UND/UNO

[bincitysioux]

Our defense needs new brakes, they can't stop anything. And that has been going on all year. Lennon's

3-4 defense was originally designed and installed to stop the veer. So why over the past 5 years has our D struggled the most against the one NCC team that still runs the option?

Obviously, I know it is becaus UNO is a very good team, but I had hoped we would have a little better showing against a running team, since they've showed very little positive against all the pass heavy teams we've played.

Freund was rattled by the pressure. That affected his throws, decision-making, and clock management. Some of that is on the O-line, which wasn't helped by the injury to Bauer, and now Muscha. That probably did little to help the running game as well.

The better team won today. I hope we get another shot at them.

[BigGame]

Random thoughts from a frustrated fan -

I can't understand why with the athletic talent we have that we can't do a better job on kick coverage - I thought Omaha did an excellent job in this area - this has been a problem for us all year.

Our offensive line didn't do the job today - QB was hurried and had a hard time setting up. When we had 4th and one deep in their territory late in the game, they couldn't open a hole.

I felt that not going for 4th down on our last posession was a mistake - almost everyone in my area of the alerus felt we would never get the ball back. Lennon seems cursed by Omaha. I thought Omaha won the line battle on both sides.

We made key mistakes that cost us - \

Our season is far from over, but we need to correct a few things -

I hate it that Pat Burns has our number - He ruined Sioux football for about a decade.

From what I saw of the game I thought the line did a pretty good job. It looked to me more like Freud was nervous and would start to role out early. By doing this you are destroying the pass pro, because the line are blocking based upon where the QB is supposed to be and if he roles right or left before he needs to (which Freund did a lot) the line has no opportunity to make those blocks.

[Sioux-cia]

Just some quick observations

1. Our tackling was like butter, their offense had no problem slipping past two or three of our guys before finally getting tackled

2. Having said that, I still think we have a great team. The score could have been worse.

3. 2 or 3 calls made by the refs against us were blatantly not penalties.

4. and the worse of alll..... After the last UNO TD, so called UND 'fans', including almost ALL the students, left the building as if it were on fire!! Disgusting!!!

[UND92,96]

This is just my own personal theory, but when you look at the two programs who have winning records against UND over the past decade--GVSU and UNO--the biggest difference I see is that both of these programs have had numerous talented transfers who have played big roles, whereas UND has had relatively few (Jeff McElroy, Glen Mathews, Travis Lueck and Jared Enger come to mind over the past 10-12 years). Yesterday, for example, all of UNO's touchdowns were accounted for by transfers--Zach Miller (Nebraska), Brian McNeill (juco) and Keith Eloi (juco). Additionally, one of their top defenders was Nebraska transfer Jeff Souder. GVSU has also had numerous transfers who have been difference-makers, including Cullen Finnerty. UND has done a tremendous job of high school recruiting, IMO, but should a bigger effort be put into getting transfers who may be difference-makers? Is it even realistic given our location?

[BigGame]

This is just my own personal theory, but when you look at the two programs who have winning records against UND over the past decade--GVSU and UNO--the biggest difference I see is that both of these programs have had numerous talented transfers who have played big roles, whereas UND has had relatively few (Jeff McElroy, Glen Mathews, Travis Lueck and Jared Enger come to mind over the past 10-12 years). Yesterday, for example, all of UNO's touchdowns were accounted for by transfers--Zach Miller (Nebraska), Brian McNeill (juco) and Keith Eloi (juco). Additionally, one of their top defenders was Nebraska transfer Jeff Souder. GVSU has also had numerous transfers who have been difference-makers, including Cullen Finnerty. UND has done a tremendous job of high school recruiting, IMO, but should a bigger effort be put into getting transfers who may be difference-makers? Is it even realistic given our location?

It's OK to get a few players this way, but you have to be very careful to make certain that you maintain the team unity. I think a good example of this is Mankato, by many account the most athletic team UND has played this year but isn't likely to even make the playoffs. Sure they are good, but are they living up to the level of talent they have?

[UND92,96]

It's OK to get a few players this way, but you have to be very careful to make certain that you maintain the team unity. I think a good example of this is Mankato, by many account the most athletic team UND has played this year but isn't likely to even make the playoffs. Sure they are good, but are they living up to the level of talent they have?

Therein lies the problem. However, it has seemed to work well at GVSU, and even though UNO has no playoff success to speak of, it certainly seems to have worked out for them in the regular season. I really don't know the answer, but I feel pretty confident that but for the impact of transfers, neither GVSU nor UNO would have had the success they've had against UND. It would be kind of interesting to know what percentage of starters on national championship teams over the past decade have been transfers.

[BigGame]

Therein lies the problem. However, it has seemed to work well at GVSU, and even though UNO has no playoff success to speak of, it certainly seems to have worked out for them in the regular season. I really don't know the answer, but I feel pretty confident that but for the impact of transfers, neither GVSU nor UNO would have had the success they've had against UND. It would be kind of interesting to know what percentage of starters on national championship teams over the past decade have been transfers.

