fightingsioux4life

This is 100% correct. Leadership and attitude starts at the top.

I'm afraid you are close to the truth on this one.

Nobody forced you to read this topic.

Are you obsessed with that movie?

You didn't read the whole post (or you just chose to see what you wanted to see). I said IF the program gets turned around (and that's a BIG if), Mussman would attract attention from other schools. And by turning the program around, I mean conference titles, playoff appearances and playoff wins. Why do so many people on here have a problem with reading what is actually there? If anyone else has any ideas as to how this program can get fixed, let's hear them. And FYI, "there's nothing we can do about it" is NOT one of them. We didn't move all our programs up to settle for this.

What kind of logic? Self-Preservation. If the defense continues on the current path, Mussman will not have a job in a couple of years (if not sooner). If Bubba could help him turn the program around and Mussman's coaching stock rises, he could get a better job someplace else and then Bubba is right there to take over the program. Age is just a number. And besides, with age comes experience and lessons learned. We need all the help we can get right now. And I don't care how radical the ideas are, as long as they work.

Let me clarify something: I would like Bubba to come back as D coordinator, NOT Lennon. I don't think Lennon would want to come back as D coordinator at a school where he was once "the man". Bubba was head coach at Duluth and he built a winner in a very short period of time; they won the D-II title the season following his departure to Southern Illinois. He has proven he can build a program from the ground up. Bring him in as D coordinator and prepare him to take over at some point in the future. Because what we are doing now just isn't working.

The defense hasn't been elite for 7 years and counting. It has nothing to do with "transition" or "FCS quality athletes". Ever since Bubba left town to coach Duluth, the defensive talent has gone way down from what it was in the early 2000's. This is a long-term systemic problem and it must be fixed. And if that means Mussman has to fire some of his close and personal friends, then that is what he had better do. If not, it might be time for him to start polishing up his resume. Leadership in a football program starts at the top. These are all Mussman's players and Mussman's coaches and he has to start taking the bull by the horns and start doing what it takes to get this program to the level it is capable of getting to. The upside of the football program is unreal, but if we don't take the right steps in the next couple of years, it won't happen. I do not want to become the next Northern Colorado of Big Sky football.

I vote for all of the above. If Lennon gets fired this year (and there is a good chance of that happening), I hope we could lure Bubba back to Grand Forks to take over the defense. He had good rapport with the players and his in-game instincts were top-notch. He could establish himself as the next head coach in waiting. Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but that is all we have left at this point.

The defense hasn't been elite for about 7 years now. The 2005 unit was the last one I would realistically call "great". There are long-term, systemic problems with the defense that haven't been solved. And until they are, we will continue to give up 30-40 points per game and get embarrassed like we did last night.

To be fair, the radio guys didn't notice the switch until the 3rd period started.

This is becoming a tired old refrain; I call it the "Milktoast" Mike Berg Excuse: "We just ran into a darn good football team out there today". I have had to listen to that crap for five years of a difficult transition and I am sick and tired of it. When are we going to start assuming the role of the "darn good football team"? When are we going to get back to playing snot-nosed, hard-core, old-fashioned butt-kicking North Dakota defense again? Why can we recruit good offensive players and not defensive players? These are questions that Mussman and his staff had better find answers to; otherwise they should start polishing up their resumes. I certainly didn't expect to be championship contenders right off the bat, but I was hoping we could perform better against "darn good football teams" than this. It is becoming painfully obvious that Mussman's blueprint (assuming there is one) for preparing us for the Big Sky and FCS hasn't worked. When almost every team on your schedule not named SD Mines is "a whole lot better than we are", then it is time to ask questions about the status of the program and if we are going in the right direction. Having said that, I will continue to support the team and I will be there for every home game the rest of the season. The program needs our support, now more than ever.

Don't feed this troll, he will never listen to logic and/or reason.

Quit trolling, most of us are not in the mood for it right now.

