UND-FB-FAN

Nothing will change in the next 2 years, I’m afraid. I heavily caution against complacency, because UND athletics and specifically UND football has been all too conservative lately and look where it has got them ... Why does UND think they are too special (or simply the exception) when it comes to the seating orientation compared to nearly every other DI football venue? Students don’t get 50 yard line seating nearly anywhere else, ESPECIALLY when the student section is consistently empty in the second half of games year after year.

This game will come down to what most games comes down to: turnovers and clutch plays. UND has to protect the ball and force a few turnovers like they did against Sam Houston State. Also, when Eastern Washington faces a third or fourth down, UND needs to get off the field defensively. Against NDSU, und could not stop Trey Lance on 3rd down. Und needs to be able to stop the EWU quarterback in this game in those situations. Conversely, when UND faces third down offensively, they must convert. Too many three and outs will put too much pressure on the UND defense. It happened against NDSU, it cannot happen against EWU.

Ill contact him regarding seating. Obviously the students support UND football but not well enough to stick around the entire game. For the past decade plus, the student section is 75% empty come the 3rd quarter. It is an awful waste of great seating that season ticket holders would love to sit in from start to finish. Not to mention the minor detail that the broadcast cameras face those seats! You think prospective student athletes want to play in a place where it looks dead empty on tv...... Move the students down a few sections. This is the Orientation in nearly every division I football venue!

UND needs to prepare to win. I have confidence that Bubba and his team are doing that. Moral victories are for losers. External expectations for UND are horsesh*t but what else is new. Expectations - most importantly the internal expectations - are a major factor in success or lack thereof. This year's UND team needs to prove people wrong. I’m confident they can. The juggernaut in Fargo affects the external expectations, whether naive supporters want to admit it or not. Bickering about “the problem supporter” does not amuse me. You’ll have to find someone else if you want to carry on this petty argument.

What the hell?

Way better.

Students in mass numbers don’t want to go to the games. Its an issue all over the country, including big 10 schools. To expect the students to fill up the prime midfield seating is just wishful thinking without logic. Move the student section down, and reserve the midfield on BOTH sides for season tickets. It really is disappointing that it has taken this long for UND’s athletic department to figure this out; and really, they technically haven’t yet.

If Chaves is competent, he’ll change the seating arrangement. Move the students down and provide season tickets for midfield (40 to 40) on both sides of the field!

Apparently you endorse mediocrity. You are a part of the problem, not the solution.

“The next two weeks are not season-defining but are important, nonetheless. The Eagles are ranked #11 in the country and the following week UND gets #4 UC-Davis at home for Homecoming.“ -UNDFB360 This is a bull$%!# quote. I love the coverage from the guys and agree with them 99% of the time, but this is just failing to set expectations. Yes EWU and UC-Davis are tough, but that’s what you want. To play tough games and pull out the wins. UND needs to re-set the standard under Bubba. Whether realized or not, the expectations are consistently too low for UND football. Get to the point where knocking off EWU and beating UC-Davis at home is expected. If not expected in year 6 of the Bubba era, then when the hell will it be? Win the Damn Games

Maag may have the best speed of the 3 I mentioned, but that isn’t saying much. Need to keep finding ways to get the ball to guys with actual competitive speed; Boltmann, McKinney, Cochran, Griebel, and eventually Adeoti when healthy. Maag isn’t outrunning any DBs for 50 yards anytime soon. He is still a very good player, though. Great ball skills and jump ball ability.

UND did just beat the No.24 team in the country with said offensive line, so let’s step back from the ledge and the “going nowhere” talk. There is still much hope for a winning season if UND takes care of business at home in the Alerus Center and wins a couple road games. After that, though, I agree with you. UND needs to improve its offensive line. Running game has to be capable if UND wants to be a championship team and they certainly are not there yet. Emphasis needs to be on continuing to recruit and develop the offensive line.

It is just too amateur. The approach to UND football gameday operations is way too apathetic. No one cares enough. For starters, UND and/or the Alerus Center need to hire employees with an IQ at least over 50. At least have that as a prerequisite. Also, UND’s athletic department headed by Chaves needs to better emphasize Alerus Center gameday operations as an area of much needed improvement. Everyone who agrees with this needs to contact Chaves and voice your concern. In my limited experience speaking with Chaves thus far, count me unimpressed.

Need to move students over. There should be season ticket holder seating from 40 to 40, if not 30 to 30, on BOTH sides. Students get endzone sections. I honestly think the UND ticket office and the Alerus Center ticket office are ran by uninformed, apathetic rubes or young inexperienced kids, or both. Pure stupidity in how they run tickets and seating. Not to mention the logistics and delivery of tickets is poor as hell.

Yeah, Bubba’s decision making won the game for UND. He made a great decision in taking the safety. And you play the player who might be UND’s future QB. Not a hybrid QB-receiver. Tommy Schuster made plays. UND needs to keep all the speed on the perimeter it can; Boltmann is one of the few guys UND has with “speed”. As good as Wanzek, Toivonen, and Maag are in terms of competitiveness, it is painful to watch them try to make plays in space and outrun defenders.

If Zimmerman gets hurt, UND will be in a lot of trouble. Get ready to bring in a losing season for UND and the calls for Bubba's dismissal will really be loud. Be careful what you wish for. I'd suggest you hope Zimmerman stays healthy and his chemistry with the receivers continues to grow. It can't be overlooked just how important building chemistry with the receivers and getting comfortable with this new offense is for whoever is at QB. The idea that you can just plug and play someone off the bench, like Boltmann, and they will light it up is silly. Hope for Zimmerman to continue to get reps, get more comfortable, and continue to ascend his level of play.

