{"id":4727,"date":"2015-09-02T07:54:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T13:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wyonation.com\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2015-09-02T08:24:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T14:24:22","slug":"qa-with-sioux-football-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/qa-with-sioux-football-insider\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A With Sioux Football Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The North Dakota defense wraps up Montana State running back Gunnar Brekke in a game last season. North Dakota will travel to Laramie to take on the Cowboys this weekend. (AP Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

We kickoff the first of a weekly series this football season looking at the weekend opponent for the Cowboys with Fritz Jarret of\u00a0Sioux Football Insider<\/a><\/span>\u00a0. We hope it will help you know a little bit more about the North Dakota football team as they prepare to take on the Pokes in Laramie this weekend for the 2015 season opener.<\/p>\n

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What are the expectations for the North Dakota football team this season?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That is actually somewhat of a tricky question.\u00a0 The 2014 squad went 5-7 in\u00a0HC Bubba Schweigert\u2019s first year as head coach.\u00a0 All new staff, mostly all new terminology, expectations, etc.\u00a0 Their situation is very similar to\u00a0Wyoming.<\/p>\n

The reason I say it is tricky is because there is no doubt the team will\u00a0look better on the field.\u00a0 The \u201ceye test\u201d already looks better than a year ago.\u00a0 He brought in a handful of transfers and the freshman look pretty\u00a0good, too.\u00a0 But, does that equate to wins?\u00a0UND pulled out two games they very easily could have lost in beating RobertMorris 16-13 and Stony Brook 13-3 (92 yard defensive TD to seal it).\u00a0 If they lose those two they are 3-9 and \u201cexceeding expectations\u201d is much\u00a0easier this year.<\/p>\n

We do believe they will be an improved team, not only in overall quality of\u00a0play on both sides of the ball but in the win column as well.\u00a0 As most FCS fans know, 7 wins gets you in the playoff consideration and we think they\u00a0could get to 6, maybe 7, with a little luck again this year.<\/p>\n

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What systems does North Dakota run both offensively and defensively?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Offensively, UND runs a very prototypical pro-style offense.\u00a0 They huddle\u00a0every play, use the play clock, and try to slow down the game by methodically running the ball, moving the chains, and winning\u00a0time-of-possession.\u00a0 About as opposite as you can get from today\u2019s high-flying, fast paced offenses, like the one Montana showed on Saturday.\u00a0They will employ a fullback and multiple tight-ends but at times bring in 4 wide receivers, as well.\u00a0 If they have success running the ball they will\u00a0continue doing it all game and not worry much about the passing game.<\/p>\n

Defensively, UND runs a 3-4 scheme.\u00a0 They are what we would consider pretty\u00a0aggressive in that they like to bring pressure with 5 and 6 guys fairly
\noften throughout the game, when need be.\u00a0 With 4 linebackers on the field\u00a0it gives them a lot of flexibility to pick their spots to bring pressure. This does leave the secondary susceptible at times and last season they got\u00a0beat way too many times.\u00a0 They hoped to have shored that up by bringing in\u00a03 FBS\/Juco transfers at the safety and cornerback positions.\u00a0 UND has ran\u00a0the 3-4 scheme since 1988 I believe.<\/p>\n

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Who are a few standout players that Wyoming fans should look for?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The UND offense doesn\u2019t really have any standout players but is vastly\u00a0improved, at least on paper, over last season where they struggled mightily to get much of anything going until around week 10.\u00a0 True sophomore QB\u00a0Keaton Studsrud (6\u20191\u201d-190) is the one everyone will be paying attention to on Saturday.\u00a0 He got thrown in to the mix last year as a true freshman and\u00a0had his first start at the Inferno in Eastern Washington.\u00a0 It did not go well.\u00a0 He struggled for a few more weeks before starting to show signs in\u00a0the last two games of the year, both of which UND won.\u00a0 He is a very good athlete who can run the ball when needed but will need to show improved\u00a0accuracy now that he has settled in as the starter.\u00a0UND brought in transfer WR Clive Georges from Arizona this past winter and\u00a0he could be the play-maker they have been desperately missing the past couple years.\u00a0 He has great speed and quickness and will need to get the\u00a0ball in space to do his damage.<\/p>\n

Defensively, ILB Will Ratelle is the leader of the defense.\u00a0 He is a rock\u00a0in the middle at 5\u201911\u201d-250 and should make a bunch of tackles vs. a run-oriented team like Wyoming. Sophomore safety Cole Reyes is probably the best athlete on the entire\u00a0roster.\u00a0 At 6\u20192\u201d-225, he is imposing figure back there and could be a bigtime difference maker for UND.\u00a0 Reyes is a big hitter while also fairly\u00a0good in coverage as well.\u00a0 He needs to take the next step this season.<\/p>\n

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With North Dakota having moved to the Big Sky and FCS in 2012, how has the\u00a0transition been so far?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The transition has not gone all that well.\u00a0 In their three years of Big Sky\u00a0play, they are 8-16 overall.\u00a0 UND fired Coach Chris Mussman after the 2013 season and replaced him with Bubba Schweigert, who previously coached at\u00a0UND from 1988-2003 as a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator.\u00a0Last season under Schweigert UND went 3-5 in the conference but finished\u00a0first in total defense and 3rd in points allowed.\u00a0 They are hanging their\u00a0hat on defense and trying to win games the old fashioned way.<\/p>\n

UND realized real quick that they needed bigger, faster athletes in the\u00a0secondary if they were going to compete in the Big Sky.\u00a0 This led to a lot of turnover at the safety and corner positions but they are much deeper\u00a0than they were a year ago.\u00a0 \u00a0 The strength of the UND defense last season was vs. the run (allowed 102.5 yds\/game) and we expect that to be the\u00a0strength again this year.\u00a0 Should make for an interesting matchup on Saturday vs. Wyoming\u2019s outstanding running backs.<\/p>\n

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What is the latest on the nickname situation? What are your views on the\u00a0change?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone loved and\/or respected the name\/logo, and I mean damn near\u00a0everyone. However the hypocritical, self-righteous governing body known as the NCAA has deemed social engineering to be part of their mission and\u00a0unfortunately has rendered UND pretty much helpless in this situation.\u00a0 We fully understand that they have been essentially forced to move on, but it\u00a0still stings in a lot of different ways for many, many alumni, fans and students.\u00a0 The process has gone on way too long and it seems as if (some)people are ready to let UND move forward as a university and no longer have\u00a0to deal with this issue. It has been going on for 30+ years, with the\u00a0latest NCAA tussle going on for over 10 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We kickoff the first of a weekly series this football season looking at the weekend opponent for the Cowboys with Fritz Jarret of\u00a0Sioux Football Insider\u00a0. We hope it will help you know a little bit more about the North Dakota football team as they prepare to take on the Pokes in Laramie this weekend for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[299,700,701,25],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wyoblog","tag-football","tag-north-dakota","tag-sioux-football-insider","tag-wyoming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}