UND-FB-FAN

Should be a good player. Can't teach height so the fact he is 6'10" is a plus.

Detroit Lakes and Big Sky football represent a night and day difference. I just think the sample size is too small for the conclusions you've jumped to. 5-star QBs across the county often sit for a year or two before making their first start. Playing quarterback is a complex PROCESS and immediate success or lack thereof is often not indicative of the long-term potential.

Yes, they are coaching ball security. Essentially, you're upset with the players' abilities while I believe the problem is more so on the coaching. There's not going to be a successful, play-off caliber, DI football team at UND until Mussman is replaced. We'll just agree to disagree.

Talent can hide coaching ineptness. When Hendrickson, Hansen, and Sutton were playing last year, they weren't making bad decisions or playing loose with the ball. Now, with younger players, we are seeing the lack of quality coaching. Why do you think ball security drills and skelly passing drills exist? To COACH the players up so that they don't fumble or throw into coverage during a game. Also, a good coaching staff reminds players throughout the game to be aware of ball security. Apparently that hasn't been happening thus far this season.

Absolutely agree. Faison isn't stupid; he will pay accordingly. Hopefully, at the end of this season, we see that checkbook open up.

Check out the recruiting thread. There you will see the consensus is no. Not a very good regional emphasis for recruiting. That being said, there is talent on this team (which is what recruiting directly addresses), but there's little discipline/structure in place once they get on campus.

When a 16-year old kid is learning how to drive, do you think it may be a little fast for him right away? And when that kid gets into his first fender bender, do you never let that kid drive a vehicle again? Absolutely not; you allow for learning via experience. Big Ten schools along with SDSU and NDSU showed interest in Joe not because he was some talentless gunslinger. He will improve, but there will be mistakes along the way because he's being asked to drive on a 75 mph highway when he should be driving on a 55 mph one (running game and solid defense). Hope you understand the analogy.

I respectively disagree with several points you brought up. 1) The past two games include Idaho State (3-3, 1-2), which is a team that consistently makes mistakes to make a defense look better. Kramer specifically said after the game that they had some uncharacteristic turnovers. Also, Eastern Washington made some unusual, unforced errors yesterday as well, including dropped passes and overthrows by Adams. Need to see the defense put together a good 60-minute game against Sac State next weekend before I can definitively say there's been defensive improvement. 2) I think the talent is currently present, even though a lot of that talent may be young and has room to improve. If that talent was properly prepared so that turnovers and penalties weren't the norm, then we likely would have beat SDSU and Eastern Washington yesterday. Then, in that scenario, we would be sitting pretty good. Against SDSU, the Bartels fumble and early interception killed the momentum, and Mollberg's late pick ultimately cost UND the game. Against EWU yesterday, the turnovers (4 of them) were all untimely and they cost us the game in the end. Throwing into coverage and not covering up the football are all technique issues that can be coached, regardless of talent. UND has talent- it's just raw talent that's not properly prepared. 3) You can't play musical chairs with the quarterbacks and expect them to improve, especially when you're dealing with a freshman. If you want to see Mollberg improve so that he can lead UND to victories during his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, you let Mollberg learn through experience this season. Since being named the definite starter, I've already seen improvement from his first to second start. You can't blame him for his receivers and backs fumbling the ball. It's a coaching issue that the players aren't more secure with the ball. 3 different players fumbled yesterday (Mollberg, Golladay, Garmin). 4) Ryan Bartels is also a freshman who makes mistakes. Mussman tried to establish him as the starter, but that plan fell apart when Bartels starting turning over the ball vs. SDSU. Had a bad interception and fumble against the Jacks that probably cost us the game in the end. No matter which freshman starts, there's gonna be mistakes, you just have to limit them.

They did better, but they didn't compete for 60 minutes. Also, more so Eastern Washington making mistakes then UND making plays. Eastern Washington had a lot of dropped passes and there were some bad throws by Vernon Adams to wide open receivers. I'll admit we played better yesterday than I expected we would, but we still lost 35-14 at home. Add in the fact we lost 2 of the 3 home games before that by over 30 points and you just can't be happy with much of anything that is currently going on. At home this season, we've been outscored 198 to 148. Take out the lopsided victory (69-10) vs. non-scholarship Valpo and you have us being outscored 188 to 79 at home! That's horrendous!

