State Of The Program

[Midwestern Hawk]

4 teams left in FCS.  Bubba program played 3 of those teams during its 7-4 regular season.

Lost  to NDSU playing a 2nd string QB.

Lost to Weber St in the last moments of the game.

Beat Montana St.

In reflection UND played the toughest (top 5)schedule in FCS America?

Looks as though UND is much closer to what we all want than many(including myself at times) on this board have thought.

Look forward to replies.

 

 

 

[Nodak78]

1 hour ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

4 teams left in FCS.  Bubba program played 3 of those teams during its 7-4 regular season.

Lost  to NDSU playing a 2nd string QB.

Lost to Weber St in the last moments of the game.

Beat Montana St.

In reflection UND played the toughest (top 5)schedule in FCS America?

Looks as though UND is much closer to what we all want than many(including myself at times) on this board have thought.

Look forward to replies.

 

 

 

Amen

[UND-FB-FAN]

13 hours ago, SiouxFan100 said:

Haven’t heard much from folks about wanting coaching changes lately?

There will be no coaching changes this offseason, so why talk about it? 

On to 2020.

[shep]

2 hours ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

4 teams left in FCS.  Bubba program played 3 of those teams during its 7-4 regular season.

Lost  to NDSU playing a 2nd string QB.

Lost to Weber St in the last moments of the game.

Beat Montana St.

In reflection UND played the toughest (top 5)schedule in FCS America?

Looks as though UND is much closer to what we all want than many(including myself at times) on this board have thought.

Look forward to replies.

 

 

 

Nice insight. Makes me feel good about where we are. Add to that what seems like a very nice recruiting class, and some RFrs to make a difference next season, and it's gonna be a fun year.

[SiouxFan100]

3 hours ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

4 teams left in FCS.  Bubba program played 3 of those teams during its 7-4 regular season.

Lost  to NDSU playing a 2nd string QB.

Lost to Weber St in the last moments of the game.

Beat Montana St.

In reflection UND played the toughest (top 5)schedule in FCS America?

Looks as though UND is much closer to what we all want than many(including myself at times) on this board have thought.

Look forward to replies.

 

 

 

This makes me feel good. Thanks for the post. 

[SteppenHawk]

3 hours ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

4 teams left in FCS.  Bubba program played 3 of those teams during its 7-4 regular season.

Lost  to NDSU playing a 2nd string QB.

Lost to Weber St in the last moments of the game.

Beat Montana St.

In reflection UND played the toughest (top 5)schedule in FCS America?

Looks as though UND is much closer to what we all want than many(including myself at times) on this board have thought.

Look forward to replies.

 

 

 

The divide between top teams and the bottom teams in the FCS is very wide, yet the program finds a way to be both good and bad at the same time. Play well with Weber but also get wacked by isu. Have good players at one position but are basically empty at others. It's hard to say where we're at.

[southpaw]

It's all about consistency. Yes, UND has done well against half of the semi final field. But they also need to play well throughout the year. Losses to ISU and chose games to bad teams can easily wipe out the success of a big win.

[SiouxFan100]

Agree with lack of consistency. Even between 1st and 2nd halves. Shoot- even between individual possessions.

[Wright4UND]

5 hours ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

4 teams left in FCS.  Bubba program played 3 of those teams during its 7-4 regular season.

Lost  to NDSU playing a 2nd string QB.

Lost to Weber St in the last moments of the game.

Beat Montana St.

In reflection UND played the toughest (top 5)schedule in FCS America?

Looks as though UND is much closer to what we all want than many(including myself at times) on this board have thought.

Look forward to replies.

 

 

 

UND has a difficult schedule and fought through injuries to their qb’s in the first 4 weeks.  I think making the playoffs was well done and they showed well against 2 of the final 4 teams.  Beat 1 and could have easily beaten the other.  They looked like the better team against Weber.  Needs more consistency but I think this recruiting class is solid and has more speed.  Coaching staff is great, really energetic and positive and can relate to the younger players!  Trending up!

[AJS]

Definitely agree that lack of consistency was the main take away from the 2019 season. We saw glimpses of really good things from every unit, still can't believe we never really saw what I'd consider a full 60 minutes (Weber was probably the closest). I've been saying this for years, they seem to be scratching at the surface of consistently being a really solid FCS program. Where I fully agree with @SteppenHawk is every year they seem to be missing one or two components that will put them over the top. Last year it was D-line. This isn't saying they were rock solid everywhere else, but they always have a weakness (I will say that over the years it is improving, from an overall (# of weaknesses) and depth standpoint. What's very encouraging is although a couple years later than it should have been, they've made changes to the coaching staff. Freund appears to be a home run pick for OC, overall I really like the coaching staff Bubba has put together. They are very close to breaking through, but like I mentioned earlier, it's now been since 2015 where it's felt like that (throw away the 2017 injury riddled campaign). I still believe it can happen under the current staff. The team is in a much better position now than when Bubba took over, one thing I really do believe is once UND does break through, it will be for good. 

