Gameday: UND @ UC Davis

[Longtime fan]

4 hours ago, WiSioux said:

But they aren't on the field. You need a next man up mentality and clearly we don't have that. Recruiting clearly needs work.

I do not know a ton about other college football teams but the Green Bay Packers are on their third running back, started offensive lineman that last week was on some other team's practice squad, and a special teams member who worked in a consignment store a few days ago.  People are playing positions that they typically don't, you just have to step up. Injuries happen but you can't just roll over and give up.

How many next man ups is warranted as reasonable?   Because UND is down to walk ons at ILB.  I said earlier .. a team could do next man up if there was only 6 7 8 or 9 injuries to starters ....UND is nearly double that.  

If the hockey team sustained that  amount of injuries how would they be? 

Tough to compare an NFL team with any college team.  

[UNDBIZ]

Injuries certainly bear the majority of the blame, however Schmidt needs to figure out how to make a defense work with what he has. It won't necessarily be his defense, but right now that isn't working. There's no excuse for being little more than a speed bump out there, regardless of the number of injuries.  We won't win many games putting up 24 points, but we won't win any games giving up 48.

[shep]

2 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Injuries certainly bear the majority of the blame, however Schmidt needs to figure out how to make a defense work with what he has. It won't necessarily be his defense, but right now that isn't working. There's no excuse for being little more than a speed bump out there, regardless of the number of injuries.  We won't win many games putting up 24 points, but we won't win any games giving up 48.

This is a fair point, but...

Although these guys are in positions where they are overmatched, does it help that they are getting some reps in games? Does it help them for next year or the year after? This year is dead. It's a rebuild, so does it make sense to keep the system the same as the one he will use next year or should he try something new?

[UNDBIZ]

9 minutes ago, shep said:

This is a fair point, but...

Although these guys are in positions where they are overmatched, does it help that they are getting some reps in games? Does it help them for next year or the year after? This year is dead. It's a rebuild, so does it make sense to keep the system the same as the one he will use next year or should he try something new?

"Quality" reps aside, getting blown out every week can't be good for the mental health of the team. Seems apparent to me that doubt in the system and doubt in themselves has already overtaken the team. 

[tnt]

48 minutes ago, shep said:

Here's a list of the RS Freshmen and true Freshmen who played way too much so far this year on D.

Blubaugh, Shannon, Rastas and Stewart are true frosh.

Turner, Haas, Steiger and Richman have been playing a lot as RS frosh. All are getting their first taste of game action. Is there an adjustment period? I would guess so. The true frosh are not allowed to make that adjustment slowly and have been tossed in the fire.

Not gonna remind all about who these guys are trying to replace, but 2 of them are legit pro prospects.

I'm a guy who spent a couple of years seeking Haks firing over on the hockey thread so I'm not immune to banging that drum, but this year is an aberration. IF they don't put it together next year, I may not be so patient.

Your credibility is kind of suspect calling for Hak's head to begin with, but Hak did some nice things with teams where he couldn't even field a full lineup, and he had to deal with being raided by the professional ranks a lot.  Not easy to plan ahead and fill all the gaps on a year to year basis with injuries and pro defections, yet he seemed to make the NCAA playoffs every year.

[Midwestern Hawk]

33 minutes ago, shep said:

This is a fair point, but...

Although these guys are in positions where they are overmatched, does it help that they are getting some reps in games? Does it help them for next year or the year after? This year is dead. It's a rebuild, so does it make sense to keep the system the same as the one he will use next year or should he try something new?

I don't think reps in blowout games where guys are clearly overmatched helps the team, the guys or the future of the football team.

Bubba Schmidt and Rudy need to change things up now.  Losing in blowout fashion will reverse all the progress Bubba has made.  Hard to motivate the fan base, hard to recruit and maybe hard to keep some of his guys that are redshirti g right now.

Does anyone have any legitimate info as to when any of the injured oline and ilb may be back?  Also Disterhaupt went out with injury in 4th qtr, anyone know how severe?

[fightingsioux4life]

5 hours ago, WiSioux said:

But they aren't on the field. You need a next man up mentality and clearly we don't have that. Recruiting clearly needs work.

I do not know a ton about other college football teams but the Green Bay Packers are on their third running back, started offensive lineman that last week was on some other team's practice squad, and a special teams member who worked in a consignment store a few days ago.  People are playing positions that they typically don't, you just have to step up. Injuries happen but you can't just roll over and give up.

