Several things to muse about on this Wednesday night, so bare with me for a little bit here folks; starting with the NFL coaching carousel surrounding former NDSU assistant Gus Bradley. Bradley was in Philadelphia Tuesday for a 2nd interview with the Eagles; where everything we were hearing that he was the frontrunner for the job. Then out of nowhere on Wednesday morning ESPN reports that Oregon’s Chip Kelly has the job. Bradley seemed unfazed, since he was on a plane later that day for Jacksonville and interviewing for the Jaguars job. The Jags have been interviewing several offensive minded coaches, so they may go in another direction and while Bison fans may be discouraged over Bradley not getting a job, Viking fans will be quick to point out that Leslie Frazier had several interviews before he got his first head coaching gig. Curious to see what happens with Gus, but one thing is for certain he’ll be ok after this process is done.
Now in my never ending posts about conference re-alignment get set for it to really kick into high gear shortly. News today that San Diego State backed out of the Big East and will stay in the Mountain West wasn’t too surprising after Boise State said they weren’t going a few weeks ago, it’s stunning though that three schools pledged to join the Big East and never played a game there (SDSU, Boise State and TCU) The trickle down will be felt thru the lower level leagues with SDSU staying, Tulsa is likely now for the Big East, making a hole in Conference USA, which they may go for Western Kentucky, which opens the Sun Belt, likely for Georgia Southern or Appalachian State. It’s been in the works for a while and looks like this will be the catalyst to make it happen. Interesting to note about Western Kentucky; the Hilltoppers left the Gateway and FCS in 2006 (opening the door for NDSU and SDSU into the Valley) and started FBS play in 2008; they only won 4 games thru their first three years in FBS, WKU has rebounded with back to back 7 win campaigns, and now are set to move up into a higher profile league from the Sun Belt to Conference USA, with slightly bigger TV money. Some NDSU fans will clamor now for the Bison to move up but this case with WKU is more about proximity and luck than anything; there’s no one that could have foreseen than WKU moved up to FBS that 6 years later they would have the opportunity to leave the league that took a chance on them for greener pastures. If GSU and App State move up guaranteed the microscope will be firmly on them in Fargo, Cedar Falls and Missoula.
Huge basketball weekend starts for NDSU tomorrow night in Indianapolis, facing IUPUI, the game as mentioned earlier will not be played in the Jungle but rather at the home of the Indiana Pacers. Interesting to see how the Bison respond after the loss of Taylor Braun, this is a HUGE three game stretch for NDSU, at IUPUI, at Western Illinois, then at SDSU. Keep an eye tomorrow night on the game in Macomb, SDSU plays Western Illinois, you’ll remember that’s a rematch of the Summit League championship from last year, the Leathernecks took the Jacks to OT before falling; this WIU team is still solid, the loss of Obi Emegano is something we’ll have to look at and all-conference center Terrell Parks is battling a knee injury, he may not play tomorrow night and his status for Saturday is up in the air, obviously that would be a huge loss for WIU, who will want this game in the 50′s. Should be fun to watch this weekend.
C usa for NDSU! ! Looks like mountain west is at 12 & stuck with no openings . Mac could still add 2. NDSU & Montana would give the mac an attendence shot in the arm.
Gus Bradley the new head coach of Jacksonville. Wow!! A NDSU graduate and former Bison coach as an NFL coach. Wow!!
Any speculation/rumors on if he will nab anyone from NDSU’s staff?
Even if Bradley doesn’t get a head coaching job in this round,
congratulations to him. Hard work pays off. I was interested to
hear about him getting a huge endorsement from both Monte Kiffin and
Pete Carroll. Both are superb defensive coaches so a high recommendation
from both of them says a lot about Bradley’s work.
I sometimes muse about what would’ve been if Gene Taylor stayed in-house and hired Bradley to move NDSU into Division One and not Bohl. As it turns out now, the choice would probably have been a pick’em between those two or whoever else was involved. I’m not so sure the Jacksonville job is one I’d take. They might end being sold, being moved. The future’s unsettled there. He might be better off to stay on in Seattle and get a ticket on the next merry-go-round. Or, a big college job might open up that he’d be interested in. Who knows. Either way, congrats to him. Also, he played for Rocky and a I’m sure developed a real love for football.
Bradley’s development speaks volumes for NDSU’s football program AND for every coach that ever influenced him along the way.
PS: When Casey Bradley left NDSU to take the quality control job at Tampa Bay, WDAZ’s UND Mouthpiece Pat Sweeney couldn’t resist a jab. He said “quality control coach, whatever that is.” Uhm, Sweeney, it means a move up and having the faith to take a chance to develop oneself further. It also means people who know having the faith to select someone from NDSU whom they think has terrific football potential. Oh wait, how many years have you spent in Grand Forks, Pat?
Right on Scott!
To be fair, Andy Reid’s son has been his quality control coach at Philadelphia, and now at KC.
Oh, and Casey is moving to Jacksonville and not staying in Seattle. It means a move up and having the faith to take a chance to develop oneself further. Hope you aren’t his agent.
Would Bradley look at Bohl to take a defensive position on his staff? Of course not DC, but something else? Is there animosity there?
Wtf? Babich as d coordinator? Looks like a big ole kiss of death to me.
