UND-FB-FAN

Your dedication to UND athletics program is truly admirable. However, this steadfast support might inadvertently limit your ability to recognize areas where higher standards and greater expectations could drive meaningful improvement. While I acknowledge that I may be making some assumptions here, it seems you might be as well—particularly in presuming that the current hierarchy is adequately serving everyone’s best interests. I encourage you to consider whether this assumption holds true under closer scrutiny. Being critical is not synonymous with being negative; these are distinct approaches. Criticism, when constructive, involves objectively assessing a situation to identify opportunities for growth. The football program has recently made notable advancements, and it’s essential to acknowledge and build upon this progress rather than diminishing its significance. Your recent comments appeared to downplay these efforts, which risks undermining the broader goal of elevating UND athletics as a whole. Yes, the 2025 team has yet to play a game, but no need to even possibly bring forth negativity there. I also find your request for me to (again) submit credentials to you a bit puzzling and somewhat unnecessary. Raising this suggestion again feels redundant and misses the mark on addressing the core issues at hand. While your instinct to defend UND’s decision-makers is understandable and likely well-intentioned, it can come across as overly protective rather than forward-thinking. A more proactive stance, one that challenges the status quo and pushes for innovation, is what UND athletics needs to reach the next level (in my opinion)—and, ultimately, to strive for greatness. I urge you to shift from a defensive posture to one that champions progress, ensuring that our shared commitment to UND translates into tangible, lasting success. Again, results (on the field and court) matter.

Tradition starting around college football, including at University of Nebraska: https://www.wowt.com/2024/08/21/nebraska-football-reveals-10-players-awarded-single-digit-jersey-numbers/?outputType=amp

I don’t claim to know your full history with UND, and I get that fan forums can get heated—ironic, right? You’re right I don’t have all the details, but I’m not just here to complain. I push for solutions, not just on this forum (which I value for insight), but elsewhere too. Criticism like “you’ve got nothing worthwhile” misses the mark—I’m proactive, not whining. For UND men’s basketball, my ideas are clear: mirror the football team’s recent success. Bring in new coaches to spark excitement, boost NIL / collective funding, raise coaching salaries, start new endowments, and build the program’s brand. It’s straightforward—big vision, bold action, and competent execution. Plus, UND athletics needs sharper staffing decisions—smarter hires, better timing on transitions, and less political correctness.

The CFO does not fund the department ….

Yep, just look down the road. Sickening. I’m not going to play UND’s accountant (CFO) this morning, but there are always different potential strategies to fund the athletic department, and to die on the hill that UND is doing it perfect is beyond ignorant in my opinion. Most should be open to alternatives if it means a different and perhaps better outcome, but I love how @jdub27 and @iramurphy continue to defend how the hierarchy thinks at UND, continually demonstrating the flaws in that thought-process.

The problem with this is that, even when UND had their “good player” this year, they couldn’t compete and had a horrible losing record.

Don’t agree. There’s plenty of cash for MBB, just not being allocated towards it. All comes back to priority/importance.

Math gives Sather a 10% shot at a winning 2025-2026 season based on his 38.8% win rate. That implies a 90% chance UND seeks a new coach by March 2026, unless Sather jumps ship early (unlikely) or Chaves keeps him despite the dismal record (more likely given ridiculously low standards around UND).

Firing with a buyout is ideal, but UND’s (Chaves’) cheapness and low standards mean we’ll likely wait another year.

Could’ve changed the direction of the program and built excitement for 2025-2026, but now we’re stuck with an even more lost program until inevitable change occurs. Gotta love the leadership of Chaves at UND, where the athletic standard is “very, very high” …

Herein lies the problem; the overall culture of UND athletics remains a major concern despite the fact the (necessary) football coaching change happened. Hopefully the culture and philosophy of UND athletics will positively change soon, also …

Agreed - good thing new names arriving between now and August is almost guaranteed. Everyone contribute to the collective (https://1883collective.com). Bright future for UND football …

Many reasons the coaching staff lost their jobs, including something that had little to do with the quarterback position: the defense was atrocious; no excuse for what the 2024 defense did against Youngstown State, Indiana State, and Illinois State. Fireable actions and glad change finally occurred albeit in a soft “golden parachute” fashion that only UND athletics could pull off …

This is not an unreasonable take, but it’s far too early to commit to this.

