UND-FB-FAN

Green jerseys are superior. UND school color is Kelly green!!! It is what it is. Wear the black jerseys once or twice per year, but UND needs to be in green the majority of the season. Only thing I didn’t like was all the extra white/black stripes and !@#$. Would prefer straight up nice looking all green jerseys and clean looking all white pants, but this will do. All in all, would like to see green jerseys and white pants the most. Also, nice to have jersey combination options like a 21st century football program.

This is an unacceptable change and needs to be corrected

Idaho State and Drake are inferior teams; thus, two wins for UND. But UND has been very sloppy the past 6 quarters. Bubba and his coaching staff have a lot of work to do to instill discipline over the next two weeks before the big one on Oct. 2nd. If not corrected, this conference season may not go as expected.

Honestly I think Brett Holinka and Bubba need to scrap some of their zone blitz packages. There were numerous instances where receivers were running wide open because of defensive miscommunication and blown assignments in the zone. Either play man blitz if you want to pressure, or go to straight up zone or man. The secondary was confusing itself with the zone blitz defense packages. The quick receiver screen that went for a TD due to mispositioning and giving up the sideline (see quote here from Gundy) was just plain poor defense and lack of technique; I think the defense was getting tired and had a major mental lapse. I am most concerned with the safety play on this team. It was not good. Will be important to continue to improve defensive play up front also, as it always is. Utah State got timely gashes up the middle via the running game that really hurt as the game went on.

If UND does not win by at least 35 points, this is a failure game for UND. Simple as that.

? UND kept handing it off and Utah State was stuffing every play in the second half at the line of scrimmage. Utah State was forcing UND to challenge the ball down the field or go lateral, and UND didn’t have the speed to do it.

Biggest misconception in football; wins and losses come down to single play. That is a bias; game results are a summation of several plays and momentum swings. UND had chances, for sure, for a few more big plays, but couldn’t capitalize. Overall, team got worn out on both sides of the ball in the second half and then started making more mental mistakes. Obvious to see, and unfortunate it’s still happening to this program; typical of a mismatch in talent. Still time of course to better these players and get better. Plus UND will be playing much less talented teams in the near future.

I’m glad you are able to make excuses to tell yourself that. There’s always a “chance”, but UND didn’t lose by a touchdown or two, they got beat by 24 points. I watched the game. UND couldn’t get running game going consistently, many no gain runs stuffed at line of scrimmage. Behind Otis Weah, not a ton of RB depth. Skokna is a good player but not a 20 carry per game kind of guy. UND scripted well to start the game with trickery, but Utah State has head and shoulders better talent and wore UND out in the second half. Also, the mental toughness of this team isn’t quite where it needs to be yet. Just wait and see how Utah State does this year; they’ll have an okay season. it’s okay to admit that UND was the inferior team; heck, it’s FCS vs FBS. Just disappointing because it is Mountain West, not Big 10 or PAC-12, and would have liked to see UND play closer or win. It’s also okay @geaux_sioux to admit UND has weaknesses with this squad, namely defensive line, safety, wide receiver, and even, at times, quarterback play. Always can improve. UND definitely needs to because they are still only a fringe top 10 FCS program. The NDSUs, SDSUs, JMUs of the FCS World are still well above UND in terms of talent.

I hate the term “sucks” in sports. UND does not suck, they just aren’t good enough physically and mentally to beat a team of Utah State’s caliber. Unfortunately, I think that also extrapolates to UND not being good enough to beat the top MVFC teams, like NDSU, or SDSU on the road.

Well, this proves this team isn’t ready to take the next step. Weak minded after they got punched in the mouth in the 3rd quarter. Reminds me of the NDSU and JMU games last season. Defensively, the safety play and interior defensive line is still not good enough. Offensively, this line isn’t good enough to consistently make holes for Otis Weah. When running game isn’t working, Schuster does not have the arm strength nor the outside receiver talent to test the defense downfield. Makes for a bad combination. Going to be tough for this UND squad, as the roster is currently constructed, to beat top FCS teams. Maybe NDSU at home best case scenario? But not possible on road against SDSU.

