fightingsioux4life

Thanks, you brought a smile to my face!

I believe Indiana State is a terrible program (haven't won since 2006), so that shouldn't surprise anyone. UW-Lacrosse is a Division III program (that means ZERO athletic scholarships), so that was technically worse than what happened to us today. And we didn't roll over UNI like Sioux Falls did to us today, it was a good game from start to finish. This was a stinker from start to finish. Mike Berg will just say "we ran into a darn good football team". Well, this is just a taste of what we will run into in FCS ball and right now we can't cut it. No more excuses. Changes need to be made in this program (especially the defense) or it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I have been waiting to hear someone say this and it's simply not true. Most of the established FCS programs would not lose to this team. I don't think even UC-Davis or Cal-Poly would lose to this team. Our DII powerhouse teams would not lose to this team. They would beat the Bison this year (soon to be 1-6) and all of the FCS non-scholarship teams, but there is a big difference between 63 scholarships and 24. This loss sets the program back three huge steps and it could take all of this season and next to get those steps back. Absolutely the worst loss in program history. I think practice next week should start with the simple sentence "Gentlemen, this is a football."

There are back-to-back triple-header football/hockey weekends in October. October 9th and 10th (Stony Brook and Merrimack) and October 16th and 17th (Sioux Falls and Minnesota). Should be a lot of fun!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on the season yet. But there are some real concerns about the team in particular and the program in general that must be addressed. I think next week could determine whether this season gets turned around or goes straight into the tank.

I think people understand that we are a transitional team. I think people understand we won't win every game. But I also think that our fans expected to be a little more competitive than this. If we are ever going to be competitive in the upper echelon of DI FCS, a lot of things will have to change, especially in the next five years or so. Otherwise, we will develop a self-fulfilling reputation as a bottom-feeding, low-level FCS program. Once you get labeled like that, it will be hard to get the top-notch athletes you need to have to win games at this level. That is not what we had in mind when we decided to move up from our cushy spot in the world of DII. I think that is what people are a little concerned about.

Good points, but I watched some of USD's game today vs. SE Louisiana in the Dakota Dome and they looked really good on offense. I am concerned on the fast track of the Alerus Center that we'll have more problems with the passing game next week.

I've never been a fan of this co-defensive coordinator arrangement and I think I am being proven right. Even in our last years in DII, the defense was a shell of it's former self after Tim Tibesar left for Kansas State. It hasn't gotten better in our early years of FCS ball. This has to be fixed.

It's going to be the Noah Sheppard Show at The Al next week at 4pm CST. Is a winning season still in the cards? I sure hope so. We have to win games to get the type of athletes we will need to compete at this level.

What? The defense forced SFA to settle for a field goal?!?! I guess we will take what we can get at this point.

The Kelling/Mannasau coaching duo has never been a big user of the pass rush. The defense hasn't really "gotten after it" (as Dale Lennon used to put it) since Tim Tibesar left town to take the job at Kansas State. We will have to put pressure on the QB at this level because the QB's at this level will eat you alive if you don't make them squirm a little.

There's Mike Berg with his "this is a good football team we are playing" comment again. Coach, please tell us something we don't already know. I miss Tony Stein!

There are a lot of "excellent teams" in DI FCS and our schedule will be full of them in the coming years. We had better get some better athletes into the program during the next couple of years or we will have to get used to results like this.

I hope you are right. I don't want to watch a repeat of last year on the defensive side of the ball.

You beat me to the punch!

Maybe we'll be able to slow down Stony Brook? I thought the defense would be better this year. So much for that idea.

This kind of nonsense almost (and I emphasize ALMOST) makes me want to put Denver ahead of the Gophers on my list of teams I love to hate. January 29th and 30th at The Ralph. Mark your calendars. Let's give Gwoz something to REALLY complain about!

Oh no, ANYONE but Craig Perry. Perry "coached" Central for two seasons after Chuck Ness left to coach in Duluth (I think it was 1997-98 and 1998-99). He was also the Grand Forks Athletic Director at the same time. Those were two of the worst Central teams ever up until that point. Lack of talent was definitely a problem, but I couldn't believe how bad those teams were. Both teams failed to reach the State Tournament. Finally in 1999, Tarek Howard took over and the team became respectable again. I don't EVER want Perry coaching ANY Grand Forks team EVER again! Period! End Rant.

Hey, that's the area I used to sit in the Old Ralph (1993 to 2000)! Perfect place to heckle opposing players in the box. Man, do I miss that place.

That was one of the best tributes to a person I have ever read. No exaggeration. I lost a good friend a couple of years ago and it was very, very hard to accept and live with. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I met Troy at a pre-game tailgate party outside the Old Ralph several years ago (I think it was in 2006) and saw him at various football and hockey games after that. He was always willing to talk about sports and the whole nickname issue. He was very passionate about our hockey program and always felt the team would do better than the naysayers said before the season started. And I will miss his policing of SS.com; absolutely NO ONE was better at keeping the trolls in line! Goodbye Troy. You are gone, but not forgotten.

American network news legend Walter Cronkite has died at age 92. He came from the era before 24-hour cable news and set the standard for network news coverage that hasn't been matched by anyone else. I was in the first grade when he retired from the CBS anchor chair in 1981, but I vaguely remember watching him deliver the news and I also remember the skit Johnny Carson did portraying his last night in the anchor chair. All the legends I grew up watching are dying one at a time. Very sad. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/07/17/w...r-cronkite.html

After we scored and kicked the extra point, I was so nervous about the kick-off I was almost hyperventilating! And to my horror, we gave up a long kick-off return. But then it was called back for holding and I was able to breathe easier again. What a rush! What a win! A moment over 100 years in the making.

If you had paid attention to what I bolded in AZSioux's original post, you would have known that I was talking about Justin Johnson, the very leaky former back-up goaltender for the Gophers. He made Adam Hauser look like a Hobey Baker finalist by comparison.

The old regime (Roger Thomas and Charles Kupchella) made their mind up that the Old Ralph would be torn down, period. I honestly believe that no other options were considered. Around the time that our hockey program moved out of the old REA in 2001, I saw a quote that the cost of renovating the old arena was about the same as tearing it down. But all I heard from the Administration during that same time was how old the building was and how it wasn't safe and how it was "cost prohibitive" to renovate it and so on. How it can go from being our home ice to being unsafe in a very short period of time is beyond my understanding. I think this recent development proves that the safety concerns raised about the Old Ralph were overblown to support tearing it down. I also think leaving it there all those years unused to allow further deterioration was an attempt to obtain more justification to tear it down. But it looks like it was built to last and it has withstood whatever the elements (or the bureaucrats) have thrown at it. I say if we can turn it into something useful and save some money, then we should do it. It would benefit our whole athletic department and the campus.