USF @ Fighting Sioux - GDT

[fightingsioux4life]

Embarrassing game. Too many mistakes mentally. Offense didn't show up, our medical staff is working overtime. Coaches overlooked this game totally. USF a really good team. I know Bison fans are having fun with this saying its Sioux Falls, its NAIA but i think this team could take care of them and a lot of FCS teams. Good luck next week against SUU. Better to get these losses out of the way before we become playoff eligible. Remember SDSU lost to a D3 team and now they are nationally ranked so we can still get to the top ever so slowly.

I have been waiting to hear someone say this and it's simply not true. Most of the established FCS programs would not lose to this team. I don't think even UC-Davis or Cal-Poly would lose to this team. Our DII powerhouse teams would not lose to this team. They would beat the Bison this year (soon to be 1-6) and all of the FCS non-scholarship teams, but there is a big difference between 63 scholarships and 24. This loss sets the program back three huge steps and it could take all of this season and next to get those steps back. Absolutely the worst loss in program history. I think practice next week should start with the simple sentence "Gentlemen, this is a football."

[darell1976]

I have been waiting to hear someone say this and it's simply not true. Most of the established FCS programs would not lose to this team. I don't think even UC-Davis or Cal-Poly would lose to this team. Our DII powerhouse teams would not lose to this team. They probably would beat the Bison this year (soon to be 1-6) and all of the FCS non-scholarship teams, but there is a big difference between 63 scholarships and 24. This loss sets the program back three huge steps and it could take all of this season and next to get those steps back. Absolutely the worst loss in program history. I think practice next week should start with the simple sentence "Gentlemen, this is a football."

Well NAIA Quincy beat Indiana St..... Wisconsin Lacrosse beat SDSU....we beat UNI remember that. Anybody can be beaten on any given day.

[johnsowe]

Were was everybody today? There were NO students and the home crowd was awful!! It was a really bad game.

[rochsioux]

WOW! What a pathetic game played by UND.

After watching this I would say Sioux Falls is equal to an average d2 team. The Sioux, on the other hand might want to go back to scheduling Crookston if they play like this...only half kidding.

There is either a serious lack of talent on defense or the coaches suck or both...not sure right now. Absolutely no pass rush as it has been in pretty much every game. Without a decent pass rush you cannot have a good defense.

Brutal game by Landry, the int's were horrible decisions and throws. Bamba can't catch the ball unless it is a perfect throw. Curious how much work he puts in to develop this part of his game. He has potential but has a long way to go.

Play calling was terrible also.

Fair catches on 3 kickoffs when no one is within 10 yards, but we try to field a punt in the 1Q when a defender is 6 inches away. WTF?

Nothing positive in this game except we are one game closer to ending the season. Sorry if this is too negative, but right now I can't think of anything good to say.

Up till now they have been lucky in some of the wins that the other team played poorly with turnovers (Stony Brook) or the coach was an idiot and goes for a 4th and 1 at their own 17.

Bottom line the defense is not very good, certain not fcs level, not even close to good enough for a good d2 team.

The offense is lacking a good running game, the QB is eratic and the coaching is suspect.

[fightingsioux4life]

Well NAIA Quincy beat Indiana St..... Wisconsin Lacrosse beat SDSU....we beat UNI remember that. Anybody can be beaten on any given day.

I believe Indiana State is a terrible program (haven't won since 2006), so that shouldn't surprise anyone. UW-Lacrosse is a Division III program (that means ZERO athletic scholarships), so that was technically worse than what happened to us today. And we didn't roll over UNI like Sioux Falls did to us today, it was a good game from start to finish. This was a stinker from start to finish.

Mike Berg will just say "we ran into a darn good football team". Well, this is just a taste of what we will run into in FCS ball and right now we can't cut it. No more excuses. Changes need to be made in this program (especially the defense) or it's going to get worse before it gets better.

[siouxforeverbaby]

Were was everybody today? There were NO students and the home crowd was awful!! It was a really bad game.

a good portion of the students were in line for hockey already...the line started yesterday at 6am.

[UND92,96]

There's plenty of blame to go around for the state of the program. For example, although there's probably not a bigger Dale Lennon fan than me, let's remember he was in charge for the recruiting classes of 2005, 2006 and 2007 (all sub-par), and he made the decision on the replacement(s) for Tim Tibesar. The defense has gotten progressively worse every year since about 2005. The numbers don't lie.

