Sioux94

It's at least 7-4 and making the playoffs this year or it's a Bust for me this year I think, and a disappointment. Unlike some I do think we make the playoffs if we go 7-4 this year, even though it may hurt us not having a conference sticking up for us to the committee. We aren't going to lose a game this year to a team with 1 win like we did last time. Also we are playing in the Big Sky which is one of the better conferences, and we have a tough non conference schedule in Sam Houston and Washington. We will have some injuries this year but I think we have better depth than we've had for a while so that we can hopefully avoid the really 'Bad loss'. If all of our safeties go down or something though who knows. But at least we appear to have 3 legit QB's that even if 2 should go down we will still hopefully be able to put up some points and win with our offense if needed. It will be a rare occasion but I will be pulling for Montana.....to beat UNI, so that we can then beat Montana.

Cieslak seemed like he got a pretty good push in a few games towards the end of the year and was disruptive. He has been around for a while, but could he have a breakout year this year as a Senior?

NAU game probably right? Yes think that was the game he put the offense on his shoulders and carried them, and I think he might have even gotten a little dinged up at one point but stayed in. It's amazing what happens if you just try it. Not that we need or want that type of offense all game long, but for cripes sakes keep the defense guessing at least a little bit. Like Geaux_Sioux said.....man it sure seems like it would be easy to scheme against us as a D coordinator and player.

I think we got a lot more garbage points and easy yards in the second half of games last year because we were so far behind because our defense was so bad. So I'm not sure you can just look at an overall points and average ypg for the year and fully rely on that to get the reality. I don't think our offense was as good last year. Really hoping this is the year they finally put it all together though and show something. Like others I think having a better deep ball passer is going to help. The 2.6 three and out stat though was surprising, would have thought it was a lot more than that. Felt more like 5-6 a game.

I almost wouldn't have minded playing them the first game since their QB is new, get them before they work out the kinks. Maybe rattle him early in the game. Granted we have a new QB too, but he has started FCS games before and we aren't as reliant as much on a passing game. I guess on bright side hopefully our OL will get two games to figure things out so we can pound the rock successfully. Washington I'm sure will be super physical, but will be good experience for our OL.....I hope.

I think it could be this but we beat Montana at home this year, we are so due to beat them. So 7-4 with FBS loss....most likely in playoffsI would think, but not gauranteed. Hoping for 8-3 though, which I think Sam Houston and NAU as the two FCS losses.

Yep me too, my excitement for the season officially hit me this week with all of the news of the commitments (even though they have no bearing on this year) and since it is getting close to August. What day is the first day of fall camp?

Those are impressive numbers for Santiago considering he splits a lot of time with Brady. Moore and Burnell were the featured backs and got feed the rock over and over all game. Hoping our OL comes together and we can get some nice long "So Long Santiago" runs to the house this year.

Played WR and DE in high school...seems like a little bit of an odd combination, also long snapped. Guess he could also maybe make for backup emergency long snapper too.

I like the sound of those two numbers....4.5....and 3.9.

We will see, wouldn't mind making one other game other than road trip to NAU. Wish rental cars at Denver airport weren't so expensive, the UNC tailgate would be fun!

Wow didn't realize he could have returned. That would have been nice to have both Reyes and Harris back this year. And would have been better for Reyes too. Not sure he would have been able to go a full year without getting injured but who knows.

You completely missed my point. I agree the defense was the problem that game and all year. My point is that our offensive averages look better than they probably really were because we always seem to be in shootout type of games because our defense was horrible.

And what were the scouts saying?

I had good luck with using watchbigsky.com last year.

I'm going to the NAU game for sure. Been waiting for 4 years for this game, with the odd scheduling this is the first game with Bubba as the coach with us playing at NAU. That is the bad part for me about us leaving to Big Sky, would have had an easy road trip almost every other year to go to. Still think moving to the MVFC will be better for the program overall though.

I'm not blaming the offense at all on that one, our defense got shredded. But it makes the point that we were in massive shootout type of games throughout the year because our defense was so poor. When we are in shootout type of games and we average 23 points a game....yeah to me that is not impressive. I actually remember our offense scoring some points and somewhat keeping us in it for a little while. But as soon as we'd score, they'd make a big offensive play and score on us. That was so ugly defensively for us, perhaps one of the worst in UND's history given that they weren't even a playoff team.

Facts don't count things like going 3 and out 3-4 series in a row to start a few games, then when we are down by 20 points we get a 100 junk yards in the second half because teams are playing prevent with their cushy lead. Hell didn't UC Davis have almost like 40 points on us by halftime? Nor does it account for having our 3rd string QB being way better than the 2nd string and the 2nd string being so inept in the first half against MT that he has now changed positions. I remember seeing our yards per carry once last year, and it was a good average. Well I'd like to see our average YPC in the 1st half compared to the 2nd half of games. I haven't been as hard as some others on Rudy over the past couple of years, but we need to see something more this year. Scoring 21 points a game will likely lose you a lot of games in the Big Sky, sorry. Rudy has had his moments, we just need to see more. And more of finding ways to get the best out of the players we have, not base plays on the players we wish we had (OL).

If we have another pathetic offensive season, Rudy at a minimum absolutely has to go. Most of our games are against Big Sky Teams.....who aren't known for their defenses.

I'm hoping we only see these guys in their 4 games they are now allotted. Hopefully we don't have to burn their shirts, but we'll see. Nice thing about that rule is if there is an injury for a week or two, one of these guys could play out of necessity but not burn their redshirt.

I remember last year about this time the Big Sky conference kickoff thing was going on and I was so pumped for the 2017 season. I think it was only a couple days after the Big Sky conference kickoff thing we got the news about Harris and I remember that being a little deflating. Then it was just a snowball from hell after that for the rest of the season. Keeping my fingers crossed for no bad news the rest of the off season!

The best thing I like about reading this is people are listing different guys, which means there are more than just one or two guys that people think really have some potential. Some of the guys listed were transfers and not freshman, but still. In a complete turd of a year, 2017, we still got some pretty good recruits and transfers. Still have a LOT to prove this year, but we also have a fair amount to be excited about with some of the new guys and injured guys that are hopefully returning to a full strength.

I totally agree, but it kind of sucks if we win 42-7 that it's looked at almost as a disappointment.

That is a pretty crazy spread. I wonder if a team coming off a 3 win season has ever been favored by 40 points in the opener the next year playing a team at the same level.

Well at least we have one on this list now. Keep em coming! https://herosports.com/fcs/football-2019-recruiting-top-50-player-list-ajaj