WeAreNorthDakota

It also didn't take long for someone on this board to do basically the same thing when the Jacobsen kid commited to NDSU last week.

Assuming he'd play guard. We lose one starting guard and I don't believe there's a clear favorite to fill his spot. I imagine he'd, at the very least, be in the competition to start at guard opposite Kleason. Someone who's more familiar with the backup offensive linemen may be able to speculate further but if the kid was good enough to garner FBS offers out of high school I'd guess he'd have a pretty good chance of the winning the job and being a 4 year starter.

But then what happens to the 2nd round? A regional final as a single game at a neutral site would draw a lot less than the current regional format.

So you don't think the Big Sky single game passing yards record holder or the guy who threw 4 touchdowns against the Mountain West's 3rd best defense would even make your 2 deep at QB?

Why not, after a theoretical 3-game 1st round series, just have a Frozen 8? Play Thursday-Friday-Saturday instead of Thursday-Saturday. Minimizes travel planning issues and you create an event with twice as many fans for your annual showcase.

What you're seeing in Fargo is how quickly a single recruiting class can turn a program around. Who's to say Mollberg, Bartels, Golloday, Edwards, Rich, Labat, Tuilagi, and Cain can't have be like Jensen, Williams, Jirik, Olson and Smith? It seriously sucks ass that we have to watch our neighbors to the south enjoy success like this while we crawl out of the hole that was the transition but there are plenty of reasons to be excited about UND football. There's no doubt in my mind that a playoff game will be played in the Alerus before Mollberg and the rest of that class are done.

Though a loss to NDSU always hurts, I'm not all that worried about this team. Being down Huff put us in a hole to begin with and losing Brekke early was a dagger. We had almost no inside presence and got manhandled on the boards without last year's 2 best rebounders. It's tough to ask Wilmer, Archer, and Allard to make up for the kind of production that Huff and Brekke bring to the table. I still like our chances in the Big Sky as long as Brekke's injury isn't too serious.

Evers is showing a huge improvement over last year. She's going to end up being a really good one before her time is up at UND. It's nice to see her step up with Wall out or limited. I'm very excited to see what those two can do when they're on the floor together and healthy. I can't imagine there are many teams on our schedule who'll be able to match their size. NDSU and Air Force both looked completely overmatched down low and that's with Alyssa playing limited minutes.

It really looked like we were going to put to bed our two biggest issues from last year (free throw shooting and winning on the road) last night. But then we choke a free throw and give them a chance at a game winner that goes in. I'm still optimistic because of the way we played but that would've been a huge confidence booster.

Jones brought in one of the best recruiting classes in school history. He will, at the very least, get the oppotunity to see this group of juniors graduate. If he doesn't make some noise with this group of guys, or leaves the cupboard dry once they're gone, then we can start talking hot seat.

Can you imagine the riot in Fargo if Faison were to outbid Taylor for the first meeting between the two teams?

I'm rooting hard for an NDSU/ODU semifinal matchup. Best offense in the FCS against the best defense in the FCS. On the other side of the bracket there are several potentially intriguing matchups but none that I'm specifically rooting for over another.

And what makes you think the NCAA views FCS football as anything besides JV?

I finished 136th with 63 points but I forgot to make picks for week 10.

Nope. I'll take 6'3" Jackson 1 on 1 against a sub 6' corner every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Back away from the ledge. Rock bottom was a 3-8 season with a loss to an NAIA school.

Is it Faison who makes decisions about assistant coaches? I was under the impression that Mussman has final say over his staff.

I have no problem with the 3rd and 1 call by itself. Like geaux-sioux said, it's a matchup I'd always take advantage of. Here's what I think likely happened: Muss calls a running play on 3rd and 1 thinking he's got 2 plays to get a first down and either score a touchdown on the drive or get a little closer and run the clock all the way down so UNC doesn't have any time left to drive and kick a go ahead field goal of their own. I don't have any problem with this thought process. Braden likely has the option to audible to the deep pass if he sees the 1 on 1 matchup. Considering we were already within reasonable field goal range for Miller, I have no problem with Braden having this option or taking advantage of it. The problem I have is with Muss not changing his strategy after the incomplete pass. You either have to take the option away from Braden on 3rd down if you're dead set on getting another 1st down or change your strategy and kick the field goal after the pass falls incomplete. I absolutely cannot fathom why Muss decides to go for it on 4th down. I really hope someone in the media can get him to try to defend that decision.

A loss to a higher level program with a long history of success without our best player should not be an indication of the state of the men's basketball program.

Another mid-major? We are by no means a mid-major program. One bid leagues like the Big Sky are low-major. The Missouri Valley is mid-major conference that routinely has multiple teams in the NCAA tournament. Northern Iowa is regularly one of the Valley's top teams.

Those are the 2 best plays of the year in the CFL? Would either of those plays have cracked the top 10 plays of yesterday in the NFL?

I'll be very interested to see how the team responds to this beatdown. If they come back home and bounce back against a team that just knocked off #1 I'll be impressed. If they give up 500+ yards and lock in a losing season I'll be pretty close to losing faith in this staff. I don't think Faison is gonna fire Muss 6 months after he extended his contract but if there aren't major changes on the defensive side of the ball I'm going to seriously start questioning those making the decisions.

I agree that we should bring in another quarterback but I think it should be strictly a depth move. Unless someone like Hanson falls into our laps again I'd rather have Molberg or Bartels starting and getting experience than to have a JUCO stopgap guy brought in to start for a year.

A Bison loss to Lennon would be a solid consolation prize if we don't pull off the upset out in Bozemen.

It might be a little unconventional but I'm not sure I want to bring in another quarterback. We're going to have one of the best receiving corps in the country next season so they'll likely cover up some of the inexperience at the QB position. That puts either Molberg or Bartels in a much better position than most freshmen quarterbacks. Whichever one wins the job would likely be starting for 4 years. One of the big differences I see between the football and hockey programs is that this community knows who the hockey players are, they know who the stars are. That's not necessarily the case for football. A four year starter at the highest profile position could bring football to that level. We haven't had a "face of the program" type of guy since Freund and Dressler. Unless a guy as good as Hanson wants to drop down and play for a year, let's let one of these guys be that franchise quarterback that puts us on the FCS map and brings UND football back to where it should be.