NDSU defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton was literally running from an interview with several media members to his next destination on Tuesday afternoon. The point was obvious: there is no time to waste in trying to prepare for the Georgia Southern triple option. It’s doubtful the lights in the NDSU coaches office have been turned off since Sunday morning when preparations for the FCS semifinal at the dome began. “We’re grinding,” Hazelton said.
Fellow Forum scribe Eric Peterson has a story going tomorrow on Concordia’s triple option game, which is similar to the GSU look. Concordia, in fact, brought GSU head coach Jeff Monken to Fargo for an option clinic a few years ago when Monken was an assistant at Navy. This is really what this game on Saturday is boiling down to: how fast can NDSU learn a new scheme and how well will the Bison defend the option game.
Safety Colten Heagle said today he’s back from a thumb injury and that’s a big bonus for NDSU. Heagle is one of the better run defenders in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
Keep up the great work on the coverage. My only request is to drop the Bohl talk about moving on to another higher level school. There have been 5 or 6 positions already filled, and all by coaches within FBS. If it happens it happens, but all of this is distraction of unnecessary coverage. I know it is newsworthy, but not if it in unnewsworthy, if you know what I mean.
Our local media coverage is becoming a bit of a gushfest over the big mean,tough Ga. Southern Eagles. I love the coverage on facts etc.. but am a bit tired of hearing how tough and great this team is. That is old news, now let’s hear about the status of our team, who else is still dinged up and who is ready to go. DJ looked a bit more like mid-season against Lehigh than he did against JMU. Is he good with the foot?
Any talk on the students being gone after graduation?
Out here.
What’s with “Out here”?
How about concordias offense practices against our D? local pride.
study for finals this week and study the TO sounds busy
Clarification: The Forum has not run a single story on Bohl/other job and only mention was Dom blog post on Coloradoan newspaper story and about 10 second mention on a video blog.
Dom made it headline news last week on channel 6. None of the other stations mentioned it. Dont like to criticize Dom too much though because he gives the best Bison news coverage but I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration but I would imagine it gets tougher and tougher to find new material late in the year
Gabe, I appreciate your comment, here’s the link to the story we ran: http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/55875/
I thought it was newsworthy because a newspaper in Fort Collings at a 1-A; Mountain West school wrote that the university should be looking at Craig Bohl, and to be frank, I believe this is just the beginning. The more success NDSU has, the bigger the spotlight Bohl is going to have on him. Jeff and I have both chatted with Gene Taylor about other schools calling on Craig and once the season is over, that will be one of the first questions I have for Craig is about his future. I didn’t think I was trying to sensationalize anything, just reporting what was out there. Thanks again for the comment!
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/343226/
Well, there you go, forgot about that, probably because I didn’t do it. Thanks for the clarificaiton of the clarification.
No worries Jeff, you guys do a great job and are second to none in the FCS in how well you cover the local football beat.
Everything I am reading on here and in the paper talks about how the Bison are going to have a tough time with GSU’s option attack but I have yet to see any articles where GSU has a problem stopping the Bison or matching up. It seems to me that GSU is the #3 seed and they are playing in Fargo. Homefield advantage is routinely worth 3 points so given the fact the Bison are seeded higher and at home they should at a minimum be a 3 point favorite in this game.
What is the story line out of GSU? What worries tham about the Bison? Do they believe they are so much better they aren’t preparing for the Bison and instead they are watching tape of Montana and Sam Houston State?
I mean yeah they have a good option offense but the Bison are a great team too with a great defense. The Bison also have a great running attack and a passing attack added to that.
Just go to the espn converstaion blog of this game. All of your questions will be answered rather swiftly. They are “God’s gift to college football…FBS included”…at least that is what they portray. Like the Triple Option is the second coming or something…
Hopefully the coaches are utilizing the local Cobber connection to the triple option and coach Horan. Who better to catch a team up on it than from a team that runs nearly the same system. Is it seriously possible to have Concordia offense go against he Bison D to give them a serious look at the TO?
Jeff, you and Don are doing an awesome job of updates through the blog and the.videos.
Dewey
How about Kevin Feeney, can he still run the option?
I read in the Statesboro newspaper that they are saying that Bison fans have been posting “scared” or “chicken” in regards to GSU backing out of the game this year.
The NDSU Bison coaches know how to defense the option. NDSU has kowledge of the option. We wouldnt have dropped it if our body of kowledge didnt contain the fatal flaw. This is an NDSU Bison win.
Seems like the nnnnnnnnnnnnnn key is stuck.
Ndsu basketball.coaches at waconia minnesota tonight, hmmm.
Whats that have to do with the topic thats being discussed?
I realize that GA Southern made news with the yards they gained against Alabama but I doubt that Alabama studied the triple option as seriously as the Bison. Alabama knew they had superior athltetics and felt they could simply line up and beat them. Having said that, I think (and hope) the history that NDSU has with the Veer will in some small measure help with their preparations. I’m not predicting an easy victory but I think the Bison have the tools to defeat them.
James Madison rushing game: God’s gift to football. Held to 68 yards in the Dome.
Lehigh passing game: God’s gift to football. Held scoreless in the Dome.
GSU triple option: God’s gift to football. Sensing a pattern here??? Can’t wait for Saturday afternoon.
Ok, this not being on ESPN is looking even more ridiculous. Read the following from NDSU facebook:
North Dakota State University fact of the week: 733 undergraduate, graduate and professional students are eligible to graduate Friday.
733??? Maybe 400,500 of those will walk and we gave up ESPN PRIMETIME FOR THAT LOW.OF A.NUMBER????
Get over it lakes, I am as big of a Bison fan as the next guy but this is still a school and academics come before athletics. Just drop it.
Aren’t you the one that makes fun of hockey’s 0.4 rating share? That’s what FCS semifinals get.
Your argument is now about the number of graduates?
Just curious, how many in the NDSU class you graduated with?
Yea, lets just all get over the fact that NDSU DECLINED ESPN PRIMETIME, yea sweep it under the rug, thats what they want us to do.
CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT!!!! “They” want us to do things!
They declined so we could have more time to prepare for the game and keep the team on a regular schedule. No big conspiracy, just common sense. Sorry you don’t get to watch them on primetime tv, but I think doing everything we can to win is more important than a tv time slot.
You forgot to mention tha all of us that are happy to be in the semi’s, and put the ESPN issue far down our priority list…are smalltime.
“Academic achievement is honored most by those who have achieved it.” —- Winston Churchill
Kudos’s to NDSU for honoring their students and maintaining the integrity of their special day.
I find it interesting that lakes referring to NDSU’s graduation as “smalltime!” Just wait until that gets around the message board circuit.
This game boils down to NDSU playing Bison football. When we do that we are the best team in FCS and a top 50 FBS team. We do that and we win. We play average or slightly above and we give GSU a chance to win. Only way they come into the dome and beat us is to play below average Bison football. This team cannot compete with us on the field and has no idea what they are in for on Saturday.
Sat on espnu will probably be a 2-3 rating
FRIDAY ESPN will be a 6-7 like last week.
A R G H.
I fully expect to see MWILL in a wr role if ryan smith cant go again, and PLEASE THROW THE SCREEN MORE!!
Why wouldn’t the Bison ask the Cobber staff for some advice on this game. They run this offense. I think it would be smart to exhaust all resources to help prepare for this offense. Go Bison!