UND-FB-FAN

Happy Thanksgiving everyone This coulda woulda shoulda of particular UND football plays over the course of the disappointing 2021 fall season is depressing. Time to move on. Get better players. Make staff adjustments as necessary. Change the schemes and schedules that didn’t work this year. Get better. Get hungrier (Thanksgiving reference) and desire to be a winning program. Enough with losing. The culture needs to change and why not 2022 to be the year to do it. Go Hawks Football

And here we have exhibit #1 of a “longtime conservative folk around UND” You are a part of the problem, not the solution.

Didn’t say/type that. Pull the stick out of your ass. Just pointing out the consistent issues [of inconsistency] over the last 8 years and there is a common denominator

Hockey is the money maker because it received a significant starter donation and since continues to receive the financial majority year after year. That cycle needs to be interrupted before things change and rationalizing this - like you just did - won’t help a damn thing. In FCS football, with no major television contract revenue like FBS schools have, universities are always dependent on donors to keep things running. UND’s donors are partly brainwashed by the perpetual cycle of hockey investment as per above. This is a major culture issue, in my opinion, that I don’t expect to change anytime soon nor will longtime conservative folks around UND want it to change. It is what it is. And football, basketball, volleyball, etc. success at UND will continue to be largely limited by it until the cycle is broken. you are right in that $ will solve this and if someone stepped up, whether private or organizationally, and donated a significant amount to UND football, then perhaps things would change. But simple donations to the overall athletic department won’t do a damn thing due to the current culture of UND athletics.

I thought that back in 2017 … and 2021… hell, why not 2022?! perpetual state of delusion

Maybe? Who is going to step up with a big check? UND men’s basketball is in fairly shaky spot too as far as financial support goes.

If Greg Hardin “type” was on UND roster, they would be “the guy”. Greg Hardin was a borderline NFL talent (was on Broncos for a brief period). UND should take any player that has that kind of potential; tough to get at FCS level but it happens. Point is, UND always should be looking for good players and Hardin was a top tier FCS talent while at UND. Right now, UND has a couple of those guys in Waletzko (will leave) and Otis Weah. Also some young guys that could develop yet into that. As for receivers specifically, UND has not had a receiver of that caliber since Hardin and Golladay. Toivonen and Wanzek were close.

Sure, they will want that, but over the past decade of college football, in both FBS and FCS, several new coaching staffs have changed the culture and started winning after just a couple seasons.

Absolutely, exactly my point (tough to portray sarcasm on here). Speed is only one small part of being a good receiver. Need guys who can run good routes, catch the ball in traffic, and just have a knack for making clutch catches.

Any coach that takes 3-4 years isn’t a good coach in this day and age of college football. With the right resources, you should be winning after a couple years. Only counter argument to a coach not turning it around that fast would be lack of institutional support, i.e., need better facilities, equipment, etc.

You’re right, we should only recruit high school athletes with the word “burner” in their Twitter bio. UND has some capable players, but can always get better players; that’s no secret.

Are we not completing deep passes because receivers can’t separate or because Schuster can’t get it there? Probably a combination of both. UND has some receivers that can run: Belquist, Boltmann, Wright, Cochran. New recruit coming in from Missouri fits that category. Feeney is better athlete and has stronger arm, so that should answer your question. The major thing holding him back to start over Schuster is decision-making; we haven’t seen Feeney in a live 4 quarter DI game, so hard to know until live bullets are flying.

Understood. Let’s support the program, hope for a great 2022 season. Obviously, if 2022 does not go according to plan, big picture changes need to be considered. I suspect UND will be better in 2022, but how they do against NDSU or do in the playoffs, I am not as confident. Again, regression to the mean with our current sample size (8 seasons with Bubba’s program).

Always appreciate your comments, Ira. My concern is we have a sample size with Bubba of 8 seasons and only one playoff win to show for it. Simply asking for coaches to be fired is a sportscaster mindset, so I agree the solution is not that simple, and we need to be more constructive than that, but really it all comes down to $. We need more $ to complete phase II of the Fritz Pollard Jr. Athletic Center which will be crucial to securing more talented student-athletes. We need more $ in order to secure more talented assistant coaches and perhaps even a more talented head coach/voice of leadership. To say Bubba is not expendable would be a mistake in my opinion, regardless of how much he loves UND and how nice of a man he is. Approaching UND football with the concept that staffing is a non-issue and is immune to change is a mistake if you ask me. Overall, we need to be open-minded. UND lost all games close, yes, but they ultimately lost. Wins are wins and losses are losses. We will see what 2022 brings, but again, I think regression to the mean tells us a 0.500 season with a first round playoff exit is our current capability. Bottom-line, how can we as fans help this program? Simple, put up more $. the Athletic Department will quickly tell you that. And we need ensure all gifts go to football and do not continue to funnel their way into the REA and hockey program leaving the non-hockey programs in a state of constant catch-up to area competition.

I will say, I’m overall fairly impressed with Freund’s offense and Holinka’s defense, but it’s the game management from Bubba that has been awfully disappointing. Hate to say, cause he’s a good guy, but the sooner he retires/resigns, the better UND will be on the field. Of course, getting better players would also help, but UND needs better facilities which requires more $$ in order to secure this.

I strongly disagree with this. Would love to see the team play a couple more weeks - who knows what could happen? Can’t afford to start over from scratch? What does that even mean? This team under the current leadership is having losing seasons and missing the playoffs. How much worse can it get? Having new leadership, new ideas, new approach to winning football games and growing UND football is certainly worth it if you can get the right guy. Being scared of upgrade should not be what holds this program back, but it will based on this kind of ridiculous sentiment. of course, biggest obstacle is finances. As I said in earlier post, UND continues to be hockey, hockey, hockey and this will always make it difficult on non-hockey sports in the DI era.

This is the disappointment. At this point in the program with Bubba in charge, we should be hearing UND’s name every Sunday FCS Playoff Selection Show, but we’re still racking up losing seasons, letdowns and blatant playoff misses. Beyond frustrating. The mindset of this team/program and overall leadership of it has tons of room to improve.

USD game this season. God awful embarrassment.

So, does that make you a loser?

Ya’ll happy with a 5-6 season? To be upset with a 6 loss season in 2021 does not imply you don’t want team to be better in 2022. with a 24 team playoff field, no reason UND football shouldn’t be a playoff participant every single season. reminds me of 2016-2017 seasons. Und won big sky conference in 2016, then missed playoffs in 2017. Und won conference in spring 2021 but now missed playoffs in fall 2021. Bubba as leader of und football program can’t maintain success and propagate consistency

Can’t afford football coach buyouts … Can’t afford better football coaches … Can’t afford to complete phase II of Fritz Pollard Jr. Athletic Center … A lot of financial constraints for a University that has a $100 million hockey arena and pumps $ into hockey updates every season… Point is, the issue remains that UND treats all non-hockey sports as a red-headed stepchild. UND football will continue to have up and down seasons until this changes to a degree.

Apathy has set it. Always an excuse to be content with losses.

Nothing left to do but hope at this point. This season left much to be desired.

Wrong. Bubba is the head coach. Every win and loss has something to do with the leader of your program.

I agree completely. “Wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, see which one fills up first”