Opener Attendance

[darell1976]

Is Rocky Hager available.

[green_sioux]

How do you like him now?

I still like him. But, more importantly we absolutely have to go into next year with a stable staff.

Know - it - alls on message boards who never played or coached the game have all the answers. Fortunately adults will make the decsions about Sioux coaches, not anonymous experts on fan boards.

Irish, tell us about your college football experience, coaching, recruiting, playing, etc.................. Like I said, since you have all the answers why don't you volunteer your support to the team?

My point isn't that I like Mussman so much. I just don't claim to have all the answers based on reading the sports pages and watching the games.

[Irish]

I still like him. But, more importantly we absolutely have to go into next year with a stable staff.

Know - it - alls on message boards who never played or coached the game have all the answers. Fortunately adults will make the decsions about Sioux coaches, not anonymous experts on fan boards.

Irish, tell us about your college football experience, coaching, recruiting, playing, etc.................. Like I said, since you have all the answers why don't you volunteer your support to the team?

My point isn't that I like Mussman so much. I just don't claim to have all the answers based on reading the sports pages and watching the games.

Boy, do you have strange logic. I'm not a movie director either, but I could give you an opinion on who is good by the movies they put out.

You attack me like I'm lobbying to get Mussman's job for myself - I'm not

I didn't say I was a better coach, I'm saying that Rob Akey (Idaho), Craig Bohl, John Steigelmeier (SDSU), Mat Houk (USD) and many others are. Even non-coaches can judge the success of football programs by won-lost records and by watching the games and the product they put out.

I never said that I have the perfect offensive and defensive schemes waiting to be implemented - I'm saying based on results that Mussman's aren't working real well. Mussman's tenure has been riddled with the type of poor performances that we saw in the second half. I'm also enough of a football fan to remember when it wasn't like that. If you think that attacking my football expertise makes Musssman's program look better, lot's of luck.

I'm not the one being paid $104,000 to put out a competitive football team. If you can deal with the facts instead of attacking me, tell me the areas so far that you think Mussman has done an above average job and the areas where he has done a below average job - getting stuck by an NAIA team ,in my opinion, is an all time low for North Dakota Football.

[darell1976]

I still like him. But, more importantly we absolutely have to go into next year with a stable staff.

Know - it - alls on message boards who never played or coached the game have all the answers. Fortunately adults will make the decsions about Sioux coaches, not anonymous experts on fan boards.

Irish, tell us about your college football experience, coaching, recruiting, playing, etc.................. Like I said, since you have all the answers why don't you volunteer your support to the team?

My point isn't that I like Mussman so much. I just don't claim to have all the answers based on reading the sports pages and watching the games.

I have years of coaching and playing experience.. right now I have an undefeated Sioux team on NCAA Football 12 for PS3. Its not that hard to second guess a coach if you watch the game and see what the team is doing wrong. Announcers do it all the time. I hear Mike Berg give his 2 cents and even though he didn't win a state title at Central he coached players that became good Sioux players (and a pretty good Badger in Bollinger). So if he can see what Muss is doing wrong why would that make Berg wrong and Muss right? You hear Lee Corso do it on ESPN, I heard Madden do it for years on tv. Obviously if this many people can see there is something wrong maybe its not us..but it IS the coaching.

[green_sioux]

Boy, do you have strange logic. I'm not a movie director either, but I could give you an opinion on who is good by the movies they put out.

You attack me like I'm lobbying to get Mussman's job for myself - I'm not

I didn't say I was a better coach, I'm saying that Rob Akey (Idaho), Craig Bohl, John Steigelmeier (SDSU), Mat Houk (USD) and many others are. Even non-coaches can judge the success of football programs by won-lost records and by watching the games and the product they put out.

I never said that I have the perfect offensive and defensive schemes waiting to be implemented - I'm saying based on results that Mussman's aren't working real well. Mussman's tenure has been riddled with the type of poor performances that we saw in the second half. I'm also enough of a football fan to remember when it wasn't like that. If you think that attacking my football expertise makes Musssman's program look better, lot's of luck.