UND will be forced to stop the deep ball (emphasis here) AND the QB run game. Sam Houston State will certainly do both as both worked for NDSU against UND. Sam Houston will see it on film and try to duplicate it against UND.

Upsetting that UND's defense is now being looked at as pedestrian. The UND defense had glimpses of success against NDSU, but ultimately their inability to stop NDSU's QB run game was their downfall in giving up 38 pts. Against Sam Houston State, it won't be the QB run game that will hurt UND's defense (but SHSU will try this too), but rather UND's ability (or lack thereof) to defend the passing game. UND needs to get pressure and make some plays on the ball and get interceptions. Blubaugh, Leonard Nelson, Canady, Siegel, and Holm (if he plays) all need to be ready to make plays on the deep ball; don't be scared and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Sam Houston State versus New Mexico (2019 Week 1) highlights:

Agree with your assessment. UND is at home. Needs to keep hope alive for 2019; UND absolutely needs to defend their home turf at the Alerus Center and get the win. Losing two in a row against NDSU - visible to everyone - and SHSU at home would be tough on the fan base and even the players' psyche. GO OUT THERE AND TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS, UND. GO HAWKS!

Waiting for NDSU to descend to UND's current level is not a recipe for success. In fact, there's no guarantee it will happen for a long time, if ever. I agree, though, that UND needs to start by focusing on themselves and setting competitive standards. We, the fans, and the UND administration has to hold the coaches and players to these standards, though. No more excuses and leniency with losing to borderline losing seasons. 7 wins should be the benchmark standard year in and year out. When you look at UND's schedule (most years, this year may be the exception), UND should be better than well over half the FCS teams they play. UND has to meet NDSU half way, if you will. NDSU may regress a bit, but not a lot. UND has to be proactive and look to improve by a lot. Ways for that to happen have been suggested above. If no improvement during the rest of this season, then likely it starts with new football leadership. However, the leadership at the AD and eventual new president level for UND is also incredibly critical.

Should have been done YEARS ago. The students get the corner, 40 to 40 on both sides should be for season ticket holders. NCAA policy requires this to happen during playoff games anyways.

Looks like the team had the right mindset going into it. Unfortunately, NDSU just has the better talent on the field. Bubba (or someone) needs to close this gap, though. It is a must. UND will improve throughout the season. How much is the major question. Beat Sam Houston State and go from there. Optmism should be focused on iron sharpens iron with UND’s schedule. Definitely an opportunity to make playoffs this year if players and coaches approach this thing the right way.

@UND Fan I agree with most everything you posted. Most everything you posted I also have posted just over the past week. For starters, NDSU does have better players than UND and that in itself makes it hard for UND to beat them currently, especially with competent coaching. Some of us felt the coaching change to Entz and a new freshman QB would lessen the coach/player differential between UND and NDSU and lead to a close game; as we saw, that is not the case. Entz’ staff coached a good game and Trey Lance is a special dual-threat talent at QB for NDSU. As for how UND improves, they have to better emphasize football and, as such, improve in recruiting. It is a work in progress. Thank you for your donation efforts that allow us to donate directly to UND football. Recruiting is always directly linked to success. The student-athletes are the ones who win the games. How to get the better recruits is the complex multifactorial question. For starters, people need to voice their opinions regarding the next president of UND. We need to hire a president who understands the importance of collegiate athletics in selling an entire university relative to other regional institutions. Furthermore, that president needs to want to further UND football, specifically. It will be easy to find a president who wants to maintain the status quo with hockey, but finding one who wants to also advance football will be more unique. Coaching competency, with Bubba and his staff, will be determined by the team’s final record this season. Against NDSU is one thing, but there is no reason UND can’t compile 6 to 7 wins every season against other FCS programs. We have to recognize anything less is a failure and hold UND football coaches to this standard, strictly. If not, complacency sets in. As for better emphasizing football, beyond coaching, UND needs to get HPC Phase II funded. This is priority #1 beyond coaching. In the meantime, while waiting for the immense funds, UND can invest in locker rooms and turf at the Alerus Center. Uniforms and helmets should be regularly funded and updated as well. Keeping the gameday home (Alerus Center) for UND football up to date is also very important for recruits and current football players. Look at what UND hockey has done with locker room renovations and scoreboard/videoboards etc. UND needs to be proactive in addressing the Alerus Center in addition to HPC. Every detail counts when trying to sign recruits. If we overlook these details and consider them miniscule, then UND will continue to get inferior recruits relative to NDSU, SDSU, UNI, etc. Every detail counts in competition. Focusing on the right geography for recruiting is also key, as some have said. Having a presence in Canada is very important simply based on where UND/Grand Forks is located. Im summary, all in all, let’s see what Bubba and his staff can do this season. Starting with Sam Houston State, UND will now start to play teams with a talent level similar to themselves and the execution & coaching will be the difference. If the season does not end “successfully” (open to interpretation), I think UND and Chaves need to absolutely get a new coaching staff that can sign better student-athletes with different recruiting tactics. Also, the game of football is largely mental. As much as we all love Bubba, the most important thing is the competitive mindset and attitude his players - not us - have toward to him. There is always room for improvement there, in my opinion.

The Hawk is fine. I like it. Just teach it to not hold hockey signs when we are playing a football game.