I have a feeling UND may be recruiting more JUCO players over the next couple of years. UND doesn't sign a lot of transfers, but it seems like they are about 50/50 on whether the players that do transfer in make a big impact.

[GeauxSioux]

Pretty rough day of football at our house yesterday. As you may or may not know, the Geaux in the GeauxSioux is because my wife is an LSU grad and their slogan is Geaux Tigers. It fit kind of nicely with Sioux, hence GeauxSioux.

Both UND and LSU entered yesterday undefeated, coming off of a week where they came back in the 4th quarter. Both teams lost yesterday.

I think the LSU loss will keep them from winning the national championship. UND just needs to get back in the "W" column and controls their own destiny.

Go Sioux!!!!

[BigGame]

Pretty rough day of football at our house yesterday. As you may or may not know, the Geaux in the GeauxSioux is because my wife is an LSU grad and their slogan is Geaux Tigers. It fit kind of nicely with Sioux, hence GeauxSioux.

Both UND and LSU entered yesterday undefeated, coming off of a week where they came back in the 4th quarter. Both teams lost yesterday.

I think the LSU loss will keep them from winning the national championship. UND just needs to get back in the "W" column and controls their own destiny.

Go Sioux!!!!

Is the wife Cajun?

[GeauxSioux]

Is the wife Cajun?

Not Cajun. Native New Orleanian. She does make great jambalaya and red beans and rice though.

[RD17]

This is just my own personal theory, but when you look at the two programs who have winning records against UND over the past decade--GVSU and UNO--the biggest difference I see is that both of these programs have had numerous talented transfers who have played big roles, whereas UND has had relatively few (Jeff McElroy, Glen Mathews, Travis Lueck and Jared Enger come to mind over the past 10-12 years). Yesterday, for example, all of UNO's touchdowns were accounted for by transfers--Zach Miller (Nebraska), Brian McNeill (juco) and Keith Eloi (juco). Additionally, one of their top defenders was Nebraska transfer Jeff Souder. GVSU has also had numerous transfers who have been difference-makers, including Cullen Finnerty. UND has done a tremendous job of high school recruiting, IMO, but should a bigger effort be put into getting transfers who may be difference-makers? Is it even realistic given our location?

This is a great point and you are 100% correct... UND has made a huge mistake in the last couple of years by not aggressively seeking a couple of impact transfers. For example, in 2005 UND was 2 or 3 offensive players short of a national championship. This season you add three impact defensive players to the roster and you have a national championship team. I just don't understand why, when you are so close to being good enough to win it all, you wouldn't throw caution to the wind and do whatever you can to add those last couple of pieces... especially this year when you can spend the money now on transfers with the promise that they can have a full ride in 2008.

I think people get the wrong impression about Grand Valley in thinking that they have all these D-I transfers. The truth is that GVSU is 90-95% high school recruits. But what they do well is sprinkle in transfers to plug holes to make sure they can put the best possible team on the field each year. Example: they graduated their top receiver off of last year's team and were a bit thin at that position. So this year they go get a Northwestern transfer and he becomes their go-to receiver without a dropoff in production from last year. Northwest Missouri State is doing the same thing... they lost a bunch of impact linebackers from last year's team, so they found an Iowa State transfer with one year of eligibility to plug in this year. UND is the only elite program in D2 that isn't taking this approach when it comes to transfers and I really believe it has cost the Sioux at least one national championship over the past few years.

[BigGame]

Not Cajun. Native New Orleanian. She does make great jambalaya and red beans and rice though.

I didn't think so, most Cajuns I have met don't really seem like the type to go to college, but you never can tell. Does she make Crawfish Etouffee? done right that is very good.

[GeauxSioux]

I didn't think so, most Cajuns I have met don't really seem like the type to go to college, but you never can tell. Does she make Crawfish Etouffee? done right that is very good.

She does indeed. Her family also has an annual crawfish boil. Good Eats!

[fightingsioux4life]

This is a great point and you are 100% correct... UND has made a huge mistake in the last couple of years by not aggressively seeking a couple of impact transfers. For example, in 2005 UND was 2 or 3 offensive players short of a national championship. This season you add three impact defensive players to the roster and you have a national championship team. I just don't understand why, when you are so close to being good enough to win it all, you wouldn't throw caution to the wind and do whatever you can to add those last couple of pieces... especially this year when you can spend the money now on transfers with the promise that they can have a full ride in 2008.

I think this statement is a little more accurate if you replace 2005 with 2004. The 2004 team had the defense and special teams to win it all, but (outside of Dressler) didn't have enough offensive talent to pull it off. The 2005 team had a little of everything until that devestating loss to Omaha in the Alerus. They never recovered from that mentally or emotionally.

I am not really a fan of adding JUCOs unless they are used to fill obvious, glaring holes. And you have to be careful of which JUCO kids you add. Some of them are JUCOs because of character issues or academic issues or because they quit their original school of choice because they didn't want to earn their playing time. Lennon won't put up with any of that garbage. If you can find good JUCO kids, then it can be a benefit. I think with the move up to DI FCS, Lennon will look more closely at JUCO talent.