I'm not the one being paid $104,000 to put out a competitive football team. If you can deal with the facts instead of attacking me, tell me the areas so far that you think Mussman has done an above average job and the areas where he has done a below average job - getting stuck by an NAIA team ,in my opinion, is an all time low for North Dakota Football.

My point is you don't know enough to make those judgements. It's easy to complain, but you aren't there. Or, have never been there. You weren't just giving an opinion, you went past that. Have you coached or played college football? No? You can have your "opinion" that you know better than a person who's been involved in college football for a long time. Doesn't make you right, but sure, you can have an opinion...........Like some of your opinions "Crappy offensive play calling game in and game out" - "Making absolutely no coaching adjustments at any time and getting out-coached almost every game" " We'd rather give up 10 yards anytime our opponents want rather than taking a chance and maybe getting beat long" "Mussman? The fact that we don't have an experienced QB is a reflection on him. " Those are some of the "facts" as you see them. I'm not questioning your football expertise, it's obvious you have plenty of that when seated behind a keyboard.

[Irish]

My point is you don't know enough to make those judgements. It's easy to complain, but you aren't there. Or, have never been there. You weren't just giving an opinion, you went past that. Have you coached or played college football? No? You can have your "opinion" that you know better than a person who's been involved in college football for a long time. Doesn't make you right, but sure, you can have an opinion...........Like some of your opinions "Crappy offensive play calling game in and game out" - "Making absolutely no coaching adjustments at any time and getting out-coached almost every game" " We'd rather give up 10 yards anytime our opponents want rather than taking a chance and maybe getting beat long" "Mussman? The fact that we don't have an experienced QB is a reflection on him. " Those are some of the "facts" as you see them. I'm not questioning your football expertise, it's obvious you have plenty of that when seated behind a keyboard.

Don't agree with me - fine - make your points - You have mentioned several of my opinions - let's hear your arguments as to why I'm wrong. I could do without the snide comments you seem to make "when you are seated behind a keyboard".

[darell1976]

Don't agree with me - fine - make your points - You have mentioned several of my opinions - let's hear your arguments as to why I'm wrong. I could do without the snide comments you seem to make "when you are seated behind a keyboard".

How about seated behind the bench in the stands and see exactly what Muss sees. People can tell when a coach isn't doing something right.

[Irish]

I'll admit to being frustrated and rather hard on Mussman.

This comes from more than one game - I hate to be 4th of the 4 Dakota schools

green_sioux pointed out several of my "statements" he took offense with

I'd like to engage in a civilized discussion about these or any other points people have about Mussman's performance so far.

We'd rather give up 10 yards anytime our opponents want rather than taking a chance and maybe getting beat long" is one of them - My reasoning? - Watch the games and see how we cover receivers. Yesterday we had a quarterback in his 2nd collegiate start complete 15 in a row against us - I don't think the problem was playing too tight on the receivers

Making absolutely no coaching adjustments at any time and getting out-coached almost every game" again from yesterday - we were up 14-3 at one point - who did you think made the better adjustments in the game? Did you watch the Sioux Falls game? who did you think won the coaching batttle there. How about running the clock out at halftime? What kind of philosophy is that? I'd love to hear about some times that we made adjustments that turned the game in our favor.

Crappy offensive play calling game in and game out" - I stand by this statement and am open to any evidence to the contrary. Again, running out the clock at halftime.

My point is - if you think I'm wrong, give me some evidence to the contrary - Personal attacks at me show a lack of any valid argument.

[Matt]

My point is you don't know enough to make those judgements. It's easy to complain, but you aren't there. Or, have never been there. You weren't just giving an opinion, you went past that. Have you coached or played college football? No? You can have your "opinion" that you know better than a person who's been involved in college football for a long time. Doesn't make you right, but sure, you can have an opinion...........Like some of your opinions "Crappy offensive play calling game in and game out" - "Making absolutely no coaching adjustments at any time and getting out-coached almost every game" " We'd rather give up 10 yards anytime our opponents want rather than taking a chance and maybe getting beat long" "Mussman? The fact that we don't have an experienced QB is a reflection on him. " Those are some of the "facts" as you see them. I'm not questioning your football expertise, it's obvious you have plenty of that when seated behind a keyboard.

