NDSU BISON @ Iowa State University Cyclones
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Not only that, but it's from 2009. Impressive win (1-0 in 11 innings), but it was before Oklahoma was, well, Oklahoma. Good team, but Keilani Ricketts was a freshman that year and didn't pitch the game.
I did not want to re-post your thing Stormin, so I only took the parts I was gonna respond to. Btw, great football insight "thumbs up"!
You talk about Maginio as an excitement point for your offense. It should be. Anytime a coach with any name recognition comes in, fans are going to be excited. Our new Offensive Cordinator, Tim Polasek has brought NDSU fans excitement. Many fans critized the out-going one (Vigen now in WY) as not really opening up a play book. I kind of disagreed there, b/c his plan fit the team mold. It's going to be interesting to see what kinds of new plays/formations/etc. our team has. He came from NIU, and has a ton of energy. It is kind of the opposite of Vigen, who was kind of a quiet guy.
To me one unsung hero that Bohl wanted badlyin WY, stayed here in Fargo.. our strength and condition Director, Jim Cramer. He has done an amazing job with making sure the team can compete at a high level for four quarters. I give a ton of the KSU game credit to him as he was able to push the atheletes to high levels of conditioning on that really hot night. That could be a major key to the Bison possibly winning.. who is better conditioned since it is week one.
I can't say I am an ISU fan.. but talking about your close losses. I remember your B.S. loss to Texas. I will admit, I was cheering for you guys to beat them. They are my fifth most hated school.
As I have mentioned before, the game is the first of the year for both teams. It is not going to be the cleaniest game of the year for either team. Mistakes are going to be made, it is going to come down to who makes the least amount of them. Even stupid ones you wont see come October like a center-QB exchange could happen, b/c it is early season.
I just hope the game is close and is fun to watch. At the end of the day, anyone can say what they want about the other school. In the end we are all fans with a common bond of college football.
This. These first of the year games between opponents from different backgrounds usually come down to toughness and scrapiness. That is where UNI punched us in the nose. And from the standpoint we have no idea what to expect on our side. We are hoping their is a new level of toughness. This is the one thing NDSU can probably be confident in bringing to the game.
There's a story in there somewhere. Or at the very least, you have a list somewhere that could be interesting.
IMO, the problem against UNI was that we thought we could just show up and get a win. UNI was well coached and outplayed and outhustled us. At the same time, don't discount the fact that our most important lineman Center Tom Farniok went down early in the game to injury. That was devastating. Defense was absolutely awful as UNI literally ran over us. Jeremiah George forgot to even play that game and was not focused on doing HIS job but was instead worried about everyone else on the Cyclone D and not about the UNI offense.
We got punched in the face and got beat. We improved our play and beat Tulsa and then played Texas which was a win to everyone watching except the officials. We got punched in the nuts that time. That took a lot of the wind out of the sails and the season went down the toilet.
We will expect a battle against NDSU. No surprises. We will need to execute and perform. We have an experienced offense coming back. Center to QB exchange should be fine because we return 2 starters there. We have experience in the OL back. Starters all the way across. Procedure penalties should be minimal. Our receivers are big, fast, and talented. We return our best RB. And we have a new OC. But NDSU will field a tough defense.
And on Defense we are uncertain. We have a number of players with talent competing for spots. But we are inexperienced in some areas. Which usually means growing pains, and learning from some mistakes. I am optimistic, yet realistic.
Some hope for this thread now with some decent discussion (at least until Lakes shows up again).
NDSU will try to pound it with their giant QB & RB. I hope we go big lineup-wise and target those two first. Load the box and dare the first time starter to pass.
This will be true for the first 3 games...at least we will have time to practice against the run.
In defense of Jeremiah, it came out later that he was playing with a pulled hamstring the first few games.
