fightingsioux4life

The tired old Rocky Hager excuse. Is this all you have?

You are a Grade A Certified Tool Box. And I will remember your snide comments when UND FB is King of the Big Sky Conference and is busy beating NDSU in the playoffs. And I will throw it right back in your faces. And I won't be nice about it. Get lost troll, you have a field to harvest.

But according to gfhockey, it's all about selling advertising even if the play-by-play guy sucks at play-by-play. So don't get your hopes up.

Really? Then by all means explain it to me.

Yes it is, but I love asking the question "What If?".

We get it, you think UND football will be bad forever and ever. Well, you guys thought that back in 1986 and how did that turn out for you? Some kids will find the idea of being at the ground floor of a rebuilding effort attractive. Being a part of a class that helped establish a winning tradition at a school that had it and lost it is exciting to some potential recruits. How fulfilling is it to be on a championship team when you are sitting on the bench for 2 or 3 out of 4 years of eligibility? Kids dream about making the big plays in the big games on the big stages, not cheering on their teammates on the sidelines or only getting on the field when the outcome has been decided. So yes, Bubba can use these as tools to get kids to at least consider UND. But you keep believing what you want, if that makes you feel better.

I thought Midco was a regional network?

What in the world does play-by-play have to do with sales? Let Hammer sell advertising and hire Sweeney to do play-by-play (yes, I have come around on this). And if Midco "can't afford it", then they are being penny-wise and pound-foolish considering they have already sunk big bucks into being able to televise UND sports.

I think it's important to consider that playing a full FBS slate all season long is much different than playing one FBS money game. That is something any FCS program should think long and hard about when considering a move up.

Cause UND always thinks small and ends up even smaller. That is why our transition sucked. That is why the FB program sucks. That is why we bent over backwards for FU. And that is why we are almost invisible in the region, which could have serious consequences for all our programs, not just FB. The CFB landscape will be changing a lot during the next 5 years and Kelley and Faison had better have some sort of contingency plan for UND's programs. Otherwise, it will be time to wish both of them all the best in their future endeavors...if you get my drift. darell1976 should be commended for brainstorming and thinking ahead, not criticized and shouted down.

Was that really necessary?

Don't underestimate a league that is still all about the $$$$$. Someone will take a chance on him if they are desperate enough for a RB.

How long do you think he'll remain unemployed? I'm guessing 12 hours tops.

Yes, they won a title with Barry Switzer. But they weren't nearly the same disciplined team without Johnson in charge. And they probably would have won the Super Bowl in 1995 instead of the 49ers if Johnson had still been there. And you are right, Johnson is just as much of an egomaniac as Jones is. I just think it's funny how they couldn't put their differences aside and focus on the business of winning games and titles.

You didn't say it in so many words, but that is what it sounded like. And what attracts recruits to a particular school varies from one kid to the next, but all the stuff you mentioned probably isn't in the top 5. There are two types of "student-athlete": those that want a good education and a chance to play college ball and those that are just auditioning for the NFL Draft. There are some kids that are both, but they are rare in this era of instant gratification and get-rich-quick thinking.

What difference does it make if he was fired or if he quit? The end result was the same: Jerry Jones couldn't handle someone else making personnel decisions and has reaped the consequences ever since.

McFeely has never been an NDSU apologist. A lot of Bison fans don't like him because he called out some Bison players when they got into trouble with the law. I think Craig Bohl even blacklisted him over that. He also ripped "Whiskey Joe" Chapman over all his underhanded dealings. And when he was a sportswriter at The Forum, he wasn't afraid to rip NDSU when they had it coming. And don't forget, McFeely took his show to Pittsburgh last April when UND qualified for the Frozen Four. He's a graduate of MSU-Moorhead; if he is biased towards any institution, it's that one.

Good point, thanks for mentioning it. Right now if you are a good athlete and a good FB player and you come to UND, you will have an excellent chance at starting or at least getting lots of playing time. That is one thing Bubba will have to use early on.

So you are saying that potential FB recruits don't care about academics at all? Maybe at places like Alabama, Ohio State or Florida State. But at our level (FCS) players are interested in getting an education because they likely will never make it in the NFL or even the CFL. One example (not FB, but it's still college athletics) is Jenny Crouse picking UND over NDSU in WBB because UND had aviation and NDSU did not. NDSU was the three-time defending D-II champion, but thanks to our world-class aviation program, we got a dominant center who helped turn the tide in our WBB rivalry with the Bison. If you really think FB recruits don't care about academics at all, you are mistaken. And as for what FB fans watching GameDay next week think, who cares? They probably think of North Dakota as the dark side of the moon (whether it's UND or NDSU) and thus will turn their noses up at the whole thing.

LOL. Even on their turf and with the success they are having, they still cannot escape the towering shadow of the 7-time NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Champions!!! No wonder their fans have Jan Brady Syndrome when it comes to UND.

The way we have looked this season against some big-school Division I programs makes me think that our youth won't be a big problem. There are enough upperclass players to offet that.

As an institution, UND is not irrelevant at all. We have great academics, a robust research program in multiple colleges and the community supports the institution better than Fargo supports NDSU as an institution. My point is that UND has a lot to offer to potential student-athletes in whatever sport they are involved in. But with our recent problems in FB, a lot of kids will never even consider UND. They'll probably never even visit our campus, which I have heard is a big part of getting kids to go to school in a cold, northern climate like ours. The fact that UND is a great four-year, research intensive university with a world-class aviation program, a solid four-year medical school, our entrepreneurship program that has taken off in the CBPA makes it all the more infuriating that our FB program is so abysmal. This perception will make it harder for Bubba to turn the program around (don't get me wrong, I still think he will do it). That is the point I was trying to make. Because of our crappy Division I transition and our FB program cratering like it has, we are becoming almost forgotten in the region. And that is a shame.

Yes, I am sure he does. But that won't stop him from giving into the temptation of giving up way too much for a player that he falls in love with. AP seems to be his latest love interest. If the opportunity presents itself, I hope Spielman and Wilf take Jones to the cleaners and suck as many players and draft picks out of that organization as they can. My least favorite team is the Packers by a mile, but the Cowgirls easily rank in the top five of my NFL "Axis of Evil" list.

Romo isn't a top-notch QB in the NFL; he's good but not great. But it's Jones that signs the checks. It's Jones that plays GM when he has no business playing GM. It's Jones that meddles way too much; if he didn't meddle as much as he does Jimmy Johnson wouldn't have quit after back-to-back Super Bowl titles and they probably would have won 4 or 5 straight titles (no kidding, they were really stacked in the early to mid 90's). The Cowgirls could have Joe Montana or John Elway in their primes and they still wouldn't win a championship because of Jerry Jones and his constant meddling in personnel decisions, which should be made by somebody that understands personnel better. Same with the Redskins (sorry PC zealots, I will not call them "The Washington Team" or whatever other nonsense you come up with) and Daniel Snyder. And one more thing, you cannot blame Romo for that sorry excuse of a defense that the Cowgirls have (again) this year. And that goes back to Jerry Jones playing GM and making poor draft choices and poor free agent signings. The fancy stadium can't fix those problems.

The Cowgirls will remain a joke as long as Jerry Jones is the owner of the franchise. I might be alone in this thinking, but I think the Vikings trading AP to the Cowgirls is not as crazy of an idea as it looks on the surface. If there is one owner in the NFL that can be hoodwinked into giving up too much for one player, it's Jerry Jones (with Daniel Snyder a solid second). Ziggy Wilf could wipe the bad taste of the Hershel Walker Trade out of the mouths of Vikings fans and fleece the Cowgirls at the same time.