UND-FB-FAN

UND football has gone from 9-3 Big Sky champs to a rebuild? Good Lord, that calls for someone to lose their job right there. Im completely convinced the issue we're seeing is in recruiting. Yes, the injuries hurt, but to the degree where you lose all competitiveness is a huge exaggeration. We're seeing poor depth (lack of recruiting) and an inability to change schemes based on available personnel. I hear how UND still needs more time to build depth - that's nonsense. This isn't Bubba's second season. Instead of freshman and redshirt freshmen out there, we should be seeing some backup sophomores and juniors that Bubba's staff recruited. Instead, we see young guys that are like fish out of water. The staff has missed on many players and it is hurting this program now as unexpected injuries hit. Too much attrition from Bubba's first and second year classes.

3 of those 4 are Mussman recruits ... can Bubba's staff recruit? The jury is still out on that, in my opinion. Fair amount of attrition at DB and LB since 2014, too.

No, I am not. I am "hinting" at Bubba and his staff recruiting better players. Its hard when NDSU takes every decent player out of North Dakota; I'll give them that. It still needs to be better or else UND will have very little room for error in terms of injuries (like we are seeing now). Bubba went 5-7, 7-4, 9-3 in his first three seasons. Right now, in his fourth season, he is 1-4. I think he will probably end with only 4 or 5 wins this season, which is very bad relative to may standards for UND football. With that said, of course I support the regime continuing into 2018 based on the improvement from 2014 to 2016. If 2018 is a lost year also, then my "hinting" may actually be towards a direction change. For now, Bubba and his staff need to just keep working as they have and hopefully hit on some better players during the recruiting process.

If you hit on your recruiting classes, depth can be built relatively quickly. There's no set timetable. The way Thomas went about it in the 80s and 90s is completely different from the modern era of recruiting, not to mention UND is recruiting against DI institutions now. Its apple to oranges. Some coaches have gone 7+ years without ever building depth (and ultimately get fired) whereas some coaches arrive and the depth is built after only a year or two (because the classes are all successful in terms of quantity and quality). Its extremely variable. Is 3 recruiting classes enough for Bubba? Apparently not. Should it be enough? I don't know because its extremely variable in the world of modern DI college football. We'll see how the next couple seasons go for Bubba and UND football.

Be careful on your degree of "decimation". The injuries shouldn't turn UND from first to worst in the Big Sky Conference. That designation also belongs to below average recruiting from the past few years.

Per Tom Miller, UND has given up 45+ points in three consecutive games for the first time in program history. The depth is crap, and Bubba and his staff, as they are the recruiters, are directly responsible. Even if you have to play second and third stringers, giving up that many points is inexcusable. Get to work Bubba and staff; you have some major holes to fill via recruiting. On to Northern Colorado. As for those sticking to the excuses, you are right either way: the 2017 season will definitely be an underachievement.

As the announcers just said, UND needs to recruit better. Not enough depth and talent on the roster. The injury situation does nothing but show that. No excuses from my end; just identify the weakness that needs addressing. Get to work Bubba and staff. Obviously having the 13 guys that are out back would hide the depth issues and everything would be back on schedule, BUT, UND doesn't have those 13 guys or so and, as such, we see the depth is crap.

It wasn't full in 2013; it was crap. There were some talented players on the roster though. And Bubba hasn't built the depth up to the point where it needs to be. The coaching and leadership is much better under Bubba's staff, though.

Don't recruit chicken crap then. Thats obviously an exaggeration, but UND needs better players, even as freshmen. Maybe Mussman's players weren't as bad as some thought. Golladay, Will Ratelle, Reyes, Deion Harris, Keaton Studsrud, AJ Stockwell, etc... Bubba needs to prove he can win when injuries hit due to his own depth/recruiting. This season has shown a failure on that end thus far.

I agree with your observation.