[darell1976]

I believe Indiana State is a terrible program (haven't won since 2006), so that shouldn't surprise anyone. UW-Lacrosse is a Division III program (that means ZERO athletic scholarships), so that was technically worse than what happened to us today. And we didn't roll over UNI like Sioux Falls did to us today, it was a good game from start to finish. This was a stinker from start to finish.

Mike Berg will just say "we ran into a darn good football team". Well, this is just a taste of what we will run into in FCS ball and right now we can't cut it. No more excuses. Changes need to be made in this program (especially the defense) or it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Actually it wouldn't be true......we CAN'T run.

[fightingsioux4life]

Actually it wouldn't be true......we CAN'T run.

Thanks, you brought a smile to my face!

[dlsiouxfan]

I have been waiting to hear someone say this and it's simply not true. Most of the established FCS programs would not lose to this team. I don't think even UC-Davis or Cal-Poly would lose to this team. Our DII powerhouse teams would not lose to this team. They would beat the Bison this year (soon to be 1-6) and all of the FCS non-scholarship teams, but there is a big difference between 63 scholarships and 24. This loss sets the program back three huge steps and it could take all of this season and next to get those steps back. Absolutely the worst loss in program history. I think practice next week should start with the simple sentence "Gentlemen, this is a football."

This is the lowest point in Sioux football history that I can remember. I wasn't old enough to remember most of the 1980's but I can't imagine it was worse than this. This Sioux Falls team would have lost by 50 plus to most of our Division II teams and wouldn't have a prayer against anyone else in our conference. Some of the players on this squad (especially some of the seniors) should never see another down of football with a Sioux jersey on. If you don't even bother to show up for a game like this and disgrace the program then you should find something else to do with your time.

[The Walrus]

Make no mistake, that was/is a very good Sioux Falls team.

Totally agree you do not win 21 in a row....? and not be a well Coached, talented group of men. They also had a 27 game wining streak a couple years back...

Hats off to USF.....

[tnt]

How was Sutton all of the sudden good to go? Concerned.

This was very disconcerting to me! How can you expect your team to believe that Sioux Falls is a threat, if you don't. Injecting Sutton before it got out of hand in the first half might have changed the complexion, because the Sioux couldn't even penetrate the line of scrimmage. I was giving the offensive line and defense the benefit of the doubt up until now, thinking that the competition was just consistently better at this level, but after today, I have to say that I haven't seen an offensive line or defense that can't seem to muster anything in the way of a push. To not even get pressure on an NAIA team's quarterback this week, while the same team is harassing your quarterback all day, really leaves me wondering what is going on. It looked like we were playing prevent defense all day, while we couldn't even get a sniff against their defense. I generally don't like to post on the day of a frustrating loss, but I think these issues are undeniable, even after a cooling off period. The problem for me, is I don't think you can chalk this up totally to having a bad day. Kind of ironic that Sioux Falls dons purple uniforms isn't it. Sioux Falls appears to be our Holy Cross. What goes around comes around!

[Oxbow6]

However many steps forward you feel this FB progam took after the Texas Tech game, multiply those steps by 10 and that's how many steps this program went backwards after today's game!

3 words for you: PA-THET-IC!!

[dlsiouxfan]

There's plenty of blame to go around for the state of the program. For example, although there's probably not a bigger Dale Lennon fan than me, let's remember he was in charge for the recruiting classes of 2005, 2006 and 2007 (all sub-par), and he made the decision on the replacement(s) for Tim Tibesar. The defense has gotten progressively worse every year since about 2005. The numbers don't lie.

There is plenty of blame to go around. We can't forget though about an administration (Kupchella, Buning, Brekke, Thomas) that nickel and dimed the program to the point that Lennon couldn't recruit and more or less couldn't stand to be around anymore. It's been a long slow descent to this point and it's truly sad to watch.

[MoSiouxFan]

There's plenty of blame to go around for the state of the program. There's probably not a bigger Dale Lennon fan than me, but let's remember he was in charge for the recruiting classes of 2005, 2006 and 2007 (all sub-par), and he made the decision on the replacement(s) for Tim Tibesar. The defense has gotten progressively worse every year since about 2005. The numbers don't lie.

