Category: Football

There’s been a lot of chatter about the perceived decline of the UND defense and when it began. Though stats don’t tell the whole story — each season includes a different set of opponents, and the team plays to win the game not to beat the stats — they’re an interesting place to start. Thanks to UND92,96 in the forum for doing the legwork, here are this year’s defensive stats compared to the past few years.

Year	YPG	PPG
2000	217 ypg	13.3 ppg
2001	191 ypg	13.0 ppg
2002	276 ypg	19.2 ppg
2003	304 ypg	19.3 ppg
2004	250 ypg	10.5 ppg
2005	262 ypg	13.0 ppg
2006	314 ypg	17.9 ppg
2007	320 ypg	19.7 ppg
2008	368 ypg	25.3 ppg

Regular-season only.

UND asked me to pass on to you that you can submit questions for Coach Mussman to:

undgreen@gmail.com

Please include your name and hometown, and Coach Mussman might answer your question live on Sioux Sports Extra! You can watch on WDAZ if you’re in the right area, or online by clicking on the link.

Sioux Sports Extra! broadcast info

While a student at UND, I never gave much thought to the fact that football games were played on Saturday afternoons.  I went to some games, and if I had other things to do I listened on the radio.  When I lived in Madison, WI, I often cheerfully began tailgating at Oakcrest Tavern at 9am in anticipation of an 11am game.  I’ve always seen a typical college football game as being played around noon.

On the flip side, fans on the SiouxSports forum have long noticed the attendance drops on big hunting weekends, observed that Saturday afternoon games are inaccessible to those who work on Saturdays, and complained that attending an early afternoon game consumes an entire day for families who have to travel to reach the game.

Sioux fans often use NDSU as a yardstick for a successful I-AA/FCS football transition.  The Bison, who managed to increase attendance from an average of 11567 five years ago to 18141 last year, scheduled the following game times for this season: 7pm (1), 6pm (3), 3pm (1), 1pm (1).  SDSU, which has similarly bumped attendance from 5547 to 11218 over their transition, scheduled the following home times for this season: 6pm (3), 2pm (2), 1pm (1).

Those attendance increases are largely on the back of transition excitement and success on the field, but the results are in on UND’s first Thursday night game as a I-AA/FCS team — attendance was an impressive 11434.  (box score)  That’s the largest opening home crowd ever for the Alerus, and the 10th largest crowd in the building’s eight year history.

Local print media are blogging about it (they like day games for lead-time reasons), and fans are having substantial discussions (in which they note that the crowd was not only large, but particularly loud and engaged).

A big crowd not only helps with revenue but actually helps the home team on the field — just ask any of UND’s past playoff opponents who had the misfortune of being sent to the Alerus in the post-season.  In fact, in last Thursday’s game, Texas A&M-Kingsville had eight false starts.

UND has one more evening home game this season — Southern Utah on Nov. 8.  Given UND’s usually precipitous November attendance drops, many will be watching to see how attendance fares for that first home game vs. a I-AA/FCS opponent. UND football has a new coach, a new athletic director, a new division, and new opponents on future schedules.  UND is taking bold moves and fan excitement is high.  I, for one, wouldn’t be surprised to see more night games in the future.

As UND prepares to release the football schedule for it’s first year of D-I FCS (I-AA) football, fans have deduced that the schedule will probably look something like this:

Aug. 28 Texas A&M-Kingsville
Sept. 6 St. Cloud St.
Sept. 13 UW-La Crosse
Sept. 18 @ Idaho St.
Sept. 27 @ Southeastern Louisiana
Oct. 4 OPEN
Oct. 11 OPEN
Oct. 18 Western Washington
Oct. 25 @ UC Davis
Nov. 1 @ Southern Illinois
Nov. 8 Southern Utah
Nov. 15 OPEN
Nov. 22 @ South Dakota

Note — this is not the official schedule, but a fan compilation of known and rumored games

The first year of the transition is the toughest to schedule, because UND is considered a “non-counter” for teams with aspirations of making the I-AA playoffs. The inevitable comparisons with first-year schedules for other recently transitioned schools have arisen, and bincitysioux came through again with a breakdown of 1st year D-I schedules for current and former Great West members.

SDSU HOME GAMES: three DII’s, one transitional (GWFC game)
SDSU ROAD GAMES: two transitional, 5 established DI’s

UC DAVIS HOME GAMES: four DII’s, one transitional (future GWFC team), one established DI (future GWFC team)
UC DAVIS ROAD GAMES: one DII (future GWFC team), three established DI’s

NDSU HOME GAMES: one non-scholarship, one NAIA, one DII, three established DI’s (2 GWFC games)
NDSU ROAD GAMES: three transitionals (GWFC games), two established DI’s

USD HOME GAMES: three NAIA, one DII, one transitional (GWFC game)
USD ROAD GAMES: five established DI’s (2 GWFC games)

N. COLORADO HOME GAMES: five DII’s
N. COLORADO ROAD GAMES: one DII, one transitional (GWFC team) four established DI’s

UND HOME GAMES: one non-scholarship, three DII’s, one established DI (GWFC game)
UND ROAD GAMES: one transitional (GWFC game), 4 established DI’s (1 GWFC game)

While every football fan should have been hoping for a better schedule, this is on par with what other transitional teams were able to put together.

