2017 Bison

[2011BisonAlumni]

Thoughts on the team going forward.

1.) Tons of talent coming back. If DeLuca and Tanguay come back healthy, this is going to be an extremely good defense.
2.) Offensive line will have growing pains. Replacing two first team all Americans will be difficult.
3.) I thought Easton Stick grew a lot this year.
4.) Not sure where he will come from, but NDSU needs a playmaker on the outside. One guy who can go up and get the ball.
5.) Offensive play calling needs to improve drastically. I don't think the apologists have merit over this one. TP just simply is not a good coordinator.
6.) Secondary will have a lot of experience under their belt, but they need to learn how to track receivers once the play is broken.
7.) I thought Cam (despite his two misses) was solid all year. Koonce made a ton of strides. Call it what you want but zero net return yards all year is absolutely ridiculous.
8.) Jabril Cox will have huge shoes to fill in Stumpf. After Montana last year, you never would have told me he would turn into the player he became.
9.) I hope to god TP quits the running back rotation shit. I want Bruce and Lance getting 90% of the carries.
10.) We have tough road Valley games next year plus a tough road game against EWU. Playoffs, especially seeding, is not a given.

[Kevin]

Mississippi Valley State (home)
EWU
Rober Morris (home)
Misery State (home)
ISU-B
YSU
WIU (home)
UNI (home)
SDSU
USD (home)
ISU-Red

Schedule is favorable compared to the gauntlet this year.

Alternate Bruce and Lance every series like we used to do under Bohl. No more of this committee nonsense.

Shorten Polasek's leash.

[Kevin]

Also if there's any silver lining from today it's that the pressure of the streak is gone. Maybe the boys can just have fun again. I know Stick commented on the stress of things this year more than once.

[ZHerd]

Congrats to the current seniors and their mit full of rings. The streak ended but the dynasty is still alive and well. Next year's team has the making of a great championship team with all the returning talent. Everyone needs to improve some but the difference between now and past teams is the defense isn't always stifling but has weaknesses. Our corners need to develop into shutdown guys or we will be playing bend but don't break (not good D imo) against every good balanced offense we face.

[Bisonator98]

Reload. Refocus.

[bisonridge]

Well this was a quick thread.......

[LITTLEGUYSINGREEN]

We have a lot of guys returning, but I feel we just don't have the talent like in years past. Offensive play calling leads something to be desired, but at the same time, we don't have the talent to make big plays. Our QB isn't the greatest passer and we don't have any big play making receivers.

I think we will be good, but not good enough to win it all.

[scbison91]

don't we have tall receiver next year, Engle?

[ZHerd]

We have a lot of guys returning, but I feel we just don't have the talent like in years past. Offensive play calling leads something to be desired, but at the same time, we don't have the talent to make big plays. Our QB isn't the greatest passer and we don't have any big play making receivers.

I think we will be good, but not good enough to win it all.

Imo the biggest difference is no Marcus or CJ Smith. I don't think we understand how valuable it was to have guys you can't throw at and what that adds to what a defense can do

[HerdBot]

We have a lot of guys returning, but I feel we just don't have the talent like in years past. Offensive play calling leads something to be desired, but at the same time, we don't have the talent to make big plays. Our QB isn't the greatest passer and we don't have any big play making receivers.

I think we will be good, but not good enough to win it all.

We are certainly talented. We beat Iowa but when you lose DeLuca, Tanguay, and then Steidl... It's going to be easier to run up the middle. You lost PGT for extended time. You need those guys to beat great teams.

As far as corners go, yeah we weren't as talented nor as experienced. Jaylon Allison was clearly our best corner. Not Marcus or CJ good though. The good news is he showed flashes of brilliance and is as good of an athlete as those guys. For 2017 he needs to work on tackling and continue to improve.

Dom Davis is a great athlete. He showed flashes of brilliance and flashes of being a first time player

It's that second corner that's a huge question mark. I knew we had serious problems when Dakota Reid had one of the worst spring games ever, left the team in the spring and was replaced by Darren Kelly who was replaced by Wimbush who was a safety. Kid played his ass off and fought through injuries but he was clearly a massive liability. And if McCoy was behind Wimbush... That's all you need to know.

Next year we need Felix Dixon to emerge. We need Dom Davis to improve dramatically. We need Jaylon Allison to improve from good to great.

I think we need to recruit more corners. We don't even have a verbal this year