IMO, we will start Morrissey, Jensen, Cousin, and Meyers on the line. LB's will be Knott, Brackens, and Meeks. Corners will be Tribune and Richardson. Safeties Mutcherson and Cotton-Moya. We will play corners very tight and man up on them. No big cushion. IMO, we line up okay against them. Stuff their run and don't get sucked into the screen play like K-State did. On offense I expect us to give them a steady diet of Bibbs and gash them with Wimberly when their LB's get pre-occupied. Should be a good game and I am enthused to see the Mangino offense with a healthy confidant Sam Richardson at QB.
Yes, we are pretty set at running back. I am not worried about that spot at all. We have one returning that played 50% of the carries last year in John Crockett, he is more of slash/shifty runner. It has not been determined who the number two RB is. Chase Morelock (Soph) is a local boy, who actually played well as a true freshman last year. Chase is a bigger/bruising back that would rather run in, than around you. Then is King Frazier the Nebraska transfer, according to media his a tweener guy, I have not seen him play a down so I can't tell anything other than the coaching staff seems like him.
If you do load the box and make the kid throw alot, I think TE and Vraa could have a busy day. I know (TE) Vaaland's stats are not overly impressive.. but he is sneaky. He comes up with the important plays and not necessarilay alot of receptions. Slot reciever is another positon that is up in the air right now. We lost a good one. Possibly one of the two true freshman could land that role.
Did the quarterback get a lot of snaps in clean up duty last year? Did they let him air it out?
Frazier goes about 5'11" and 220. He has some speed but is like Morlock, between the tackles take on a LB head on and try and power his way for 3-5 yards and if blocking opens up hole Frazier does have a little speed to him. I have heard that they may be looking at more carries for Crockett this year. Which in years past has usually always been a 50-50 split with the backs. I don't think they would go over 60-40 though cause as we have seen the freshness and the split reps has done wonders for our running game.
It's no secret what NDSU will want to do. They will, as always, try and establish the run game. The only issue that I am concerned with as to the opener is how well our OLine comes together. Losing Colville to career ending knee issues and Johnson for season hurts so instead of replacing 2 guys we replace 4. If they are able to get a little bit of push and the Bison can stay ahead of the chains, then its gameplan as usual. Try and wear down ISU defensive line, then in late 3rd or 4th quarter, have the advantage up front. That's what they have done to every team the last 4 years. It's about strength and conditioning. How long will the defensive line for ISU be strong. If your defense struggles to get off the field it will be similar to UNI game last year. Crockett is an equal to or if got a bulk of the carries, which our system doesn't really do, he would have Zenner like numbers and be above David Johnson, but I think Crockett and Johnson are pretty even as the best RB prospects in FCS this season. With all that being said, I am excited to see Wentz play in full game mode. He was highly praised and highly recruited out of HS. He learned from a great leader in Brock Jensen. And everything we have heard from coaches and local media is his arm is stronger then Brock, and he can make some throws that will get your attention. So I am excited about how things come together.
The Bison defense will be as solid as it has been in the past. Best safety tandem in FCS I believe. They both play the run very well. Dudzik has the fastest closing speed on rb's I have seen in years. CJ Smith is a very solid CB. LB's are fast and all return. Littlejohn will be all over the field as usual. I look for Emanual to cause some problems from the DE spot and DT Nate Tanguay should be a stud this year. Can't wait to see him on the field.
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One thing I definitely agree with is that I don't want our defense out there for long stretches. Since it might be our weakness again this year, we'll need the offense to keep some sustained drives.
This game so reminds me of Tulsa last season. They had lost almost their whole offensive line, quarterback but returned a good running back. Everyone on this board was scared of playing them after we lost to them in the bowl game the season before. We thoroughly dominated that game at Tulsa last season by stopping the run and finding out that Green was a backup for 3 years for a reason, similar to what we will see August 30th with Wentz. The line of scrimmage is where ISU will win this game with all 5 returning starters on offense and Cousin, Morrissey, and Jensen all starters last season returning on the defensive line. ISU by 17-20 points in this game.
God I hope you're right. Vegas sure doesn't agree with you. A team on a 29 game winning streak won't be lacking confidence.
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