FCS playoffs week 1: UND @ Weber State

[UND-FB-FAN]

Danny Freund and the offense is okay. Can perhaps win with it. But the defense - and even the special teams - is no where near championship caliber. Disappointing since UND is led by a defensive background head coach. If the correct changes aren’t made, including to both coaching and players, then this defense won’t get it done. Hit the transfer portal hard, and consider some defensive staff changes. Please, please, please. 

[sioux24/7]

If this is at home, we win. No doubt. But it wasn't and we lost because we came out flat. Had a couple of missed big plays by key veterans that could have turned it. On to next season I guess. Will be interesting to see the “first off I want to thank the University of North Dakota but having said that I will be entering the transfer portal” tweets the coming days. 

[Siouxperfan7]

Gotta applaud the boys for never giving up. Like most of us here. Down 24-0 on the road, some teams might have given up. But these guys battled back. Obviously not the result we wanted, but man these boys deserve a lot of credit for staying in the game still trying to win till the final horn. 

[sioux24/7]

1 minute ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

Danny Freund and the offense is okay. Can perhaps win with it. But the defense - and even the special teams - is no where near championship caliber. Disappointing since UND is led by a defensive background head coach. If the correct changes aren’t made, including both coaches and players, then this defense won’t get it done. Hit the transfer portal hard, and consider some defensive staff changes. Please, please, please. 

I feel like this season proved we can certainly win with it. The offense overcame our brutal D all year. 

[Dustin]

1 minute ago, wheelsup said:

I’m amazed we had chance at the end

Truth. Offense is the shining star of the squad. Just think where we could be with some complimentary defensive.

[Sioux94]

1 minute ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

Danny Freund and the offense is okay. Can perhaps win with it. But the defense - and even the special teams - is no where near champion caliber. Disappointing since UND is led by a defensive background head coach. If the correct changes aren’t made, including both coaches and players, then this defense won’t get it done. Hit the transfer portal hard, and consider some defensive staff changes. Please, please, please. 

Would agree on offense, we are good.....but still room for improvement.  Weber and NDSU made us look pretty poor for large chunks of the game on the road.  Definitely a good foundation on offense, but need a little more production in the first half against teams like NDSU and Weber who have speed.  

[wheelsup]

I would like to hear from a couple of the really smart football guys.. how did our defense regress so badly this year.  Move KK to outside linebacker please

[ChrisUND1]

3 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

The only thing I'm thankful for right now.........is Monster/Vokda taking the sting out of this.  

Ha I have been known to enjoy those as well. Cheers!

[F'n Hawks]

2 minutes ago, sioux24/7 said:

If this is at home, we win. No doubt. But it wasn't and we lost because we came out flat. Had a couple of missed big plays by key veterans that could have turned it. On to next season I guess. Will be interesting to see the “first off I want to thank the University of North Dakota but having said that I will be entering the transfer portal” tweets the coming days. 

I wouldn’t say no doubt we win at home. We still wouldn’t have stopped them.

[UND-FB-FAN]

4 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Truth. Offense is the shining star of the squad. Just think where we could be with some complimentary defensive.

Yep, defense is awful. Tells you where this program is at. Danny Freund is an Up-To-Date contemporary coach that can motivate his guys. Bubba, the ol’ game manger and former DC, is way out of bounds. Holinka is in over his head. The defensive staff is inbred and not with it. Either Bubba retires and Freund elevates to head coach and makes changes to the defense, or Bubba makes some hard decisions and reshuffles the defensive staff. Also, defensive player skill level and strength needs to desperately improve.  Bottom line, need new blood on defense, both coaches and players.

 

[Sioux94]

Just now, F'n Hawks said:

I wouldn’t say no doubt we win at home. We still wouldn’t have stopped them.

Agree.  I think Weber is the better team, but I think maybe we create a few more breaks at home and have a better chance.   I will be cheering for Weber the rest of the way.  They are one of the Big Sky teams that I've never really hated.....just respected.  

