UND Game thread

[Wick250]

The head coach is likeable just not sure he will be able to surround himself with the staff needed to be successful in the league.  JT handled the offense and was loaded with defensive minds for as long as he was here.

That's not a coaching problem, that's a funding problem

Quite possibly.  We really need to know what competent assistant coaches are paid in the MVFC.  At a place saturated with money like NDSU, we would logically expect them to pay quite well. But I wonder if the rest of the schools in the league are able to pay their coaches more than we do.

[dwj]

At many (most successful) programs the people that donate large sums of money are interested in winning.  Ours seem to be only interested in getting their name on something.  And Strollo is good at giving them what they want and they love him.  Until this changes we will never be competitive with top teams.

[YSUGO]

I have said all along it was a money issue.  We let one of the best recruiters in the nation go…who had won awards from his peers as an assistant.  His name was Wolford.  He made 2 mistakes.  One not putting his foot down in getting a bigger money pool for assistants. The other mistake was playing #8 at safety. His teams past the eye test physically.  Till we get more money somehow we will be mediocre. Which makes me feel that the AD failed to find the money or revenue stream for us to complete.

[IAA Fan]

Well between Wolf and Pelini, you had almost opposite situations. Wolf had Montgomery on offense and no one ever ripened for his DC. Had Bo not showed up, Wolf would have been retained. Pelini had defensive coaches, but thought is was okay to allow 20-35 points per game as your offense was supposed to pile up points. Which is also why Nebraska never became "elite" under his direction. You cannot lose 1 or 2 games and be considered "elite".  Bo and Montgomery just did not get along as Montgomery managed the clock. But Bo capitalized on Montgomery's recruits and assistants.

[penguinpower]

Well between Wolf and Pelini, you had almost opposite situations. Wolf had Montgomery on offense and no one ever ripened for his DC. Had Bo not showed up, Wolf would have been retained. Pelini had defensive coaches, but thought is was okay to allow 20-35 points per game as your offense was supposed to pile up points. Which is also why Nebraska never became "elite" under his direction. You cannot lose 1 or 2 games and be considered "elite".  Bo and Montgomery just did not get along as Montgomery managed the clock. But Bo capitalized on Montgomery's recruits and a$$istants.

Montgomery's offense could not win against physical teams. Phillips is building a team that can run over other teams. That's what we need.  Montgomery's offense would score a lot against inferior competition and would struggle to score when playing national title contenders.  We had ZERO conference championships under Montgomery's offense.  He couldn't beat the Dakota teams after they fully transitioned to FCS.  He lost to Sam Houston when he was at JMU (likely with superior talent).  I don't understand the man love for Montgomery.  He was above average but not excellent and once he was figured out in the MVFC and the CAA his offenses would drop in their ranking nationally.  He went from 10th to 14th in one year at JMU.  He couldn't deal with the Tampa 2 defense very well either.

[IAA Fan]

We had ZERO conference success under any OC. Sounds like you are confusing Montgomery with Tressel's offenses. Monty produced, tressel ran the clock out. We had an elite offense under Coach M and a "man-love" comment will not change facts. Best QB's, best Backs, Best lines, etc.. The most elite offenses and defenses in the nation all have weaknesses, and figuring these these out is what coaching is all about. At least Montgomery gave YSU an elite offense for you to pick at. It is the only time we ever had that in my memory. Tressel lost to anyone good on our regular season schedule for years, then expected fans to cheer when we defeated a MAC team that was no where's  near the talent. He drops our option game and then gets his backside handed to him by an option club in the '99 championship. Then when he gets to OSU, where he cannot take a loss or two to hide half of his offensive plays under the banner of a weak schedule, he has much more limited post-season success. Montgomery gave us almost 36 PPG over his entire career with YSU & did the same for 2 years with JMU. Much more difficult task at Buffalo, but he will get the job done. If not, he will be replaced.

I fail to see what tells you we are building a team to "run over" other teams? We have had zero output on offense since Phillips got here ... absolutely ZERO. In 3 years. We use an undersized  TB who could not 'run over' anyone. I love the guy, but that is not his style. Tamron Smith ran over people & yes, we can both agree that is what we need now so we CAN run over some people.

BTW we have only had 2 conference championships in my DI lifetime Tressel and Heacock). So I would guess YSU head coaches had limited success in that regard, not the OC's. You love an offensive-based ball game. I am all about defense. a 45-43 game tells me there is no defense. A 6-3 score is so much more exciting. You would rather see a 10-6 baseball game. I would rather see a no-hitter.

[penguinpower]

We had ZERO conference success under any OC. Sounds like you are confusing Montgomery with Tressel's offenses. Monty produced, tressel ran the clock out. We had an elite offense under Coach M and a "man-love" comment will not change facts. Best QB's, best Backs, Best lines, etc.. The most elite offenses and defenses in the nation all have weaknesses, and figuring these these out is what coaching is all about. At least Montgomery gave YSU an elite offense for you to pick at. It is the only time we ever had that in my memory. Tressel lost to anyone good on our regular season schedule for years, then expected fans to cheer when we defeated a MAC team that was no where's  near the talent. He drops our option game and then gets his backside handed to him by an option club in the '99 championship. Then when he gets to OSU, where he cannot take a loss or two to hide half of his offensive plays under the banner of a weak schedule, he has much more limited post-season success. Montgomery gave us almost 36 PPG over his entire career with YSU & did the same for 2 years with JMU. Much more difficult task at Buffalo, but he will get the job done. If not, he will be replaced.

