Disgusting FB performances

[Ole in MSP]

It has been a long time since I was as disappointed in UND football as I was this year. I do not mean the record either. And, I do not fault the kids efforts. This team never had a chance to be successful and was never really competitive in spite of some close calls. Undermanned from day 1, they were overmatched in virtually every game. No depth and questionalbe talent at QB, WR, RB, TE and maybe a few other positions sealed their fate. Perhaps the lack of a playoff oppty or a really solid conference situation detracted from recruiting enough D1 level players. I realize that Mussman has to stay optimistic, and I have no idea what the current redshirts can bring in the Fall, but as the crowds running away from the Alerus center attest, things better change. I am tired of the postgame excuses and moral victories that Mussman offers. I do not expect 10-1 seasons, but I expect a quality product on the field and a competitive talent level for 60 minutes. We have not had that for the last 2-3 years.

[darell1976]

It has been a long time since I was as disappointed in UND football as I was this year. I do not mean the record either. And, I do not fault the kids efforts. This team never had a chance to be successful and was never really competitive in spite of some close calls. Undermanned from day 1, they were overmatched in virtually every game. No depth and questionalbe talent at QB, WR, RB, TE and maybe a few other positions sealed their fate. Perhaps the lack of a playoff oppty or a really solid conference situation detracted from recruiting enough D1 level players. I realize that Mussman has to stay optimistic, and I have no idea what the current redshirts can bring in the Fall, but as the crowds running away from the Alerus center attest, things better change. I am tired of the postgame excuses and moral victories that Mussman offers. I do not expect 10-1 seasons, but I expect a quality product on the field and a competitive talent level for 60 minutes. We have not had that for the last 2-3 years.

This team looks like a totally different team from last season. I am shocked we actually won 3 games. This team better get an overhaul before September or we will see a repeat performance.

[Smoggy]

I want to believe that the last couple classes has D 1 talent in it. It was those classes in front of it that didn't.

Obviously the skill positions have been horrendously underrecruited.

I don't like the idea of this, but if Mussman wants to save his job and see a better improvement next year he might need to bring in more than just a juco qb.

[dmksioux]

I know many fans keep calling for patience and now that we are in a conference things will get better. I wish I could be as optimistic. It would have been one thing if we would have seen some improvement as the season went along but to me, quite the opposite happened. I know we lost a starting senior quarterback, but if that is the only reason the season tanked at the end of the year then we have lots of issues to figure out going forward. I'm also not referring to wins and losses when talking about how disappointing this season has been. Sure we have many freshmen and sophomores playing. The disturbing thing to me as I did not see much, if any, improvement out of their play from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. I haven't seen Mussman make any adjustments in game plans or make any changes in personal that give me hope for next season. I'm sure he will get one more season, but that doesn't mean some changes shouldn't take place. Hopefully he is able to make some changes in the offseason that will help in turning things around...

[iramurphy]

I disagree there wasn't talent at RB. Murray is an outstanding RB. Sutton is a good RB. Miller should have been redshirted. Surprised at the lask of QB depth. We have a HS jr. QB who is better than the two guys UND has been playing. He attned UND games regularly as a kid to watch the Manke Brothers play. He was at Wisconsin last weekend, has been at Gopher games, and NDSU has had him in. Air Force just contacted our coaches. Hard to understand only lukewarm (if any interest) from UND. You don't come in late on a kid like this. NDSU has gone from off the radar to the first FCS team he will consider.

Oline is still small but getting bigger. The young linebackers show promise and the young D-backs are faster and more atheltic, but need to get better. Dline hs some kids but needs to get deeper. Not sure about TE. We didn't use our TE this yeart or last year for that matter. We need to take the opportunity to get more kids on the field in years like this. We are not going anywhere. Get the back-up linemen, WR's in the game more. There is no excuse for our back QB's not to have plenty of experience this year and last year.

Frankly the school, the community and the media need to upgrade in a number of areas. We can't have 6000 empty seats. Give the tickets to area students. At least they buy concessions. The band is grea but get them scholarships/stipemnds and double the size. Create pre-game activities for the UND students. Engage the students in their dorms, fraternities and sororities. Create incentives to get them there. Improve the in game experience. Give score updates to other college scores regularly. Have post game activites. UND needs to upgrade it's marketing for athletics as well as UND as an institution.

We can't keep talking about these things. We need to have a minimum of 10,000 butts in the seats every home game.

