5 things I'm excited for: 5 things I am curious about

[AjaxTheMighty]

I am very psyched for Bison football to get underway. I can almost smell it! I was watching the NDSU/SDSU game from last year on my DVR and I thought of a few thing:

Excited for:
1. Kickoff 2011 - Nothing like that first kickoff of the season. Hair-raising!
2. D.J. McNorton - I think teams will have to game plan to stop him.
3. OL - I think our line is going to make huge strides and that should help out Brock a lot.
4. Colton Heagle - I hope that he stays healthy because he is a complete psycho. He will make wide recievers avoid going over the middle.
5. D-Line - This seems like a deep D-line. I've heard Phil Hansen say games are won in the trenches like a million times. Very true.

Curious about:
1. The absence of Gratzek - No matter how you slice it, our D struggled without him. Someone will probably step up, but it makes you wonder a little.
2. Vigen - I know we have bashed him into the spot between a rock and a hard place, but he can single-handedly take an entire crowd out of a game. I hope he comes into his own this year.
3. Jenson - that's pretty much it
4. UNI - can we finally beat them?
5. WRs - Are these young kids going to step up? Hope so. Holloway is our only WR with experience.

honorable mention: is there any chance the local TV feed won't look like crap on my TV??

[IzzyFlexion]

Excited for:
1- watching the talented and young receivers being utilized.
2- Eaves sending offensive opponents to the sidelines wishing that they had stayed in bed.
3- Heagle doing the same thing.
4- not having to worry as much if a Bison QB limps off of the field.
5- forcing myself to flip the bird to a Friday work day and get my ass to Margo-Forehead at least once.

Curious about:
1- if my Juckem "bromance" becomes legitimized.
2- how big of a deal the Gratzek absence will be.
3- if this is finally the year that the Herd beats the kitties.
4- how much Vandal's "wrecking ball" blocking will be missed.
5- if Boyd will become Marcus Williams' clone and dominate the other corner.

and a bonus curious statement.
6- will I finally get to meet my idol......BlueBisonRock and if he'd be willing to offer me free pastoral and/or psycological counseling.

[HandoEX]

I am excited to see Hazelyon continue to show his stuff

Curious to see if our bend-but-not-break defense returns. We gave up 5 more fg's last year thn any other team in fcs

[Herd]

Im curious to see if anyone can do what Sigers did for this team last year. He was top 3 on my mvp list last year. Take back a kick, 40 yard dash for td, block a punt, take a screen to the house, block a Fg or two in one game. How do you replace that? Ojuri will not do all that. I hope he does not leave school and we willsee him in 2012.

If the bison would have handed the ball to Sigers on 3rd and 2 with 6 minutes to go vs EWU, sigers scores and the bison are in national championship game. Instead a QB bootleg and we go home. It sickens me how easily sigers would have cruised to the house when i replayed the video. The missed opportunity play of the last 10 years.

[BisonNeil]

Im curious to see if anyone can do what Sigers did for this team last year. He was top 3 on my mvp list last year. Take back a kick, 40 yard dash for td, block a punt, take a screen to the house, block a Fg or two in one game. How do you replace that? Ojuri will not do all that. I hope he does not leave school and we willsee him in 2012.

If the bison would have handed the ball to Sigers on 3rd and 2 with 6 minutes to go vs EWU, sigers scores and the bison are in national championship game. Instead a QB bootleg and we go home. It sickens me how easily sigers would have cruised to the house when i replayed the video. The missed opportunity play of the last 10 years.

I have only one word to say about that: Vigen.

I will be most curious to see if he really can open up the playbook which is what was eluded to in the column Kolpack wrote about him. My guess is that if Jensen's completion rate can be in the high 50 percentile and the WRs can get open AND catch the ball, Vigen will be just fine. At least this is what I put on my early Christmas list to Santa.

[mgbison]

I have no problem with people rippping on Vigen, but he did not lose the EWU game. You could look at any play after the fact and say we should have ran this or that play.

[CaBisonFan]

Im curious to see if anyone can do what Sigers did for this team last year. He was top 3 on my mvp list last year. Take back a kick, 40 yard dash for td, block a punt, take a screen to the house, block a Fg or two in one game. How do you replace that? Ojuri will not do all that. I hope he does not leave school and we willsee him in 2012.

If the bison would have handed the ball to Sigers on 3rd and 2 with 6 minutes to go vs EWU, sigers scores and the bison are in national championship game. Instead a QB bootleg and we go home. It sickens me how easily sigers would have cruised to the house when i replayed the video. The missed opportunity play of the last 10 years.

Seeing how we were a north-south team...and seeing how that's how we got there...and seeing how our QB really wasn't that mobile...and seeing how we needed those yards damn bad...and seeing howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...................but we have an OC in training. What the ....?

[HandoEX]

That is BS. Jensen could get yardage almost every time he carried the ball. I can't understand how anyone could rip that play call.

[99Bison]

That is BS. Jensen could get yardage almost every time he carried the ball. I can't understand how anyone could rip that play call.

Because it worked one time in one big spot in one big game and was called half a dozen times after that and in every big play... It was so obvious that was going to be the call... Again. AND doing this you continually take those most responsible for your success to
this point (oline, rb's) out of the play... Relying on trickery, that was not tricky in the least.

[DjKyRo]

Curious about:

4- how much Vandal's "wrecking ball" blocking will be missed.


To this, I have one name: Andrew Grothmann.

[Tatanka]

To this, I have one name: Andrew Grothmann.

This. Wrecking ball, meet steamroller.

[Bison"FANatic"]

What I learned from the scrimmage today was that the pieces are in place. Does the passing game have some fine tuning and timing to work on???? Yes but the pieces are there. We have the players and depth to do some serious damage. We will be able to handle some injuries like we have not been able to in the past. The last few years there has been a ton more questions at this point of the year. This year could be special.

[DjKyRo]

What I learned from the scrimmage today was that the pieces are in place. Does the passing game have some fine tuning and timing to work on???? Yes but the pieces are there. We have the players and depth to do some serious damage. We will be able to handle some injuries like we have not been able to in the past. The last few years there has been a ton more questions at this point of the year. This year could be special.

My thought that I've voiced once or twice is that the single biggest difference in the offense between this year and last year will be Zach Vraa. We got a glimpse today of what he's capable of, with his ability to elevate and create separation with some crisp route-running. Add his excellent hands into the equation and you have the potential for a devastating slot guy and a good "safety valve" for any quarterback to toss jump balls up to.

Picture him in this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7nRz7DiRAg

[ndsubison1]

That is BS. Jensen could get yardage almost every time he carried the ball. I can't understand how anyone could rip that play call.

i dont wanna get too into it cuz it's over with, but our running game was starting to dominate. our best player (DJ) wasnt even on the field on one of the most critical plays of the season. go with your bread and butter. /rant :ranting: