper, scissors for the banner. Hope Bubba goes with Reyes. No way that kid would lose.

Good point, SUU could be a tough one. That is another one that I am glad is at home. Agreed, need to take care of business every week.

That is logic that nobody can argue with. Well stated.

Looking at the polls should put the importance of the Cal-Poly game into perspective. We have no remaining games against ranked teams. The only teams that might have a shot at becoming ranked at some point: NAU, though that is likely heavily dependent on the return of Case Cookus (haven't followed his injury), or even UNC if they can continue to win (strong start for them this year; would LOVE to see them shock E. Wash, though it prob won't happen). UND should keep winning, even if it isn't pretty. However, playing the teams that we are scheduled to play means that even with win after win, we may not shoot up the rankings. It'll probably only be small bumps here and there, and any loss could really drop us. Glad to see the boys took care of such a critical game.

This season is starting to get fun, isn’t it!?!?! We’ve had some injuries, we’ve had some harsh/close losses, but the one thing this team has a ton of is resiliency. At no point in any game, even getting smoked by USD, have they quit playing. That attitude alone is extremely valuable for this program, and shows the kind of mentality Bubba has instilled in these kids. I was actually tailgating at the Fargodome with some family before driving up to GF for the game on Saturday, and everyone I spoke with had extremely high praise for Bubba and what he is doing for UND. Also spoke with one player’s uncle, who said his nephew would just rave about Bubba as a coach. Those are the kinds of things you want to hear. Sac. St is coming off a big time win for their program. Yes, Mt St. is having a bit of a down year as they rebuild and adjust to the new coaching staff (something UND can certainly understand), but the stats don’t lie either and Sac St. had a pretty impressive offensive output on Saturday. This is kind of a tough game, and tough team, to gauge. They lose to D2 Western Oregon by 8. They lost pretty soundly to FBS Fresno St. Then they have 3 straight 1 score games against Big Sky opponents. Now Weber, Idaho St and Montana St are not E. Wash or Montana, but this appears to be a team that plays to the level of their competition, and find a way to stay relevant in their games. It has already been said elsewhere, or by another poster, but this will likely have a similar flavor Idaho St. last season; they will not be afraid to pass. I like our chances against this kind of offense more than last season. Our corners, especially Hunt and Holm, have been susceptible to giving up some big plays and they will likely get targeted again this weekend BUT as we will not be defending the triple option or a RB like Newell, I think we can trust our front 7 to handle the run d without much of a problem, maybe even allow our LBs to drop back into coverage more often. I also think we will utilize Arnell and Reyes more on pass defense to help with the young corners. Bottom line, our pass defense has, and continues, to take huge steps forward from the past few seasons. I’ll take another 2-3 interceptions this weekend (Reyes, Harris, Labatt). A few key stats below. Offense and Defense aren’t really much of a surprise, but our 10 Interceptions really makes this defense exciting to watch. Also a shout out to Dussold for stepping in to punt this season, and being very effective. Also worth noting that Sac. St.’s punting is in the basement with Cal Poly, and we saw what happened their last weekend. A terrible punt, translating into great field position and points. Special teams could be a factor this weekend. Altogether, UND may not have more passing yard than Sac St (though if Keaton plays like last weekend, may we will), UND will significantly out rush Sacramento, UND will own the TOP, UND will win the turnover battle, and UND (now has a flavor for 1st quarter points) will score early and limit the mistakes that hindered them in the red zone against Poly. Barring any major injuries that we haven’t heard about yet, I’ll go 38-20 UND to wreck yet another homecoming. It may seem bold, and it could end up being a closer game, like the rest of our games, and most of their games. Though, at some point, this team needs to get a convincing win, and I think building off of our momentum from last week is the perfect time to do it. I nailed the score last week (so so lucky), let’s see if I can do it again! SCORING OFFENSE G TD FG XPT 2XP DXP Saf Points Avg/G 10. North Dakota 5 16 6 14 0 0 1 130 26.0 13. Sacramento State 5 15 3 10 2 0 1 115 23.0 SCORING DEFENSE G TD FG XPT 2XP DXP Saf Points Avg/G 2. North Dakota 5 15 7 12 0 0 0 123 24.6 7. Sacramento State 5 22 3 22 0 0 0 163 32.6 TOTAL OFFENSE G Rush Pass Plays Yards Avg/P TD Avg/G 9. Sacramento State 5 710 1267 405 1977 4.9 15 395.4 13. North Dakota 5 874 880 342 1754 5.1 13 350.8 TOTAL DEFENSE G Rush Pass Plays Yards Avg/P TD Avg/G 3. North Dakota 5 657 1206 359 1863 5.2 14 372.6 7. Sacramento State 5 1075 1213 356 2288 6.4 20 457.6 INTERCEPTIONS G No. Yards TD Avg. 1. North Dakota 5 10 163 3 16.3 8. Sacramento State 5 2 6 0 3.0 PUNTING G No. Yards Avg/P Ret. Avg. TB Net/P 5. North Dakota 5 31 1288 41.5 56 1.8 4 37.2 12. Sacramento State 5 44 1662 37.8 122 2.8 0 35.0 13. Cal Poly 5 16 631 39.4 69 4.3 2 32.6