[Ole in MSP]

I disagree there wasn't talent at RB. Murray is an outstanding RB. Sutton is a good RB. Miller should have been redshirted. Surprised at the lask of QB depth. We have a HS jr. QB who is better than the two guys UND has been playing. He attned UND games regularly as a kid to watch the Manke Brothers play. He was at Wisconsin last weekend, has been at Gopher games, and NDSU has had him in. Air Force just contacted our coaches. Hard to understand only lukewarm (if any interest) from UND. You don't come in late on a kid like this. NDSU has gone from off the radar to the first FCS team he will consider.

Oline is still small but getting bigger. The young linebackers show promise and the young D-backs are faster and more atheltic, but need to get better. Dline hs some kids but needs to get deeper. Not sure about TE. We didn't use our TE this yeart or last year for that matter. We need to take the opportunity to get more kids on the field in years like this. We are not going anywhere. Get the back-up linemen, WR's in the game more. There is no excuse for our back QB's not to have plenty of experience this year and last year.

Frankly the school, the community and the media need to upgrade in a number of areas. We can't have 6000 empty seats. Give the tickets to area students. At least they buy concessions. The band is grea but get them scholarships/stipemnds and double the size. Create pre-game activities for the UND students. Engage the students in their dorms, fraternities and sororities. Create incentives to get them there. Improve the in game experience. Give score updates to other college scores regularly. Have post game activites. UND needs to upgrade it's marketing for athletics as well as UND as an institution.

We can't keep talking about these things. We need to have a minimum of 10,000 butts in the seats every home game.

Sorry, I phrased it wrong re the RB's, these two do have talent, but they are all they had and one or the other was beat up part of the year due to no depth or threat from the FB position and no passing threat. The TE's run like they have an anchor around them and the QB's including Landry in some of his games could not hit a pickup truck from 15 yards. I will give Muss the benefit of the doubt that with no playoff possibilities and a ad hoc conference, that recruiting was tough. With the BSC and playoff eligibility arriving in 2012 if he cannot recruit enough kids to put a competitive product on the field then find someone who can. UND has better FB facilities and a better academic situation than many FCS schools. Let's make the most of it and I like your suggestions about marketing better locally. Frankly I am getting bored by the men's hockey program. Same old, same old.

[Irish]

I disagree there wasn't talent at RB. Murray is an outstanding RB. Sutton is a good RB. Miller should have been redshirted. Surprised at the lask of QB depth. We have a HS jr. QB who is better than the two guys UND has been playing. He attned UND games regularly as a kid to watch the Manke Brothers play. He was at Wisconsin last weekend, has been at Gopher games, and NDSU has had him in. Air Force just contacted our coaches. Hard to understand only lukewarm (if any interest) from UND. You don't come in late on a kid like this. NDSU has gone from off the radar to the first FCS team he will consider.

Oline is still small but getting bigger. The young linebackers show promise and the young D-backs are faster and more atheltic, but need to get better. Dline hs some kids but needs to get deeper. Not sure about TE. We didn't use our TE this yeart or last year for that matter. We need to take the opportunity to get more kids on the field in years like this. We are not going anywhere. Get the back-up linemen, WR's in the game more. There is no excuse for our back QB's not to have plenty of experience this year and last year.

Frankly the school, the community and the media need to upgrade in a number of areas. We can't have 6000 empty seats. Give the tickets to area students. At least they buy concessions. The band is grea but get them scholarships/stipemnds and double the size. Create pre-game activities for the UND students. Engage the students in their dorms, fraternities and sororities. Create incentives to get them there. Improve the in game experience. Give score updates to other college scores regularly. Have post game activites. UND needs to upgrade it's marketing for athletics as well as UND as an institution.

We can't keep talking about these things. We need to have a minimum of 10,000 butts in the seats every home game.

Agreed we need to significantly upgrade the Alerus experience and get a fired up crowd including students to the games. The product on the field must improve in many ways and not just won-lost. The coaches must show that they are playing to win (5 years ago, I couldn't imagine a Sioux fan saying that). The offensive and defensive schemes are frustrating even to the casual fan (give up 10 yards every pass, offense - what can you say?) In addition, the Alerus must take significant steps to foster a fun atmosphere. I sit on the student side and it looks like they take 5 - 10 security people and instruct them to do nothing but look at the student section and try catch any infraction, no matter how minor. They look like they are detention monitors. I don't believe that the Alerus management has a clue as to how to make events fun and exciting. The university people should clue them in. The dorms, fraternity, and sororities aren't going to come out if the staff views them as potential problems as they walk in. I don't think football excitement will come back until we are out of the Al. The atmosphere and attendence needs to be a top worry of the AD.

