UND-FB-FAN

Hosting the Big Sky Conference Tournament would be just awesome. I certainly hope we can get it done next season and accomplish that!

Montana has the win and they will likely host the conference tournament.

According to a tweet by Nate Baukol, strength and conditioning coach, the players with the top 5 40-yd dash times during a recent testing were : WR Greg Hardin WR Kenny Golladay S Baylee Carr RB Jake Miller LB Cordero Finley

I agree. Considering the amount of local FCS teams (South Dakota, South Dakota State, Ag School of Fargo, Northern Iowa), we should hope to schedule home and homes with most of them. If anything, I think it would be great because when we play those respective teams on the road, a large percentage of our fan base could travel from UND to watch our team on the road. Playing against teams on the west coast doesn't really allow many fans to make it, unless they're willing to pay for a plane ticket and such.

So as far as FBS games go, we have San Jose State in 2014, Wyoming in 2015, and Bowling Green in 2016. If we don't have an FBS win by 2016, I will be disappointed. I understand going 3-0 against those three is maybe unrealistic, but I'm only asking for 1-2!!

Considering the amount of seniors we'll have next year, including Jaron Nash, and the up-and-coming players like Hooker and Salmonson, next season will be THE year. It should be the season we're all in and make that run at the NCAA tournament, because we're going to have a fairly new and inexperienced team in 2014-2015.

This was a good win. They led the whole game. Now, hopefully they complete the sweep with a win on Saturday vs Eastern Washington. Its looking good as we move towards the BSC tournament. If we can beat Eastern Washington on Saturday and then Southern Utah at home the next week, we'd be the #3 seed, be getting healthy with Brekke and Schuler, and be entering the tournament with a 3-game winning streak. One more thing, is Eastern Washington's court red?

It would be incredible, but as of right now, it really is just a dream.

That would be perfectly fine with me!

I hope you're referring to Southern Illinois.

I certainly agree. Right now, NDSU considers themselves on an entire different level than UND, and to a certain degree, they are right. GT believes scheduling and then subsequently losing to UND is the only thing that can get UND up to the same level as NDSU. I actually can see where GT is coming from, but if you think you are that much better than UND, then why not play the game and show everyone else in North Dakota that you ACTUALLY are! His delayed nature in scheduling this game I think only implies he believes UND is a legitimate threat to knocking off NDSU if they played. Even if NDSU is the better team on paper, the enormity of the game will likely make both teams play an exceptionally competitive game that could go either way.

Well, I simply stated Montana is a better football brand because Montana is a more renown football school than NDSU, in my opinion. They were winning and competing for DI titles well before the Ag School. You can state I'm jealous all you want, but the fact of the matter is I don't want to help out NDSU if they're looking for a last minute game, especially with how tentative GT has been in regards to getting an NDSU-UND game scheduled. The only exception to helping out NDSU would be if it acts as a catalyst to getting this UND-NDSU SERIES back together and active.

Unbelievable!! Great back-to-back plays by Anderson and Benton!! Great road win and a crucial step towards locking up the 3rd place regular season finish.

mtjack from the NAU-UND game thread appears to also thinks the UNC guy is quite the homer: "The biggest homers in the Big Sky, in my opinion, are Weber State (Dutch) and U Northern Colorado's play by play guy. They have nothing on ol' Hawk Harrelson for the White Sox, though. I watched the Midco announcers Saturday and they seemed to be just enough of a homer and critical enough to call the game in a tolerable manner. No complaints from this outsider. "

Not to stir-up the "announcer pot" anymore, but UNC's announcer seems very biased in my opinion; even more than most other Big Sky announcers I've listened to on Big Sky TV.

You're right, Montana is a heck of a lot better football brand than the Ag School of the North. No use removing Montana from our schedule to help out the arrogant pricks from Fargo.

