Week 2: Potato Bowl 2012 - UND vs. Portland State

[UND-FB-FAN]

D.J. Adams is a top-FCS RB who will likely get a shot to play on Sundays. Ryan Chappel never would've got that opportunity. End of that discussion.

As far as best RB in the Alerus, that is debatable. But I will say we will see a RB just as good if not better in Northern Arizona's Zach Bauman on Oct. 13.

[Oxbow6]

D.J. Adams is a top-FCS RB who will likely get a shot to play on Sundays. Ryan Chappel never would've got that opportunity. End of that discussion.

As far as best RB in the Alerus, that is debatable. But I will say we will see a RB just as good if not better in Northern Arizona's Zach Bauman on Oct. 13.

Since we have all established that Adams will lead the NFL in rushing at some point and it the best thing since Viagra (for those of you who need it ), I think that fact that Chappel potentially had 2 of his best years in front of him is being overlooked.

Put a Jr. year Chappel in place of Adams Saturday, you really think he would have faired worse? Better yet, would you take Chappel as of today with 2 years left over any RB we have now...and that's no slight to anyone on the roster, I just think Chappel had "special" written all over him if he wouldn't have wasted it.

If Chappel had put up Madden like #s in his Jr. and Sr. seasons with his class of speed, you don't think he would have gotten a look as a PR or kickoff returner? I think he had more skill than Mariani of the Griz who played for the Titans recently. Again, as someone point out L. Gordon got a shot. This is nothing more than speculation, but IMO Adams isn't as good as some of you think and Chappel's talent is being brushed aside hastily.

[GeauxSioux]

CO-OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Marcus Hendrickson, North Dakota, Senior, 6-1, 197, QB, Perham, Minn.

In his first career start, Hendrickson, a fifth-year senior, was lights out. He completed 16-of-25 passes for 294 yards and tied a school-record with six touchdown passes in North Dakota's 45-37 victory over Portland State. Hendrickson, who also led UND with 50 yards rushing, made his first collegiate start filling in for the team's injured starting quarterback, Braden Hanson. Five of Hendrickson's six touchdown throws came in the first half, and the offense totaled 401 yards to give UND its second win of the season.

[GeauxSioux]

Players of the Week: UND’s Hardin, McNeese State’s Raggett have huge days

NORTH DAKOTA 45, PORTLAND STATE 37 BOX SCORE

North Dakota started its backup quarterback against Portland State, and all Marcus Hendrickson did was tie the school record by tossing six touchdown passes. Three of those went to wide receiver Greg Hardin who caught only six balls on the day but half of which went for touchdowns.

[Hambone]

Figure I could chime in about what I witnessed at the Alerus. It was my first home game live for about 5 years (was at Montana a few years back), and it was great to make it back. My thoughts:

The Good:

- Hendrickson: On Sunday morning, my buddy (who was also at Montana with me) said to me "Did you ever think you'd see a Herald headline saying that Hendrickson leads the UND offense with 6 TDs?", as he was terrible that day in Montana. He put great touch on most of his passes, was very accurate, and did a great job with his feet. I wasn't sure what to expect, but he did a great job and I was very pleasantly surprised.

- Hardin: Same stuff, different game

- Golladay: He will be the real deal. His size and the way he moves makes me think that he'll be a great player. While I wish he would have kept the redshirt, at least he saw the field quite a bit and should be able to make an impact

- WR Depth: If you would have told me at the end of last year that Blair Townsend and Ivery weren't going to see the field hardly at all because they were low on the depth chart, I would have said you were crazy. They are both talented guys, but the top 4 we throw out there are VERY talented. Passing game should be scary good for the next couple years at least.

- Special Teams: Block party continues. 50 yard FG. Only negatives were fumbled punt and missed FG, but the blocks and other good returns made up for that

- Pass blocking: The line did a very good job of protecting Hendrickson for the most part, considering PSU was very strong at the DE position

The bad:

- Pass rush: very limited pressure on the QB. We need to get a more consistent rush going, as our DB's need all the help they can get

- Mackey: I've never been much of a fan of his, mainly because he gets burned a lot and is very cocky when he does someething right. He does have skill, but his aggressiveness / awareness costs us way to many times. Monahan is a very talented receiver, but he shouldn't be able to burn us as many times as he did.

