Originally Posted by
siouxfan512
I would agree with most of what you said. Overall, the valley seems to be down a bit. I think you can take a lot of the comments about UND coming in and dominating The Valley as tongue in cheek. UND fans endured a few years of hearing nothing but how bad we were going to get beat up and be a basement team in the MVFC, so it is a little funny to have the start that we have had; which doesn't mean much if we go out and lose to Youngstown or Missouri St. I was impressed with SDSU, even USD to a point; considering the young QBs. Obviously losing Lance is huge for SU. SIU doesn't seem to know if they are good or not depending on the week, game, half or quarter.
I'm sure some UND fans are just excited that the team is playing well, while others will try to equate 1 season to a decade, but not me. Can't change anything about the past decade, NDSU dominated, UND did not; nothing more is needed to be said there. I will always wonder if UND could have kept the playing field more even had they transitioned to D1 at the same time as NDSU like they should have, but that is completely irrelevant and no longer matters. For UND the Spring needs to be viewed as an opportunity. Acclimate to the MVFC, develop young talent and get them game time experience, win games to start developing that winning culture, and get some regional exposure. Playoffs, Playoff Wins, a trip to Frisco, a National Championship .... obviously you want to see these things, but even if that happens, does that automatically mean the tides have turned, and UND owns the Valley? Hell No! Trying to make that kind of shift takes years, hell SDSU has been trying to knock you all off that top pedestal forever.
To me, one of UND's biggest opportunities this spring is to show they can win with some young talent and start winning some of the key regional recruiting battles. There have been a few guys over the past few years that have worked out in UNDs favor, but nowhere near the number of recruiting wins to sustain success. I'm sure that will be a highlight in the recruiting process if UND can manage to sweep the Dakota schools.