UND @ James Madison Sunday May 2nd 5:00 PM Central Quarterfinals

[Midwestern Hawk]

9 hours ago, UND1983 said:

They ran a bunch of swing passes and wr screens vs Missouri State.  

The offense and swing passes was effective in first qtr, after MSU went to tight man on outside receivers, 1 high safety and stacked the box our offense ground to a halt.  Thankfully our defense was able to manhandle the MSU O or we would have had a much different game.

[siouxfan512]

20 hours ago, SiouxHawkGuy said:

Had a sick td pass against South Dakota 

Also had another long pass early in the season to either Maag or Richter which should have been caught.

[siouxfan512]

18 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

fun game...fun season but 7 years later our O-line and D-line aren't up to snuff yet....we'll get there eventually.

That was the best O-Line in this program in like 20 years; lost an experienced player right before the playoffs and plugged in a Freshman. Even with the Freshman, I don't think there was much of a drop off. If you want to run on programs like NDSU and JMU, it isn't simply the O-Line needs to be better .... O-Line was fine, but you need to be able to stretch the field. If we have a threat over the top, the run game will open up against the good teams, and the floodgates will open against the mediocre ones.

D-Line is talented, just undersized.

[FlinFlan80]

12 minutes ago, siouxfan512 said:

That was the best O-Line in this program in like 20 years; lost an experienced player right before the playoffs and plugged in a Freshman. Even with the Freshman, I don't think there was much of a drop off. If you want to run on programs like NDSU and JMU, it isn't simply the O-Line needs to be better .... O-Line was fine, but you need to be able to stretch the field. If we have a threat over the top, the run game will open up against the good teams, and the floodgates will open against the mediocre ones.

D-Line is talented, just undersized.

To consistently compete with NDSU, SDSU, JMU (Who I consider the three best in the country) this is what we need to improve on and we are there:

1.) Kicking and Punting. Still not sold we have a place kicking game that will hold up when it needs to. Punting well that was atrocious.

2.) Bigger Inside DL. Whether that's finding a couple new dudes or simply packing on the pounds of some of the dudes we have.

Honest to God that is all I see. WRs are deep and plenty talented. Would love to get a true burner that can take the top off, but let's be real, most of those dudes for FBS. Maybe find on in the portal? It can't be a one trick pony type WR though where all he could do was go deep.. That's not hard to pick up on....

[jdub27]

12 hours ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

Tommy struggled the last 3 games.

The whole team, including the staff, failed to show up against NDSU.
Tommy went 13-18 with 2 TD's vs Missouri State. That's pretty far from struggling.
His passer rating the last 3 games was 135. Well below where he was for the season, but hardly terrible. If that is his baseline for "struggling" than the offense is in pretty good hands.

The offense UND is currently running uses swing passes to RB's, quick passes to WR's and screen passes as an extension of the running game and to stay on schedule. This requires a QB that has above average accuracy to be running the offense. It is the exact reason that Tommy had the keys this season. He completed 65% of his passes this year.

Is his arm the strongest in the QB room? Doubtful, but I don't think his arm is nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. I also think his mobility is significantly better than he showed for most of the season, however he's conditioned to look for the completion. He's shown flashes, moreso last year than this year. He'll get better at that, he's a redshirt freshman.

That being said, there is definitely a spot for a package for QV and maybe more as he continues to get better as well.

 

  

44 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

The offense and swing passes was effective in first qtr, after MSU went to tight man on outside receivers, 1 high safety and stacked the box our offense ground to a halt.  Thankfully our defense was able to manhandle the MSU O or we would have had a much different game.

You mean the game where UND was content to start running out the clock before halftime because both sides of the ball where having their way? 

[Midwestern Hawk]

23 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

The whole team, including the staff, failed to show up against NDSU.
Tommy went 13-18 with 2 TD's vs Missouri State. That's pretty far from struggling.
His passer rating the last 3 games was 135. Well below where he was for the season, but hardly terrible. If that is his baseline for "struggling" than the offense is in pretty good hands.

The offense UND is currently running uses swing passes to RB's, quick passes to WR's and screen passes as an extension of the running game and to stay on schedule. This requires a QB that has above average accuracy to be running the offense. It is the exact reason that Tommy had the keys this season. He completed 65% of his passes this year.

Is his arm the strongest in the QB room? Doubtful, but I don't think his arm is nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. I also think his mobility is significantly better than he showed for most of the season, however he's conditioned to look for the completion. He's shown flashes, moreso last year than this year. He'll get better at that, he's a redshirt freshman.

That being said, there is definitely a spot for a package for QV and maybe more as he continues to get better as well.

Like I have said, watch the MSU game again.  He hit Maag on a 50 yard double move and Maag was wide open and then hit Belquist on a 48 yard TD where Bo was open by 10 yards.  Any QB who can't make those 2 throws has no business playing college football at any level.  After that he hit a couple of screens and short throws.  He went 6-6 in 1st qtr for 143 yards.  The rest of the game(after MSU changed D) he was 7-12 for 80 yards.  Again, my posts are more about scheme than Tommy.  One high safety, tight corners and 8 in the box, we have to be able to go deep or have the QB run or the numbers don't work out well, doesn't matter how great your OL is.

