Sioux94

I just saw an NDSU guy post an algorithm on there saying that they would go 8-6 against the SEC, and I'm sure all Bison fans believe it. NDSU didn't look very good against SDSU, and it took them OT to beat Youngstown who got throttled by Illinois State 35-0. They do deserve the #2 seed, not saying they don't. But would they be above .500 in the SEC when they have to play an FBS SEC team each week, not just have it be their early Super Bowl game at the beginning of the year, I'm going with no. I'll give it an hour or so before I see a Bison reply to this comment and defend how they would be in the upper half of the SEC.

For the guys that are Juniors (2014 class if their redshirt was not pulled) the staff wasn't in position until January. As somebody pointed out on another thread, the 2014 class was a killer for ILB. We had none of them contribute in 2017, Bakker would have if he didn't have to retire. Hard to fault the staff for not getting an all the way around good recruiting class for 2014 when they didn't start until January, I can't fully blame them for the 2014 ILB guys that were recruited. Would you admit that this was at least a little bit out of their control.....that there isn't more/better depth in what would have been the junior class this past year given that they had 30 days to put that class together? I will give you that they should have brought in a transfer or two at ILB to try to make up for the lack of depth. Not sure if they tried and just couldn't land any, or if they didn't try.

I would have loved to have seen Nate Little's face when Montana got beat again by MSU and didn't make the playoffs.

It is harder after finishing 3-8 that is for sure, but it can be done. They would have had a connection with many of the players before the year started, hopefully. The guys who are now Sophomores were recruited after our 5-7 season and there were some good ones in there such as Holm, Rodgers, Jade Lawrence, Cloyd and some others, plus Santiago and Brady O.. Actually if you look at that first true recruiting class for Bubba there are a lot of guys in there that have already contributed quite a bit for being underclassmen. Obviously 3-8 is worse than 5-7 but we were also 9-3 the year before so perception wise it is maybe about a wash. They can still land some good guys, although I am admittedly more nervous about our recruiting class this year than last year. Need to take advantage of hitting recruiting early in the off season since our last regular season week was a bye and we aren't in the playoffs. Get 'er done!

Yes generally speaking you do need pretty good QB play to win a Championship. Zimmerman threw 3 TD's in the second half against Montana while getting 3rd string reps most of the year. Ketteringham is supposed to be better than him, and I think it was Miller who said Boltmann is the best freshman he has seen at UND. It appears next year we will be in pretty good hands and have better depth at QB than we've had in quite some time, but we'll have to wait and see how well they perform next year.

You already know Zimmerman can't lead the team after watching him for one half? I don't think most people include transfers as part of a recruiting "class" so I guess I don't necessarily consider Ketteringham part of the 2017 class. But if you are saying all transfers are included in that class, that means Boltmann, Zimmerman, and Ketteringham are all part of that class. Well then duh, yes....because those will be the top 3 QB's on the team.......so yes we will for sure need them to make the playoffs. Boltmann is the only one I truly consider part of the 2017 class, and I'm guessing he doesn't start. If he does that is awesome and means he is a stud.

I'm guessing he was referring to you saying the 2017 class is our ONLY shot and hope for making the playoffs next year. Yes a couple guys like Larson and a few other guys will likely be contributors, they will be a piece of it sure. But saying they are our only hope does seem a little over the top.

Apparently NDSU is sinning quite a bit too. For 2017 Lance Dunn has 6 receptions, Bruce Anderson has 3, and Ty Brooks has 3. Santiago has 10, Brady has 5, Johannesson 2. So actually UND wins the RB reception battle against the #2 seed that runs a similar offense. NDSU is so disgraceful, they definitely need new blood! For 2017 UND has a total of 184 receptions .vs 134 for NDSU. UND QB's attempted 325 passes, NDSU QB's attempted 221. NDSU ran the ball 498 times compared to 386 for UND. Therefore NDSU ran the ball 69% of the time, UND ran the ball 54% of the time. Which we threw the ball more this year than normal because we were behind. If I look at our 2016 year we ran the ball 65% of the time. I think there is certainly room for improvement by the OC and seems like there are ways where he can get out playmakers the ball in space better etc.. But I guess this goes to my point that our offense isn't that much different than the team who won 5 of the last 6 Championships. They have a dominant OL which makes all the difference in the world.