I fail to see what tells you we are building a team to "run over" other teams? We have had zero output on offense since Phillips got here ... absolutely ZERO. In 3 years. We use an undersized  TB who could not 'run over' anyone. I love the guy, but that is not his style. Tamron Smith ran over people & yes, we can both agree that is what we need now so we CAN run over some people.

BTW we have only had 2 conference championships in my DI lifetime Tressel and Heacock). So I would guess YSU head coaches had limited success in that regard, not the OC's. You love an offensive-based ball game. I am all about defense. a 45-43 game tells me there is no defense. A 6-3 score is so much more exciting. You would rather see a 10-6 baseball game. I would rather see a no-hitter.

We were independent for several years before we joined the Gateway in 97.  So that's not a fair comparison.  The bottom line is the 4 national championship rings and 2 other appearances. 

Pelini left the cupboard bare.  Worse than Heacock.  Wolford stacked the team and Pelini won with his recruits.  Phillips has way more challenges and still had a MONSTER recruiting class this year.  He had to deal with COVID in year 1and the AD wouldn't let him turn the roster over by 100% in a single year.  In addition Phillips has to deal with a wide open transfer portal and NIL(which none of the other coaches had to do).  Yet he took advantage of the portal without messing up team chemistry.  He's finding mukti-sport athletes that need to develop in the weight room.  I keep sending people back to the Cincinnati model.  That's what he's doing.  It's cristal clear.

He put a size requirement in the lines.  6'3 minimum height.  Put them in the weight room for 2-3 years and they will be good.  But he needs depth and I believe he had to adapt his recruiting by setting this requirement. 

In a few years they should be outstanding.  And when they are, we will be running A-gap power plays on offense and we will be running people over.  He needs a QB and 2 more classes and we will be set.  He had to deal with the bullsh** Covid year so he gets a pass because it really affected recruiting, especially for a school like YSU that simply has to do more with less. 

Montgomery was average. If he was great he would have been retained.

[YSUGO]

How are we being built for a power offense?  We have running backs that are small and fast. We aren’t running power formations a lot with multiple te!s etc

Disagree about Montgomery. He was a decent recruiter and to say we couldn’t score against good teams might be true but our defense couldn’t Stop anybody so unless awe scored 30 a game we lost.

When we made the playoff run with Pelini we beat good competition.

His bio speaks for itself.  If that’s average I will take it.

https://ysusports.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/shane-montgomery/304

[penguinpower]

How are we being built for a power offense?  We have running backs that are small and fast. We aren’t running power formations a lot with multiple te!s etc

Disagree about Montgomery. He was a decent recruiter and to say we couldn’t score against good teams might be true but our defense couldn’t Stop anybody so unless awe scored 30 a game we lost.

When we made the playoff run with Pelini we beat good competition.

His bio speaks for itself.  If that’s average I will take it.

https://ysusports.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/shane-montgomery/304

The RB's will be gone by the time the line is ready.  He will need to more RB's. When the line is ready we will be able to run A gap power.  You can't win this conference if you can't.  That's the most necessary objective on offense.  You can't contend if you can't do it.

[IAA Fan]

Power, at least we both want the same thing. A wining YSU program. As I said before, I was ready to toss Tressel at this point & I am sure glad they did not. I hope that I am just as wrong about Phillips. However, when it comes to OC's in YSU's DI history; only 2 will be remembered, one for his success 'after' YSU and one for his success 'with' YSU. The later is coach Shane. The former is coach Dantonio. By the way, don't you wish we could finish with the 14th-ranked offense this season? You always drop a bit as the season progresses and your competition becomes rougher. We are down to 57th right now. Amazingly our defense has moved up drastically to #39.

[PeteGuinYo]

I have said all along it was a money issue.  We let one of the best recruiters in the nation go…who had won awards from his peers as an a$$istant.  His name was Wolford.  He made 2 mistakes.  One not putting his foot down in getting a bigger money pool for a$$istants. The other mistake was playing #8 at safety. His teams past the eye test physically.  Till we get more money somehow we will be mediocre. Which makes me feel that the AD failed to find the money or revenue stream for us to complete.

   It is absolutely a money issue.  Checkout this site to explore D-1 Sports and Academic Finances:  https://knightnewhousedata.org/fcs 

[Wick250]

I have said all along it was a money issue.  We let one of the best recruiters in the nation go…who had won awards from his peers as an a$$istant.  His name was Wolford.  He made 2 mistakes.  One not putting his foot down in getting a bigger money pool for a$$istants. The other mistake was playing #8 at safety. His teams past the eye test physically.  Till we get more money somehow we will be mediocre. Which makes me feel that the AD failed to find the money or revenue stream for us to complete.

   It is absolutely a money issue.  Checkout this site to explore D-1 Sports and Academic Finances:  https://knightnewhousedata.org/fcs

Thanks for finding this source.  It is exactly what we need to form intelligent judgments.