Gameday: UND vs NAU 1pm

[Dustin]

I know how this is gonna make me look now that the game is over and won, but because I was at the game, not paying attention to TV or radio announcers (or even looking at this site), I never had the doubt that would have normally kicked in had those outside sources been a factor.  I didn't necessarily think UND would come back to win, but I figured they could still make it interesting.  When we finally made it to 31-17, I told my friend next to me, "if they offense can get one more, I think the defense has a score in them today."  Well, the offense actually got two more, and then the defense got theirs to win the game.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

Congratulations to the Fighting Hawks! They are probably the best team in the country in the 2nd half? That was a championship run come back. Bizon are starting to get worried, they know we will be in their path.

[geaux_sioux]

FWIW I told my wife the d would give up a max of 9 points in the second half. Glad they made it look like it was more than  a coping mechanism.

[77iceman]

1 hour ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

Congratulations to the Fighting Hawks! They are probably the best team in the country in the 2nd half? That was a championship run come back. Bizon are starting to get worried, they know we will be in their path.

I doubt they are worried.

What a great season, though!  Some very entertaining games, for sure.

[fightingsioux4life]

3 minutes ago, 77iceman said:

I doubt they are worried.

Then why the obsession with us from their fans, to their media and so on?

They shouldn't care what we are doing, but they obviously do.

[UND92]

17 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

Dome wasn't filled in a day.

FArgo metro population is 230,000+  GF/EGF = 70,000+  NDSU football very successful last 5 years  UND not so much.  Anyone who ever thinks UND will rival SU in attendance, it will never happen.  GF just doesn't have the population.  Will slowly increase if UND football continues to improve and WIN but will never draw as Su does.

 

[MoSiouxFan]

16 hours ago, shep said:

Or the NAU fumble in the 3rd quarter that was called an incomplete forward pass. I did not see anything but a fumble on that one.

Would love to see a replay of that play.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but, to the naked eye, it was one of the worst calls that I've ever seen.

[siouxfan512]

4 minutes ago, UND92 said:

FArgo metro population is 230,000+  GF/EGF = 70,000+  NDSU football very successful last 5 years  UND not so much.  Anyone who ever thinks UND will rival SU in attendance, it will never happen.  GF just doesn't have the population.  Will slowly increase if UND football continues to improve and WIN but will never draw as Su does.

 

Agreed, UND will continue to improve, but will never have the attendance that SU has, no more than we will ever have the attendance that the Griz have. Just need to focus on continuing to improve attendance and game day experiences within the AL, and not focus too much on keeping up with NDSU in that way.

If we could get 11-12k in there consistently, and even a few more for Big games, I'd be thrilled. Not sure what the limits are with standing room, but if it ever came down to it, I would think they could add some sort of risers in the catwalk to create additional standing room.

Again, this doesn't turn around overnight. We've made huge strides this year. Undefeated in conference and winning the big sky will certainly make some noise, and should increase season ticket ownership next fall. Making some noise in the playoffs would be the next step. Assuming we pick up a seed, we should avoid the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, some fans will be out of town for the UND/BC game, but we should still be able to put together a nice showing in a playoff game.

 

[fightingsioux4life]

15 minutes ago, UND92 said:

FArgo metro population is 230,000+  GF/EGF = 70,000+  NDSU football very successful last 5 years  UND not so much.  Anyone who ever thinks UND will rival SU in attendance, it will never happen.  GF just doesn't have the population.  Will slowly increase if UND football continues to improve and WIN but will never draw as Su does.

This was the same song and dance I heard when REA was being built. We will never, EVER fill a 12,000 seat arena. E-V-E-R. Well, how did that work out?

We need to stop thinking small and start thinking big. There are several Slummit League schools in large metro areas that are virtually invisible in their own communities; metro area size is not the end all and be all of attendance. Think small and that is what you will be. Think big and you will meet and even exceed your goals. We need a second revenue-generating sport on campus and FB has the most potential upside of all the non-hockey programs.

[77iceman]

9 minutes ago, MoSiouxFan said:

Would love to see a replay of that play.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but, to the naked eye, it was one of the worst calls that I've ever seen.

The qb pitched the ball forward to the guy in motion . . . a forward pitch is considered a pass.  So technically he "dropped a pass".  From where I was I really didn't see every angle and detail, so unless #10 grabbed the ball out of the air (as in and interception), that ball is dead.

i know.  bummer, right.

 

 

[Dustin]

The difference between Fargo, Missoula, and Bozeman, is that football is their cash cow sport, whereas Grand Forks has hockey.  And it has hockey 2 nights on a weekend.  And a season that lasts 5 months.  That's a lot of games.  If Grand Forks didn't have 11-12k going to every hockey game (over 200,000 people for a full season), there would be 11k at football games.  So you say, "can't people do both?"  Sure, they CAN.  But that's a pretty big commitment.

[Dagger]

Remember Fargo doesn't have hockey.  We have 12,000 fans that sink a lot of their money into hockey  every game.  You just have to be realistic about how many fans we can regularly put into the football games.  We definitely can build our fan base for football but it is only going to grow in relation to the size community we have.  There is only so many fans and businesses to go around.  What a great time be a UND sports fan though.  If NDSU had another sport on campus that was regularly putting 12,000 fans in the seats their football ticket sales might be affected too.  Go UND.