Go to the recruiting threads; everyone thinks the incoming players from the past couple years were going to be tremendous. Now, everyone thinks they are too young and thrown into the fire. There's a ton of inconsistency. Should they be undefeated? No. Should they have lost their last three games (2 of which against opponents that beat last season) by 20+ points? Absolutely not. The degree of the collapse is not consistent with the injuries, even though they are extensive. Eventually UND will turn this around as the young guys get more playing time, but this season is lost.

The starters that UND has playing are playing poorly too. It's not just the injuries here, people. The team has regressed. For what reason, I don't know. Perhaps coaching, perhaps team leadership, who knows? All I know is this team just doesn't seem to be able to fight through the adversity as I think they should.

Injuries. Got it. Sam Bradford is hurt for the Vikings; I'll take your advice and not tune in tomorrow. Same with UND football; since they have injuries - which have ALWAYS been apart of football - we should all just accept loses (horrible ones, at that). Next man up and no excuses is the way any true winner goes about it. I'm not going to give in to these ignorant stances that some have come up with just to bear the current disaster.

I could've gone down to Memorial and said that to Mussman's 2013 squad and still got punched in the face. Thus, your point is meaningless. Of course Bubba and his players should be defensive to criticism, but the proof is in the pudding. 2017 UND football is currently a joke.

I'm not calling for a regime change; someone - not necessarily you - has obviously misinterpreted what I've been saying. Yes, it's nice to believe this coaching staff is great and the unfortunate injury situation explains it all; however, I'm not convinced that is the case. I think things are not as bad as they seem nor as good as some make it out to be with the injuries.' The injuries have hurt, but UND shouldn't be a joke at their backup spots and be playing so poorly that their performances are unbearable to watch.

This may be the most thought provoking comment. You may just be right.

You don't recruit JV players. You recruit players that can play. I don't buy this. Obviously this season is lost, but should it be? I don't think any competent DI football program would say so. Only UND fans who are used to hockey as a ultimate fallback would consider such an option. I'm disappointed. UND has regressed. Here's to 2018 being much, much better.

The team isn't mentally tough enough to fight through the injuries, adversity, and pressure of being picked to win every conference game. They're packing it in after only 5 games.

Is Studsrud a 3rd stringer? How about Toivonen and Mercer? Santiago and Oliveira weren't expected to play much? Dranka, Tank Harris, and Greely are third string players along with Disterhaupt, Haas, Jade Lawrence, and Torrey Hunt? UND has a lot of "experienced leaders" still on the field but yet they've packed it in. It's disapponting. I'm glad there's some folks on this board who love excuses because it's sort of representative of this team right now - going all in on excuses.

UND has the worst backups in the FCS, apparently.

Half of those players are on the field right now and this defense is no where near "stud". I sure hope everything works out, but injuries shouldn't turn a team from #1 in the conference to a doormat.

Your stance is that UND would've been fine in 2018 because Rastas, Blubaugh, etc. would've miraculously improved with another year of prep? Yeah, they would've been more physically prepared, but the intangibles are what they are. We are seeing a preview of what the future holds. UND needs to have a level of fight and determination that doesn't allow this kind of collapse to occur, especially just following a conference championship season. The culture of this team is not adequate. What happened from last season to this season goes beyond injuries. After four recruiting classes, UND and Bubba need to have some depth that prevents this level of embarrassment and implosion from happening.

The injury situation is unfortunate, but these 2nd and 3rd string players aren't all true freshmen. Also, UND was picked to win the conference; a bunch of injuries shouldnt turn UND into a doormat! Maybe they should be less competitive, but they shouldn't turn into the bottom feeder of the Big Sky Comference. Bubba and his staff have shown deficiencies, now, in recruiting quality depth and adjusting on the fly when unexpected changes hit.

So we're basically seeing a sneak peak of the 2018 UND defense. If not this season, we would've been very disappointed next season. The depth of this program is not good; Bubba and his staff have messed up.

Blowouts aren't conspiracy theories; they're objective observations.