UND-FB-FAN

Love all the banter on uniform improvements - right now I’m very pleased with this uni combo. Yes I think silver helmet, green jersey, silver pants would also be awesome, but who knows, that could be coming in future weeks also.

Boom! Beautiful!

Yeah could go either way. UND played like crap versus Drake in 2015 after beating Wyoming and then proceeded to still play like the crap the following week versus NDSU. I guess I’m in the camp that playing well and winning by a lot - regardless the opponent - is the most contagious, confidence-building formula there is. With all that said, beating the top dogs (NDSU, SDSU, etc.) anyway you can is fine - just win, baby. However, not sure limping to a victory versus non-scholarship teams (San Diego) or conference bottom-dwellers (Murray State) is a great confidence booster …

Bubba ball may rear its ugly head on Saturday again (playing down to opponents level), but hopefully offense shows ongoing improvement and defense is opportunistic, allowing UND to play a complete game for once. No more first half sleep walking exhibitions…

At least a quarter of the posters here are therefore wrong … The most amateur take in all of football is the thought that the back-up quarterback is the second coming … TOO much Friday Night Lights or Varsity Blues or something (although both great films/series)…

Danny Freund left UND for South Dakota State, a direct UND rival, which facilitated an exit of some UND players. That hurts, and I’ll admit I was definitely critical of the situation. However, it is also okay to be hot on the new UND OC Fruechte and objectively compare the two and perhaps give the early edge to Fruechte. It’s only been 4 games, much more to come. It’s also not fair to Fruechte to be too critical given what he has to work with at QB, so need to wait until year 2 to see what the QB position and depth evolves into. Also, some 4th downs in red zone could perhaps be considered “go” territory but yet UND settles for FG - that’s as much up to HC as OC. Ultimately, though, you’re right in that red zone offense is key, and needs to be better. To give credit where credit is due, though, third down is the money down; and Fruechte has been damn good there considering what he has been working with in a small school, small guy QB in Romfo. The third and long conversion throw by Romfo late in the Montana game was a critical conversion not enough people are talking about. Major props overall are warranted to both Fruechte and Romfo, considering Freund left UND out to dry at that those positions (OC, QB, and QB coach) and UND could easily be much worse than they are right now.

I agree. Hunt should get more opportunities, either via injury or game situations. Always explosive and takes advantage of his carries when he does get in the game. Hopefully Hunt (and others, like Kaminski) get an opportunity this Saturday (if the team actually shows up ready to go from the get go).

Ultimately a running game is more important than a passing game, so UND has that going for them (and hence why I am loving Fruechte over Freund right now), but no doubt there needs to be some resemblance of balance moving forward. And I agree - hopefully there’s ongoing improvement!

No question. Just need to prepare for when passing game will be of greater necessity. It’s a matter of when, not if.

Izzo is a you know what …

Fair point that everyone should recognize, but I’m not advocating UND makes a change. The quarterbacks behind Romfo aren’t guaranteed to be better than Romfo (and likely won’t be), and I’ll trust Fruechte as of now as he has been impressive thus far in my opinion.

That’s a good thing. Means folks are starting to slowly (and I mean it’s been slow) care and expect more and more out of UND’s football program …

I agree.

No question the defensive coordinator and his secondary coach (we all know the individuals responsible) need to clean this up, because rest assured the big boys in the MVFC are guaranteed to see this and carve up UND’s secondary again and again if corrections aren’t made.

Easy to judge the QB situation in a vacuum. Bottomline is only the coaches have an idea what the back-ups look like, and I have to imagine it’s not very good. The fact that UND is 3-1 with Romfo (an undersized Class B North Dakota kid) at QB is an absolute fabulous job of coaching, actually, in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, though, want to see how UND looks like after a year of offensive recruiting with Fruechte. Future is potentially bright with Seidl and Deng Deng, just need to get the QB position’s future figured out. This overall approach is not all that surprising, honestly, when you look at Fruechte’s background as a player at Minnesota (2012-2014) and what Jerry Kill and Matt Limegrover were doing philosophically.

Many of those targets were awful throws, but at least they’re targeting their playmaker out wide. The two deep connections to Bo in the second half were critical (and great calls by Fruechte).

Don't want to proclaim too much yet, but it does continue to look like we have significantly upgraded at offensive coordinator and maybe even offensive line coach. Still want to see how year 2 looks like after a year of recruiting and transfer portal entrees into the program …

This thought went through my head, and I agree: we still aren’t quite there yet, and spotlight continues to focus on the aged “leader”

At a minimum…

Good look with some not so distant nostalgia - goes back to late 90s, early 2000s. I like this home look 2nd best compared to green helmets, green jerseys, white pants. All this stems from finally having competent green jerseys for the first time in a while …

“Don’t take them lightly”” narrative is a bunch of sandbagging B.S. to be frank. I prefer the confident approach (which hasn’t been at UND for the past couple decades) which means you put them down early and step on them when they’re down. The “don’t take them lightly” by our coaching staff has led to the UND teams of the past decade playing down to their opponents level often (just look at the history of performances over the last 10 + seasons). Last week was somewhat encouraging, but need to see consistency with that. If UND can’t put together a complete game vs a non-scholly pioneer league school, then that should be rightfully concerning and an indictment on the preparation and execution …

Let’s see what the leadership (coaches and players) comes up with … the level of intensity and focus we see on Saturday will be telling for the rest of the season. If the majority of the players think they can take this week off, and that won’t bode well for the rest of the season, namely the road games.

UND won by 24 points; it was a very good win. Could it have been better? Absolutely - UND could have won by more, but that’s every week. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. I think getting Romfo all the reps is a good thing to a point. Remember, this was only his 3rd career start, and he may be playing for us for many more games in the future (he’s a junior) so development between him and Fruechte is key. It is early but it is starting to look like Coach Fruechte is an upgrade at offensive coordinator. Coach Olson for the OL is also doing a solid job. Major plus along with the strength and conditioning changes. Defensive effort in the second half was not ideal and needs to be looked at. No reason to give up 21 points in the second half, and need to defend the QB running game better. All in all, though, if giving up 21 points in the second half is the only major gripe, I think it was a solid performance. Now, speaking of no let downs, have to continue the momentum and keep the focus against San Diego and Murray State.

No excuses, but you’re right. Need to adjust defensively. Can’t play base personnel designed to stop the run against a team that throws it all the time and also can’t put players with questionable tackling ability constantly in one on one situations with cover 0 man. We’ll see how it goes, but obviously important for UND to get pressure with only 4 and zone the back 7. Need to tackle well in space, no big plays. Will see if the defense shows up ready to play. Players need to show up ready to go, and coaches need to have put the players in the best position to succeed. Crowd noise (or lack thereof) will also be a factor; there is no question the UND pass rush feeds off the crowd noise if present in the Alerus.

Just play a goddamn complete game.