While comments here are always welcome, you might as well just head over to the UND 2008 Schedule thread and check on the latest.

All-time: GVSU leads 3-2
At GVSU: GVSU leads 2-0
At UND: UND leads 1-0
Neutral: Tied 1-1

How GVSU’s past six seasons have ended

2001 – playoff loss vs UND
2002 – National Champ
2003 – National Champ
2004 – playoff loss at UND
2005 – National Champ
2006 – National Champ

How UND’s past six seasons have ended

2001 – National Champ
2002 – Did not make playoffs
2003 – playoff loss vs GVSU
2004 – playoff loss at Pitt St.
2005 – playoff loss at GVSU
2006 – playoff loss at GVSU

December 8, 2001

UND 17, GVSU 14
NCAA National Championship Game
Florence, AL

The Sioux were down 10-14 with 38 seconds left in the game. UND was on its own 41 and facing a fourth down. A missed tackle resulted in a pass to the Sioux tight end completing for 58 yards, setting the Sioux up with a first-and-goal and seconds on the clock. Jed Perkerewiez punched it in for the Sioux, sealing UND’s first national championship.

I was still pruning messages after 60 days and SiouxSports.com didn’t have a football forum yet. In fact, I think I added it due to the upsurge in interest on the site following UND’s first football national championship.

“Sioux Football, Way to go!” thread

December 13, 2003

UND 3, GVSU 10
NCAA National Championship Game
Florence, AL
Ugly weather and staunch defenses on both sides resulted in very little offensive production this game. The deciding, and only, touchdown came after GVSU returned a UND fumble in the red zone.

GVSU drove to the 1-yard line on the opening drive, but had to settle for a field goal in what would turn out to be the only points of the half.

UND drove to the GVSU 7 to open the second half, but the GVSU defense returned a turnover to the UND 20, setting their offense up for the only TD of the game, giving GVSU a 10-0 lead.

The Sioux again drove into Laker territory, but missed the 43-yard FG attempt when the kicker slipped in the mud. On subsequent drives in the fourth, the Sioux missed a 46-yard FG attempt and nailed a 35-yard one. GVSU missed a 43-yard attempt with about 4 minutes remaining, leaving UND one last chance.

In the game’s final drive, the Sioux were hoping to repeat their 2001 performance as they drove to a 1st-and-10 at the Grand Valley 17. However, the GVSU defense held and GVSU took the honor of having won two of the last three championships instead of UND.

Notably, GVSU did not have home field for any of its post-season games in this championship season.

SiouxSports.com game thread
My photos from the game
My road trip to the game

November 27, 2004

UND 19, GVSU 15
NCAA Quarterfinals
Grand Forks, ND

SiouxSports.com game thread

Between the 2003 and 2004 seasons, the NCAA realigned Division II, putting GVSU and UND in the same region. That meant we had seen the last GVSU vs. UND national championship game, and that the two teams would instead meet in the regionals.

The first such meeting occurred in Grand Forks, as GVSU had lost two games in the regular season. GVSU led 9-3 going into the fourth, when the scoring seesaw began. A 34 yard drive culminating in a Sioux field goal was answered by a 76 yard Laker drive for a TD, bringing the score to 15-6 GVSU (missed PAT). The Sioux answered with a 68 yard TD drive, the first UND TD against the Laker defense in seven quarters, leaving the Lakers with a 15-12 lead (on another missed PAT). The game was decided when UND sacked GVSU’s quarterback and forced a fumble, setting up a UND possession that would lead to the game-winning TD.

November 19, 2005

UND 3, GVSU 17
NCAA 2nd Round
Allendale, MI

The stat of the game:
Fumbles Lost: UND 3, GVSU 0

In UND’s first trip to Lubbers Stadium, GVSU scored TDs on consecutive drives of 85 and 69 yards with the wind in the 2nd quarter. Those two scores proved to be the margin of victory, as the Laker defense kept UND out of the end zone, including a four-down stop against the Sioux on a 1st and goal from the 3.

The Sioux were plagued by a slow start, as GVSU posted 208 yards of offense in the first half, while UND posted only 105. UND ended the game with 332 yards of total offense to GVSU’s 286.

December 2, 2006

UND 20, GVSU 30
NCAA Quarterfinals
Allendale, MI

Sioux comeback bid falls short
SiouxSports.com game thread

GVSU media relations’ description of this game opens:
“The play of the game between Grand Valley State and North Dakota might have come just after the coin toss. Grand Valley State won the toss and elected to defer to the second half, while the Fighting Sioux decided to go against the wind in the first quarter. That decision proved costly.”

I proposed early on that we played the wind wrong, while others noted bigger problems.

The bottom-line to this game is GVSU came out ready to play and used the wind advantage to run up the score to 27-0 by the end of the first. UND clawed back, scoring 20 points in the remaining three quarters, but also left plenty of points on the field.

I wonder what UND could have done if it GVSU hadn’t had the luxury of defending a 27 point lead for the final three quarters, but there’s no doubt that the team that played better football won this day.