Please don't bring up the Packers beating the snot out of the Bears at home as an example of "next man up". The Bears are tough at home, but garbage on the road.

[fightingsioux4life]

50 minutes ago, Longtime fan said:

How many next man ups is warranted as reasonable?   Because UND is down to walk ons at ILB.  I said earlier .. a team could do next man up if there was only 6 7 8 or 9 injuries to starters ....UND is nearly double that.  

If the hockey team sustained that  amount of injuries how would they be? 

Tough to compare an NFL team with any college team.  

People would be calling for Berry's head. Just like they are calling for Bubba's head now.

[Hawkster]

I'm questioning our recruiting as well, look at USD, they started the transition when we did, and were probably in worse shape than us as they were traditionally an underachieving program.   I wonder how recruiting will go for Bubba next year if we finish 2-9  (I'm still hopeful we beat Sac State), and the other 3 Dakota schools make it into the playoffs?

It wasn't too many years back I recall we didn't get a single kid out of Wisconsin and this has been prime recruiting for NDSU and probably SDSU as well.    I sure hope this season doesn't drag us down again for years to come.

[UNDColorado]

5 hours ago, WiSioux said:

But they aren't on the field. You need a next man up mentality and clearly we don't have that. Recruiting clearly needs work.

I do not know a ton about other college football teams but the Green Bay Packers are on their third running back, started offensive lineman that last week was on some other team's practice squad, and a special teams member who worked in a consignment store a few days ago.  People are playing positions that they typically don't, you just have to step up. Injuries happen but you can't just roll over and give up.

Other teams are not down 14 starters, two of which are all Americans. I am a big proponent of the next man up philosophy, but it only goes so far. 

[gundy1124]

53 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Injuries certainly bear the majority of the blame, however Schmidt needs to figure out how to make a defense work with what he has. It won't necessarily be his defense, but right now that isn't working. There's no excuse for being little more than a speed bump out there, regardless of the number of injuries.  We won't win many games putting up 24 points, but we won't win any games giving up 48.

It was clear Davis knew enough about our D to get the matchup they wanted, Carter on Doss with no help.  Was a safety suppose to be over top?

It's like ground hogs day.  The other team maximizes their personnel on offense and we can't stop it and on the UND offense we run our system without regard to personnel.  (Although our O was better in the Davis game)

[Midwestern Hawk]

5 minutes ago, gundy1124 said:

It was clear Davis knew enough about our D to get the matchup they wanted, Carter on Doss with no help.  Was a safety suppose to be over top?

It's like ground hogs day.  The other team maximizes their personnel on offense and we can't stop it and on the UND offense we run our system without regard to personnel.  (Although our O was better in the Davis game)

I never thought I would see a Schmidt defense getting rocked like this.  May get cole back next week, but is there anyone coming back soon that can help?

[shep]

38 minutes ago, tnt said:

Your credibility is kind of suspect calling for Hak's head to begin with, but Hak did some nice things with teams where he couldn't even field a full lineup, and he had to deal with being raided by the professional ranks a lot.  Not easy to plan ahead and fill all the gaps on a year to year basis with injuries and pro defections, yet he seemed to make the NCAA playoffs every year.

That's exactly what the guys on the hockey board were saying too and I understand the point. They always worried that Hak could not be replaced.

Turns out he could be replaced. So could Bubba, but not yet.

[shep]

8 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

I never thought I would see a Schmidt defense getting rocked like this.  May get cole back next week, but is there anyone coming back soon that can help?

Saw something that Cam Hunt was practicing this week.

[fightingsioux4life]

6 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

I never thought I would see a Schmidt defense getting rocked like this.  May get cole back next week, but is there anyone coming back soon that can help?

I don't think we will get enough guys back this week to make much of a difference. Maybe later in the year we will, but the season will be shot by that point (if it isn't already). This is a lost season.

[UND-FB-FAN]

8 hours ago, Longtime fan said:

If Deion ,Cole, Donnell and Connor were on the field today ...none of this sh$& would've happened. Injuries!!!   Two all Americans and one to be all American in that list. 

3 of those 4 are Mussman recruits ... can Bubba's staff recruit? The jury is still out on that, in my opinion. Fair amount of attrition at DB and LB since 2014, too. 

