FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Well, if it all goes as the rumours point then I would say the Johnnies do the best out of the Big 10 transfer bonanza.

[faunch]

Those are some pretty slick highlights.  He's got a heck of an arm and great awareness.  I hope your insight is accurate.

It would be nice to pick up that recoever #1 as well. I don't think anyone was closer than two yards on any of his catches.

I'm sitting here wondering why a Penn St. walk-on would now list SJU on his Twitter feed.  Would love to get a few more of those athletes too.

I'm thinking this kid is heading to SJU next year. Nice pickup! I'm still rooting for Gunnar though! 

Sounds like Erdmann had some interest from a number of schools before he decided to walk-on to Penn State: http://www.rosemounttownpages.com/sports/high-school/3681982-jackson-erdmann-will-walk-penn-state

I was previously thinking that the MIAC may be down next year with guys like Scott, Sura, Hendricks, Bungham, the Boyce borthers, etc. all graduating this year. However, that may not be the case.

If Erdmann is going to SJU I sure hope Jimmy and the rest of the coaching staff has the sense to start running more of a spread.  The kid played three years in that type of offense and was pretty successful. 

[sjusection105]

If Erdmann is going to SJU I sure hope Jimmy and the rest of the coaching staff has the sense to start running more of a spread.  The kid played three years in that type of offense and was pretty successful.

Perhaps that is the plan with no stand out RB such as Sura. There are several guys who would fall into the "slasher" mode and can catch the ball out of the backfield. Perhaps the offense will resemble GAC- but you still have to run the ball in Nov. & Dec. if you are going to advance in the play-offs......

[OzJohnnie]

I recall an offence built on speed, swing passes, deep tosses and option running that seemed to do quite well against larger teams...

A revival of AirJohnnie in the works?  Perhaps. And I just got used to thinking of the J's as a ground game program.

[Tom Thumb]

Ok, TT.  I just read some analysis on TB and they all agree with you, some even agreeing with faunch.  Crappy line, horrible receiving corp, offense geared to AP's strengths not TB's.

It may be that all of those comments are true, but it is very clear that opposing defenses do not respect TB.  They throw everything at him with no fear of being burned.  If he beats the pressure he does it with a short dump pass for no yardage; he has no long arm and he knows it.  When there is no pressure he can throw the long ball but even then it's a toss-up due to inaccuracy.  I'm sure it's massively unfair that my opinion burdens him with a 10-year string of bad QB's (minus one great season from Satan's cheesy spawn) but that's the way it is.

I think our only difference is where opposing defenses direct the lack of respect that you mentioned.

To me, the lack of respect is a byproduct of some of the things I mentioned earlier. The reason opponents do not fear getting burned is because the Viking's WRs can't get separation. Where are you Cordarelle? Wallace? Johnson? As we witnessed today, Seattle firmly believed that their DBs were superior to our WRs and they were right. What would Seattle have done if they had to respect a guy like Calvin Johnson or Jordy Nelson? How about a guy like Gronk creating mismatches all over the field? As good as Seattle is, they would of had to change their strategy and focus on those playmakers. If not, it does not take much talent for a QB to throw it up to Megatron and let him come down with it. Heck, we witnessed Randy Moss make Cunningham and Culpepper look like All Stars.

With no legitimate outside threat, this allowed Seattle to bring pressure from all over the place and attack a shaky OL. The Vikings do a good job running the ball, but they are subpar when it comes to pass protection. Given the choice as a defensive coordinator to either sit back and let TB throw the ball or bring pressure to that OL, I'd wager that most would bring pressure and force TB to get the ball out of his hands.

I think it is good to keep things in perspective. This was TB's first full season as a starter. As a comparison to some current QBs who are farther along in their careers, here is how TB compares:

                      Comp       Att    Pct       Yds    TD   Int      Rtg   
Tom Brady       264        413   63.9    2,843   18   12      86.5     
P. Manning       326        575   56.7    3,739   26   28     71.2   
D. Brees           320       526   60.8     3,284   17   16     76.9
Roethlisberger  168        268   62.7     2,385   17   9      98.6 (Super Bowl Season / injured four RS games)
Bridgewater      292        447   65.3     3,231   14     9     88.7

I guess at the end of the day, I still see a huge upside for Teddy. He is young, makes good decisions, and the coaches seem to love him. Zimmer has excellent judgment and I'm excited (for once) on where he could take this organization.

[OzJohnnie]

                               Com   Att     %        Yds       TD   I     Rtg
Matthew Stafford:   421    663    63.5    5,038   41   16   97.2
Culpepper:              297   474     62.7   3,937    33   16   98.0

Heaps better than those losers you listed.


Arguing aside (gads!), I don't think TB has "it".  I think his stats are the best he can do, not the the worst.

The Vikes went 11- 5.  I guess we're just lucky TB could pull it out for us with so much incompetence around him.    I think the team won despite him, not because of him.  Mainly because AP was playing again.  TB's stats, despite being his second year and playing three more games, were virtually identical to his rookie year.  If you're looking for an explanation for the 7-9 2014 Vikes vs the 11-5 2015 Vikes I think you should look for The Purple Jesus, #28.

Anyway.  That's my argument and TB will have to prove it on the field to change my mind.

But I leave you with this thought challenge: Would the Vikes have been NFC North champs without AP?  Would they have still been champs with a different second-year QB?

