Sioux94

Assuming the OL does gel and no major injuries I'm really looking forward to seeing what our offense can do this year too. I'm sure Rudolph has put in a few more wrinkles this year now that the guys have been in the system for a while and don't have to spend as much time on the basics. Santiago receiving the ball this year and getting him into space will be fun. Hopefully Keaton can improve a little on not staring down his primary receiver. I think Santiago or Clive will be good for at least one big play against Stony Brook, so my early prediction is 24-14 UND.

Woops...forgot to post a link to the article here too for easy access, meant to do that in my previous post: http://thefcswedge.com/conference-previews/2016-big-sky-preview-north-dakota/

Nodak78 posted this article in the other thread. In the article it says this: "Their schedule should set them up for seven wins, they will probably need an upset in their schedule, Stony Brook or Southern Utah, to get to eight wins to make sure they get a playoff spot." Is Stony Brook going to be favored in that game?

If our secondary can't stop a true walk on freshman QB to a true walk on freshman WR........god help us against Bowling Green Granted Reyes and some other starters may not have been in during some of those plays......but our secondary still seems to be a big concern. Thanks goodness we don't play Montana this year. Hopefully they can get it cleaned up some, as well as the snap. Odds are looking good that we will have a couple bad snaps in the first few games. Hopefully he is short arming them and not sailing them over the QB's head so that in addition to losing a down.....we don't also lose 15 yards. Thanks for the report though Teeder!

Thanks for the great reports as well. It's nice that our OL gets to go up against such a strong DL and strong defense overall. It sounds like we had some success running the ball I think right? That bodes well because if we can run some on our defense we should be able to run on almost anybody. In Bubba's interview he said he wasn't happy with the Defense in the goal line situations, which means the offense must have executed well at the goal line which is important obviously. We need TD's not field goals. I'd be more worried if he said the offense was inept at the goal line, because I know the defense will end up being solid. Sounds like a fair amount of penalties and mental mistakes, hopefully they should be able to get that cleaned up by the Stony Brook game. Coe sounds good.....but I'm a little fearful we'll be 5 games into the season and having multiple bad snaps losing yards and killing drives like two years ago. Hopefully he can nail down the snap before week one. It's hard to imagine that both Santiago and Oliviera better than last year. I mean it makes sense that they are because they were true freshman, but man it's crazy that they are better than last year.....they are going to be really fun to watch for another 3 years, plus we have Nevermann this year. Has to be our deepest quality backfield ever?

Yes this is starting to worry me more too as the season approaches, as well as the OL, particularly the depth. These are obvious things that have been a concert all off season, but definitely starting to worry more as we get closer. WR seems to be a nice surprise as that was a worry a couple months ago but it seems like we'll be ok there.

I totally agree (and I'm sure most all do), outdoor games are so much better....that is where football is meant to be played. However in our case I'm ok with it indoors given our weather situation, but still miss the outdoor games. Freezing cold was an advantage in the playoffs outside if you were playing a team from down south. But those late year games it's nice to just be inside and make more noise as your advantage.

It's nice to see it looks like we should be ok at WR this year and have some decent depth even with Seibel out. Awesome to hear that Toivonen looks so good! I also hope Wanzek can redshirt.

Yes especially in the playoffs.....I believe we were 10-0 in the playoffs helping us get to 2 National Championship games (winning 1). Plenty of false starts in those playoff games.

I did see the IMO part, I just wanted to bust your balls a little bit.

IMO every other year would be the perfect compromise and setup. Playing every other year would keep interest in the rivalry and for guys that didn't get to see the field until they were Juniors or Seniors would at least get to play in the game. It would also give that off year more room for flexibility for scheduling whomever for both sides.

1. If you don't like us why are you here every day. 2. Even though many NDSU people hate to admit it, many NDSU fans were excited about the UND-NDSU game this year. Just wait until next time when the game is more evenly matched it will be even more exciting. Who do you think years down the road your players will remember playing during the regular season......Weber State/SDSU........or UND. I'm guessing they will look back at those UND games. I think every other year would be good, 4 years apart is too much....hard to build or hold a rivalry if rarely play.

Good idea!

This staff also gave Joe the starting job over Bartels their first year, and he was just getting into the groove when he got hurt. I trust the coaches as well......however if I am being honest, if Studs goes down I'm going to feel nervous as hell if Brad gets put into the game, way more nervous than I would if Joe got put into the game (assuming he had never been moved from the QB position). If Brad does get put into the game, hopefully he will end up showing why the coaches did what they did.........but I am still going to be nervous as hell until I see him do a few things and not turn the ball over lol.

Good reading for a Friday, thanks Teeder! Just think it was only two years ago when at fall camp there were so many questions and so many holes to fill, QB controversy as well. Even last year....who was going to be our RB etc. This year we still have some questions to be answered, OL and DB in particular but we have come a long ways in two years as to what our expectations were just two years ago at this time. It's nice knowing that so many of the players have been in the system for a few years now too and don't have to 'think' so much and can just react.

I'm not in the expert group by my prediction is 8-3 but I think we could go 9-2 if everything goes our way, no key players injured etc. etc.. However Grady not coming back, the Colorado DB transfer changing back to MSU, and JIS leaving has tempered my enthusiasm for the Bowling Green game. I will still be going into that game wanting to win, and I do think we have a chance......however that extra help in the secondary against an FBS team that wings the ball around would have helped, and our O line with 4 new starters....may not be fully gelled by the second game. We will likely need a lot of things to go right to win that game, at least we'll get a good idea how much (or if) our secondary has improved from last year. The schedule is in our favor this year, but you never know who could be this years Portland State.

Just when I was thinking the new logo actually looked pretty good on the side of the helmet........then I see this.....still think the interlocking ND looked great on the side of the helmet. I get Bubba going with the new logo on the side of the helmet to try and help us move on....I think the new helmets look good......as long as I don't see the old helmets next to it

I like the idea for the numbers on the side, but I was hoping the numbers would be just slightly smaller......and gone with the same type of font as the interlocking ND had....if that is possibly. I'm not totally thrilled with the font, but I didn't at all like the font on the SDSU helmet from the one picture that somebody posted earlier. I do think the logo does actually look pretty good on the side of the helmet!

i booked my flight back to Grand Forks for Potato Bowl weekend so that will add at least one more to the count Really looking forward to watching the team in person, and hopefully a really nice September afternoon for football!

Losing Grady is truly a loss for UND, but a much much bigger loss for Grady himself.

If there was 10k last year against Drake, I think they'll be at least 10,500 to 11,000 this year unless we are 0-2 going into that game.

I'll give ya a finger to count.....and you'll only have to count to one.

Exactly......I'm looking forward to hopefully the NAU game being for all of the conference marbles and the NAU QB needing an extra long ice bath after the game.

Back up in Bismarck for a few weeks, saw this sweet pontoon in Lakewood Harbor this past weekend. Not sure what thread I should post this in, but thought I should post it somewhere.

Exactly....last year we were 7-4 which is definitely better than 6-5 and by most peoples opinion we should have made the playoffs. Making the playoffs should help you in recruiting the following year and help the perception of the program. We want to win now, not wait another 2-3 years from now. I don't at all consider us mortgaging the future for short term gain by picking up one or two more transfers than we normally would in the off season. In another year or two those types of transfers will drop.