However you want to look at it, UND-NDSU is a #buthockey vs. #butfootball situation. So, perhaps the basketball programs are where comparison should lie? One aspect of UND athletics that upsets me is the coaches salaries. If UND consistently keeps paying their head basketball coach around $86,000 and their head football coach around $114,000, then that seems to indicate Faison is NOT fully committed to the athletics other than hockey.

I can't blame Ralston - Jones' team this season has been ridiculously inconsistent and "choked away games". I for one believe team consistency starts and ends with the coach and the program he instills.

Ideally, you wouldn't want to see plenty of both of them. You would want the better of the two to start and hold the spot down while he continues to develop and improve over the next 4 years. As far as top recruits not being handed the starting job, that's fine and all to say, but being the top recruit is still a factor regarding playing time. Coaches obviously understand they need to put the best players on the field, but they also implicitly possess bias due to the effort they put into recruiting their #1 guy. If Bartels was the better quarterback, then I'm sure he would get the job, but I don't feel he is the better QB. He wasn't the better QB coming out of high school, as his offers and FBS attention relative to Mollbergs indicates. I suspect Mollberg has maintained the edge he initially possessed when he was being recruited by UND; thus, he will likely be the starter this fall when it is all said and done. So, in conclusion, location isn't the factor that will win Mollberg the starting job. The fact he is the better QB, and his pre-college accolades support that, will be the reason Mollberg earns the starting job. I digress.

They want them, its just a matter of budget and priority. Last season they got alternative blacks, but they quickly transformed into the primarys because of the better fit and just plain better design compared to thier old greens. So, to match those blacks, Mussman wants to first get tight fitting away uniforms (whites) before going to another home jersey option. If we can get this fundraiser going and its successful, the team could get all of thier uniform plans out of the way this offseason, rather then in two!

I agree with the hometown advantage; this thing won't be a TRUE competition. Mollberg already has the job wrapped up. Mussman said Mollberg was their #1 recruit a year ago - I translate that into "he gets the job".

The offensive line does need to improve in run blocking. With that said, Sutton was the best back on our team last season (with the possible exception of PJ Sparks, but there's no way to know since he didn't play). 170 lbs. RBs are not going to work well every down in the Big Sky - the defenses are too athletic and physical. That's why Jake Miller and Jer Garman are nothing more than 3rd down backs in the Big Sky, and it's also why the 220 lbs frame of Sutton made him our best back last season. Just look at the statistics; Sutton was far and away our best running back last season in terms of performance. Another concern is durability; look at what happened to Miller against Northern Colorado when there was no Sutton to spell him (and that led to Garman being our short-yardage back on the pivotal 4th and 1). Next season, Sparks and/or Patrick Sharp need to emerge or it could be another year with a limited running game. EDIT: Miller had 543 yards last season compared to Sutton's 467 yards rushing; however, Sutton had almost the same yds/gm as Miller (49.7 yds/gm for Miller vs. 46.7 yds/gm for Sutton) and Sutton had 11 TD versus Miller's 2 TDs. Of course, Sutton was used more as a goal line back than Miller.

The only game action Sparks saw last season was mop-up duty against SDSMT, but I'd say he looked the best out of all of our RBs in that game. His first career carry went for 45 yards! Miller had 178 yards that game but he broke a couple long ones with the first unit; Sparks was with the 2nd and 3rd team. I feel Sparks is our best all-around back right now heading into spring ball.

http://www.winonadailynews.com/sports/college/article_e3831610-7195-11e2-95d4-0019bb2963f4.html It appears Clark simply just chose to attend a smaller school due to personal preference.

Jake Miller won't do anything against top teams (see Montana State and Eastern Washington). He's a track star trying to play D1 football. If the running game is going to get going, PJ Sparks or Patrick Sharp will have to breakout. JJ Robertson is faster, stronger, and more talented than RJ McGill. I could see McGill playing more due to seniority, but since McGill is coming off an injury, I really wouldn't be surprised if Robertson completely takes over McGill's slot position.