- Run blocking: Some blame the lack of running game on the RBs, but there was definitely nowhere for them to run. There was almost no push or lanes up front, and it really hurt later in the game when UND was trying to run time off the clock.

- DB rotation: I understand the concept of why they rotate like they do (new CBs every 2 series), but why take Daryl Brown off the field at all? Rotate the other side. I thought Rumeal Harris looked decent, and I was hoping to see Dwayne Brown a little bit, but why not rotate through the other guys and keep Brown on the field at all times? On a side note - anyone know the injury status of Daryl Brown? Or why Dwayne Brown wasn't out there much?

- Closing out the game: This would probably be on the coaching staff, but UND has had some troubles recently in closing out games when ahead. Last year was a little better, but even a 21 point lead in the fourth wasn't enough to give me comfort, and my fears almost came true.

The Ugly

- Tackling: Adams is a very special RB, but I'm not sure that we didn't help him look a little more special than he should. He isn't special enough that we shouldn't have been able to tackle him a little better. It was just brutal.

Overall, I thought the team played alright, but we could have played much better. I think that UND could potentially be a top 4 Big Sky team this year (I thought it wouldn't be until next year originally), but they need to shore up on the fundamentals around tackling and run blocking again. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year, and hopefully they can pull it together and get that first FBS win next weekend!

Lastly, I'm hoping to make this an annual thing with my son - he's only 9 months old so this was his first game. He even made the jumbotron near the end of the game (I think dad was more excited than he was ). I wish the crowd was a little more raucous, and like everyone else wish the students stayed longer (although I salute how many of them came out to the game). Back in my day (second senior year was the 2001 championship year), no matter what happened I stayed until the very end and always celebrated the victories with the players. There were a lot that did that back then. But, keep winning and they will come

[GeauxSioux]

Whoever is in charge of the standings on the front page of Siouxsports needs to correct it. UND win over Portland State was a non-conference game. Portland State was brought in as a replacement for Central Arkansas.

[JohnboyND7]

Tough to call Gordon a bust. Dealt with a lot of injuries, even his senior year at NDSU. Based on pure talent, tough to say UND has ever hosted a better RB despite his well-documented difficulty with UND(should be NDSU's well documented difficulty). He was a pleasure for a young guy to watch.

Also, just cause a guy was great his sophomore year of school doesn't mean he was going to necessarily do any better as he gets older. Guys sometimes start to get nagging injuries or get complacent.

Remains to be seen if UND's defense was just playing poorly, or if they are going to have some trouble with established division one teams for awhile. I'm not saying it is one or the other, just that some folks are discounting the possibility that maybe UND's defense just isn't any good right now.

[UNDvince97-01]

DJ Adams was a 4-star recruit and ranked the #16 RB in the country by Scout and #29 by Rivals coming out of high school. He was also on the ESPNU 150. We are talking apples and oranges here.

Adams will be a 1st round draft pick, all-pro and one of the best ever in the NFL. Might as well start producing his 'bust' in Canton, OH. (as long as words are being put in my mouth, I'll make the most of it)

[jimdahl]

Whoever is in charge of the standings on the front page of Siouxsports needs to correct it. UND win over Portland State was a non-conference game. Portland State was brought in as a replacement for Central Arkansas.

Oh, that's clearly my fault. No one actually updates those, the page does so itself by scanning the scores. I'm clearly just keying off the presence of two conference teams, which has always worked in the past. I'll come up with some fix tonight.

[Cratter]

Looks like the Mines GAME could really come back to bite UND. If they win out at home and at UNC, UND will be one win short of that magical number seven for rhe playoffs, but lots kf fkotball lwft to play.

[GeauxSioux]

Oh, that's clearly my fault. No one actually updates those, the page does so itself by scanning the scores. I'm clearly just keying off the presence of two conference teams, which has always worked in the past. I'll come up with some fix tonight.

Didn't mean to bust on anyone, but thanks for taking care of it. Pretty cool that it updates itself.

[Feff]

Jumping into the "best RB in the Alerus" conversation, I'm just going to throw a name out there for consideration: Stefan Logan.