Could be a trap game for Sac St.

I got lucky. Got some free tickets for Saturday night, and possibly Friday as well. Otherwise, I would not be paying that much either.

bahaha, not sure why, but this had me laughing pretty good. Maybe I'm feeling juvenile at the moment, maybe because its Monday and I really needed a laugh, or maybe it is just because you said poop.

and he is only a Sophomore!!! We get to watch this kid for two more years. He will be scary as a senior.

Best one will be at Mariucci, as we laugh them and their bandwagon fans out of the building!!!

Don't try to confuse people with your "stats" or "facts" or "records". The bottom line is if you are in the MVFC, you deserve to be ranked. That is just the way it is. Ask anybody from the MVFC and they will tell you the same. And now, with conference play starting .... EVERYTHING is a quality loss!!! Who can compete with that?!?!

Makes sense considering how we were playing at the time. Given a second shot, I think we take the game.

I wonder where we would be ranked if not for those two narrow losses, or even with the win against Bowling Green. Although ... How bad is BGSU looking this year! Yikes!

I guess I don't understand how South Dakota is not ranked. They are in the MVFC and have quality losses to FBS New Mexico, and MVFC foe Youngstown. I suppose beating Weber hurts them, since Weber is in the Sky, and losing to UND (as a Sky team), hurts them even more. Still, I would think being in the MVFC would have been enough to offset those two Big Sky games, and get them in the top 10-15.

You beat me to that one. Though the same thing when I saw him.

We snuck into the STATS poll at #24, behind #23 Illinois St, and #21 Cal Poly. STATS FCS Poll Rankings as of 10/3/2016 RankSchoolVotesPrev 1 North Dakota State (4-0)4100 (164)1 2 Sam Houston State (4-0)38662 3 Jacksonville State (3-1)37073 4 Eastern Washington (4-1)35964 5 Chattanooga (5-0)34865 6 Richmond (4-1)30736 7 James Madison (4-1)30117 8 Charleston Southern (3-2)283610 9 Citadel (4-0)28109 10 Montana (3-1)257111 11 UNI (2-2)234012 12 South Dakota State (2-2)220115 13 Western Illinois (3-1)19448 14 Villanova (4-1)193617 15 Youngstown State (3-1)156920 16 Albany (4-0)142221 17 Coastal Carolina (3-2)125314 18 North Carolina A&T (3-1)122222 19 Eastern Illinois (3-2)91013 20 McNeese (3-2)86623 21 Cal Poly (3-2)76916 22 Harvard (3-0)70625 23 Illinois State (2-3)67918 24 North Dakota (3-2)365NR 25 Central Arkansas (4-1)363NR Others: Grambling State (305) , Tennessee State (259) , William & Mary (218) , Samford (168) , New Hampshire (134) , Stony Brook (125) , Missouri State (73) , Stephen F. Austin (70) ,Indiana State (64) , Sacred Heart (54) , Wagner (45) , Colgate(28) , Southern Utah (26) , Northern Arizona (22) , Cornell (21) ,South Carolina State (13) , Dartmouth (11) , Portland State (11) , Lehigh (10) , Penn (7) , Fordham (7) , Nicholls (5) , Towson (5) , Northern Colorado (4) , Monmouth (3) , North Carolina Central(3) , Kennesaw State (3) , Wofford (2) , Georgetown (1) ,Eastern Kentucky (1) , San Diego (1)

Agreed, I'd like to think it will even out as the year goes on, but then they will just say the MVFC beats up on themselves, justifying high rankings for all. Obviously they have some really good teams. I don't think anyone would deny that. BUT they definitely rank some teams that don't need to be ranked, and over rank some teams as well. I know SDSU won this past weekend, but they had no business being ranked as high as they were going into the weekend. They were a 1-3 team, winning against Drake. Pretty obnoxious stuff.