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Post by unafied on Sept 15, 2018 18:42:07 GMT -6
Thanks, our (in my opinion) most dynamic receiver came out early in the game and never returned. Congrats on the win, first class program up there, and first class people. Which receiver are you talking about? Boykin? I thought that's who got hurt, but returned. Jakobi Byrd.
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Post by lions09 on Sept 15, 2018 19:17:49 GMT -6
Roar Lions! Proud of the team.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Sept 15, 2018 20:02:28 GMT -6
Byrd got hurt on 2nd play of the game and was in a boot the rest of the game...he limped off. Sad for him, he so far has easily been our best playmaker. Can't knock the guy down, 3 Td's and leading receiver on the team. We have a lot of receivers that are good, Byrd just has a different gear with the ball in his hands. He would not have made enough of a difference today against the Bisons. I just know how much he wanted to play in this game and then was not able to play.
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Post by willsfc on Sept 15, 2018 22:23:09 GMT -6
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nodak
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Post by nodak on Sept 16, 2018 8:20:05 GMT -6
Outstanding game. The final score was not a good indicator of the flow of the game. I keep looking at it and, having watched the game, wonder how in the world the Bison got 38 points. The fact is that there were just 3-4 plays that make a HUGE difference. And all seemed to have broken NDSU's way. The high snap, the 2 long passes to Freeman, the long Pick-6, the long TD run in mop-up time. That's 31 of the 38 points right there. I think some of those were also, somewhat, difference in talent and execution, but this was not a "blow-out" win. The Bison were never able to put together a "signature drive" where they hold the ball for 12-15 plays and 8+ minutes of game clock. To me that was a credit to the UNA defense who showed up and played well. As well as any team does against NDSU. HUGE credit to them.
The offense couldn't get any time for the QB. Multiple times the D-Line got off the ball faster and quicker than the O-line. UNA adjusted and ran some draws/screens to take advantage of it. I was cheering for the Bison. But UNA is going to have plenty of success. And I look forward to seeing them in a few years when they have completed their transition. This is a Playoff level team (at large) right now. And will only get better. It is what I hoped I would see. Another strong team in the FCS.
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Post by unafied on Sept 16, 2018 9:26:08 GMT -6
Outstanding game. The final score was not a good indicator of the flow of the game. I keep looking at it and, having watched the game, wonder how in the world the Bison got 38 points. The fact is that there were just 3-4 plays that make a HUGE difference. And all seemed to have broken NDSU's way. The high snap, the 2 long passes to Freeman, the long Pick-6, the long TD run in mop-up time. That's 31 of the 38 points right there. I think some of those were also, somewhat, difference in talent and execution, but this was not a "blow-out" win. The Bison were never able to put together a "signature drive" where they hold the ball for 12-15 plays and 8+ minutes of game clock. To me that was a credit to the UNA defense who showed up and played well. As well as any team does against NDSU. HUGE credit to them. The offense couldn't get any time for the QB. Multiple times the D-Line got off the ball faster and quicker than the O-line. UNA adjusted and ran some draws/screens to take advantage of it. I was cheering for the Bison. But UNA is going to have plenty of success. And I look forward to seeing them in a few years when they have completed their transition. This is a Playoff level team (at large) right now. And will only get better. It is what I hoped I would see. Another strong team in the FCS. Thanks nodak. That’s certainly a fair assessment. We had a few mistakes that we probably don’t normally make. But, I’m sure you guys had something to do with that. Your defense is lightning fast. I struggle to see many teams that will be able to score on you - SDSU maybe? You play them, right? I was very proud of our defense. THAT’s the kind of play we expected to see coming into the season, regardless of what the final score says. Against a lot of FCS teams I feel like yesterday would have been a dominating performance by our D. I said for weeks I hoped for us to keep it within 28. So I’ll take 31. Before the season I bet some of your fans would’ve seen a transitioning D2 team on the schedule and pictured a 70-0 blowout. And yeah, you had backups in in the 4th quarter, but still. I don’t feel embarrassed by our performance. I wanted to scare you guys - maybe we didn’t do that, but at least frustrated you some, perhaps? Still a loss either way, but not something to be ashamed of. Good luck the the rest of the way. I fully expect to see you in Frisco. Wish I could say Chattanooga still - I live here, and miss that championship game!