I know FOR A FACT there are former players that post their opinions on here frequently. Your assumption that you are exchanging comments with folks who don't know the game if dead wrong. Furthermore, considering Mussman's record as a head coach is less than .500, I guarantee you that if Faison paid me Muss' salary, I would take the job and do at least as bad as that. I know I could do as bad of a job as he has done.

[FSSD]

I'll admit to being frustrated and rather hard on Mussman.

This comes from more than one game - I hate to be 4th of the 4 Dakota schools

You are talking about general frustration with multiple games, but you do not provided specific examples so it is hard to respond. As to being 4th of 4 Dakota schools, UND is 3-1 vs USD during the transition. So, head to head UND has held its own with USD. USD has had some nice wins EWU and UM (overal last year sub .500 record - plus they lost to Lamar a first year program) but they are a senior dominated team this year. This is going to be a big year for USD. I picked them to win the Great West this year. But it will be interesting to see how they rebound after that in the following years. SDSU beat UND head to head last year but UND had a lost season after all the injuries at WR/QB. Plus, I think that SDSU had a 500 or less record last year. NDSU had a nice transition, but they followed it up with a terrible 3-8 season and backed into the playoff last year after a terrible loss at MSU. They are less than 500 in MVF play - NOTE: Going off of UNI fans comments - I could be wrong. So, all Dakota programs have struggled at times. The thing that I have noticed with FCS play is the QB is the most important position on offense. If you do not have one - defenses will shut you down and you can not hide that position. Back in the DII days you could get by just running the ball. I will be honest with you I do not really care about the other dakota schools. UND needs to get ready for the Big Sky which is all about QBs/WRs/CB - much more wide open football.

green_sioux pointed out several of my "statements" he took offense with

I'd like to engage in a civilized discussion about these or any other points people have about Mussman's performance so far.

We'd rather give up 10 yards anytime our opponents want rather than taking a chance and maybe getting beat long" is one of them - My reasoning? - Watch the games and see how we cover receivers. Yesterday we had a quarterback in his 2nd collegiate start complete 15 in a row against us - I don't think the problem was playing too tight on the receivers

Let's see the QB that you are talking about redshirted at Arkansas, then played 1 year of JUCO, then start two games and played in 6 games as a So and then played in 8 games as a Junior. Yes, he is a first year starter as a Senior - but not the wide-eyed rookie you portray. All of the receivers are very good and step above the FCS level talent. UND was down a starting CB yesterday and I was impressed with several plays down field by Brown (RFr). The biggest problem yesterday was with the offense and not maintaining the ball to allow the defense a rest and to break the rthym of the Idaho offense by putting on the bench for an extended period of time. The other factor was field position - they worked with a short field on two of those TD positions. Give credit to Idaho - they stopped trying to force it deep and went to the short stuff. UND did not come out of it because they stayed with a bend don't break plan.

Making absolutely no coaching adjustments at any time and getting out-coached almost every game" again from yesterday - we were up 14-3 at one point - who did you think made the better adjustments in the game?

UND is out manned when playing FBS teams right now. They don't have that level of talent. I thought that they did a good job of mixing things up to get the lead but to get that lead they had to throw everything at Idaho from the start. Once Idaho adjusted not much you could do - give Idaho some credit. Again, the offense is too young right now run a sophisticated offense so they have to stay vanilla or it will get worse. I look for the offense to improve throughout the season. I do like some of the things that I see will Bradley but he does have some limitations right now.

I think that you are forgetting about a Poly game a couple of years ago Poly was up by 10 or 14 and UND came back to win. Poly was ranked 16 at the time.

I think in two of the USD games that UND out game planned them... I believe that UND went wildcat several times and caught them every time in the other game they caught them with overloading one side of the line multiple times and USD got caught each time - Shepard never beat UND.