Saw this post yesterday from an NDSU fan. As people have been saying our offense is from the 80's etc. and the style is horrible......I would always think to myself, man it seems pretty much just like the offense from the school to the south. I bet NDSU runs on first down 60-70% of the time. I've watched some pieces of NDSU games here and there recently but generally not an entire game through so I'm no expert, but there offense seems very similar to ours......difference is they have a great OL and they just run the offense a lot better, which a lot of it is due to a great OL. After this year though I would have been ok with a change in OC for his lack of creativity at times and not getting Santiago the ball in space more etc. etc.. NDSU has won multiple championships yet they complain about their OC too. Like I said I would have been ok with a new OC this coming year, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. This post is more in defense of our style of play, it obviously can work very well. Since Rudy will be our OC next year, at this point I'm just hoping he puts in a few more wrinkles etc., but the hope for JJ, Santiago and Brady on the field at the same time.....I just don't think it's going to happen. Hoping our OL improves, we have a QB that throws the deep ball much better and it all comes together.

I agree, it definitely doesn't tell the truth. I'd be curious to see the YPC in the first half compared to the second half. Seems like we got shut down many times in the first half, then we were behind and started throwing the ball in the second half....which opened up the run and there were some games we ran the ball pretty well in the second half. That was one of my frustrations, yes I know we are a power run team but since we didn't have the OL for it yet, we needed to throw in the first half a bit more to set up the run but we didn't do it. I'd say we did actually do that against Portland St. Our first couple of drives there were a fair amount of passes, quick outs and things like that and they were working, which then allowed the running plays to be successful. We drove up and down the field the first two possessions, but INT in end zone I think we were still down 14-0 or 14-3 to start but we were moving the ball. Fortunately the defense settled in after that.

A QB that can drop dimes on the deep ball may finally help stretch the field.

Figured he was probably already committed to a bigger school, thanks.

I believe I just saw this kid had 5 TD's in a playoff game down here tonight for #3 Chandler. Not sure how to tell if he has a bunch of offers already or not, or if he would ever be considered since he is not in our area......or if coaches ever get info like this passed on from a common Joe football fan like me but thought I would post it. He's got some nice size. https://www.hudl.com/profile/5263035/gunner-romney

And we have a Bingo!

Why they didn't give him a shot in the second half of the Montana game his junior year is beyond me, unless he wasn't healthy enough to play.

Wow that was definitely a killer at LB that recruiting class. This class was the class in limbo, we had no head coach for a month....Bubba and staff hired end of December and beginning of January. I pointed this out on a different thread that Bubba's first true recruiting class would have been Sophomores this year if redshirted. This junior class in 2017 would obviously in a normal situation play a big role as by juniors guys have the experience and are expected to step up. While there were some good players in this class, due to late coach hire and trying to fill in a class in my opinion is part of the issue. If this class is a little weaker than normal....and we experience a bunch of injuries.....that leads to a result which we saw playout this year. Somebody else posted the two deep numbers by year, more than half of the two deep were freshman and sophomore. Can't say that I know this for sure, but I'd be surprised if there are too many years where there are more freshman and sophomores in your two deep than juniors and seniors for UND or at the FCS level for Top 10 teams. It's things like this that some people don't take into account in the trickle effect of everything that happened this year that snowballed into perfect disaster. That said, it's still 1 strike against this staff as this year was horrible. Time to rebound strong next year!

No doubt....pretty good wheels.....a little reminiscent of Grady's INT return.

I agree, (albiet from my untrained eye) after watching that story on him.....I think we may have gotten a steal there.

I totally get the frustration and yes there were some games where it was really bad. This last game however, the game came down to the last two minutes against a top 20 team and if we didn't fumble at the 1 yard line maybe we win. If our offense was better and able to convert this was a winnable game, to me the EWU loss is on the offense.......which we were suppose to have such a high powered offense this year, which not being able to score against EWU is not good. Need a lot better OL play and a better coordinator. I think the jury is still out on some of the younger guys yet. You may very well be right that they just aren't any good, but I'm not willing to go that far quite yet.

NDSU with a big run play and a big pass play, up 28-14 on USD.

They score a TD on 4th time on the last play of the first half. We fumble the ball on the half yard line. This game was winnable, we had our moments but just like all year it goes the wrong way and we don't get it done. Frustrating.

Well....at least it's finally over. This is going to be a freaking LONG off season.

Well that was a pathetic last drive!!

Send Rudolph to the Pit of Misery!

I have to respectfully disagree on the it not working all year. It's been a decent play this year, and I remember one game we ran it all day long and they couldn't stop it. Teams obviously know we love that play, so when they are selling out for it.......don't keep running it well into the 3rd quarter.