UND-FB-FAN

No question NDSU's TV deal with NBC is better than UND's deal with Midcontinent. With that said, the Midcontinent deal isn't horrible.

The official twitter handle for UND football declared that the two student-athletes have left the program. Hope everything works out for them and for UND football in replacing them with more committed and more capable players.

That's nice. Midcontinent is available plenty of places as well.

Losing players has been a staple of UND football in the DI era. Perhaps it's causing the losing, or it's the result of losing. It's probably a combination of both, though. Either way, UND can not afford to lose players, particularly midseason and with freshmen who have contributed. It's not good, any way you spin it. IMO, it's fair to say the culture change is still very much in the beginning stages for Bubba and his coaching staff. Also, need a year or two to get more recruits who were actually recruited by Bubba and his staff.

Not good. Culture of UND football still has a long way to go.

Absolutely. If I had to apply a simplistic way of thinking to the recruiting as a way to improve UND football, it would be to recruit locally (ND, MN, MB, WI, etc.) and get the kids to buy in and use all their years of eligibility at UND. That was Mussman's issue; just too much attrition. If Bubba can get all of his recruits to stick around and develop, it will create good depth and produce championship caliber teams. It worked for him at UMD. For example, if UND didn't lose all of the departures over the last couple years, UND might not be so bad (more depth at WR and CB). If all these true freshmen playing now stick around and play together as juniors and seniors, UND will be very competitive and perhaps good.

You just can't be afraid to pull the trigger on JUCOs and FBS transfers. Obviously UND needs more talented players, so however UND and Bubba can find them, go for it.

Would you care to elaborate? Only decisions of controversy are the "taking the wind" and "pull the redshirt" decisions. Both of those decisions are perfectly understandable in my opinion. Still comes down to recruiting in my opinion, which means in a year or two we'll actually know the full picture.

You haven't seen it yourself, yet you're saying we shouldn't watch it? That makes zero sense. It's a great way to watch games all across the BIg Sky Conference. Same can't be said for the almighty MVFC.

NDSU will win a 4th straight national championship this season, or at least they should. NDSU has been built up to the best program in FCS football; no question about it. If NDSU ever wants to play with the big boys (FBS), they should start looking for move-up opportunities now while their program is red hot. As for the UND-NDSU football game next season, it's the 3rd game of the season for UND so hopefully injuries aren't a factor that early in the season. Either way, it will be a very challenging game for UND. Nevertheless, I'm very happy about it because these schools deserve to play an annual game due to proximity and tradition/history.

Bartels is not in full health. Studsrud will get an opportunity to play because the staff wants to see how he improves from game 1 to game 2. Like all games this year, if UND wins it will be because of their defense and special teams, not the offense. Too many holes in the offense to try mask with a change at only 1 position (QB).

I don't know all the details associated with Bartels' injury but the staff wishes to see how Studsrud does I believe. Also, Bartels is definitely not 100 % Will know more after today's press conference but this morning on Tim and Swyg it sounded like Studsrud will get the nod again.

Studsrud will be starting this Saturday vs. Weber State. Staff pulled his shirt so they figure they just as well see how he does these last 3 games.

Ironic scheduling; right now UND is more of a Weber State-type team than an Eastern Washington-type team. Sad truth for a once proud program (albeit never in the DI days). Trusting in Bubba's ability to recruit.

The offense is devastated by injuries, and prior to the injuries, the offense wasn't very productive to begin with. 2 QBs 3 RBs (Norberg didn't carry the ball vs EWU) 2 WRs (both starters) 1 TE (best receiving target) Offensive line is patchwork with questionable ability The positional depth needs to improve for this program before UND will be able to perservere through such adversity; not only offense but also defense. The recruiting moving forward is so key for Bubba and UND; thankfully, it appears this year's recruiting class is coming together alright. IPF doesn't hurt either.

Well Ira, I would prefer personal comments and credentials be an unnecessary prerequisite of this discussion, but if you want to imply such an inclusion so be it. I've coached and watched North Dakota HS football for years, and in my opinion, I don't believe Hanson is a DI quarterback. It is what it is. As for said comments, your balancing act between promoting Mollberg and equally criticizing the other UND quarterbacks is quite obvious. Coming after me because I'm familiar with North Dakota high school football and on record making a comment regarding a student-athlete I witnessed play ND HS football is a bit hypocritical, particularly because your familiarity with DL HS football is often recited by you. UND is what there record says it is; 3-6. They are not a good football club and they need to improve. That will come both with recruiting and getting injured players back healthy.

Big surprise today? You expected 54-3? I realized before the game that it would be very difficult to win, but losing this bad is horrible. How about 28-3? Or 35-10? This is an absolute horrible showing by UND today. Now, I understand the odds were stacked against UND today, but people need to stop making excuses so that they can still live in their own little customized world. Something needs to change for UND, and I'm hoping it will be the quality of recruits brought in. That can hopefully happen over the next couple years.

Eastern Washington's color analyst on Big Sky TV

I may be blamed for agreeing with the broadcast team or jumping to brash conclusions, but I really am not impressed with the play-calling. Rudolph has been inept all season doing it. Now, the offensive injuries are really hampering and I understand that, but I still think Bubba needs to be conscious of this and the jury should still be out on Rudolph.

I never expected UND to win this game, but this is tough to watch/listen to. I know it's a rebuilding year, but it's still really really hard to continually watch THE University of North Dakota continually get outplayed. It's really sickening.

17-0 EWU Game appears over before halftime.

It's not a waste. And Hanson is not a DI QB

I fully agree

Strength program has always been questionable at UND since going DI. Important to note that the strength staff is the one carry over from the horrible Mussman era. NDSU's strength and conditioning program has been spot on in recent years. IPF should help all this for UND though. Top facility that will get the players more excited about working and improving.