Game Day @ Da Birds 7pm

[MadScout03]

Didn't he quit the team? Or am I thinking of someone else...

[Old School Guy]

1 minute ago, MadScout03 said:

Didn't he quit the team? Or am I thinking of someone else...

Yes, he quit the team and decided to stay in Grand Forks and finish his undergrad and pursue his master's. He knew his football days were over, so he moved on to the next phase of his life. I think hewas a pre-med student if I remember correctly. There were other things that factored into his decision that I won't post on here.

[Cratter]

7 hours ago, shep said:

I expect that in his time here, Blubaugh (Using him because he's been a big part of the conversation) will be on a National Championship team. This season DOES NOT change my expectations.

That's crazy expectations for a team that has never won a playoff game at that level.

[UND-FB-FAN]

16 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

True fr Greeley and Dranka played a ton that year. Our LBs were about 10,000X better than this year. We were pretty good at LB from Mussman oddly enough.  Rattelle Rich Labat OBrien Idowu Reineke and Peters were a pretty stout group. 

I agree Mussman actually recruited some good players, but as a team they were dysfunctional. So far, Bubba's recruits have been nothing special as far as physical ability goes. Hard to argue against Mussman getting Ratelle and Reyes. For your information, though, my post was in regards to Blubaugh, who I think doesn't have what it takes to be a good defensive back in Division I. 

Bubba and his staff need to do a better job recruiting. You don't see this dumpster fire of a season if the backups are more talented. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

16 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

A young DB getting burned constantly. I was at every game and was not comfortable with him out there. Shall I pull out the NDSU or Montana highlights where he looked completely lost out there?

A lot of DBs looked lost against those teams. We're talking 2017 Sac State and 2017 Southern Utah here - they embarrassed UND's secondary. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

15 hours ago, Sioux94 said:

You know what, I'm sick and tired of hearing you tell me I lack expectations for our football team.  This is about the 45th time you've said that in the past month.  If you are going to say that 5 times a week for the next 9 months, maybe you should start a separate thread for it and you and a couple of others can banter back and forth the entire off season about how low UND's expectations for all of our programs other than hockey is.    #BrokenRecord

Congrats, you're an outlier. Doesn't change the fact the masses are not conditioned to winning. If you don't like the truth, don't read it. A lot of ignorance around here in order to handle this disaster of a season. Deal with it and don't resort to pure banter. The folks on this board are the exception, not the norm; don't forget that. It's the GF community and UND alumni base that needs to rally around UND football more.

[UND-FB-FAN]

19 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

My point is that Blubough looks putrid out there right now but I'm not going to judge him until he gets more experience and is put in a position to succeed like Hunt was last year. If he looks like this at the end of next year and the rest of the defense is fixed then he should switch positions, til then I'm willing to be patient with him even though it's hard to watch.

The fault in this thought process is simple. UND shouldn't have to suffer through a losing season or two before having a winning campaign. UND needs to prepare their kids to sustain success, not teeter-totter on results. This is the sign of a program and staff that over-relies on experience and talent and not schemes and teambuilding, which Is why the season was lost as soon as a few key injuries occurred. Top programs sustain success, not hope for one good year every few seasons by letting poor players "play it out".

What you've described is a rebuild, which doesn't happen after a 9-3 championship season or even after a few injuries. Unfortunately, UND has found themselves in that situation, somehow. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

11 hours ago, Sioux95 said:

Part of the problem is we have started a true freshman at corner for at least 4 years in a row now.  

Agree with this - get better depth!

[UND-FB-FAN]

11 hours ago, Old School Guy said:

Okay, I'm going to ask an overhead question:  Why have we started a true freshman at corner the last 4 years in a row?  I will tell you why.  Guys come into the system and show great promise and pretty good cover skills coming out of high school (that's why they are recruited and signed in the first place). They spend a year or two digressing in the system so the staff says, hey, lets replace them with a younger guy because he will play better than the upperclassmen. Then, the freshmen are ineffective, so they go and recruit another freshmen to take this year's freshmen place. I said it before, player development needs to improve also. I know its difficult to admit the system needs to be modified or improved.

So I ask, is it just me or is there a pattern here?

There's a patten. Some have a problem smelling the difference between roses and !@#$ on this board because they wear their extra Kelly green-tinted glasses regularly. Changes are needed. 

[fightingsioux4life]

9 hours ago, Cratter said:

That's crazy expectations for a team that has never won a playoff game at that level.

Think big and you will achieve great things.

Think small and you will achieve nothing.

It all has to start somewhere.

[jdub27]

On 11/4/2017 at 9:38 PM, bincitysioux said:

He's not Gubrud or Cookus, but ain't Joey Bradley either

Too bad, there's people here who was more swag on the team! 