 

IMO Bubba and Danny have realized this and it will be an interesting off season.  If Tommy is the guy he needs to bulk up a bit and we need to have some designed QB runs and read option and RPO or we have reached our ceiling.

[Midwestern Hawk]

26 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

The whole team, including the staff, failed to show up against NDSU.
Tommy went 13-18 with 2 TD's vs Missouri State. That's pretty far from struggling.
His passer rating the last 3 games was 135. Well below where he was for the season, but hardly terrible. If that is his baseline for "struggling" than the offense is in pretty good hands.

The offense UND is currently running uses swing passes to RB's, quick passes to WR's and screen passes as an extension of the running game and to stay on schedule. This requires a QB that has above average accuracy to be running the offense. It is the exact reason that Tommy had the keys this season. He completed 65% of his passes this year.

Is his arm the strongest in the QB room? Doubtful, but I don't think his arm is nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. I also think his mobility is significantly better than he showed for most of the season, however he's conditioned to look for the completion. He's shown flashes, moreso last year than this year. He'll get better at that, he's a redshirt freshman.

That being said, there is definitely a spot for a package for QV and maybe more as he continues to get better as well.

 

  

You mean the game where UND was content to start running out the clock before halftime because both sides of the ball where having their way? 

Watch the game again with a critical eye.  MSU changed up the defense and the screen/short passing game became much tougher as did running the ball.

[jdub27]

3 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

IMO Bubba and Danny have realized this and it will be an interesting off season.  If Tommy is the guy he needs to bulk up a bit and we need to have some designed QB runs and read option and RPO or we have reached our ceiling.

I agree with this. I don't think UND's offense will ever stop evolving with Danny running it and I don't think anyone is content. Again, we had a RS-Fr running it this year. As the knowledge in the QB room grows, there will continue to be additional wrinkles and more ability to adjust on the fly. The bigger question is how to juggle two guys who eligibility-wise will have 4 years of eligibility left with a true freshman who has pretty high potential as well. 

[Bison06]

3 hours ago, Und246 said:

In this particular situation he didn’t need to keep foot on gas. No exclamation will justify it. Tacky. 

As a coach trying to do right by a hard working player by getting into the end zone is a fine justification. Add to that what the JMU poster pointed out in terms of history of easing off and it becomes a non issue. It isn’t as if they did an onside kick or threw a long pass play. They ran a running play. Did it need to be done, no. But these unwritten rules of gamesmanship and respect have a massive gray area and are usually only offensive because the losing team is salty about being beat.

[Midwestern Hawk]

17 hours ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

Take out the one longest run from those games by Otis and then what is the ypc average? of course it is less, but also this just shows that Freund was smart enough to not just keep banging his head against the wall when the running game wasn’t working.
 

UND lost to JMU and NDSU pretty convincingly so showcasing these selective stats is silly. And, once again, the biggest difference for UND in these games against top competition was their inability to stop the power running game. JMU and NDSU ran power football right down UND’s throat. Need bigger, tougher inside run defenders, from the defensive linemen, to the linebackers, to the safeties. The whole crew needs to improve. 

Football is the ultimate team game and the while not dominating the game, the UND defense played well enough to win.  If UND goes up 7-3 after the muffed punt or even is tied at 3, it changes the dynamics of the game.  I thought the D came up with 3 huge stops in the game:

After the fumble/INT on first drive

after the 2nd INT

and the first drive of the 2nd half.

IMO, if we score TD after muffed punt or TD on first drive of 2nd half we win the game.

[FlinFlan80]

20 minutes ago, Bison06 said:

As a coach trying to do right by a hard working player by getting into the end zone is a fine justification. Add to that what the JMU poster pointed out in terms of history of easing off and it becomes a non issue. It isn’t as if they did an onside kick or threw a long pass play. They ran a running play. Did it need to be done, no. But these unwritten rules of gamesmanship and respect have a massive gray area and are usually only offensive because the losing team is salty about being beat.

No one is particularly mad about it, but there is no denying it's a bad look. I could see Entz doing it (can't say that about the coach before him). As a Bison fan, I can totally understand how you think this way though.

[geaux_sioux]

30 minutes ago, Bison06 said:

As a coach trying to do right by a hard working player by getting into the end zone is a fine justification. Add to that what the JMU poster pointed out in terms of history of easing off and it becomes a non issue. It isn’t as if they did an onside kick or threw a long pass play. They ran a running play. Did it need to be done, no. But these unwritten rules of gamesmanship and respect have a massive gray area and are usually only offensive because the losing team is salty about being beat.

I’m not a guy to cry about stuff like this but in the moment I was thinking wtf are they doing?

[Dustin]

Just now, geaux_sioux said:

I’m not a guy to cry about stuff like this but in the moment I was thinking wtf are they doing?