[Dustin]

4 minutes ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

consider some defensive staff changes

I am not one to rag on coaches, but I’m ready for this, too. We wouldn’t have to be the cardiac kids if the D didn’t give up 30+ each game. 

[MNHawk]

We were fortunate to be within 7 points of Weber despite being gifted 7 points by the refs. I don’t know how you can say the result would have been different if this game was played at the Alerus. 

[LDL]

in looking at the game notes 15 of the 22 on the defensive 2-deep list are junior/senior/grad students.  Considering how they played it can be assumed that the sophomores and lower weren't able to supplant many of them.  For those of you who know football better than me, how do you fix this defense?  Also, should discussion about the incoming freshmen class be in a separate thread?  I would like to know who, other than Caden Dennis, shows promise amongst the incoming freshmen.

[Dustin]

5 minutes ago, sioux24/7 said:

The offense overcame our brutal D all year.

Against lesser opponents, yes. Against playoff teams, you just can’t expect the offense to win a big game with no defense. 

[MNHawk]

One playoff win in 9 years. I guess we get to see if Chaves considers that acceptable. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

2 minutes ago, MNHawk said:

We were fortunate to be within 7 points of Weber despite being gifted 7 points by the refs. I don’t know how you can say the result would have been different if this game was played at the Alerus. 

Sure, that’s true, but you’re going to have to play and win road games every season… need to do better on the road. 

[shep]

3 minutes ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

Yep, defense is awful. Tells you where this team is at. Danny Freund is a UpToDate contemporary coach that can motivate his guys. Bubba, the ol’ game manger and former DC, is way out of bounds. Holinka is in over his head. The defensive staff is inbred and not with it. Either Bubba retires and Freund elevated to head coach and makes changes to the defense or Bubba makes some hard decisions and reshuffles the defensive staff. Also, defensive player skill level and strength needs to desperately improve. 

Agree about Danny and it appears Holinka and the 3-4 needs rethinking. Also, I have never seen a UND team tackle so poorly than this team.

[UND-FB-FAN]

1 minute ago, MNHawk said:

One playoff win in 9 years. I guess we get to see if Chaves considers that acceptable. 

Yeah, it will be acceptable. Because hockey, you know. On to year 10…

[wheelsup]

Just now, Dustin said:

I am not one to rag on coaches, but I’m ready for this, too. We wouldn’t have to be the cardiac kids if the D didn’t give up 30+ each game. 

I think a lot of people were thinking holinka was awesome last year.. he didn’t all of the sudden go to !@#$.. I personally thought the d-line was going to be good.. they seemed terrible this year.

I really wonder what happened.. scheme.. transfer portal.. what?   Our defense played with zero confidence or aggression 

[UND Football Fan]

What do you guys think? Defense in the same place as our offense was in Rudolph’s last year when we laid an egg to Northern Arizona as our o-coordinator? Do we get a new D coordinator with new ideas. 
 

Offense did fine, and we have several pieces returning. Defense was almost like it was under Mussman this season. Sometimes it looks like scheme, other times poor fundamentals. Hopefully transfer portal and in-coming freshman can add depth and talent to our defense.
 

 

[MNHawk]

When was the last time we beat a team as good as Weber? SDSU in the pandemic season? What if we exclude the pandemic season?

[sioux24/7]

2 minutes ago, MNHawk said:

One playoff win in 9 years. I guess we get to see if Chaves considers that acceptable. 

Bubba was just extended. Can’t imagine he’s fired, would have to hang it up himself. 

[Cratter]

6 minutes ago, MNHawk said:

When was the last time we beat a team as good as Weber? SDSU in the pandemic season? What if we exclude the pandemic

"As good as weber" lol

Is this like the argument when we beat all these highly ranked teams,

"but did that opponent finish the season as Champs?"

[LDL]

3 minutes ago, shep said:

Also, I have never seen a UND team tackle so poorly than this team.

all year there were a lot of yards gained after initial contact.  defense needs to get bigger and stronger.