 

On 11/5/2017 at 10:46 AM, homer said:

That’s the frustrating thing is 75% of the time they are in ok position.  Lack confidence of turning and looking for the ball or they need one more piece hand contact.  3rd down rate is struggling defensively because defense calls the old “9” route and throws it up.  

That's an issue with young corners, they don't trust their instincts. Harris struggled a ton with that his sophomore year. Hopefully we see it click with some of these young guys after they see themselves on film doing the right thing and having an off-season to learn to trust themselves.

 

20 hours ago, Old School Guy said:

I heard an unconfirmed rumor that a game may be added in place of the bye week. FBS teams who had to cancel due to hurricanes a few weeks back, are looking to make up games with opponents who have byes. Its been a rough season but we could use some more live game reps IMO.

They only way that could happen is if UND could get a waiver from the NCAA to play a 12th game. Maybe they consider it extenuating circumstances because of the hurricane, but it would be pretty far out of the norm.

[Irish]

3 hours ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

Congrats, you're an outlier. Doesn't change the fact the masses are not conditioned to winning. If you don't like the truth, don't read it. A lot of ignorance around here in order to handle this disaster of a season. Deal with it and don't resort to pure banter. The folks on this board are the exception, not the norm; don't forget that. It's the GF community and UND alumni base that needs to rally around UND football more.

Too true - there is a difference in wishing your team is on top like Gopher football fans and demanding it like Alabama fans.  We were content to suffer through 6 years of Mussman and when Bubba came in a frequent comment was "well, it took Roger Thomas 5 years to rebuild".  There is another school in the state that won't put up with this kind of floundering.  Guess which one has Championship trophies. 

[UND-1]

13 minutes ago, Irish said:

Guess which one has Championship trophies....... 

....and more way money, way better facilities, better history and on and on.  It takes a bit longer to rebuild or try to stay on top when you don't have the same resources as the very best programs.  

[UND-FB-FAN]

15 minutes ago, UND-1 said:

....and more way money, way better facilities, better history and on and on.  It takes a bit longer to rebuild or try to stay on top when you don't have the same resources as the very best programs.  

Cue the reallocation vs. increased fundraising efforts discussion ...

Obviously something needs to happen so that Phase 2 of the HPC gets done as soon as possible. The new athletic director should have that task immediately placed at the top of his to do list.

UND is the flagship and that needs to be maintained. Frustrating how NDSU and their athletic department has captured so much $$$ of late. Good grief.

[Irish]

11 minutes ago, UND-1 said:

....and more way money, way better facilities, better history and on and on.  It takes a bit longer to rebuild or try to stay on top when you don't have the same resources as the very best programs.  

Agreed that success brings in dollars which spurs success.  However, we have a new indoor practice facility and while the Alerus isn't quite the Fargodome, it is more a difference in cities and population than football support.  It's hard to blame our facilities for our current collapse.  And while funding could improve it is a bit of a chicken/egg conundrum.  Few new people wanted to increase their financial support while Muss was digging us a 6 year hole.  And while it used to be about 50-50 in support around the state, my experiences now place this as about 80-20 Bison.  Go out into the smaller towns and it is about enough to make you choke.  Time to put on our big-boy pants and get a winner here. No more excuses.

[fightingsioux4life]

1 minute ago, Irish said:

Agreed that success brings in dollars which spurs success.  However, we have a new indoor practice facility and while the Alerus isn't quite the Fargodome, it is more a difference in cities and population than football support.  It's hard to blame our facilities for our current collapse.  And while funding could improve it is a bit of a chicken/egg conundrum.  Few new people wanted to increase their financial support while Muss was digging us a 6 year hole.  And while it used to be about 50-50 in support around the state, my experiences now place this as about 80-20 Bison.  Go out into the smaller towns and it is about enough to make you choke.  Time to put on our big-boy pants and get a winner here. No more excuses.

Based on this, we should just fold up the program now and forget about it.

[fightingsioux4life]

19 minutes ago, UND-1 said:

....and more way money, way better facilities, better history and on and on.  It takes a bit longer to rebuild or try to stay on top when you don't have the same resources as the very best programs.  

Why is there this perception that NDSU is swimming in money, while UND is broke? That simply isn't true. If it was, the BSA renovation would not have taken as long as it did. NDSU is not some private school with deep-pocketed donors who can fund whatever they want out of their pocket. They are a state institution like us and they face the same financial challenges as us. The fact that we have Men's Hockey and REA should give us an slight edge in finances.

