today's scores

[UND92,96]

30 USD

31 SE Louisiana

10 Southern Utah

46 Montana

7 Southern Illinois

33 Northwestern

17 Wayne St. (Neb.)

31 St. Cloud St.

6 Central Oklahoma

31 TAMUK

[UND92,96]

24 Portland St.

38 UC-Davis

14 Humboldt St.

30 Western Washington

[dakotadan]

USD scored a touchdown as time ran out to come within one. Instead of kicking the PAT to tie the game, USD coach Meierkort decided to go for the 2 point conversion to win the game. The Coyotes fumbled the ball on the attempt and lost by 1.

I have to give Coach Meierkort credit for taking the gamble. Too bad it didn't pay off.

[UND92,96]

USD scored a touchdown as time ran out to come within one. Instead of kicking the PAT to tie the game, USD coach Meierkort decided to go for the 2 point conversion to win the game. The Coyotes fumbled the ball on the attempt and lost by 1.

I have to give Coach Meierkort credit for taking the gamble. Too bad it didn't pay off.

It seems as though perhaps USD doesn't have the same caliber of running back that they've had the past five years between Logan and Allen. I really thought they'd beat SE Louisiana. Barely losing would be much more acceptable had SE Louisiana actually been a ranked team, a la Northern Iowa last week. But losing to a team apparently nowhere near the top 25 seems like a big step backward from their performance against Northern Iowa. Obviously we'll get to see for ourselves what SE Louisiana is all about soon enough.

[slulionsfan]

It seems as though perhaps USD doesn't have the same caliber of running back that they've had the past five years between Logan and Allen. I really thought they'd beat SE Louisiana. Barely losing would be much more acceptable had SE Louisiana actually been a ranked team, a la Northern Iowa last week. But losing to a team apparently nowhere near the top 25 seems like a big step backward from their performance against Northern Iowa. Obviously we'll get to see for ourselves what SE Louisiana is all about soon enough.

We're a lot better than you apparently think...should have won by at least a couple of TDs last night but had two TDs called back, including one that would have put us up by 21 with seven minutes to play...had 10 penalties overall which wiped out a lot of offense for us...the South Dakota QB made some big plays which kept them in it and was every bit as good as advertised...credit to them for hanging around and making it interesting late...they're a good offensive football team with a difference maker under center.

[UND92,96]

We're a lot better than you apparently think...should have won by at least a couple of TDs last night but had two TDs called back, including one that would have put us up by 21 with seven minutes to play...had 10 penalties overall which wiped out a lot of offense for us...the South Dakota QB made some big plays which kept them in it and was every bit as good as advertised...credit to them for hanging around and making it interesting late...they're a good offensive football team with a difference maker under center.

No offense intended, but there's a perception out there, fueled in part by some of the media covering NDSU, that once you get outside the top 25, there's not a lot of good FCS teams. Whether that's real or just perception remains to be seen. The early FCS success of an NCC (our old dII conference) also-ran like SDSU also seems to support that notion. Again, no offense intended--it's just my opinion that the strongest dII programs, of which UND was one, can compete quite favorably with most of FCS. My opinion, until proven otherwise, is that UND can play with, and beat, any unranked FCS teams, and probably some ranked ones (see 2006 vs. Northern Iowa, or 2003 NDSU vs. Montana as examples, and NDSU didn't even make the dII playoffs that year).

[slulionsfan]

No offense intended, but there's a perception out there, fueled in part by some of the media covering NDSU, that once you get outside the top 25, there's not a lot of good FCS teams. Whether that's real or just perception remains to be seen. The early FCS success of an NCC (our old dII conference) also-ran like SDSU also seems to support that notion. Again, no offense intended--it's just my opinion that the strongest dII programs, of which UND was one, can compete quite favorably with most of FCS. My opinion, until proven otherwise, is that UND can play with, and beat, any unranked FCS teams, and probably some ranked ones (see 2006 vs. Northern Iowa, or 2003 NDSU vs. Montana as examples, and NDSU didn't even make the dII playoffs that year).

No offense taken, but I can tell you flat out, that perception is B.S...not saying there are bunches of unranked teams who could make a Chattanooga run were they to make the playoffs, but there are quite a few programs out there who are plenty talented enough to compete with, and/or beat, teams in the Top 25...just because they don't win enough games overall, and finish out of the mix, doesn't mean they aren't capable or dangerous.

I don't think there's any question that upper level D-IIs can compete favorably in FCS, but by the same token, I also think there are middle of the road FCS teams who can compete with upper tier D-IIs...it kinda goes both ways in that regard.

In our particular case, we're a young program that is building, and have had three very good recruiting classes in a row...we're still young and have some class balance issues, but we're very talented...in my opinion, we're a year away, but we're vastly improved over last couple of years.

Looking forward to our game in a couple of weeks...should be a good one in Strawberry Stadium!!!