I'm a Dale Lennon fan, also, and you essentially said what I was thinking, that Coach Mussman has only had one recruiting class. Give the man a chance; this year's team is not his team and, really, next year's won't be, either. Today's debacle notwithstanding, he has done a decent job with the talent that he inherited; let's see if we don't start to see real improvement by the 2011 season, just in time for being playoff eligible in 2012.

[dlsiouxfan]

I'm a Dale Lennon fan, also, and you essentially said what I was thinking, that Coach Mussman has only had one recruiting class. Give the man a chance; this year's team is not his team and, really, next year's won't be, either. Today's debacle notwithstanding, he has done a decent job with the talent that he inherited; let's see if we don't start to see real improvement by the 2011 season, just in time for being playoff eligible in 2012.

The thing is he was promoted to head coach when Lennon left. Lennon cherry picked the best of the coaching staff and left Mussman with the leftovers. That should have been a strong hint to Mussman that other changes needed to be made. Those changes weren't made and now here we are.

[UND92,96]

I'm a Dale Lennon fan, also, and you essentially said what I was thinking, that Coach Mussman has only had one recruiting class. Give the man a chance; this year's team is not his team and, really, next year's won't be, either. Today's debacle notwithstanding, he has done a decent job with the talent that he inherited; let's see if we don't start to see real improvement by the 2011 season, just in time for being playoff eligible in 2012.

I think Mussman did a good job salvaging what could have been a disastrous 2008 class (given Lennon's late departure), and by most accounts the class of 2009 is looking good. Mussman can recruit. But I think the defense is broken right now--completely broken--and it wouldn't surprise me if Faison makes some decisions for Mussman that may be quite difficult to make if they were completely up to Mussman.

[Irish]

I'm a Dale Lennon fan, also, and you essentially said what I was thinking, that Coach Mussman has only had one recruiting class. Give the man a chance; this year's team is not his team and, really, next year's won't be, either. Today's debacle notwithstanding, he has done a decent job with the talent that he inherited; let's see if we don't start to see real improvement by the 2011 season, just in time for being playoff eligible in 2012.

If you think he's done a decent job with the talent he has, you must not have watched our defense. We made no adjustments and let an NAIA team kick our a**es. When they split 3 to the same side, we got caught with 1 too few defenders time after time. When they were kicking their kickoffs to our 30 yard line, we kept the same guy there (not a runner) and just had him fair catch. We were totally outcoached today. We didn't execute in any aspect of the game today.

[fightingsioux4life]

There is plenty of blame to go around. We can't forget though about an administration (Kupchella, Buning, Brekke, Thomas) that nickel and dimed the program to the point that Lennon couldn't recruit and more or less couldn't stand to be around anymore. It's been a long slow descent to this point and it's truly sad to watch.

This is a point that is not talked about enough. Lennon claims it isn't true, but I think he got sick and tired of 5,000 people for home playoff games. I think he got sick and tired of the total lack of marketing for this program. Until this year, there was no marketing of the football team until the week of the first game (Oh, by the way, our first football game is this weekend. Tickets are available! Come on out unless you have better things to do! ). I think Lennon was fed up with the "hunting season" excuse used to explain away bad attendance at home games. I also think Lennon was fed up with the "Co-Acting Athletic Directors" three-ring circus that we had in the Athletic Department before Faison was hired. I think this is why Lennon was going to "Stand Pat" in recruiting the same traditional areas after we moved up because he knew the old Athletic Department regime wouldn't make the financial commitment that would be needed to recruit more nationally. In sharp contrast, Southern Illinois offered him a 100% increase in his salary and promises of a 15,000 seat stadium and all the facilities to go with it. No wonder he left.

Having said all that, I think we have solid leadership (President Kelley and Faison) in place now and I think they will turn things around. But the program is still in need of some serious overhaul. This Co-Defensive Coordinator experiment has failed and needs to be changed NOW (I don't think we should wait until the season is over). And I haven't been thrilled with the play calling on offense, either.

Bottom line, I don't care HOW good USF is, losing to an NAIA team is just inexcusable. Are you listening and watching, Mr. Faison?

[UND92,96]

One other thing I forgot to mention about Mussman--he was a good offensive coordinator, and a good o-line coach. That's why I'm not as concerned about these areas as I am about the defense. Both areas need to be improved, but I have faith that he will make sure it happens.