Don’t think so. Babich has learned and earned it over the years. Don’t you watch the Bears defense, one of the best in the NFL. Don’t you watch the Bears linebachers, they are awesome, and oh ya, two pro bowlers to boot.
Actually am a Bears fan that thought Babich was in over his head and Lovie was protecting him, i.e. him getting demoted.
Hope it works out for Gus, but there had to be a great deal of experienced coaches out there that he’s worked with that may have been better fits. (Monte Kiffin??)
NDSU could go to the MAC and play in some crappy bowl game in Detroit or stay FCS and continue to play for national titles every year.
Uhm, skip my last post.
Jacksonville’s hired Gus.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Sorry, just saw this after I replied to your first post.
Dom, is the Bison men’s basketball game available on TV tonight and/or Saturday night?
No. If a game is televised they’lll have the network on the GoBison.com schedule (http://www.gobison.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=2400&SPID=697&SPSID=11900). The SDSU game a week from Saturday will be on Midco Sports Net and FCS Pacific.
Could see TWO teams leaving CUSA for the Big East (otherwise known as CUSA II): Tulsa, to pair with SMU and thus allowing Houston to pair with Tulane and Old Dominion to pair with East Carolina (which will be invited as an all-sports member, not football-only).
That will make the Big East a 10 team football and basketball league in 2014-15 season with only 2 teams NOT having come from CUSA: UConn and Temple.
As mentioned, this does open the door for WKU and probably someone else from the Sun Belt to move to CUSA (Arkansas St or Florida Int’l) and in turn lets App St and Georgia Southern move into the Sun Belt.
This doesn’t really open any doors for NDSU to move into the FBS. Closest conference is the MAC and they’d have to get Northern Iowa first to even attempt justifying NDSU. And those would have to be football only ans UNI would never leave the MVC for the MAC – unless a bunch of MVC top tier teams left in the pending bball realignment spurred by the 7 Catholic schools. I suppose you never know…
Bison and the Dragons both have former players landing NFL head coaching gigs! Awesome! As far as moving up goes, If App. St. and Georgia Southern go we might be forced to go. It will be sad to leave the FCS playoffs for a Bowl game that is played on a Thursday night in late December. Hopefully the Bison think it through and make the best decision. Go Bison!
Yeah, what is the goal of your entire football season in FBS? To play in the mieneke car care bowl on Tuesday night in front of 10s of fans for a fake trophy? No thanks! That would be the end of our championships, end of a possible 9 home games. I like the possibility of added home games for playoffs. Fans won’t travel to tinbucktwo on Tuesday night like they do Frisco on a Saturday!
No- 4.5 million viewers in the Meineke Car Care bowl via ESPN versus a whopping 1.1 viewers in the D2-whops- FCS champ game. Talk about nobody caring?
Frisco and tuesday nights is just a tad different dont ya think?
Don’t forget Ron Earhart, Patriots 79 – 81.
I hope Coach Bradley can have a long sucessful carreer. You can bet he will continue to look at the best canidates coming out of NDSU.
The best thing that could happen this year to top it off is the BB team makes the dance again within an easy travel location and the baseball team does well in the spring and get on ESPN in the tourney. Of cours track and softball too. But the national exposure to continue would be good for us.
I think the closest first round NCAA tournament games are in Missouri which would be a pretty easy trip down I-29 for Bison fans. Now they gotta make the dance and hope to be put in that region! Go Bison!
Hopefully they get the final $2 million for the BSA renovation soon. It shouldn’t take making the NCAA tournament to get that money.
Two NDSU guys on the Jags now
Gus & Matt V. coool !
Congrats to Gus Bradley! He will represent NDSU well. Great to have a former player and alum as an NFL HEAD COACH!!
Go Gophers!
Another ex Bison in high level NFL position.
Bob Babich has been named defensive coordinator of Jacksonville.
Babich is an unheralded but landmark coach in NDSU football history. He successfully led the Bison away from the option and laid the foundation for he D1 move.
Quick aside: what is it about UND and hate. As they stand alone and wonder why the don’t have any big games left its clear to me. This statement in Tom Millers sickening article tells the entire story: “Young and old alike understand the rivalry. The freshmen get a quick introduction to the hatred between the programs.”
To me that’s exactly what college athletics isn’t about. They have a well earned legacy of hate. Until they address their need to hate they can’t move on.
This is yet another example of YOU (J.B.B.) bringing that school up.
UND is doing just fine. thanks for your continued interest in UND athletics.
Hey Jean, what are they doing fine in. Certainly not sports and certainly not scheduling when their rivals have no need for them. It must be their increase in online students.
Your jealousy is humorous. a nice blog post about a former player for NDSU, yet it turns into ripping on UND, once again. Well Red, UND is doing quite fine in alumni donations. how is ndsu doing? How are those basketball games in the BSA- do you still need to wear a scarf and long underwear to them? $2million is taking how long to raise to get the miserly BSA renovations completed? It’s too bad the cheapest fans in the land do not support their university financially; especially considering the great run your football team has had recently. your university deserves your support.
Other than your Nazi supporter, it’s not evident that your alumni support is that great.
UND has raised the funds for the $300 million project, which includes the new athletics complex. good luck with that $2 million you’ve been trying to raise for a couple of years to get the BSA renovation completed. lol
Using inhumane references to their largest donor does nothing but show the petty jealousy in your post. We Bison supporters should strive to be better than this. A tacit response would be more effective.