Especially risking injury, which did happen.

[SIOUXFAN97]

22 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

Football is the ultimate team game and the while not dominating the game, the UND defense played well enough to win.  If UND goes up 7-3 after the muffed punt or even is tied at 3, it changes the dynamics of the game.  I thought the D came up with 3 huge stops in the game:

After the fumble/INT on first drive

after the 2nd INT

and the first drive of the 2nd half.

IMO, if we score TD after muffed punt or TD on first drive of 2nd half we win the game.

would loved to see if we could've gone...td...hold...td (with made extra point) if kostitch wouldn't have kostitch'd on the punt.....

[siouxfan512]

2 hours ago, FlinFlan80 said:

To consistently compete with NDSU, SDSU, JMU (Who I consider the three best in the country) this is what we need to improve on and we are there:

1.) Kicking and Punting. Still not sold we have a place kicking game that will hold up when it needs to. Punting well that was atrocious.

2.) Bigger Inside DL. Whether that's finding a couple new dudes or simply packing on the pounds of some of the dudes we have.

Honest to God that is all I see. WRs are deep and plenty talented. Would love to get a true burner that can take the top off, but let's be real, most of those dudes for FBS. Maybe find on in the portal? It can't be a one trick pony type WR though where all he could do was go deep.. That's not hard to pick up on....

Seems pretty spot on to me.

[Midwestern Hawk]

Just now, siouxfan512 said:

Seems pretty spot on to me.

I agree.  We CAN'T EVER miss XP's and the punting game is not good.  Sunday night first punt is 35 yard shank and then we need a pooch he kicks it well into end zone.  Inexcusable.

[Siouxperfan7]

3 hours ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

What NDSU has done is historic and IMO will never be repeated at the FBS or FCS level.  That being said, I think they are at the end of the rainbow and it has showed this spring.

So you are saying that winning 9 consecutive Conference Championships, 8 National Championships, having winning streaks of 33 games and 39 games, winning 37 of 40 playoff games (38 of those played at home), and having 8 players drafted in the NFL draft including 3 quarterbacks, 2 of which were drafted #2 and #3 overall, all in the past decade isn't the norm?!! 

[Bison06]

1 hour ago, geaux_sioux said:

I’m not a guy to cry about stuff like this but in the moment I was thinking wtf are they doing?

For sure, it was an odd choice and not one I would have made.

[SIOUXFAN97]

50 minutes ago, Midwestern Hawk said:

I agree.  We CAN'T EVER miss XP's and the punting game is not good.  Sunday night first punt is 35 yard shank and then we need a pooch he kicks it well into ROW C.  Inexcusable.

 

[Bison06]

1 hour ago, FlinFlan80 said:

No one is particularly mad about it, but there is no denying it's a bad look. I could see Entz doing it (can't say that about the coach before him). As a Bison fan, I can totally understand how you think this way though.

The person I was responding to was definitely upset so I was speaking directly to him. 
 

As a Sioux fan maybe I should explain to you how quoting a post works. Turnabout is fair play, no?

[SIOUXFAN97]

22 minutes ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

So you are saying that winning 9 consecutive FCS Conference Championships, 8 FCS National Championships, having winning streaks of 33 games and 39 games in the FCS, winning 37 of 40 FCS playoff games (38 of those played at home), and having 8 players drafted in the NFL draft including 3 quarterbacks, 2 of which were busts, all in the past decade isn't the norm?!! 

fixed

[Bison06]

22 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

fixed

Assuming you mean Wentd and stick.

Wentz could be classified as a bust if he doesn’t return to a top 10 Qb at some point, though it could be argued even one MVP caliber season(injury shortened) takes someone out of the running to be called a bust.

With Stick I don’t see how it could be argued he’s a bust. 5th round draft picks aren’t taken for guys you expect to start. He’s gonna be a career backup which is almost exactly what you’d expect out of a 5th rounder.

[SIOUXFAN97]

18 minutes ago, Bison06 said:

Assuming you mean Wentd and stick.

Wentz could be classified as a bust if he doesn’t return to a top 10 Qb at some point, though it could be argued even one MVP caliber season(injury shortened) takes someone out of the running to be called a bust.

With Stick I don’t see how it could be argued he’s a bust. 5th round draft picks aren’t taken for guys you expect to start. He’s gonna be a career backup which is almost exactly what you’d expect out of a 5th rounder.

carson and mouth breather will out of the league in three years or less...and maybe mr lance

[Bison06]

29 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

carson and mouth breather will out of the league in three years or less...and maybe mr lance

Horrible take, on all counts.

Easton a mouth breather? Haha. His intelligence and in game decision making is what got him drafted.

[SIOUXFAN97]

21 minutes ago, Bison06 said:

Horrible take, on all counts.

Easton a mouth breather? Haha. His intelligence and in game decision making is what got him drafted.

carson has one year to prove himself or he's done....easton is a dime a dozen...and mr lance will be getting a lot of money to play against non-directional teams.