siouxfan512

I will respond to my original post and acknowledge that Montana IS undefeated AND you can only play the teams that are on your schedule. They should still have some time to prove themselves. Clearly a good football team BUT they have yet to really play some top competition yet.

Listening to the 360 podcast, I though it was nice to have Herder on. Usually pretty good insight and nice to have an outsider's perspective. I did hear him say that outside of NDSU and SDSU, he could see Montana being in the mix to compete for a national championship as well. Now that we are outside of the Big Sky, I don't follow those teams as closely. My initial reaction wasy: ok, sure .... its Montana. Then I started digging into the season and if you ask me, they have yet to prove anything ... certainly not their ranking. Now, The Griz could absolutely be a great team, but they have yet to be tested. At 5-0, their opponents have a combined record of 6-21. Game 1: Northwestern State (2-4: Beat Lamar and Nichols) Game 2: South Dakota (1-4: Beat Cal Poly) Game 3: Indiana St. (1-4: Beat N. Alabama ... though tested the almighty cows) Game 4: Portland St. (2-3: Beat N. AZ and something calls Lincoln University) Game 5: Idaho St. (0-6) - The Griz won this by a whopping 8 points. Granted, we have see weird things happen in Pocatella. At first glance, I'm not sure the Bobcats resume is much better. Though I will concede that Sac State and Weber State both have wins against Colorado State and Utah State respectively. It will be interesting to see who rises to the top in the Big Sky, and even if it is the Griz or the Cats, they haven't shown the dominance you would expect from their lofty rankings yet; though I would put the Bobcats ahead of the Griz. (Disclaimer: This is based on scores, stats and articles...I haven't been actually watching these teams)

Listening to the 360 guys give their mid season review, and loved how they talked about the wrinkles Danny throws on 4th and 1 or short yardage situations to gain 30-40+yards. (As I've said, we did this a few years ago with Skokna, but I never saw it again until the last few games) -vs. Missouri St - Misdirection by Tommy to the left, quick pitch right, Long TD run for Smith. -vs Youngstown - Q lines up shotgun, runs up to the line, Maag in motion, fake the handoff to Maag, pitch to Smith for an easy TD up the left side of the field. - 360 guys say next will be a fake pitch, drop back a few yards then toss it to the RB on a wheel route. I like it! -What about this. Q take the snap and steps forward towards the line, tosses back or pitches out to Romfo who runs it outside and has a run or pass option. Fast enough to make a play, but could make a throw if the receiver gets open deep. Not as fast as Smith, but fast enough if the field is wide open, but has the arm to make a play if the defense sniffs out the run. I'm not Danny Freund offensive genius, but thoughts?

I sure didn't. I wasn't the highest on him after last season, but he sure showed up last weekend. Made some really nice plays!

Its fine, just don't ever do that again!

I was hoping for a USD shocker, a Misery St W, and maybe an Indiana State upset W last weekend. I just can't get anything I want. Seriously though, an SDSU win would be awesome heading into next week. I wouldn't be upset if they were a little beat up and tired either, haha

Specifically said, I'm not writing off the other guys. Haven't heard many positives about Feeney from those that have seen him though. That could easily change, but who knows. I don't personally know anything about the kid, what his strengths are, what his weaknesses are. Would be great if he can step in at some point. I could care less who ends up under center as long as they make plays and win games.

What's wrong with hockey? This just sounds petty. It sucks that a lot of people will be out of town to watch that game, but it is what it is. Hard to blame people for wanting to travel to Vegas to have a little get away and watch their team at the same time. NDSU certainly traveled for their game at Target Field .... and I'd love to see UND get an opportunity like that. Its not like Grand Forks as a whole will be empty. I'm far less concerned with the fans traveling to support another UND sport than I am with the fans still in GF that just don't want to go, but again, it is what it is. Lots of people with kids and busy lives (like myself, though not in GF) who are just happy if they can make it home in time to catch the game on tv. Seems like you might be more annoyed that hockey has such a following and you are just mad than football doesn't quite have the same notoriety. Let's be fair to the hockey program here as well. Its not like they haven't earned it. Dominant success over the years will do that. I'd love to see the same happen to UND Football. Its not an either/or situation. Lets not be a hockey school or a football school .... lets be a f'in sports school (maybe education too )

Lol I know its up to the coaches/players, but when I was first thinking about it, I thought there is no way with Tommy. It already seems like the guy has been around forever, and he is certainly making his mark in the record books. Will be very interesting to see what he can do in 2 years if he is still here and his tools continue to develop (Belquist too). Would be cool if he could stay on both years and then transition to Kaminski. Not that I am writing off any of the other guys, but if Kaminski is what we are hoping he will be, it would be nice to move from a seasoned legit starter into another young legit starter that can have a length career.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll Looks like Misery St dropped out of the coaches poll, but we are still not in it. We are actually listed as receiving the same number of votes as Misery St. Yet Princeton, Austin Peay and even (3-2) Richmond moved into the poll. Put UND's record next to UNI and we would be somewhere around 15. I really don't care about the coaches poll, it is more annoying to have it be such a joke. Not much anyone can do though. UND just needs to win. I don't care if it is close or ugly. Just beat the bunnies! Should have had them last year ... need to take care of business at home.