We are competing at a high level? I don't know what team you've been watching, but it's not this year's UND football team. The reason this season has been such a disappointment is because we haven't been competing! Horrible blowouts at home to conference opponents we're gonna see year after year is unacceptable and not "competing at a high level".

I agree that the defense looked much better, but if the offense and defense don't complement each other, it won't matter. Turnovers killed the offense yesterday, and that's been an issue all season thus far. And also, I should mention that even though I think the defense looked better, they still need to improve. Still some big plays given up here and there. And it's best we don't jump to any conclusions; need to see this defense consistently look stout for a good stretch of games before I'm sold. That starts next week vs. Sac State. Hope the turnover problem is also fixed for next weekend.

No matter how you try to spin it, getting blown out at home against conference opponents is unacceptable and an embarrassment. The president and athletic director flux that was going on in 2007 is largely the reason Mussman was promoted, and that decision may go down as one of the worst management decisions in the history of UND athletics. I fully expect Faison to bring in new leadership at the end of this season, and it's desperately needed. If leadership decides to go the complacent and ultimately unproductive route at the end of the season and retain Mussman, I will be furious.

He's a freshman quarterback on a bad team with horrible leadership - what do you expect? A 10:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, 70% completion percentage, and a 3000 yard season? Not gonna happen, even with the receivers we have because we can't run the ball and our defense always has us trailing. Mollberg is a physical specimen; he looks the part. Has good size, arm strength, and is mobile; there's nothing wrong with his fundamentals other than an occasional back foot throw and a jump pass here and there. Those mistakes will decrease with experience. Right now, all the issues are between his ears, but that will also improve with time. Be patient when it comes to Joe. It also helps that he will have Jameer Jackson and Kenny Golladay with him the next couple of seasons. Hopefully, after this season concludes, the ship will be righted and Joe gets some good coaching along with a more stable system that includes a power running game with a play-action passing game.

What he's expected to do is just plain unrealistic. No running game and no defense will never support a young QB. A recent example would be Alex Smith with the San Francisco 49ers; he was crap before John Harbough got there and then be turned into a heck of a QB. Same thing with Mollberg - he's got all the physical tools but he just needs someone to shape his mental game a bit and also put him in a system that utilizes way more of the running game and play-action passing. Also, thought I'd give a shoutout to Dale Lennon whose squad beat Northern Iowa yesterday. Safe to say, that compared to Mussman, Dale is one heck of a coach/leader.

The fact we competed until late in the game just points to the concept that we have talented players but we don't utilize them correctly. The turnovers and penalties kill this team. If this team didn't turn the ball over consistently, they probably would've beat South Dakota State and/or Eastern Washington. When you have talent but can't win with it cause of a lack of discipline and motivation, it directly comes back to the coaching.

That's a good one, and also likely true.

Definite correlation there. Writings on the wall, but we won't know for sure if Faison sees it until after the season.

UND played better than I expected, but the same lack of enthusiasm was present. Also, the stupid penalties and turnovers (4 for this game) persisted. I'm still on the same boat - we need to get a coach that can motivate the players but also put the players in the best position possible. Mussman does neither.

Bubba Schweigart, Kalen DeBoer, Chris Klieman, and Tim Tibesar to name a few. There are also a lot of wildcard options, like Reese Morgan, the defensive line coach at Iowa who recruits the Dakotas. http://www.hawkeyesports.com/allaccess/?media=334344

I love watching the 'new' UND football program and attending the games with the other 6000 people. It's okay if we get blown out at home by the 'top' conference teams we play, because, well, they're good. We've only had losing seasons 2 of the last 3 years and will hopefully be only 1 game below .500 this year! Something might be wrong with that optimistic statement...

Personally, I wouldn't want us to hire Kiffin. He isn't a players coach (which is one of the current issues with Mussman), doesn't have a good track record as a college head coach, and he would likely leave as soon as a bigger job offer presented itself. In my opinion, UND needs to get a regional guy with successful DI experience who will commit to UND's football program for long-term. Oh, and also a coach that is passionate and a leader.

Homecoming smack-down @ 2:30 …only problem is we won't be doing the smacking

Are you implying that the defense will "wake up" this week against Eastern Washington?…

That's not good. After Saturday's game, it's very doubtful that he leaves impressed.

I hope this game is close, but I doubt it will be. Random thought, but I was thinking earlier today about how excited I was for this season due to the home schedule and it being our 2nd season in the BSC. Unfortunately, this season has been such a depressing disappointment. Mussman and staff have ruined this once proud and successful program.