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Post by brandon on Sept 16, 2018 9:51:52 GMT -6
Outstanding game. The final score was not a good indicator of the flow of the game. I keep looking at it and, having watched the game, wonder how in the world the Bison got 38 points. The fact is that there were just 3-4 plays that make a HUGE difference. And all seemed to have broken NDSU's way. The high snap, the 2 long passes to Freeman, the long Pick-6, the long TD run in mop-up time. That's 31 of the 38 points right there. I think some of those were also, somewhat, difference in talent and execution, but this was not a "blow-out" win. The Bison were never able to put together a "signature drive" where they hold the ball for 12-15 plays and 8+ minutes of game clock. To me that was a credit to the UNA defense who showed up and played well. As well as any team does against NDSU. HUGE credit to them. The offense couldn't get any time for the QB. Multiple times the D-Line got off the ball faster and quicker than the O-line. UNA adjusted and ran some draws/screens to take advantage of it. I was cheering for the Bison. But UNA is going to have plenty of success. And I look forward to seeing them in a few years when they have completed their transition. This is a Playoff level team (at large) right now. And will only get better. It is what I hoped I would see. Another strong team in the FCS. Thanks nodak. That’s certainly a fair assessment. We had a few mistakes that we probably don’t normally make. But, I’m sure you guys had something to do with that. Your defense is lightning fast. I struggle to see many teams that will be able to score on you - SDSU maybe? You play them, right? I was very proud of our defense. THAT’s the kind of play we expected to see coming into the season, regardless of what the final score says. Against a lot of FCS teams I feel like yesterday would have been a dominating performance by our D. I said for weeks I hoped for us to keep it within 28. So I’ll take 31. Before the season I bet some of your fans would’ve seen a transitioning D2 team on the schedule and pictured a 70-0 blowout. And yeah, you had backups in in the 4th quarter, but still. I don’t feel embarrassed by our performance. I wanted to scare you guys - maybe we didn’t do that, but at least frustrated you some, perhaps? Still a loss either way, but not something to be ashamed of. Good luck the the rest of the way. I fully expect to see you in Frisco. Wish I could say Chattanooga still - I live here, and miss that championship game! I agree with you for everything but the first part. I think we have a bad habit of shooting ourselves in the foot. Judging by the first 3 games, the way our Defense played against a (let's be honest) juggernaut in all phases of the game, we should have destroyed A&M, but stupid mistakes by both players and coaches let them stay in it, and yes, they are better than normal A&M teams of the past, but let's be honest, they have a long way to go to be a competitive factor of the rest of our future schedules. SUU looking back, (and I understand it was the first game and they had to find their legs, but we still made some big mistakes, we have a ton of work to do, we have a ton of lessons to learn. But overall I am happy with the progress so far. Barring any catastrophe, and depending on who we may schedule to replace Insecure Word, we should not drop another game this year. If we take anything away from 2 big games in the last 3 years, (NDSU and NWMS) we have to develop 4 and 5 year guys. And we have to hire great coaches that want to be here and develop coaches as well. We cant be JSU and rely primarily on transfers. We need to look at NDSU and their standard, meet it and raise it. After this week, I'll be rooting for the Bison as my number 2 team, they are a classy group. ROAR LIONS
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Post by unafied on Sept 16, 2018 11:23:51 GMT -6
I agree with you for everything but the first part. I think we have a bad habit of shooting ourselves in the foot. Judging by the first 3 games, the way our Defense played against a (let's be honest) juggernaut in all phases of the game, we should have destroyed A&M, but stupid mistakes by both players and coaches let them stay in it, and yes, they are better than normal A&M teams of the past, but let's be honest, they have a long way to go to be a competitive factor of the rest of our future schedules. SUU looking back, (and I understand it was the first game and they had to find their legs, but we still made some big mistakes, we have a ton of work to do, we have a ton of lessons to learn. But overall I am happy with the progress so far. Barring any catastrophe, and depending on who we may schedule to replace Insecure Word, we should not drop another game this year. If we take anything away from 2 big games in the last 3 years, (NDSU and NWMS) we have to develop 4 and 5 year guys. And we have to hire great coaches that want to be here and develop coaches as well. We cant be JSU and rely primarily on transfers. We need to look at NDSU and their standard, meet it and raise it. After this week, I'll be rooting for the Bison as my number 2 team, they are a classy group. ROAR LIONS Yeah, I can’t disagree on the mistakes. In my defense, I was only able to watch the second half of the SUU game, and had to listen to the AAMU game. So I literally haven’t seen some of these problems. Maybe I should’ve said it’s not like how we play historically. I guess the team, along with Willis and staff, are still growing and learning. I’m more confident in Willis now than I was a year ago, and hopefully he is able to grow into the type of coach that can teach a team to play confident and smart even when outmanned. I also agree about staying away from transfers eventually, though they were necessary this year. I hated the Bowden era and was relieved when he left. Remember when Coach Wallace’s first class had about 50 high school signees? I believe some of those kids were 4 year guys on our runner-up team in 2016. So yeah, that’s