Did you watch the Sioux Falls game? who did you think won the coaching batttle there.

I was at the game - bad loss no doubt.. lets see - SDSU lost to Div III - Stig is still coaching... USD lost to first year program Lamar - Ed's still coaching.. its one game - move on..

How about running the clock out at halftime? What kind of philosophy is that?

It is not unheard of.. I see it in many games. I think a lot of it had to do with the maturity of the offense at this point and the 2 to 1 time of possession. He did not want to risk putting the defense back out on the field.

I'd love to hear about some times that we made adjustments that turned the game in our favor.

- see above - I noted a couple that I thought of right away

Crappy offensive play calling game in and game out" - I stand by this statement and am open to any evidence to the contrary. Again, running out the clock at halftime.

My point is - if you think I'm wrong, give me some evidence to the contrary - Personal attacks at me show a lack of any valid argument.

The offense is struggling right now and they have struggled since Landry was hurt. It is going to take sometime to get it back up to speed. They had to go outside the program to bring in QB and the exposive weapons on offense are young.

[Irish]

You are talking about general frustration with multiple games, but you do not provided specific examples so it is hard to respond. As to being 4th of 4 Dakota schools, UND is 3-1 vs USD during the transition. So, head to head UND has held its own with USD. USD has had some nice wins EWU and UM (overal last year sub .500 record - plus they lost to Lamar a first year program) but they are a senior dominated team this year. This is going to be a big year for USD. I picked them to win the Great West this year. But it will be interesting to see how they rebound after that in the following years. SDSU beat UND head to head last year but UND had a lost season after all the injuries at WR/QB. Plus, I think that SDSU had a 500 or less record last year. NDSU had a nice transition, but they followed it up with a terrible 3-8 season and backed into the playoff last year after a terrible loss at MSU. They are less than 500 in MVF play - NOTE: Going off of UNI fans comments - I could be wrong. So, all Dakota programs have struggled at times. The thing that I have noticed with FCS play is the QB is the most important position on offense. If you do not have one - defenses will shut you down and you can not hide that position. Back in the DII days you could get by just running the ball. I will be honest with you I do not really care about the other dakota schools. UND needs to get ready for the Big Sky which is all about QBs/WRs/CB - much more wide open football.

Let's see the QB that you are talking about redshirted at Arkansas, then played 1 year of JUCO, then start two games and played in 6 games as a So and then played in 8 games as a Junior. Yes, he is a first year starter as a Senior - but not the wide-eyed rookie you portray. All of the receivers are very good and step above the FCS level talent. UND was down a starting CB yesterday and I was impressed with several plays down field by Brown (RFr). The biggest problem yesterday was with the offense and not maintaining the ball to allow the defense a rest and to break the rthym of the Idaho offense by putting on the bench for an extended period of time. The other factor was field position - they worked with a short field on two of those TD positions. Give credit to Idaho - they stopped trying to force it deep and went to the short stuff. UND did not come out of it because they stayed with a bend don't break plan.

UND is out manned when playing FBS teams right now. They don't have that level of talent. I thought that they did a good job of mixing things up to get the lead but to get that lead they had to throw everything at Idaho from the start. Once Idaho adjusted not much you could do - give Idaho some credit. Again, the offense is too young right now run a sophisticated offense so they have to stay vanilla or it will get worse. I look for the offense to improve throughout the season. I do like some of the things that I see will Bradley but he does have some limitations right now.

I think that you are forgetting about a Poly game a couple of years ago Poly was up by 10 or 14 and UND came back to win. Poly was ranked 16 at the time.

I think in two of the USD games that UND out game planned them... I believe that UND went wildcat several times and caught them every time in the other game they caught them with overloading one side of the line multiple times and USD got caught each time - Shepard never beat UND.

I was at the game - bad lose no doubt.. lets see - SDSU lost to Div III - Stig is still coaching... USD lost to first year program Lamar - Ed's still coaching.. its one game - move on..

It is not unheard of.. I see it in many games. I think a lot of it had to do with the maturity of the offense at this point and the 2 to 1 time of possession. He did not want to risk putting the defense back out on the field.