[shep]

2 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I don't think we will get enough guys back this week to make much of a difference. Maybe later in the year we will, but the season will be shot by that point (if it isn't already). This is a lost season.

It is. No doubt about it.

But look at next year. In addition to the guys coming back from injury, there's Ott, Larson and maybe even Morrison as guys who will help. Add some pounds to the guys that should NOT be playing now, and it could be a great D. In fact, most of the starters now, will be backups next year.

Unless 90 percent of them are injured early in the year.

[fightingsioux4life]

Just now, shep said:

It is. No doubt about it.

But look at next year. In addition to the guys coming back from injury, there's Ott, Larson and maybe even Morrison as guys who will help. Add some pounds to the guys that should NOT be playing now, and it could be a great D. In fact, most of the starters now, will be backups next year.

Unless 90 percent of them are injured early in the year.

I don't see that happening two consecutive years. I have never seen anything like this in football before. It is insane.

[shep]

I'm a guy who likes to know probabilities in sports. For example, Aaron Judge of the Yanks is at his 90% projection this season, a highly unlikely result for him, but a happy one as well.

What is the probability of this season unfolding as it has? The "experts" in the media and coaching staffs saw UND as the top team in the conference. 14 injuries on D and its a lost year. How often can we expect this calamity to occur? Has anyone seen anything like this?

[Longtime fan]

8 minutes ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

3 of those 4 are Mussman recruits ... can Bubba's staff recruit? The jury is still out on that, in my opinion. Fair amount of attrition at DB and LB since 2014, too. 

Last  years class is loaded 

geibel 

blubaugh 

Noah

zeke

to name a few   

 

 

[UND-FB-FAN]

3 hours ago, shep said:

This is a fair point, but...

Although these guys are in positions where they are overmatched, does it help that they are getting some reps in games? Does it help them for next year or the year after? This year is dead. It's a rebuild, so does it make sense to keep the system the same as the one he will use next year or should he try something new?

UND football has gone from 9-3 Big Sky champs to a rebuild? Good Lord, that calls for someone to lose their job right there. 

Im completely convinced the issue we're seeing is in recruiting. Yes, the injuries hurt, but to the degree where you lose all competitiveness is a huge exaggeration. We're seeing poor depth (lack of recruiting) and an inability to change schemes based on available personnel. 

I hear how UND still needs more time to build depth - that's nonsense. This isn't Bubba's second season. Instead of freshman and redshirt freshmen out there, we should be seeing some backup sophomores and juniors that Bubba's staff recruited. Instead, we see young guys that are like fish out of water. The staff has missed on many players and it is hurting this program now as unexpected injuries hit. Too much attrition from Bubba's first and second year classes. 

[WiSioux]

So what's the bigger issue: conditioning or recruiting? 

Are these freak injuries? Are they working too hard in spring camp and fall preseason practice and getting injuries from being overworked? Or are the players showing up on campus unprepared and out of shape?

Or is the recruiting just this bad? You can blame Muss for leaving a shell of a team all you want, but if you can't even recruit to the point that your second and third stringers aren't high school ability then you need to look at your recruiting tatics. If you know your thin, recruit players who ARE ready to play, not projects that need to develop. Thought our paying all the athletes was supposed to be a recruiting tool...

[Hawkster]

4 minutes ago, Longtime fan said:

Last  years class is loaded 

 

 

 

We say that about every class.     Some years it's true and some years it isn't and it takes a few years to find out which it is.

[UNDColorado]

5 minutes ago, Longtime fan said:

Last  years class is loaded 

geibel 

blubaugh 

Noah

zeke

to name a few   

 

 

Blubaugh is going to be a stud. I have a good feeling about him. Kid should be in the weight room, not starting corner right now.

[crb1]

The university is trying so hard to improve the game day experience snd unfortunately they have to work with this. All the hype and momentum they had going from last year coupled with the reinvestment of the game day experience has had the life sucked out of it the last three weeks. I hope people will keep going to the games but I have a feeling that won’t be the case if they continue to play poorly.

I am not pointing my finger at anyone but it all starts with coaching and recruiting. 

It seems to me, and I could be wrong, but the last few years we have had a fair number of players get injuried in preseason or practice and it’s seems to be some of our most impactful players. 

Bubba and co need to get things figured out quickly or all the goodwill will turn very quickly on this coaching staff.