Sioux94

I agree, it should at least be an option for the players to purchase. Yes maybe all can't afford it, but if you are a senior and it is your last shot at you should be able to purchase one if you really want one. I mean if you are a redshirt freshman and didn't see the field at all, probably not as big of a deal if you can't afford to purchase one. Not that it wouldn't mean anything to you, but probably not as much as if you were an upper classmen. Being politically correct to say......"well they ALL can't afford to buy one, therefore nobody gets one or even the option to get one", is lame.

Just watched the Richmond game from last year. I should have stopped the tape with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter........Ugh that final 19 minutes is tough to watch. Remembered momentum shifting after the running into the kicker, forgot we also got a punt blocked in the 4th quarter as well which gave them 3 points. Sure hope the special teams figures sh*t out this year, because punt team last year was horrible. Think I'll need to watch some more positive highlights tomorrow or later this week.

Do they do a 50/50 raffle at the football games? Maybe do that with funds going towards the rings, may not cover it all but could help some and people might be willing to buy more than normal to help out.

I hope there will be a recorded version somewhere online after the game. I'll be at the game and am leaving town this Sunday so probably won't get it recorded, but would probably want to watch it again to hear some commentary etc.. Well unless we get completely blown out or something, then I don't think I'll want to re-watch

I don't think it has been the number of injuries, just the places the injuries have occurred are places where we aren't very deep. If we had two DE's and two WR's out for a few weeks, we have plenty of depth there. It sounds like Larson may have started at ILB. I can't say this for sure but I'm guessing a true freshman has never started or played a lot of reps at ILB in the past 25 years. If we had plenty capable ILB's a true freshman would not be playing a lot in this position. Granted he sounds like a stud, but still it's too bad that he can't red shirt, which he may end up doing now that he is injured, but we'll see I wouldn't be surprised if he still gets it pulled. Every team is going through it's share of injuries right now though, I do get that.....it's part of what happens. However coaches are having to move guys out of positions they wanted to have them in, and put them in other positions. Just have to trust we have the athletes to make plays when needed, which they usually do. On rare occasions it can be a blessing.....such as Santiago.

I'm surprised with all of these injuries and being so thin at LB we haven't heard more about Nevermann. He was recruited by Wyoming to play LB for them, and seems like he may have a hard time getting on the field for us at that position when we are thin at that position.

Man we are already treading on this ice for some of the defensive positions and we haven't even played a game yet. Really hope we can have a relatively injury free year the rest of the way.

I think you are being pretty fair and objective. The initial number I had in my head was to hope to rush for 120-130 yards and try to get at least that, and then maybe we'd have a chance. If we somehow got more than that.....that is just gravy. I don't think we will go over 150 yards rushing either, unless we break a big one. I could certainly see a scenario where we get less than 100 though, but hope that doesn't happen. We are going to have to use our jet sweep to get our guys outside, screens and other passes too. Our offensive coordinator is going to have to call a great game. We are going to also have to hope your offense is maybe a little rusty or out of rhythm from learning a new offense and having a first year starter and have our defense take advantage of that. We will need to win the turnover battle too. We will need a lot of things to go right to pull off the upset, but anything can happen. And at least the coach we have now will have our players in the mindset that we are going there to win the game, not just compete.

Well we can certainly relate to this.

I will let others smarter and more knowledgeable than me reply....but here is a quick reply. - We have three really good RB's, two are very powerful and strong inside rushers. The other is a really quick and fast guy that is good around the edge or once he gets through the hole, He is shorter and may seem small, but he has a mean stiff arm that takes defenders by surprise sometimes. - Yes we have a full back, and will probably hand off to him 3-4 times a game - Our OL has some decent experience this year, I'll let others talk about their ability to pick stuff up and the details of that. We are hoping experience pays off this year, but that said....our OL is also a concern going into the year as we were just average last year and the OL has started out slow the past couple of years. - Our QB is capable, but he's not light up the field type of guy because we are more of a run first offense. Our QB we are hoping is more consistent this year because we now have experience at WR. Last year we had several injuries to our WR's and we had some true freshman playing quite a bit, and our only speed guy broke his leg in the first game which caused us to see a lot of 8 in the box. We hope to take a step forward in the passing game this year, and quite frankly are going to have to be able to get some key completions against you guys to move the ball. We just decided to pull the red shirt off a freshman this year because he is quick and will really be our only burner, and he'll likely play against you guys to help us at least try to stretch the field. The one thing our QB usually doesn't do is turn the ball over, he's only had 6 INT's the past two seasons. We need to win the turnover battle against you guys.