Why would you want your QB1 to fail? Sounds like Monday Morning amateur quarterbacking to me … Using multiple quarterbacks is not ideal to the majority. If this is your stance, we respectively disagree. “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.” -attributed to the legendary NFL coach John Madden, suggesting that having too many options can lead to a lack of clear leadership and ultimately, failure.

What does this mean? “not much changing” is not how I would put it at all Offensive staff has changed (new TE coach, new WR coach, new RB coach) and the OC/QB coach and OL coach have been at UND only one season and didn’t have a chance to recruit to their respective positions in 2024. Since last season, UND football acquired possibly their most highly touted division 1 football player to date (HS offers from Oregon, Florida State, BYU, Arizona State, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Nevada, San Jose State, San Diego State; https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/und-football-snags-san-diego-state-transfer-quarterback?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR39Tooldbc4k9y07YpPV35LKgYpmALuX58NKFj5kiBlqUfTOc73d5xfDqc_aem_pyPwi9LXS0HA35hHT8yH9Q), in addition to a great high school athlete from Council Bluffs, IA (https://fightinghawks.com/news/2024/12/4/football-north-dakota-announces-23-additions-during-early-signing-period.aspx) In addition, Simon Romfo, Jerry Kaminski, and Jack Sulik will be 1-year more experienced in the system. The offensive line will be also largely intact and 1-year more experienced. I expect the quarterback position as a unit to take a huge step forward in terms of play in 2025 compared to 2024. You all should too.

Meanwhile, at UND (albeit a low-major and not exactly Villanova), after six seasons and a 73-115 record …

Probably wouldn’t be that confident in predicting the future, but it’s okay to predict that Javance Tupouata-Johnson will be the starting quarterback come August 30th (talent does in fact matter). That is my prediction as well, but Romfo, Kaminski, Sulik, etc. will get their shot.

2 year process could happen, sure, but still not the expectation. Need to hold to a high standard from the start. I think a rapid turnaround should and will happen.

Major problem here; couple this with minimal to no NIL dollars for UND MBB and I really don’t think Sather can turn this thing around. Need new coaching staff for culture reset and hopefully NIL dollars accumulate for UND basketball sometime over the next 5-10 years.

You have a high-level talent that gets numerous offers, thus enters the portal, and yet your team with said talent goes 12-21 (5-11) in 2024-25? Where’s the deficiency?

Always an eye-opening reminder that somethings never change around here; again, a microcosm of the problems that currently haunt UND. Two identities making countless comments on one thing while meaning another, just to try prove a point. “If it looks like a horse, then it’s probably a horse.” Some try way too hard on misdirection. The culture of UND cannibalism needs to be eliminated. Anyways, here we are again at a UND coaching discussion. We all know which way this should go, but why do anything efficiently around here?

Correct. But @iramurphy and @jdub27 will call such as alternative fact, baseless assumption, and a strawman argument. This fan board really is good ol’ entertainment, but it also is an interesting microcosm of what presently troubles UND athletics.

Those “assumptions” are based upon more historical foundation and factual circumstance than you either realize or are willing to embrace.

I figured that strategic comment would get your attention. I can appreciate your connections and experience, but I don’t agree with your logic in some circumstances. It’s probably a good thing that you don’t take fan board messages too serious. I don’t either. But the majority decision amongst those that value UND and their athletic programs does in fact matter (or should). Certainly the “decision-makers” will do what they want to do, but as has been said on numerous occasions, if the “decision-makers” such as your beloved Chaves purposely fail to factor in the opinions of season ticket holders, boosters, and alumni, then the “decision-makers” are a part of the problem, not the solution. We all know you’re taking the bet (again) that UND will improve under Chaves, and I’m okay with that because I’m all for optimism, but clearly this subject (UND MBB coach) and associated question has a verdict that needs to be acted on: time for a new MBB head coach.