[Midwestern Hawk]

3 minutes ago, Irish said:

Agreed that success brings in dollars which spurs success.  However, we have a new indoor practice facility and while the Alerus isn't quite the Fargodome, it is more a difference in cities and population than football support.  It's hard to blame our facilities for our current collapse.  And while funding could improve it is a bit of a chicken/egg conundrum.  Few new people wanted to increase their financial support while Muss was digging us a 6 year hole.  And while it used to be about 50-50 in support around the state, my experiences now place this as about 80-20 Bison.  Go out into the smaller towns and it is about enough to make you choke.  Time to put on our big-boy pants and get a winner here. No more excuses.

That 30% you talk about will jump on whichever bandwagon is on top.  Late 80's was NDSU, late 90's, early 00's it was UND.  It will be UND again soon.

[Irish]

7 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Based on this, we should just fold up the program now and forget about it.

That's your take-away?  My last line was "time to put on our big-boy pants and get a winner here.  No excuses"  - If that suggests to you that we should fold up our program then we live in different worlds.  The line you highlight was in reference to the Fargodome compared to the Alerus and nothing else.

[Irish]

1 minute ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

That 30% you talk about will jump on whichever bandwagon is on top.  Late 80's was NDSU, late 90's, early 00's it was UND.  It will be UND again soon.

I really hope so - but in my opinion we need to make some changes to have this happen.  

[iramurphy]

14 hours ago, gundy1124 said:

Brown couldn't cover my grandma in a phone booth.  Anyone was an upgrade from him.

Your Grandma was pretty quick.  Not sure you could have covered her without holding half of the time.

[Midwestern Hawk]

48 minutes ago, Irish said:

I really hope so - but in my opinion we need to make some changes to have this happen.  

I agree that significant changes are needed.  Phase 2 of HPC does need to be the new AD priority.  More importantly Bubba needs to make some changes, including some staff changes of which have been discussed on here plenty.  He needs to get his program back on track on the field and off the field.  The product on the field has been soft and unfocused and when that is combined with the injuries we end up embarrassed in Cedar city and Davis instead of winning another conference championship.

 

The ugly defense has been a combination of injuries and coaching with me leaning about 70/30 on the injuries.  The offense has been 80/20 in favor of the coaching being the problem.  Offensive production has been terrible and absolutely unable to compensate at all for a depleted defense.   Rudolph does not seem to be able to get Santiago, Oliviera and JJ(our 3 best offensive threats) on the field at the same time or even 2 of them on the field with any consistency.  IMO Rudy does not even have a good system as to which one is on the field at which time and they all bring much different strengths.   Not going to win many games scoring 20 offensive points in the Big Sky, unless the defense/special teams doubles the total like it did many times last season.

[fightingsioux4life]

28 minutes ago, Irish said:

That's your take-away?  My last line was "time to put on our big-boy pants and get a winner here.  No excuses"  - If that suggests to you that we should fold up our program then we live in different worlds.  The line you highlight was in reference to the Fargodome compared to the Alerus and nothing else.

You mentioned different cities and populations, that is what I was referring to. That is something we cannot fix, but a lot of people fixate on that and get discouraged. We cannot do that. I agree with the bolded text above.

[UND-1]

55 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Why is there this perception that NDSU is swimming in money, while UND is broke? That simply isn't true. If it was, the BSA renovation would not have taken as long as it did. NDSU is not some private school with deep-pocketed donors who can fund whatever they want out of their pocket. They are a state institution like us and they face the same financial challenges as us. The fact that we have Men's Hockey and REA should give us an slight edge in finances.

Football.  We are not talking about the colleges.  We are talking about football.  Their program has a much, much larger budget than UND's.  Their locker room and coaches offices blow UND's out of the water.

[Sioux94]

1 hour ago, Irish said:

Too true - there is a difference in wishing your team is on top like Gopher football fans and demanding it like Alabama fans.  We were content to suffer through 6 years of Mussman and when Bubba came in a frequent comment was "well, it took Roger Thomas 5 years to rebuild".  There is another school in the state that won't put up with this kind of floundering.  Guess which one has Championship trophies. 

I'm pretty sure Texas fans are pretty adamant about wanting and expecting a championship, and they have averaged 5-6 wins going on 4 years now.  Even fan bases that expect to be on top are not always there.  I do agree though that we need very high expectations.  We MUST get another Natty in football to overtake the the perception of UND football again. A Natty needs to be the goal every year, however there will be years where things do not fall into place.  Doesn't mean you have to be happy about it, but it is going to happen.  Montana is another fan base that expects to win, they haven't come close to a Natty in years now and may miss the playoffs again this year.  There are certain things that need to be re-evaluated in the off season that is for sure, but to change everything and go in a completely different direction.....that sounds like what the Cleveland Browns do......and look where they are.  Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers and their success over the years.  They have some off years but they don't fire everybody and completely start over every time they have an off year.