Great Run

[OrygunBison]

How awesome was all of this? I am just so happy for these players and all of us fans to have this feeling again. Playoff football is just so amazing and I feel honored to have had the chance to be a part of it, even though I live so far away from Fargo. One thing that I feel pretty certain of, the loss yesterday will not go away for our returning players. They will be pissed off for the next 8 months. That certainly bodes well for our 2011 season.

See you all at the Goophs game and Homecoming game 2011...

[Ferd]

It was a memorable, enjoyable season. We got much further than anyone expected at the beginning of the year. The TEAM really grew up.

I'm proud of the Bison!!

[NDSUFan_Sav]

One thing that I feel pretty certain of, the loss yesterday will not go away for our returning players. They will be pissed off for the next 8 months. That certainly bodes well for our 2011 season.

See you all at the Goophs game and Homecoming game 2011...

Talked to a few players and they said this is fuel for the offseason to work even that much harder because they don't want whatever happened yesterday to happen again

[99Bison]

Yes, after grievance time, its time to take matters into your own hands, leave no doubts, nor give opportunity for the refs to decide the game.

[kalm]

You guys just moved up a division and when considering fan base, facilities, athletes, and on-field success are already an upper tier team. Not every program can say that or is as fortunate.

You all should be very proud of this year's team. Good luck in the future.

[td577]

I was thinking all season this team was a year or two a away from being national championship contenders. Leave out the last regular season game and the Bison started wearing teams down by the 4th quarter. High energy and solid depth will continue this trend. The MVFC is tough and they were the only teams capable of holding on until the end of the game. Get through the conference, get a playoff bid, and then pound teams into the fourth quarter. Even EWU was having problems staying in the game come fourth quarter time.

I have a feeling the Bison will go into next season highly ranked and won't surprise anyone. That is just fine as they should develop further depth and even better conditioning.

The major problem this year was matching an offensive philosophy with the roster. Either find a new approach or find guys to play the existing offense. I think a new approach would be better. DJ proved he can pound the ball. This needs to be a major component and there is a need to find consistency in this approach. The screen plays were most effective when they executed the screen straight up and didn't try to disguise it. The passing game is only going to be effective when the QB trusts the receivers to beat their guy one on one. There was very little double coverage on receivers and even the cover 2 left all sorts of receivers one on one. At this level, WRs need to be able to take and beat one on one coverage.

On defense, the maturation of the underclass LBers will be a great improvement next year. There will be less faking the LBers into certain coverage schemes because they will be better at recognizing the offenses. I thought they did a good job this year despite being quite young.

CB, FB, and P are the only positions where either all or a majority is graduating. With the youth on this team, there is only a need to reload not rebuild for a few years. Without major attrition due to other issues, this is a team which can be competitive for a few years.

[KTF]

Great job this year guys. I enjoyed the run while it lasted and look forward to next year!

[ndsubison1]

You guys just moved up a division and when considering fan base, facilities, athletes, and on-field success are already an upper tier team. Not every program can say that or is as fortunate.

You all should be very proud of this year's team. Good luck in the future.

thanks kalm. good luck to you guys vs. Villanova

[ndsubison1]

I was thinking all season this team was a year or two a away from being national championship contenders. Leave out the last regular season game and the Bison started wearing teams down by the 4th quarter. High energy and solid depth will continue this trend. The MVFC is tough and they were the only teams capable of holding on until the end of the game. Get through the conference, get a playoff bid, and then pound teams into the fourth quarter. Even EWU was having problems staying in the game come fourth quarter time.

I have a feeling the Bison will go into next season highly ranked and won't surprise anyone. That is just fine as they should develop further depth and even better conditioning.

The major problem this year was matching an offensive philosophy with the roster. Either find a new approach or find guys to play the existing offense. I think a new approach would be better. DJ proved he can pound the ball. This needs to be a major component and there is a need to find consistency in this approach. The screen plays were most effective when they executed the screen straight up and didn't try to disguise it. The passing game is only going to be effective when the QB trusts the receivers to beat their guy one on one. There was very little double coverage on receivers and even the cover 2 left all sorts of receivers one on one. At this level, WRs need to be able to take and beat one on one coverage.

On defense, the maturation of the underclass LBers will be a great improvement next year. There will be less faking the LBers into certain coverage schemes because they will be better at recognizing the offenses. I thought they did a good job this year despite being quite young.

CB, FB, and P are the only positions where either all or a majority is graduating. With the youth on this team, there is only a need to reload not rebuild for a few years. Without major attrition due to other issues, this is a team which can be competitive for a few years.

i have a lot of the same thoughts. i remember talking with sav last year how this seasons team could be a playoff team, but i didnt expect they would be this good and go on a run like this. who woulda thought they would get that close to the semifinals? wow. i also talked with sav about how i felt the 2011 team could potentially be a national title contender. and this was last offseason that i said this. most people would have thought i was crazy at the time. i know 2011 is a ways a way and a lot of work needs to be done. depth needs to be addressed, seniors needs to be replaced and players need to improve and develop. but the pieces are there to win an MVC title and possibly win a national championship. it can be done.

[houndawg]

The expanded format has paid off in spades for ndsu. Every year there have been 7-4 teams that were playing good ball at the end of the year but got left out of the playoffs. With the new format there should be a little more room for some teams to schedule good ooc match ups and not worry that the playoffs are history if they lose to a good team in the preseason.