what I want. I actually heard an interesting theory somewhere (maybe here, I don’t remember offhand) that NDSU benefits from recruiting services usually downplaying the talent in high school players from that region (the Dakotas and Minnesota). If they have a “2*” beside their name, none of the FBS schools come calling. But those guys turn out to be a lot better than projected. I noticed a bulk of NDSU’s team was from those areas, so there might be some truth to it. The truth is, if we recruit skill guys like we always have, I think we’ll match up well with anyone. The difference will always be linemen and depth. We have to get bigger and stronger on the lines. That may be tougher in the southeast where a guy who’s 6’7” and 290 will almost always find himself at an SEC school. Our staff will have to find a way to develop undersized guys or find diamonds in the rough. Meanwhile, maybe we should assign someone to exclusively recruit the Dakotas
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Post by tojo70 on Sept 16, 2018 12:49:44 GMT -6
I’ve been to a lot of college football games/tailgates never have I ever been part of a better atmosphere or kinder people. UNA fans can learn a lot from Bison fans. I hope Linder will try to put the Bison on our schedule again in a few years. Thanks to the Bison nation for the kindest hospitality. They say southern hospitality ...seriously North Dakota hospitality is head a toes above. We have a lot to learn in Florence from the Bison nation...oh the game. Lots of mistakes but defense played an incredible game..and we finally put points on the board. Bison nation come south and we’ll try our best to reciprocate. Glad we are home next week! Glad you had a great time. I knew you would. Thanks for posting about your experience. Us Bison fans get a bad name mainly from the few that post on message boards that are cocky jerks. But I've never heard a bad word from someone from another fan base that attended a game at the Fargo Dome. It's a great experience.
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nodak
New Member
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Post by nodak on Sept 16, 2018 16:00:52 GMT -6
Thanks nodak. That’s certainly a fair assessment. We had a few mistakes that we probably don’t normally make. But, I’m sure you guys had something to do with that. Your defense is lightning fast. I struggle to see many teams that will be able to score on you - SDSU maybe? You play them, right? I was very proud of our defense. THAT’s the kind of play we expected to see coming into the season, regardless of what the final score says. Against a lot of FCS teams I feel like yesterday would have been a dominating performance by our D. I said for weeks I hoped for us to keep it within 28. So I’ll take 31. Before the season I bet some of your fans would’ve seen a transitioning D2 team on the schedule and pictured a 70-0 blowout. And yeah, you had backups in in the 4th quarter, but still. I don’t feel embarrassed by our performance. I wanted to scare you guys - maybe we didn’t do that, but at least frustrated you some, perhaps? Still a loss either way, but not something to be ashamed of. Good luck the the rest of the way. I fully expect to see you in Frisco. Wish I could say Chattanooga still - I live here, and miss that championship game! I agree with you for everything but the first part. I think we have a bad habit of shooting ourselves in the foot. Judging by the first 3 games, the way our Defense played against a (let's be honest) juggernaut in all phases of the game, we should have destroyed A&M, but stupid mistakes by both players and coaches let them stay in it, and yes, they are better than normal A&M teams of the past, but let's be honest, they have a long way to go to be a competitive factor of the rest of our future schedules. SUU looking back, (and I understand it was the first game and they had to find their legs, but we still made some big mistakes, we have a ton of work to do, we have a ton of lessons to learn. But overall I am happy with the progress so far. Barring any catastrophe, and depending on who we may schedule to replace Insecure Word, we should not drop another game this year. If we take anything away from 2 big games in the last 3 years, (NDSU and NWMS) we have to develop 4 and 5 year guys. And we have to hire great coaches that want to be here and develop coaches as well. We cant be JSU and rely primarily on transfers. We need to look at NDSU and their standard, meet it and raise it. After this week, I'll be rooting for the Bison as my number 2 team, they are a classy group. ROAR LIONS Teams that can keep guys for 4+ years certainly have an advantage. But as I frequently tell JSU fans it isn't that formulaic. NDSU is a glory school in the area. If a kid is offered NDSU or Minnesota it isn't that unlikely he will choose NDSU. Minnesota doesn't want to admit it but a lot of their best HS talent drifts across the red river including 4 year starting safety Grimsley and the QB that ran the 40+yard TD in garbage time. Then they stay for 4 years. In Alabama if the played is really good there are some great FBS options where he would likely go. The second advantage is that every young football player in ND would be honored to play at NDSU. And frequently the "skill position" players come from around the nation (Stick from Omaha, Dunn from Iowa, Anderson from Tampa area) but I think 3 of the offensive lineman come from ND which is VERY lightly scouted by other prestigious teams. Add in W. Minnesota and then the number goes even higher. What UNA has you g for it is a strong winning tradition. Fans expect wins...And wins in the postseason. For the last several years teams that have given NDSU trouble have really good WR. Think SDSU, or EWU with Kupp. That what makes the WR injury you suffered particularly interesting. Honestly, I think NDSU wins the game by multiple scores no matter what, but it could have been a lot tighter on the scoreboard. The question would have boiled down to if the QB would have had time to get it to him.