A win against SDSU would be HUGE for our movement in the polls, and a win against ACU would help solidify our spot. SDSU could be the #1 ranked team at that point. Can't emphasize enough how important this next game is to our season. Lose and it isn't over, but win and you've taken a huge step forward, not just towards the playoffs, but potentially even a seed if you can maintain success. A lot of season left and a lot of things to work on, but this team has already taken several steps in the right direction from last season, still need to take a few more. Look at home many close games we have won this year compared to losing last year, along with 2 road wins so far. I know the long ball wasn't clicking this past weekend, but I do like that Bubba and Co are at least will to take a few shots. If (dare I say when) Tommy starts connecting on these, it will had a whole new element to this offense. Had he connected on even a few of those long balls against Youngstown that game could have been a blowout.

Another observation from this week's game ... The YSU QB put some serious heat on a few of his throws, especially on that last TD drive. He was throwing some bullets out there. We heard there was some accuracy issues last week, but he played pretty darn well. One could argue we game up a lot of soft coverage, but accuracy didn't really seem to be an issue for most of the game.

Can anyone confirm if I'm looking at that right? 2 more years of Tommy and Bo? Or no?

Yeah I was excited about him

Agreed, nice to see him stepping up.

Rewatching the game right now. The Bo Belquist completion when we were backed up near our endzone was huge. Great scramble by Tommy and great effort by Bo. So both Tommy and Bo are listed as Juniors, but that doesn't account for their Covid season, right? So do we have both for 2 more years? It also can't be stated enough how much Caleb Nelson and Sam Robertson leaving hurt this team. I'd feel much better with that depth in the secondary. Its clearly our weakness and when we play a good team, they will try to expose it. More nervous about SDSU here than I am NDSU.

Its kind of funny that YSU had him at the game where they were playing against his brother. Seems like a strange dynamic, but obviously these kids are there to see more than who wins and who loses. Without knowing anything about this kid, I'd be interested purely on if he is close to the player tommy is becoming. Excited with what I'm hearing about this Wisconsin kid though.

Our next game against SDSU would be a great time for him to break Braden Hansen's single game record. 660 Passing Yards (w/ 5 TDs to boot) Hard to forget that game against Montana. Greg Hardin also had 333 receiving yards (w/ 3 TDs) .... As I type this I had to verify the numbers multiple times because that just seems so improbably. Those are video game numbers.

I did say that I loved the misdirection pitch to smith last week and would love to see another variety of the same play .... Danny is monitoring the boards. I also said the same thing about using Q with that type of play. He did something very similar last year with Skokna. Everyone in the building though Q would sneak up the middle for a yard or two, ended up giving it to Luke on a sweep and he took it for big yardage outside. Might have been the Spring season.

Show us how it’s done Uncle Rico. I bet you could throw a football over them there mountains too.

Cuz he is a jack a$$, and was a huge baby when we beat them in the championship. Whining and complaining that we check too hard.

Depends how we use him. Running between the tackles he doesn't seem to have the vision or escapability as Hoosman. If you can get him into space, then watch out. I loved the little misdirection play with the pitch to him this last week. If you can find a way to use that again with a different variation I'd be all for it. Also love Smith's pass catching abilities. Danny just needs to stay creative, can't say enough how much more fun this offense is than Rudy's offense was. Its not always perfect, but it is sooo much more fun. I just don't know what to think about this game. I was think we got this .... Then I was thinking if this was at home we should dominate, but we just need to prove it on the road. After listening to the 360 guys it sounds like we are playing NFL O and D lines, but looking at the stats Youngstown doesn't have a ton going for them other than their RB; their QBs don't appear to do much. Though they did keep their game against the Bison within reach. Soooo I just don't know. I still think the good guys get this and I'd like to see the offense continue clicking.

Lets be careful about how talk about JoPro ... Best player to ever lace up the cleats. Have they put his statue up in SLO yet?

Kostich may not be perfect, but none of our coaches are. Danny had some offensive blunders at times. Holinka has allowed so many TDs on the 1st drives of the game that its easy to want to turn the game off right away. Bubba has been .... well Bubba! All have also shown their ability to adjust. Danny has had some plays that are just pure genius. The pitch to Smith this week was the perfect call at the perfect time. Holinka may let a score in early on a regular basis, but the guy makes adjustments, this week was no different. Kostich has improved ST over a few years ago. Kick coverage has been good. Kicking has gotten better. Punting has been solid. We've had 2 MVFC ST players of the week in the last 3 weeks. And credit to Bubba .... he has been more aggresive on 4th downs and is showing more trust in his guys. Good season so far .... Will have to wait to see if it can be a great season! *Side note: Any criticism on Tommy is hilarious, this kid has taken a HUGE step forward this year. Really glad we get to have him next season too. His ability to stay calm and extend play has been so beneficial and he has shown this numerous times this season. Kid has been fun to watch!

2 posts between these.