I am curious to see how UND approaches this game. If UND gets blown out, I don't think they have what it takes to make a deep FCS run. Mountain West teams are not juggernauts (as evidenced by South Dakota State's crushing of Colorado State), and UND needs to play toe to toe with Utah State. If UND plays them close but loses, I am okay with it, but the game absolutely needs to be close. If not, I worry about UND's mindset for big games. UND's mindset needs to improve from the spring; the blow out again NDSU in March was largely due to Bubba still not having his team prepared for big games when UND is the underdog. Let's Go Hawks! Be confident, play fast, get the win!

If you can’t be excited about the team this time of the year, then don’t bother. Fall Camp = everyone thinks they can be a champion. Hope UND goes out and earns it.

Again, access is more important than quality. Doesn’t matter how wonderful the production quality is if majority of North Dakota can’t watch it.

Jeez

Deal with the devil (or should I say Nazis?)

Completely agree.

I disagree. Although Midcontinent has been a tremendous platform, there is absolutely no question that KVLY would better increase exposure for UND football across the state. In all honesty, exposure via media should be the most important aspect here. Production value means nothing if only limited audiences (people in Grand Forks and Fargo) are watching. To optimize its potential, UND needs to be thinking about exposure to the entire state. Lastly, I ain’t going to read !@#$ on bozoville

Tommy Schuster could make those throws in his sleep. Nothing special here from SDSU - two posts right down the middle of the field. UND did an awful job in coverage on both.

You’re right - I haven’t watched FCS football for the past 10 years. I’ll have to start watchin’ some film, as you say.

Yes, of course; NDSU’s running game is God’s great gift to us all. So spectacular. So unstoppable. Unreal Sam Houston could even think about stopping that nonetheless actually beat the bizons.

I love all your points except the last one. No need to dampen the expectations. UND (and the supporters who pay the bills) needs to have high expectations in order to continue to ascend. The MVFC inaugural season seemed to be the fuel to the fire this spring. Sure, UND may very well lose a game or two next season, but we don’t need to pump the brakes because that is a possibility. It is perfectly normal (and healthy) for a fan base to be upset if they have high expectations. It’s better than the opposite which is apathy. Keep going, keep recruiting, keep developing, keep striving to go undefeated.

Belquist burned Hayes, get over it.

Simply put, UND had serviceable play out of a freshman quarterback. He should naturally get better each and every season. I don’t panic when I see the poise and delivery that freshman Tommy Schuster delivered this season. He will get better, especially with better athletes around him. Now, are there better players/QBs out there? Of course. One could always envision a stronger armed, faster, bigger player at the QB position, but it is important to not spend too much finite amount of time on QB when there are definitely bigger holes within UND’s roster. I think it is important that UND continues to recruit to the QB position, which Freund will do, and they have done by bringing in Feeney from Moorhead. As a comparison, Paul Rudolph was awful for und as offensive coordinator largely because the qb position was an afterthought. Freund is doing just the opposite. But let’s not panic with Schuster, he certainly did well for his first year starting and potentially has three more seasons to improve. He still needs to compete, and if someone on the roster does better within that competition, then they should supersede him, but that hasn’t been the case thus far. Get Schuster more playmakers and see what happens.

If ... if ... if ... always can play that game. UND is close to being a championship team, but needs better athletes at defensive line, safety, backup running back (behind Otis and Skokna), and receiver (to stretch the field). Offensive line was good but need to take another step to be great. QB is not the issue - UND has chance to have 4 year starting QB that will get better and better each season.

Take out the one longest run from those games by Otis and then what is the ypc average? of course it is less, but also this just shows that Freund was smart enough to not just keep banging his head against the wall when the running game wasn’t working. UND lost to JMU and NDSU pretty convincingly so showcasing these selective stats is silly. And, once again, the biggest difference for UND in these games against top competition was their inability to stop the power running game. JMU and NDSU ran power football right down UND’s throat. Need bigger, tougher inside run defenders, from the defensive linemen, to the linebackers, to the safeties. The whole crew needs to improve.