How many rushing yards do you guys think we will get against Utah and their tough defensive front?

Absolutely! And sounds like he's had a great fall camp, seemed like he was in nearly every one of Teeder's updates so this seemed to be a no brainer as we needed at least one burner. Sounds like he is a smart, quiet, and hard working kid......hope he makes some big plays right away in game 1!

I'm hoping it's loud the whole game, that means it is likely pretty competitive. If you are up 35-7 in the 3rd quarter your fans will probably lose a little interest being up that much against an FCS school. Montana fans like to quote Tony Romo who said playing in Montana was the loudest stadium he's played in, and Montana hates us almost as bad as NDSU does so I'm sure it was plenty loud in Montana when we played there two years ago. I think it's a given though that we will have at least one false start, which may have happened without the noise....but the noise certainly won't help. First game of year, big and loud crowd, if we only have 1 false start I'd call it a win for us.

I was hoping you guys would have stuck with Williams, as Huntley sounds like he is a better runner/scrambler. Those types of QB's can be frustrating to play when they end up making big plays out of nothing.

Did Eastern Washington and other FCS conference champions around the country get rings paid by their athletic departments? I have no idea, just asking whether or not it is the norm.

What are everybody's honest thoughts about the OL this year? Last you'd have to say our OL was average, and from that average OL we lost the best one who was good enough to get some looks from scouts. We did have a number of injuries last year that is for sure , which didn't help. So is one more year of experience for the other guys and also being healthy and having more depth, going to be enough to overcome the loss of our best lineman to not only be as good as last year, but better? I'm sure hoping having more depth and more experience allows our OL to take a step forward this year. But given we have the same guys as last year, minus one, what really is our peak potential? On a scale of 1 - 10 is 7 really about all we can expect out of the OL this year? And I'm not saying 7 is horrible, it's above average. Overall our RB's as a group I'd say would be about a10 or as close to it as you can get, they just need a few holes so if our OL is at least a 7 we can probably make some hay with that. If our OL can surpass expectations and get to an 8 this year......our offense will be rolling!

Damn....all of that looks pretty awesome!

What hotel are you staying at?

BOOM!! Just got my ticket and am going to the game!! Flying from Philadelphia on the 30th to Salt Lake City instead of back to AZ. I'll have to try and find some of you to party with as I'll be by myself lol. Not sure if I'm going to rent a car yet or just Uber it around. Tickets are in Section W8.

Utah is neither Wyoming or Bowling Green, much better program that is for sure. When we were DII, when we would play Crookston or Moorhead to start the year I'm pretty sure none of us were too concerned we weren't going to win those games. If I was them I would be expecting a win also, so I don't get too bent up about it. Although I haven't read the comments and if they think they are going to blow us out by 40 without breaking a sweat that is another thing. Either way, I'd rather them and their team completely over look us.

Thanks for the info RavenousUte! I am familiar with some of those bars if I need to go there to watch I'll have to double check if I get the Pac 12 Network, switched to Direct TV recently.

Thanks!

Thanks. Just learned of a work trip and would be flying back the night of the game, thought about going a day earlier and then possibly doing direct flight to Salt Lake City Wednesday night to catch the game. It's probably already been posted, but will the game be available to watch online?? I still might do the work trip a day early (even if I don't go to the game) so I get home Wednesday night and can watch the game Thursday night online, opposed to flying Thursday night and missing the game.

Anybody know if there are tickets we can get through UND to this game in the UND section yet?

That would be great, especially if he has more than one year left to play.