- see above - I noted a couple that I thought of right away

The offense is struggling right now and they have struggled since Landry was hurt. It is going to take sometime to get it back up to speed. They had to go outside the program to bring in QB and the exposive weapons on offense are young.

Although I don't agree with most of your points, I appreciate that you have taken the time to back up your points and not made this personal. While I don't have time to respond in detail right now, and nothing is all black or white, I still believe my points are valid. Hopefully we can work out of this rut, but I feel changes need to be made, if not in coaching staff, then in game prep and philosophy.

[ndsioux2000]

I have years of coaching and playing experience.. right now I have an undefeated Sioux team on NCAA Football 12 for PS3. Its not that hard to second guess a coach if you watch the game and see what the team is doing wrong. Announcers do it all the time. I hear Mike Berg give his 2 cents and even though he didn't win a state title at Central he coached players that became good Sioux players (and a pretty good Badger in Bollinger). So if he can see what Muss is doing wrong why would that make Berg wrong and Muss right? You hear Lee Corso do it on ESPN, I heard Madden do it for years on tv. Obviously if this many people can see there is something wrong maybe its not us..but it IS the coaching.

GFC did win one state title (2005) under Mike Berg. I'm not bringing this up to stir the pot. I happen to know Mike and think he was a great coach teaching high school kids how to be men and have pride in their team, school, and community. Ask him once about the "Grand Old Lady" that is Central High School. What he will tell you will give you the "chills." I appreciate his views of Fighting Sioux football.

[darell1976]

GFC did win one state title (2005) under Mike Berg. I'm not bringing this up to stir the pot. I happen to know Mike and think he was a great coach teaching high school kids how to be men and have pride in their team, school, and community. Ask him once about the "Grand Old Lady" that is Central High School. What he will tell you will give you the "chills." I appreciate his views of Fighting Sioux football.

You should have seen how mad he was during a pep rally when they retired the Redskin nickname. He gave us all chills.

[TheFlop]

You should have seen how mad he was during a pep rally when they retired the Redskin nickname. He gave us all chills.

And my oh my don't ever make the mistake of referring to Central as CHS......CHS stands for Community High School, Central is GFC! He went ballistic at one of our pep rally's because he had heard some people innocently refer to Central as CHS.

[darell1976]

And my oh my don't ever make the mistake of referring to Central as CHS......CHS stands for Community High School, Central is GFC! He went ballistic at one of our pep rally's because he had heard some people innocently refer to Central as CHS.

Seriously?? Central will always be GFC!!!!!!! As an alum I propose to beat the person who says CHS.

[The Sicatoka]

Seriously?? Central will always be GFC!!!!!!! As an alum I propose to beat the person who says CHS.

CHS is on the north side of Bismarck.

[JohnboyND7]

UND needs to get ready for the Big Sky which is all about QBs/WRs/CB - much more wide open football.

UND could also consider the NDSU approach, not saying it would for sure work or not. But NDSU took it to Montana St. and nearly beat EWU with NCC style of play. Rough, tough, physical football. It is something to consider anyway. Big Sky is really wide open though, you are spot on with that assessment.

[Cratter]

Attendance for Black Hills State?

[dakotadan]

Drake: 8484

BHSU: 8545

[UNDColorado]

Drake: 8484

BHSU: 8545

It will get better. A micro example will be me and a few buddies who fly in from Denver for the Montana game next year. For now let's hope for a couple big wins! Hell we m

[UNDColorado]

may even drive up to Bozeman when they travel to M state!

[Cratter]

The really sad part is how empty the Alerus always gets after halftime.

I also believe things will definitely get better when the Sioux play familiar names and have something to shoot for (being in a awesome conference).

Not to mention playing the Bison at home seems inevitable. That will help restore some vitality into the program. As much as Sioux fans might not want to admit it.

[darell1976]

I intend to try to attend more games next season...when we are playoff eligible and in the Big Sky...(I will not waste my money on SD Mines).