This team is the 2nd best in NDSU history to only 2013. I think this team beats 2013 3 or 4 times out of 10. It beats 1986 (which I feel is the 3rd best team) 10 out of 10 times.
Argue all you want...but these guys in 2017 are just 30 years better than the teams of the mid 80s. Kids are bigger, faster...all of that.
Obviously, the results are what really matters but I keep thinking about what the stats for this team would look like if they'd been more healthy. We had NT and ND both still recovering when the season started. Menard was lost before the season. A likely record-setting (obviously, a guess) RB roster was really affected. CB's gone, etc., etc., etc.
With what we have coming back, I gotta like our team's chances to run the table next year with a record setting performance if they can stay healthy. Such amazing talent returning and incredible skill waiting behind the guys graduating out of the program. I honestly think that the 2018 team has a chance to be our best, most complete team ever...which is scary to even contemplate.
Insert something clever here...
No point in playing the "What if" game. What matters most is that we DID lose several key players to injury this year, and still put up ridiculous stats.
I think back to a conversation I had with a JSU fan in Frisco before the game - his son was on the team. We were both talking about how much we were enjoying our trip (first time for both of us), and I said I hoped to have a chance to come back. He said "Oh, you'll be back - I looked at y'all's roster!"
But todays kids are softer, with all their concussion protocol BS, limited contact in practices, and fancy energy drinks on the sideline. Bull in a ring? Dead. They probably don't even drink beer or haze the rooks anymore. Look at PL and CAS -- 4 years of college FB and they turned out ok.
My Mom yells louder than your Mom.