[darell1976]

Looks like the Mines GAME could really come back to bite UND. If they win out at home and at UNC, UND will be one win short of that magical number seven for rhe playoffs, but lots kf fkotball lwft to play.

I think UND would almost need to win the conference than rely on the 7 or 8 magic number.

[UND-FB-FAN]

If UND gets to 7+ DI wins this season, that will mean they beat some pretty good teams (at least one of the following: SDSU, MSU, Montana, and/or EWU). It would be hard for the selection committee to overlook a Big Sky team that went 8-3. We'll see what happens though, because getting 7 D1 wins (8 overall) will be a difficult task. We haven't even seen this team play on the road yet, and that can be a challenge for some teams.

[Cratter]

Thats sort of the point. Seven wins would be easier if we scheduled Drake and not Mines. All UND would have to do is win at home. And the toughest team would be Montana and that aint saying much.

[Cratter]

Abd by seven,wins I mean against FCS.

[darell1976]

2005 was the last time a team won the BSC with more than 1 loss (Montana, MSU and EW finished 5-2). Since 2005 its been 0 or 1 loss, so it will take a lot to win the conference. If UND can post upsets at MSU, and EW on the road UND could be golden at the BSC title. But that is saying an awful lot. I really hope that Mines game is not the factor that keeps UND watching the playoffs on tv.

[bincitysioux]

Getting 7 DI wins (which means at least an 8-3 season at this point) is a lofty goal, but an attainable one if everything falls into place. Winning the PSU game was key to reaching that goal. A loss to PSU would have made San Diego St. a "must win" game. Ironically, PSU finished 7-4 last season (5-3 Big Sky), and were left out of the playoffs, presumably because they had only 6 DI wins.....................

[mg2009]

Thats sort of the point. Seven wins would be easier if we scheduled Drake and not Mines. All UND would have to do is win at home. And the toughest team would be Montana and that aint saying much.

montana is looking pretty tough and I would call them the favorite at the alerus, but on the plus side, MSU has looked pretty pedestrian. I'd say the next effect on UND's playoffs odds is around zero.

[mg2009]

That's a good nomination. He did nothing at the Alerus though.

Was also a bust in the NFL.

I think time will tell the whole story on Adams, to a certain degree.

I'm not sure anyone projected gordon being a feature back, but he did last 6 years in the nfl, which is hardly a bust either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_Gordon

also wtf 4.05 40? holy typo batman (actually 4.55)

[geaux_sioux]

So Marcus Hendrickson and Greg Hardin teamed up to get PSU's DC fired two games into the season...... Somebody should have told them the only reason the game was as close was because our defense was playing two hand touch for whatever reason.

[UNDBIZ]

So Marcus Hendrickson and Greg Hardin teamed up to get PSU's DC fired two games into the season...... Somebody should have told them the only reason the game was as close was because our defense was playing two hand touch for whatever reason.

Kinda feel sorry for the guy. Any video he could watch on UND would show us running the ball really well with our pass game being mediocre at best. He and the defense did a good job stopping the run at least

Hopefully he's not the last opposing coach to feel some heat after a game against UND this year

[UND92,96]

So Marcus Hendrickson and Greg Hardin teamed up to get PSU's DC fired two games into the season...... Somebody should have told them the only reason the game was as close was because our defense was playing two hand touch for whatever reason.

Fired two games into the season? I guess Brett Bielema doesn't have the market cornered in the overreaction department (fired his o-line coach earlier this week).

[Sioux95]

Fired two games into the season? I guess Brett Bielema doesn't have the market cornered in the overreaction department (fired his o-line coach earlier this week).

Seems crazy to me. I will be surprised if we see another team do as good a job at stopping our run game as PSU did...time will tell I guess.

[bincitysioux]

montana is looking pretty tough and I would call them the favorite at the alerus, but on the plus side, MSU has looked pretty pedestrian. I'd say the next effect on UND's playoffs odds is around zero.

It's still quite early, and the defensive play against PSU didn't give me alot of confidence. But I still think Montana is a better match-up for North Dakota than is Montana St. We play the Bocats on the road, and they have the type of QB that has given UND fits in recent years. However, Ash's teams have kind of had a history of fading at the end of the season, and we don't play the Cats until late October..................