UND at UC Davis

[Let'sGoHawks!]

did I miss something? did we not lose a bunch of great players, our great coach, and also move up a level (of play) in our opponents? I would say those 3 are plenty to blame it on.

Prepare to get jumped on dude...I tried that argument earlier. Our D just doesn't have the horses yet. They have the effort, but simply don't have enough athletes with speed and height to keep up at this level. That will change. We will be fine!

[Matt]

I agree, and I don't also want to throw anyone under the bus, but "Co-Coordinator" Kelling is responsible for the secondary, and that has been our weakest spot the last couple years. And this year, with Hawkins, Otto, Manke, Watkins, and Ankenbauer, I feel we have more talent in the defensive backfield than we had in 2006 and 2007.

Is it possible that defensive backfield is simply a good division 2 defensive backfield? I think from week to week at this level we will see that what was good or average just a few years ago gets picked on by a good offensive coordinator at this level.

[bincitysioux]

Is it possible that defensive backfield is simply a good division 2 defensive backfield? I think from week to week at this level we will see that what was good or average just a few years ago gets picked on by a good offensive coordinator at this level.

But wasn't very good the last 2 years of DII either.

[moser53]

Right before halftime we punt on a 4th and one. Why? Our offense is the strength of the team. It's not like we have the playoffs on the line. The team played hard. The defense had a better 2nd half. Freund is a great competitor going to miss him next year.

[Stromer]

Right before halftime we punt on a 4th and one. Why? Our offense is the strength of the team. It's not like we have the playoffs on the line. The team played hard. The defense had a better 2nd half. Freund is a great competitor going to miss him next year.

Exactly! With our D we need to go for it. Our punting hardly slowed Davis. We had our chances in the 2nd half and couldn't convert. That dropped pass for a TD will give me nightmares tonight. We could have hung in here but our defense isn't too sharp and our kicking game could use improvement. Brandon is a good punter but I am not sold on him as a kicker yet. That and the line blocking on the kick. Man i guess we base our season on beating SIU next week.

[mksioux]

It's easy to blame the poor performances on stiffer competition, but I think the team is simply down this year. The defense has been deteriorating for some time and has finally hit rock bottom (hopefully). Objectively speaking, DI or DII, it's simply a bad defense. The offense is capable, but it doesn't have nearly as much explosion as in the past couple years that may have allowed it to compensate for the weak defense.

It's frustrating to make the move up to DI with a weak team, knowing things would have been much more fun if this move had taken place a couple years earlier when UND had a better team. But it is what it is and we can only hope Mussman will get things turned around.

I don't care about the GWFC title this year. I've never thought it meant much without a full round-robin schedule. And obviously there are no playoffs to worry about. But winning is still important for recruiting purposes.

[UND92,96]

In case people are wondering how this year's defense ranks statistically compared to past years, here are the numbers (regular season only):

2000

217 ypg

13.3 ppg

2001

191 ypg

13.0 ppg

2002

276 ypg

19.2 ppg

2003

304 ypg

19.3 ppg

2004

250 ypg

10.5 ppg

2005

262 ypg

13.0 ppg

2006

314 ypg

17.9 ppg

2007

320 ypg

19.7 ppg

2008

368 ypg

25.3 ppg

Over the last four games, UND is giving up 432 ypg and 34.8 ppg.

EDIT: I should also point out that 1986 was statistically the worst defense in UND history--449 ypg and 36 ppg.

[UND92,96]

Just to show that it's possible to turn things around in one year, remember how horrible Minnesota's defense was last year? They brought in a new coordinator, but I believe only three present defensive starters weren't on the roster last year.

[johnsowe]

I think we lost the game because of the offense did not do there job. I think the defense did a good job but not a great job. We left 3 TD on the field and should have stop UC-Davis on the there last TD.

[Irish]

We are going to run into a lot of "darn good football teams" in DI FCS. Is this what we can expect when we play "darn good fotoball teams"? Are we going to settle for beating below average to average teams? I know we are in our first season of FCS play, but how come I keep thinking that our teams from earlier in this decade would have done better than this?

Someone please tell me why this loss shouldn't tick me off?

I feel the same - I don't expect the Sioux to win them all, but was hoping we'd be more competative - in light of our recent DII success. I think what makes this painful to me is the lack of defense - I love the Sioux teams that plain out hit someone. Our defense is weak in either division. We need to recruit our butts off in order to turn this around.

[aggie6thman]

Don't stress out guys. The transition is a tough time, and you are starting to see that the players are quicker, bigger and stronger in FCS. Hell, we are still learning that and have room to improve. You are a tough team and will compete in the FCS when the transition is over.

Good luck the rest of the way.

[UND Fan]

Don't stress out guys. The transition is a tough time, and you are starting to see that the players are quicker, bigger and stronger in FCS. Hell, we are still learning that and have room to improve. You are a tough team and will compete in the FCS when the transition is over.

Good luck the rest of the way.

Thanks for the positive comments! You have a fine team - I hope you keep winning!

[star2city]

QB Denham helps UCD win again

"I really thought North Dakota's offense was as good as any offense we've seen this year, to be honest with you," said Aggie head coach Bob Biggs. "They're well-coached and well-coordinated. They do a lot of stuff that can confuse defenses and I thought our guys reacted to what they did very well."

"It was a complete effort. Sometimes you feel really good about wins and sometimes you feel just good about wins," said Biggs. "I feel really good about this win because I think that was a very good football team we beat."