[Irish]

Bubba's team desperately needs to move out of the coulda woulda shoulda phase and into some real achievements.  Did we play some very good teams tough this year - absolutely.  Are we 6 years into Bubba's reign and still without a playoff victory - also yes.  We've almost put it together for many years now (with a few bumps in the road).  Time to demand success.  Being "wait until next year" fans is getting old.

 

[Oxbow6]

1 hour ago, Irish said:

Bubba's team desperately needs to move out of the coulda woulda shoulda phase and into some real achievements.  Did we play some very good teams tough this year - absolutely.  Are we 6 years into Bubba's reign and still without a playoff victory - also yes.  We've almost put it together for many years now (with a few bumps in the road).  Time to demand success.  Being "wait until next year" fans is getting old.

 

NDSU's bad game this season gets them a quarterfinal win and another game today.

 

UND's bad game this season gets them a beatdown against a horrible team and a missed opportunity at a playoff seed and a home game.

[UND1983]

14 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

NDSU's bad game this season gets them a quarterfinal win and another game today.

UND's bad game this season gets them a beatdown against a horrible team and a missed opportunity at a playoff seed and a home game.

I needed that to realize the difference between the two programs.  #blessed

Bubba isn't going anywhere til at least late November so settle in.  We are all well aware of the teams deficiencies.  Now let's try and address some things that are actually controllable via recruiting and development. 

Such as better DL play, better OL play and better vs. the run and better running the ball.  I am sensing a theme........

[Oxbow6]

2 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

I needed that to realize the difference between the two programs.  #blessed

Bubba isn't going anywhere til at least late November so settle in.  We are all well aware of the teams deficiencies.  Now let's try and address some things that are actually controllable via recruiting and development. 

Such as better DL play, better OL play and better vs. the run and better running the ball.  I am sensing a theme........

I think you're onto something

[UND1983]

7 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

I think you're onto something

[Old Fella]

Nothing will change until Bubba & Lowell are gone.

[gundy1124]

We need our own magic potion, whether it's how we train, how we eat, how we supplement.  Some team in FCS has it figured out and the 3 items mentioned above are pretty well kept secrets.  I of course know about them.  One of them was almost exposed, they are fairly open about how they specify diets for individuals, and their training toes the line of NCAA guidelines.  Time to really take notice in Grand Forks and tweak some things.  Does anyone think teams like NDSU in FCS and Clemson, Bama, Ohio St are squeaky clean and/or followers?  Nope, they do what they think will get Ws, rules are just a little nuisance to work around.  Not bashing, but admiring.

[iramurphy]

4 hours ago, Old Fella said:

Nothing will change until Bubba & Lowell are gone.

Lowell??  Lowell who, and what does He have to do with the state of the program?

  

[shep]

18 minutes ago, iramurphy said:

Lowell??  Lowell who, and what does He have to do with the state of the program?

  

Nothing. Just an old critique on Bubba and how he got the job. It's nothing.

[iramurphy]

Please leave family members out of your posts.  Shows a lack of class. 

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

21 hours ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

There will be no coaching changes this offseason, so why talk about it? 

On to 2020.

Hire Bubba

[UND-FB-FAN]

3 hours ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

Hire Bubba

At minimum, coaches always receive a fair amount of criticism (rightfully so due to importance of coaching in college football), but there is such thing as excessive, unwarranted criticism too. With that said, my previous posts certainly suggest my stance on coaching, specifically UND’s coaching. 

The two major variables are always expectations (number of wins) and sample size (how many years to do it). Where does UND stand on these?

Bubba has averaged 6 wins/season as coach for 6 seasons. That doesn’t make assessment any easier because it is nearly exactly average. Where should we stand on average?

I do think the program is trending in the right direction, though, with Danny Freund at offensive coorindator. 2020 will be a big year for the direction of the program; it will revolve around a young QB, but as we are seeing out of NDSU this season, having a young QB certainly doesn’t exclude you from success.

UND will have to play good defense and special teams and find an effective running game to do good things in 2020.  I agree improved play at the line of scrimmage needs to be the focus area for UND next season, especially going into the MVFC. 

As for Bubba and state of the program, 2017 was the lone unacceptable season. Since then program has been trending up. 2020 needs to continue to demonstrate that trend.

[Cratter]

17 hours ago, gundy1124 said:

Does anyone think teams like NDSU in FCS and Clemson, Bama, Ohio St are squeaky clean and/or followers?  Nope, they do what they think will get Ws, rules are just a little nuisance to work around. 

 

[Mama Sue]

That made my day... love South Park. I misinterpreted the rules applies to everything!

[Oxbow6]

To be blunt FCS is no different FBS in that there's generally 2-3 teams that legitimately have a chance to play for the national championship in any given season. In an occasional season that number goes to 4 or 5.