[iramurphy]

Agreed we need to significantly upgrade the Alerus experience and get a fired up crowd including students to the games. The product on the field must improve in many ways and not just won-lost. The coaches must show that they are playing to win (5 years ago, I couldn't imagine a Sioux fan saying that). The offensive and defensive schemes are frustrating even to the casual fan (give up 10 yards every pass, offense - what can you say?) In addition, the Alerus must take significant steps to foster a fun atmosphere. I sit on the student side and it looks like they take 5 - 10 security people and instruct them to do nothing but look at the student section and try catch any infraction, no matter how minor. They look like they are detention monitors. I don't believe that the Alerus management has a clue as to how to make events fun and exciting. The university people should clue them in. The dorms, fraternity, and sororities aren't going to come out if the staff views them as potential problems as they walk in. I don't think football excitement will come back until we are out of the Al. The atmosphere and attendence needs to be a top worry of the AD.

You can never have enough talent at RB. The back-up QB needs to be better and needs to play. UND has made mistakes for years not getting back-up players PT. (Reed Manke broke his collar bone when he was still playing and we were ahead of Winona State by about 30 pts. When outcome is no longer in question you need to play other guys so they will hang around for all 5 years. This is a tough year but I believe the level of talent is improving at DB and LB. Last two recruiting years were good ones. If the timing of all of this remains on schedule we should be better next year if we can get a QB and continue to improve OL and DL. I think LB's DB's are going to be better and the young guys on OL will continue to develop. I have no idea if one of the RS QB's can play or if Hedrickson or Goska can improve enough to make difference. IF we have no one else at TE move Daggett in and flex him. He should have had more reps this year as Jr to see how much he has developed as receiver. He is a big target with good atheltic ability and good speed for a big guy. Nor sure what else we have coming up but I don't think we have included TE in scheme other than blocker. We usually bring on other RB or WR. Hell, I'm too old to scheme these things. I think right now the staff has been recruiting well. I was disappointed when we failed to go for first downs in opponents territory against Montana and Davis. I think in a year when you have nothing to lose and you are playing a favored opponent you let your guys know we can do this and the tradition at UND is that we go get this. If the message is we don't think we can do this we won't. We have next year to continue to get better. The move to the big sky is a plus for recruiting and means great games and travel for our team. Go Sioux. MBB looks better and WBB looks like they will be young but fun to watch. Students need to get their butts to those games too.

[Ole in MSP]

You can never have enough talent at RB. The back-up QB needs to be better and needs to play. UND has made mistakes for years not getting back-up players PT. (Reed Manke broke his collar bone when he was still playing and we were ahead of Winona State by about 30 pts. When outcome is no longer in question you need to play other guys so they will hang around for all 5 years. This is a tough year but I believe the level of talent is improving at DB and LB. Last two recruiting years were good ones. If the timing of all of this remains on schedule we should be better next year if we can get a QB and continue to improve OL and DL. I think LB's DB's are going to be better and the young guys on OL will continue to develop. I have no idea if one of the RS QB's can play or if Hedrickson or Goska can improve enough to make difference. IF we have no one else at TE move Daggett in and flex him. He should have had more reps this year as Jr to see how much he has developed as receiver. He is a big target with good atheltic ability and good speed for a big guy. Nor sure what else we have coming up but I don't think we have included TE in scheme other than blocker. We usually bring on other RB or WR. Hell, I'm too old to scheme these things. I think right now the staff has been recruiting well. I was disappointed when we failed to go for first downs in opponents territory against Montana and Davis. I think in a year when you have nothing to lose and you are playing a favored opponent you let your guys know we can do this and the tradition at UND is that we go get this. If the message is we don't think we can do this we won't. We have next year to continue to get better. The move to the big sky is a plus for recruiting and means great games and travel for our team. Go Sioux. MBB looks better and WBB looks like they will be young but fun to watch. Students need to get their butts to those games too.