[tnt]

I will only say that the discipline of this team when the chips were down concerns me very much. The Sioux have always been a "don't beat yourself" team, and Mussman even talked about how Stonybrook beat themselves last week. They say you can find out a lot about a team when there is adversity. I only hope the reflection from this game isn't a recurring theme.

[dlsiouxfan]

This is a point that is not talked about enough. Lennon claims it isn't true, but I think he got sick and tired of 5,000 people for home playoff games. I think he got sick and tired of the total lack of marketing for this program. Until this year, there was no marketing of the football team until the week of the first game (Oh, by the way, our first football game is this weekend. Tickets are available! Come on out unless you have better things to do! ). I think Lennon was fed up with the "hunting season" excuse used to explain away bad attendance at home games. I also think Lennon was fed up with the "Co-Acting Athletic Directors" three-ring circus that we had in the Athletic Department before Faison was hired. I think this is why Lennon was going to "Stand Pat" in recruiting the same traditional areas after we moved up because he knew the old Athletic Department regime wouldn't make the financial commitment that would be needed to recruit more nationally. In sharp contrast, Southern Illinois offered him a 100% increase in his salary and promises of a 15,000 seat stadium and all the facilities to go with it. No wonder he left.

Having said all that, I think we have solid leadership (President Kelley and Faison) in place now and I think they will turn things around. But the program is still in need of some serious overhaul. This Co-Defensive Coordinator experiment has failed and needs to be changed NOW (I don't think we should wait until the season is over). And I haven't been thrilled with the play calling on offense, either.

Bottom line, I don't care HOW good USF is, losing to an NAIA team is just inexcusable. Are you listening and watching, Mr. Faison?

If you ever talk to Lennon in private he'll tell you that this is pretty much true. He had to fight the AD tooth and nail for every dollar that was spent on UND football during his tenure here. It's a shame that it never saw the light of day how much guys like Buning, Thomas, and Kupchella put the screws to the football program when they were in charge.

[star2city]

If you ever talk to Lennon in private he'll tell you that this is pretty much true. He had to fight the AD tooth and nail for every dollar that was spent on UND football during his tenure here. It's a shame that it never saw the light of day how much guys like Buning, Thomas, and Kupchella put the screws to the football program when they were in charge.

Lennon did incredibly well with the resources he had to work with. But I'm not sure why Thomas would have put the screws to the program, other than finances weren't Roger's strong suit.

I still submit that Lennon knew that lean years were in store for the program: a down year or two and his marketability would have been gone. The total SIU offer was just to good to turn down, even though it meant a year away from his family.

[The Walrus]

Just to clarify the co-defensive coordinator idea was Dale Lennon's...

Roger never srewed the program, his lack of success for the program was directly tied to the brand new REA...short memories Roger was AD in 2000 National Champ team...

[Wowdude]

I will only say that the discipline of this team when the chips were down concerns me very much. The Sioux have always been a "don't beat yourself" team, and Mussman even talked about how Stonybrook beat themselves last week. They say you can find out a lot about a team when there is adversity. I only hope the reflection from this game isn't a recurring theme.

Haha....Look at all the front running fans here....The Sioux football team has dominated for years, now they are making the very tough transition to Division 1 and have one bad loss to a team that has absolutely dominated NAIA for years and everyone is making this sound like its already UND men's basketball season(not coming to games, calling for coaches heads, and ripping all the players on the team...haha)...Keep in mind front runners that UND was pretty much Division 2 up until this year...keep in mind front runners that the highly regarded recruits that Mussman "must get" to make this team better probably don't want to come play for a team in transition....Now for those who want to say Lennon wouldn't let this happen, keep in mind that some of those players on that team are still Lennon's guys....

With all that being said I just wanna say that alot of these kids on the field play there heart out, they live and die with each snap, and for you front runners to sit back and rip the kids, that's just stupid, go ahead rip coaches, they get paid, cause that's probably the only way you can contribute to the program....Nice contribution by the way!!!

Finally keep ripping and ripping and hating the other sports to while your at it, like the Men's basketball team, Women's basketball team(second guessing Roebuck last year...WOW), Hockey team(seems you always call for the coaches head early then shut up late...maybe you should always shut up!) and say what you must to this post, but remember unless you can get beyond your comfortable seats, you don't have a clue whats goin on.....Sioux Pride......ha.......later