[Hambone]

5 minutes ago, 77iceman said:

The qb pitched the ball forward to the guy in motion . . . a forward pitch is considered a pass.  So technically he "dropped a pass".  From where I was I really didn't see every angle and detail, so unless #10 grabbed the ball out of the air (as in and interception), that ball is dead.

i know.  bummer, right.

 

 

They did actually show a replay right away on the big screen for this play (as they wanted to replay the fumble recovery), and he definitely pitched it forward.  To the naked eye it did look like it was a bungled hand off, but it was the right call.

[Westside]

SFI just posted a replay of the play...

 

[MoSiouxFan]

4 minutes ago, Hambone said:

They did actually show a replay right away on the big screen for this play (as they wanted to replay the fumble recovery), and he definitely pitched it forward.  To the naked eye it did look like it was a bungled hand off, but it was the right call.

Ok.  Thanks.  To the naked eye, it looked like there was a collision in the backfield that caused a fumble.  Thanks.

[siouxfan512]

I posted the below question under SFI's recap of the game. Anyone here care to give their thoughts?

Question on the freshman OL that dressed. What was the mentality in choosing those specific players?

I believe there were others who were more highly touted coming in, and are supposed to be better players, but was the thought, we don’t want to burn redshirts on the better players, so lets just get some capable bodies in there?

[UND08]

Just now, MoSiouxFan said:

Ok.  Thanks.  To the naked eye, it looked like there was a collision in the backfield that caused a fumble.  Thanks.

It's Bob Stitt's contribution to modern college football offense.  You lose the deception that comes with the possibility of a fake handoff but gain the security of knowing it's incomplete if the timing is off (rather than a fumble).  The boos in the Alerus were certainly loud and if you didn't see the pitch you'd certainly think it's a fumble.  But our coaches weren't arguing because they knew.

[fightingsioux4life]

18 minutes ago, Dagger said:

Remember Fargo doesn't have hockey.  We have 12,000 fans that sink a lot of their money into hockey  every game.  You just have to be realistic about how many fans we can regularly put into the football games.  We definitely can build our fan base for football but it is only going to grow in relation to the size community we have.  There is only so many fans and businesses to go around.  What a great time be a UND sports fan though.  If NDSU had another sport on campus that was regularly putting 12,000 fans in the seats their football ticket sales might be affected too.  Go UND.

21 minutes ago, Dustin said:

The difference between Fargo, Missoula, and Bozeman, is that football is their cash cow sport, whereas Grand Forks has hockey.  And it has hockey 2 nights on a weekend.  And a season that lasts 5 months.  That's a lot of games.  If Grand Forks didn't have 11-12k going to every hockey game (over 200,000 people for a full season), there would be 11k at football games.  So you say, "can't people do both?"  Sure, they CAN.  But that's a pretty big commitment.

So based on these responses, we should just lock the attendance thread and not talk about it anymore, because the die is cast? I respectfully disagree. There are people who can't afford hockey, but could afford football and these are the people we need to get and in many cases are not getting.

[MoSiouxFan]

10 minutes ago, UND08 said:

It's Bob Stitt's contribution to modern college football offense.  You lose the deception that comes with the possibility of a fake handoff but gain the security of knowing it's incomplete if the timing is off (rather than a fumble).  The boos in the Alerus were certainly loud and if you didn't see the pitch you'd certainly think it's a fumble.  But our coaches weren't arguing because they knew.

Yep, it's clear now.  I hadn't seen the replay and, to be honest, wasn't aware of that rule.

[sprig]

What a cluster.  Couldn't see that at all from where I sit

[Ozzie82]

24 minutes ago, siouxfan512 said:

I posted the below question under SFI's recap of the game. Anyone here care to give their thoughts?

Question on the freshman OL that dressed. What was the mentality in choosing those specific players?

I believe there were others who were more highly touted coming in, and are supposed to be better players, but was the thought, we don’t want to burn redshirts on the better players, so lets just get some capable bodies in there?

It had to do with the positions they played in relation to the severity of the injuries of the current players.  Plus some of the freshmen are not physically or mentally ready to play, which isn't a slam seeing that they've been playing scout team all year, not repping with the UND offense.  My opinion is that they would have burned a redshirt of any player in the NAU game if they had no other choice or if it would help them win a conference championship.   

[Kap]

30 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

So based on these responses, we should just lock the attendance thread and not talk about it anymore, because the die is cast? I respectfully disagree. There are people who can't afford hockey, but could afford football and these are the people we need to get and in many cases are not getting.

I don't think I'm alone by saying;

It would be nice to keep the attendance talk on the attendance thread.

[Dustin]

43 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

So based on these responses, we should just lock the attendance thread and not talk about it anymore, because the die is cast? I respectfully disagree. There are people who can't afford hockey, but could afford football and these are the people we need to get and in many cases are not getting.

No.  All I said is that comparing football attendance to NDSU, UM, and MSU is not a controlled experiment due to the hockey factor.  I personally think the Al should be sold out every game just like the Ralph is.

[Oxbow6]

9 minutes ago, Dustin said:

I personally think the Al should be sold out every game just like the Ralph is.

Whoa......whoa......pump the brakes boss!

[gundy1124]

I thought Holm should of taken 1-2 more steps to try and punch the ball out thru the end zone instead of diving at the 10???  That's what I was thinking when he was chasing him down.

 

http://www.nfl.com/videos/buffalo-bills/0ap2000000148850/27-Leon-Lett-fumble-in-Super-Bowl-XXVII