Dustin

I work with one of those. He's always "scared" of what this or that opponent can bring (this week it's UND's special teams) and NDSU wins (most) every time.

Just listened to the 360 game preview. Did not give me much hope. We are just a couple injuries away from disaster. However, They did echo a point made frequently here: the crowd has to play role.

I think the turnovers in the Drake game dampened anticipation a bit. Maybe, too, how the Utah St. game ended. But this UND team is no slouch. If we were 3-0 or even 2-1 with a better showing at Utah St., anticipation would be sky-high. I do not believe the things that went wrong at Utah St. and vs. Drake will be factors in this game. UND is poised to be solid in all areas. Who has updates on injuries? Specifically Maag. Anyone else? Did the bye week accomplish the desired healing?

Don't know what the probability is, but UND can absolutely win this game. It probably doesn't even need to be an "everything must go right" game, but obviously, mistakes have to be limited. Agree with sioux24/7 that turnovers must be even or to our advantage. I think the fact we are at home gives us a HUGE advantage over previous games against them. The crowd needs to be into it and the players feed off of that, but also the team needs to give the crowd a reason to be into it. It's a chicken/egg thing. One aspect that hasn't been mentioned anywhere that I have read is Special Teams. Does one of our ST units come up with a game-changing play? I think they could. Same with defense. A defensive score would go a long ways for keeping victory in site. Defense needs to be kept fresh in this game, or we'll get worn down. Offensively, we have to be creative - like Q1 at Utah St. I just don't think we can run it down their throats with Otis, Luke, and Isiah, as much as we may want that to be our style of play. Do we throw Danny's book at 'em? I think yes. We may as well dazzle the home crowd against this opponent. It is the Super Bowl, after all.

Agree to this, but our OL isn’t to where they were in the spring yet, so not sure which is worse.

I am surprised at how not loud it was given the situation. I guess we've been accustomed to loud indoor stadiums for a long enough time.

Yes. Hopefully the gravity of his presence at this particular game is not lost.

Depending on where he'd want to go...you'd be hard-pressed to find a better deal in the Dakotas than the UND set-up. Obviously, he could go to a professional sports team or work for a national broadcaster in any major metro with enough sports to broadcast. His spring and summers (April - August) are probably pretty light, which also seems like a pretty sweet deal. Hopefully Midco is able to keep him around for a long time.

I was at that game. I was in 7th grade and my friend’s older brother was a freshman at NDSU and got some tickets. We were sitting behind the end zone where UND blocked a kick to score a touchdown near the beginning of the game.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/football/7212668-UND-North-Dakota-State-football-game-is-sold-out-and-tickets-on-secondary-markets-are-growing-expensive From Tom's article in the Herald: The 2 p.m. game at the Alerus Center will be televised on WDAY-TV. Is this correct? Or will it be on both Midco and WDAY?

I'll guess UND 11.5 point underdog with a total of 45.5

Nordeast

Great idea.

This concerns me as well. UND can't win if its fans don't make the Alerus a true home field advantage.

If UND wins, which I hope they will, I'm sure it will be a close game, probably decided by 1 or 2 key plays.

Right. It would be a sweet (or Sioux-weet) story line.

Same with Belquist.

Speaking of Mike Mooney, I’ve been thinking the last few seasons that the coaching staff should bring him in for a motivational meeting with the team in the week leading up to NDSU.

There is, and as fans we certainly can have that mentality, but I think that’s a loser way to think about it. If you don’t want to bring a potential recruit to a home game against your biggest rival because you might lose the game, changes need to be made to the way recruiting is done (or who is doing the recruiting).

You would think this would the choice recruit visit game.

https://mynameisyeh.com/ She hosts a show on Food Network from her husband's farm just north of EGF.

It would have helped if UND had beat Utah State to generate a more intriguing matchup. Regarding media rights, don’t you think Montana and/or EWU had media rights that espn could have easily bought out? I’m guessing the same thing would have happened in the UND/NDSU case.

If we are still Top 10 after next 3 games, then we are legit.

Especially the helmets. Miss that logo so much.

It certainly has the potential to do this. I hope that is the case.