I didn't really notice a big uptick in advertising this year; maybe I was listening to and watching the wrong radio/TV stations. I guess after years of neglect, I am still a little bit skeptical of the commitment to the football program. There have been improvements and they are good steps forward. One of my concerns is if we start having success and our coaches start getting looked at by other schools, will we dig into the bank and pay them to keep them or will we just let them go like we did Dale Lennon? I realize that the athletic department was in chaos during that time, but it is a concern for the not-so-distant future.

That's good, you have a sense of humor. The fact is, our marketing and promotions are still too much like the NCC era. But I will never convince everyone of that.

The fact is, UND football is still being treated as the red-headed stepchild of the atheltic department. There have been some improvements, and those improvements are appreciated. But we were promised a "massive" advertising campaign in the month before the season started and it was pretty much the same old same old. I do think the attendance this year has been better than some people think, but whether we can keep it rolling remains to be seen. This is the sport most responsible for our move up and it should be promoted as the #2 sport on campus. We can win national titles in this sport. We can build a bigger fan base with this sport; the potential upside is tremendous. It can become a very big Fall attraction in Grand Forks and the region. The "triple-header" weekends when hockey and football are in town at the same time can and should be promoted together. Perhaps some family ticket specials can be promoted for all three games so that both sports feed off each other. These are the things that will promote the sport to potential new fans. Once they are hooked, we won't have to "hold their hands".

I agree with you 100%. Of course, now that you have dared to mention this in public, you will now hear from all the Debbie Downers on this forum that will tell you that it's not "feasible" to implement these things. Or that the ROI (Return on Investment) isn't good enough to justify the expense. Or that men's hockey is #1 on campus, so everything else will automatically fail, which means it isn't worth the effort. Or that we should abide by the "reality check" Cal-Poly gave us on Saturday and lower our expectations and standards for the program (I did not like Tom Miller's "Sunday Sermon" in yesterday's Heraldo). We moved up to Division I in all sports, so now we must start ACTING like a Division I athletic department. No more excuses about how this and that isn't "feasible". Just get it done. The old "hockey only" model won't work anymore. It's put up or shut up time.

Look troll, why don't you get lost and start planning your championship parade down Broadway in Fargo with all your Scott "My Oh My!" Miller groupies. Unless you have something substantive to contribute, which I suspect is above your pay grade.

It's the same cotton-picking talking point every single time....."But we have a better Men's Basketball RPI rating and that's what really matters!" The Summit is a conference for teams with no better options. Would UND have settled for the Summit if the Big Sky didn't open their doors? Yes. Am I glad we didn't have to? Heck Yes! You guys should really work on getting into the Missouri Valley Conference for all your sports in the future. That would be a big boost for all Bison sports. You better hope the Summit stays together until then.

I so miss the old REA. There wasn't a better home ice advantage. I sometimes wish we could have just one more game there.

Good grief, can't we have one place on the Internet we can escape from all the election year BS?!?! Three words: Knock......It.......Off Thank you. Now, back to the topic.

Thanks for posting.....but who really cares about pre-season rankings?

I am glad you think this whole debacle is funny. Because I don't. Somebody could have died and all you can come up with is a bunch of "boys will be boys/this is what college kids do/rite of passage" garbage. And I am willing to bet if the RA hadn't done his job and one of them had died of alcohol poisoning, you would be on here screaming for charges to be brought against the RA for "negligence" and "irresponsibility". So, which is it Mr. gfhockey. You can't have it both ways. The adults did their jobs, the young adults need to grow up and you need a lesson in common sense. I think that about covers it.

The fact is, the Spirit Campaign announcement was over-hyped. Like I have said, I have donated to the Spirit Campaign twice, so I support the concept and want it to succeed. But our world has become way too media driven and hyperactive. Just let the actual events speak for themselves and then we can talk about them. When Ralph announced his gift, it was in the loft of the old REA. No bells. No whistles. No streamers from the ceiling. The absence of those things did not diminish the significance of the gift; I would argue that the absence of those things put more of the focus on the gift. That is how it should be. Maybe I am being old fashioned about this, but that is how I feel. Nothing more, nothing less.