I like ya IRA. Good points, I think. I agree that next year should be better with even average or better quality QB play. Unfortunately, and I have brought this up before, there are only 7 games on the schedule and 3 at home, one NAIA opponent. Faison better get on the phone. It is getting late.

[UND92,96]

I like ya IRA. Good points, I think. I agree that next year should be better with even average or better quality QB play. Unfortunately, and I have brought this up before, there are only 7 games on the schedule and 3 at home, one NAIA opponent. Faison better get on the phone. It is getting late.

I read or heard somewhere that the schedule is complete for next year. No word on when it will be announced, though.

[Ole in MSP]

I read or heard somewhere that the schedule is complete for next year. No word on when it will be announced, though.

If this is true, the schedule is complete, why not announce it? What better time than when the program needs an emotional lift and the recruiting season with HS playoffs etc. is underway. Waiting just gets into BB and Hockey seasons even further and diminishes the impact. I suspect the delay has to do with conference alignments and team obligations elsewhere and therefore still a work in progress. Hopefully it is not because no one has any matching open dates.

[iramurphy]

I would like to see us schedule Army. Give them a 2 for 1 and or work a hockey series and or WBB/MBB. They are getting better but I think we could normally give them a competitive game. Would be a great experience for our team to play at Michie Stadium and go a day early to tour West Point.

I would stop sceduling NAIA teams unless we have no one else to bring for a home game. If we had to drop the Fighting Sioux logo then we should also be able to continue to schedule Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and any of the other PC schools we couldn't schedule before.

[choyt3]

Haven't followed fb as closely as I should be, but have a question... why didn't we see Seth Nichols ever this season? He came in with Hendrickson and I believe was Scout offensive player of the year one of these past couple years. Hendrickson was moved FROM qb this fall to wr. We aren't talking about a Marquese Gray (sp) type of athlete here, so SN had to have shown something at the qb position to warrant such a move of Hendrickson.

It doesn't matter what the enrollment is of the high school a kid attended, or what class he played in. If the kid can play the position, he can play the position. Especially considering the apparent lack of confidence in Goska, was surprised to not see SN get a little sniff of playing time.

Does anyone that has seen practices over the year have any insight?

[UND92,96]

If this is true, the schedule is complete, why not announce it? What better time than when the program needs an emotional lift and the recruiting season with HS playoffs etc. is underway. Waiting just gets into BB and Hockey seasons even further and diminishes the impact. I suspect the delay has to do with conference alignments and team obligations elsewhere and therefore still a work in progress. Hopefully it is not because no one has any matching open dates.

I don't think a future schedule at UND has ever been announced before the current season is over. Now that it is, if the rumor is true that it's complete, hopefully it will be announced fairly soon.

[13Sioux]

Haven't followed fb as closely as I should be, but have a question... why didn't we see Seth Nichols ever this season? He came in with Hendrickson and I believe was Scout offensive player of the year one of these past couple years. Hendrickson was moved FROM qb this fall to wr. We aren't talking about a Marquese Gray (sp) type of athlete here, so SN had to have shown something at the qb position to warrant such a move of Hendrickson.

It doesn't matter what the enrollment is of the high school a kid attended, or what class he played in. If the kid can play the position, he can play the position. Especially considering the apparent lack of confidence in Goska, was surprised to not see SN get a little sniff of playing time.

Does anyone that has seen practices over the year have any insight?

Hendrickson was moved to WR the first game of the year because of a combination of his athletic ability and our lack of depth at the WR position at the time, he has always been listed as the better QB prospect than SN

[GeauxSioux]

Checking out the box score. The Sioux didn't have 100 yards passing or rushing. I wonder when the last time that happened?

The most positive part of the game is that few saw the debacle. Attendance was 3918.

[Ole in MSP]

Checking out the box score. The Sioux didn't have 100 yards passing or rushing. I wonder when the last time that happened?

The most positive part of the game is that few saw the debacle. Attendance was 3918.

The Sioux also only got into Rabbit territory 4 times twice just inside the 50 and twice just inside the 40. Closest they got to the endzone was the Rabbit 38 or 39. Not even close enough to try a FG. Totally inept offensive play. BUT, that is the way the season started at Idaho and it continued for most of the season except for about 6 plays where Landry was able to connect with Hardin. Other than those 6 plays the offensive play was nonexistent. Looking at the roster there are 33 true freshman and another 20+ redshirts. From those numbers there must be some hope and talent. If not, kiss the next 3 years goodbye.