UND-FB-FAN

Absolutely. Throw in ILB O'Brien, OLB Harmston, OLB Labat, and New Mexico transfer ILB Baker and UND has solid depth behind the starters. Bubba ball is starting to take shape!

New uniform pictures should be surfacing soon, but for the time being, here's a photo of Will Ratelle holding the new matte helmets with logo: https://instagram.com/p/5VlhS5NcH3/

http://bigskyconf.com/news/2015/7/17/MBB_0717155020.aspx Big Sky Conference will have instant replay systems in place for football and basketball officials starting this season (2015). Will be huge for officiating of games, as the quality of the BSC in that category has been, well, lacking.

You bring up a very important point that has been touched on before. Attrition from non-local prospects had badly hurt UND football before Bubba got here as head coach and it will continue to hurt UND. The most important prospects are those from the Midwest, specifically ND and MN. They are the most likely to stick it out the full 4 - 5 years.

My original post was fueled by the over-the-top, vitriolic rhetoric recently displayed by some "NDSU faithful" on Twitter. If you wish to choose no association, that's fine; after all, I specifically chose not to state NDSU supporters as a unanimous group in my original post.

Ouch. Attrition is a bitch in college football. Sure hope there's enough depth to keep this thing moving in the right direction. Yet A LOT of question-marks for this year's team.

Right, because those other than NDSU's administration and athletic department have an actual say in the scheduling. Also, I was very specific in saying only some of NDSU's supporters are overwhelmed. Please read more carefully and comprehensively. After the game on Septmeber 19th, NDSU will understand why they should continue to schedule UND; that is, unless UND wins.

Matilus is now not coming, that I have heard. As for Hartley, I sure hope that's just a typo because he was looking like the real deal last spring.

The Twitter conversation that ensued after the article was released is absolutely asinine. Some NDSU supporters/morons believe it's okay to schedule Weber State and not UND? Then they go on to say money is not a priority at NDSU (complete bull$%!#) and that they enjoy winning championships. Behind the scenes, NDSU's administration does all it can to get wealthy ND and MN farmers to contribute year in and year out. What a bunch of crap. Lastly, the pitch is made that NDSU players don't care about playing UND and that no game should ever be played in the Alerus. It's all complete incompetence on the part of some NDSU bozos. I mean, I'm sure Ohio State would love to host Michigan every year, or maybe Iowa host OOC rival Iowa State every season, but it doesn't work that way, so some of the ignorant fools in Fargo need to try look at this a bit more objectively. What has happened in Fargo the last four seasons acts as quite the psychological experiment; the people who do not have the wherewithal to handle NDSU's success show their lack of mental fortitude through arrogance and illogical babbling. Congrats NDSU, you're fanbase officially contains "die-hard" idiots. Of course, that's common in many fanbases, but yet that does not make it entirely tolerable. UND and NDSU are long-time rivals at the same division classification. Yes, they are not in the same conference and in football they have not been even close in terms of competitiveness, but that should not stop either school from scheduling this. NDSU fans who don't want this are either too arrogant or too young (possibly both) to remember the kind of atmosphere this game breeds. It needs to happen, because as far as I can tell, what more does NDSU need to look forward to? Their 4-year championship run was/has been impressive, but it's time to move onto different things and think about the state they're supposedly representing.

Started at nose guard last season in UND's 3-4 defensive front and he will likely start there again this season. He brings a tremendous amount of energy and passion to the defensive side of the ball, and that's just what UND's coaching staff wants; that is, if it is controlled. If there's a negative to his game, perhaps he gets a bit too "amped up" at times. Nevertheless, he's a good football player and a starter on one of the best FCS defenses in the country.

UND and Rudolph's offense is going to live and die by the ground game, especially given the unknown factor at the quarterback position. When UND was running the football effectively against Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado at the end of last season, UND was a very competitive team that had the full offensive-defensive package. I agree with you that there's no reason the running game/offensive line will be any worse than it was during the 2014 season; just much better depth/numbers and better cohesiveness with that group now a year later.

Lawrence is an OLB at the DI level, not a RB.

The thing is that 100% of recruiting classes never work out. There's too many variables like academics, commitment issues, and even inadequate playing ability. I guess it's better to be closer to 100% than 50%, but those Canadian kids offer major talent at a nearby location. That's critical to program building in college football (pipelines). Hopefully if the staff goes back up into Canada for 2016 recruiting, the results are a bit better.

The ones who have stayed (Olivera and Bennett) will likely be 3-4 year starters as well. I think that's a decent success rate (2/4 or 50%) considering the talent there. Keep going after Canadian footnall stars, because they know the weather and are familiar with the area. I think the Canada recruiting hotbed is a good idea for UND football.

Things are getting boring down at Cowville...

You're simply referring to the law of averages, and in that case, it's needs sufficent sample size. And if you think anyone could've coached the 2014 UND football team to 5 wins and competitive games vs Montana and Montana State, you're mistaken. I suggest you take your grade school statistics - although you may have learned that at Fargo U and that wouldn't surprise me - elsewhere. After a single season, it is perfectly more reasonable to suspect improvement rather than it is to suspect simple regression, particularly given the circumstances of 2014 UND football. Regression to mediocrity occurs spontaneously due to natural phenoma, whereas improvement occurs through concentrated effort, such as hard work. Bubba and UND football are now putting in that hard work; improvement will happen.

I could give a sh*t if its 30 to 1. This is a UND board; our interests are independent of Moo U. In 2015, the only thing that will matter as far as UND-NDSU goes is who plays better on September 19th, not who had the bigger balls in 1990, 2011, or 2014.

Well, in order for there to be regression to the mean that is actually statistically significant, there needs to be a reasonable sample size. College football has shown that a sample size of 3 to 5 years is reasonable, not one year.

I think most coaches who faced UND would disagree with you. Yes, UND gave up points and had deceiving stats in some games and categories, but the eye test would tell you UND's defense was the real deal. The PPG stat is largely misleading because it has as much to do with bad offense as it does good defense. UND's offense gave very little support in 2014.

Stop comparing the Mussman regime to the present one. That Fresno State game was nothing but a moral victory. UND football is no longer about that, thank God.

The factor not to be ignored is the hype. UND has this game circled, and although that may be cliche and an excuse for NDSU if they lose, it is what it is. Expect a close game. UND will go all out and NDSU will be making sure not to lose a game that could absolutely damage their state perception.

At this point in time, I would like to think there are a lot of unknowns to both teams. Yes, at the surface it appears North Dakota State will have a very good offense and North Dakota will have a very good defense, but nothing is for sure. I would like to reserve a true prediction until after North Dakota has started the season against Wyoming and Drake. North Dakota State will likely have a good defense but there still are a lot of ?'s. North Dakota will likely have a suspect offense, but there still are ?'s there too and they could be better than suspected.

Last time: no one said UND is going to get where NDSU is now. Just loosen up and have some fun. UND will be a top FCS program and that's okay with most UND fans for now.

There are many factors that go into being successful at the D1 level. Obviously, success at the DII level is an important one, but by no means is it the only factor. I don't feel like going in circles with you trolls so I'm going to make this concise and straightforward: there is no reason UND fans should not be optimistic about the future of UND football. UND has the facilities, fanbase size, and academic institution to produce a perennial top FCS program. It's not all about NDSU and the present.

Compare their facilities, fan base size, and academic institution to UND; there's your difference. It's easy to find an outlier, but probability is what needs to be focused on here.