Defense

[UND92,96]

I thought UM looked better than the jacks, but they also play such a different style than UM. UM beats the jacks I think, but ball control with Zenner limits possessions.

The SDSU defense does force turnovers, which covers for some other shortcomings, but they really give up a lot of yards. SE Louisiana put up over 500 against them on Saturday, but turnovers were the difference in a 34-26 win. I suspect Montana would put up a ton of yards against SDSU, and would win fairly comfortably, but SDSU may keep it competitive if they could force multiple turnovers.

[UND-FB-FAN]

Difference between UM and SDSU is Montana's quarterback. Johnson consistently makes bigger plays than Sumner does, and both are sort of asked to do the same thing. Both teams would rather line up and run down hill, and go play-action off of that. At least in our games against the two, Johnson capitalized off of the PA better than Sumner did. Not to mention Johnson has proved us all he can lead a team deep into the FCS playoffs, as he did so with UM in 2011 (semifinals vs Sam Houston). Plus the WRs, and possibly the entire OL, are better for Montana. Defenses are kinda a wash, but if I had to chose I'd take Montana's defense. Their front 7 (including Tripp - who is incredibly talented) is easily top 5 in the FCS.

[UNDColorado]

Difference between UM and SDSU is Montana's quarterback. Johnson consistently makes bigger plays than Sumner does, and both are sort of asked to do the same thing. Both teams would rather line up and run the down hill, and go play-action off of that. At least in our games against the two, Johnson capitalized off of the PA better than Sumner did. Not to mention Johnson has proved us all he can lead a team deep into the FCS playoffs, as he did so with UM in 2011 (semifinals vs Sam Houston). Plus the WRs, and possibly the entire OL, are better for Montana. Defenses are kinda a wash, but if I had to chose I'd take Montana's defense. Their front 7 (including Tripp - who is incredibly talented) is easily top 5 in the FCS.

The entire UM linbacker corp is extremely impressive. As hard as it was to watch that game those guys were fun to watch.

[southpaw]

The big thing that stood out to me was how horrible our safeties were. I guess I'm used to the DBs letting guys run by them but when there is one receiver on the field and he burns both the DB and the safety for a TD something is seriously wrong. Just let Kuksa start blowing guys up 15 yards downfield. A penalty is better than a TD on every play, right?

[geaux_sioux]

I think they should just let Kuksa go and start and be baptized by fire. Mackey is still nothing but an end zone escort and he's a 5th year senior. Can't wait for he and Hall to be gone. Too bad Reyes hurt his hand in camp and won't get his shirt pulled this year. I'd also like to see Konolowski out there instead of Hall.

[southpaw]

I think they should just let Kuksa go and start and be baptized by fire. Mackey is still nothing but an end zone escort and he's a 5th year senior. Can't wait for he and Hall to be gone. Too bad Reyes hurt his hand in camp and won't get his shirt pulled this year. I'd also like to see Konolowski out there instead of Hall.

I was at the UNC game last year. Our DBs were getting burned constantly and I turned to my less informed friends and said "meet Shavon Mackey. You'll hear his name a lot today when they say "mackey with the tackle at the two." Of course he gets burned constantly, but makes a pick late in the game. I swear the kid has the shortest memory ever because he was up in everyone's face about how great he was.

Baseball players are considered successful with they do well 3/10's of the time. I doubt Mackey's numbers are even that good when it comes to stopping the pass.

[UND-FB-FAN]

UND's DBs are quite undersized. Daryl Brown, our designated cover guy, is barely 170 lbs! Not to mention our safeties barely push 200 lbs but yet can't run with anyone. So, we've got undersized DBs, so they should be able to run, right? Instead they still let guys run right past them. Our secondary has been an issue for the past few seasons and it continues to be one. I think the problem in the secondary simply lies with the recruiting. Kuksa and Reyes, along with even Javen Butler because of his physical stature, appear to be the only potential bright spots in the secondary.

[ericpnelson]

I think they should just let Kuksa go and start and be baptized by fire. Mackey is still nothing but an end zone escort and he's a 5th year senior. Can't wait for he and Hall to be gone. Too bad Reyes hurt his hand in camp and won't get his shirt pulled this year. I'd also like to see Konolowski out there instead of Hall.

I was just going to ask that. Why not just play younger guys and let him earn their lumps? Are we afraid of shattering confidences? They legitimately can't be worse at a lot of positions. I like the baptize by fire idea, these new recruits are at least supposed to be athletes that belong right?

[geaux_sioux]

I was just going to ask that. Why not just play younger guys and let him earn their lumps? Are we afraid of shattering confidences? They legitimately can't be worse at a lot of positions. I like the baptize by fire idea, these new recruits are at least supposed to be athletes that belong right?

Even better than that would be if the younger guys earn the spot by not only being a better athlete but by producing better and knowing the scheme just as well or better.

[ericpnelson]

Even better than that would be if the younger guys earn the spot by not only being a better athlete but by producing better and knowing the scheme just as well or better.

too true

[UNDBIZ]

Even better than that would be if the younger guys earn the spot by not only being a better athlete but by producing better and knowing the scheme just as well or better.

Agreed. If we want the team to be more disciplined, the place to start is by making them earn their way onto the field by showing discipline and learning the playbook off the field. Rewarding talented players who are lazy isn't the way to go.