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Sept 16, 2018 19:27:00 GMT -6
What we will never be able to duplicate from NDSU is fan enthusiasm. When the football fans of North Dakota are ready to hoot and holler and raise hell, it's for the Bison and the players really get jacked up because of it. It will never be that way for UNA, Jax State, Samford or even South Alabama or UAB. Their "fans" will be there, adorned in their newest crimson and white or orange and blue apparel. It's been that way for my almost 60 years of going to Lions games. I don't expect it to change. I would be ecstatic to be wrong. I always feel sorry for our guys when they take the field to the sound of silence, with the exception of the band and maybe a hundred or so of the truly faithful.
Our fans and city will never wrap it's arms around the Lions to make them feel special the way they should. If we ever played Bama, 90% of UNA fans would be screaming roll tide.
From what I've seen of the Big South, our roadtrips are going to be much like the ones in D2. Small, slumbering crowds. Hopefully coming upheavels will cause some realignment that might create more rivalries.
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nodak
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Post by nodak on Sept 16, 2018 21:20:26 GMT -6
What we will never be able to duplicate from NDSU is fan enthusiasm. When the football fans of North Dakota are ready to hoot and holler and raise hell, it's for the Bison and the players really get jacked up because of it. It will never be that way for UNA, Jax State, Samford or even South Alabama or UAB. Their "fans" will be there, adorned in their newest crimson and white or orange and blue apparel. It's been that way for my almost 60 years of going to Lions games. I don't expect it to change. I would be ecstatic to be wrong. I always feel sorry for our guys when they take the field to the sound of silence, with the exception of the band and maybe a hundred or so of the truly faithful. Our fans and city will never wrap it's arms around the Lions to make them feel special the way they should. If we ever played Bama, 90% of UNA fans would be screaming roll tide. From what I've seen of the Big South, our roadtrips are going to be much like the ones in D2. Small, slumbering crowds. Hopefully coming upheavels will cause some realignment that might create more rivalries. NDSU is THE show in the area. That does give them an advantage. If you get to the Twin Cities then you will get some avid Gopher fans. But get about 150 miles out of the Twin Cities and you are as likely, or more likely, to see Bison fans. South Dakota also has strong and loyal support but NDSU is THE program around here. They share with NO ONE. They are, up here, what Alabama/Auburn are in Alabama. I remember in a playoff game a few years ago the broadcaster was talking about it and said something like, "You know you have made it when you go to the local gas station and the LOCAL COLLEGE team apparel is for sale and not someone else's apparel. Fargo has that!" That is a huge advantage. The question I always have is Alabama has a MUCH larger population base than what NDSU draws from. So there is a certain demographic advantage in places like Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, etc. If you have 10M+ people you are more likely to have some really great athletes. And great coaches start drifting there. But the best of them go to the local "glory schools." Are the guys that go to plaes like JSU, UNA, etc. as good as those that go to NDSU to begin with, or are the transfers roughly equivalent to what NDSU has for 4 years? Or are they qualitatively different. As I said above, many of the "Rams" and TE and Fullbacks have rural ND/SD/NW MN roots. Not a lot of Div 1 coaches are showing up in Cavalier, ND to scout Brock Robins. Not a lot are showing up in Beach, ND to scout an offensive lineman who graduated recently (Landon Lechler). NONE are showing up in Belfour, ND to scout Tanner Volson (population 26 per 2010 census--no, I am not missing any zeros in that number). So the question becomes, "Does NDSU simply train these guys better than most FCS schools, are they getting higher quality guys than other FCS schools, or are they getting guys that no one else bothered to look at?" As I said in another post I realize they get lots of guys from across the country, espeically RB, DBs, etc. But a lot of the grunts up front are local area kids.
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Sept 17, 2018 0:13:23 GMT -6
In the 70s and 80s, UNA,Troy, Jax State, Alabama A&M and even D2 West Alabama, put many players into the NFL. Just take a look at the rosters of the Buffalo Bills in during their Super Bowl years. They were loaded with D2 players including NDSU's Phil Hansen, Alabama A&Ms Howard "The House" Ballard, Don Beebe, Keith McKeller from Jax State, Pete Metzelaars, Andre Reed, Leon Seals, Brad Lamb, Monty Brown, Kurt Schulz, Corbin Lacina, Ed Philion, Damon Thomas, Darick Holmes, Tim Tindale. And that was D2 on ONE TEAM! You don't see that anymore.
The biggest problem the Southern FCS teams face is poaching. In the Big Ten or Big 14, whatever they are, they either had big players or small players. After the Northern recruiters began coming down here looking for players who were not only FAST but BIG, things began to change. The big four of Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State,Penn State and Notre Dame get great players from down here. Where it kills us is when Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana NORTH DAKOTA STATE, etc come down and convince players who would have gone to South Alabama or UAB or Southern Miss to come up there and be a star (hot air ) and it works. That forces Southern Miss, UAB, South Alabama etc to dip into the player pool that supplies the FCS. Trickle down is REAL no matter what some say. There's a reason why northern teams suddenly got as fast as Southern teams and Division 2 teams from the South rarely win it all anymore. We're losing our players and there isn't a thing we can do about it. As far as UNA, except for the Bowden years, we've not been high on transfers. We did start taking more jucos because that where the best talent was because they couldn't qualify to go north. But we were good at finding the "tweeners" and developing them. One good thing is the unknown. You just don't know for sure if a kid is going to be more trouble than he is worth. You don't know if he's going to be like Ronald McKinnon. I don't know if anyone recruited him but us. 190 pound linebacker from a small high school who ended up growing to 230 pounds at UNA with good speed and one of the best noses for the football I've ever seen! He started all four years in the middle. He was one of the most honored athletes in college football history. A four-time, first-team All-GSC selection, McKinnon is one of just a handful of three-time consensus All-Americans in NCAA Division II history. He was selected the winner of the 1995 Harlon Hill Trophy as NCAA Division II National Player of the Year, becoming the first - and so far only - defensive player to win the award. He helped lead UNA to a combined 48-5-1 record that included three straight GSC championships and three straight NCAA Division II National Championships. He was named to the Gulf South Conference "Team of the Quarter Century" for 1971-95, was selected the "GSC Defensive Player of the Quarter Century" for 1971-95 and was named to the NCAA Division II "Team of the Quarter Century" for 1973-97. He was selected for the 50th Anniversary UNA Football Team for 1949-98, the Gulf South Conference Team of the 1990s and was named Alabama Sports Writers Association State Professional Athlete of the Year for 1998. He signed a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League following his senior season and spent the next 10 seasons in professional football. McKinnon played in 157 NFL games, spending nine seasons with the Cardinals and one with the New Orleans Saints. He finished his professional career with more than 1,000 tackles, 12 sacks and 10 pass interceptions. Meanwhile, NONE of the linebackers at Bama and Auburn from '92 to '95 stuck in the NFL. You snooze, you lose. We've had many more but none like Ronald. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008 and into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2010. In the late 70s and early 80s, UNA was a defensive back factory. I can't even remember how many altogether but if someone was looking for a DB with 4.3 speed AND would hit you, Florence was the place to look. In the Super Bowl where Joe Montana famously pointed out John Candy to his teammates in the huddle with less than a minute to play, there were two lions playing for the Bengals. Lewis Billups was the cover corner and Daryl Smith was a nickel back who played mostly on special teams. Billups had a shot at WINNING THE SUPER BOWL but he couldn't hang onto a pass by Montana. At least he didn't give up the game winner. Unfortunately as the migration took it's toll, I can't remember the last Lion to make it to the NFL who wasn't a transfer.
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Sept 17, 2018 0:42:25 GMT -6
highplainsbison, I added some things to the post I'm sure you'll find interesting!
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