[AO]

Question for AO, Bench or someone else in the know. Does NDSU get many FBS transfers? My sense is that these titles are being won the old fashioned way, just great diamond in the rough recruiting out of high school and player development. Is that correct?

The only FBS transfer on the team this year is RB King Frazier from Nebraska and he was a walk-on (though he did have an FBS offer to Indiana).  The elite Southern teams like Jacksonville State or Sam Houston State have between 10-15 Big12 or SEC transfers on average.  NDSU doesn't actively recruit transfers, but even with all the winning it takes a lot to convince Texas or Florida kids to come up to Fargo, so they might just be saving their time.

The frustrating thing for a lot of opponents has to be that NDSU doesn't out-athlete many teams.  They don't look like the Alabama of FCS coming off the bus.  They also haven't rolled over most of their opponents like the Tide have.  They lost to South Dakota and struggled with a few other sub. 500 teams.  This looked like the least likely team to win the title and they just won it by 4 scores.  Absolutely ridiculous.

[USTBench]

Question for AO, Bench or someone else in the know. Does NDSU get many FBS transfers? My sense is that these titles are being won the old fashioned way, just great diamond in the rough recruiting out of high school and player development. Is that correct?

The only FBS transfer on the team this year is RB King Frazier from Nebraska and he was a walk-on (though he did have an FBS offer to Indiana).  The elite Southern teams like Jacksonville State or Sam Houston State have between 10-15 Big12 or SEC transfers on average.  NDSU doesn't actively recruit transfers, but even with all the winning it takes a lot to convince Texas or Florida kids to come up to Fargo, so they might just be saving their time.

The frustrating thing for a lot of opponents has to be that NDSU doesn't out-athlete many teams.  They don't look like the Alabama of FCS coming off the bus.  They also haven't rolled over most of their opponents like the Tide have.  They lost to South Dakota and struggled with a few other sub. 500 teams.  This looked like the least likely team to win the title and they just won it by 4 scores.  Absolutely ridiculous.

Yep. Pretty much just overlooked talent from ND, MN and WI. It also helps when a guy gets a PWO to Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin that you can say, "Why walk-on there, when you can play in front of a sold out crowd every weekend, play on ESPN 4 times a year, have College Game Day show up on your campus, AND get a scholarship with cost of attendance."

I think the only straight up recruiting battle for a ND kid the Gophers were able to win in recent memory was for James Johannesson from Fargo South, and with Kill gone and a new OC, who knows if he won't be back in Fargo.

[USTBench]

Last Wednesday 57 gave a class on the US Constitution at the local high school. 

+k to you 57 and +k if I could to the high school for realizing it was an important subject to focus on.

Wait, we still have a constitution?! Recent history had left me thinking we had retired that document 

Good work 57.

Also, NDSU. Wow. If there's a more impressive dynasty run in college sports, I'm not aware of it. I know there are teams in other sports who have won more. But they're also the sports with vastly fewer number of schools participating and lower pressure levels. That, and NDSU just pulled this off with two different HC's. And they haven't lost a game to an FBS opponent in what feels like this century (honestly, I can't wait to see what they can do against Oregon and Iowa in the next few years). Given the way their frosh QB out of Omaha did over the back half of the season and playoffs, I'm thinking the future looks pretty bright as well.

Question for AO, Bench or someone else in the know. Does NDSU get many FBS transfers? My sense is that these titles are being won the old fashioned way, just great diamond in the rough recruiting out of high school and player development. Is that correct?

If I'm honest, I thought it was a total mistake for these schools to make the jump to D1/FCS a decade or so ago. My buddy was playing basketball for SDSU and wasn't a fan. I thought they'd rue the day. So much for my career in prophetic sports star gazing 

If you looked at the trajectory of D2 as a whole I think D1 was the only move and it was a colossal mistake by UND and USD to wait 5 years to jump, which you can now see by the veritable success of each program. Outside of the Dakota schools and UNO in the NCC and perhaps Grand Valley State, UMD, NW Mo St and Pittsburg state, the rest of the D2 landscape was like Road Warrior. Dumpy stadiums in abandoned factory towns, barely literate goons with the academic credentials of the Clampets, the logistical nightmare scholarship-wise of D1 but the atmosphere of a run down tire plant.

The fact that UND was playing football in a 12,000 seat, brand new, state-of-art arena, with turf and laser light shows and 25 miles down the road UM-Crookston was playing in front of 200 people sitting in temporary metal bleachers that could be moved with a truck with good torque, and they were supposedly in the same division, was laughable.

UND had a steep adjustment period. They are a new coach and years away from an NCAA appearance in hoops, but I think they'll be in the FCS playoffs next year and several years to come. Their indoor practice facility is unreal, and there is legitimate talk about renovating Memorial and having an on-campus stadium again, but they should be 5 years further along in the process. Not saying they would've competed with NDSU, but they were much better at football than the Bison when NDSU left for D1, and they had a conference already lined up with the Summit and Mo Valley. Natural travel partners for basketball and only one time zone for football. Now they play in a conference that covers 3 time zones and they have no natural rivals.

UND belongs in D1, that much is obvious. But UND, USD, NDSU and SDSU all said "1, 2, 3 jump" and UND and USD flailed their arms and stayed on the sidelines, and NDSU and SDSU are better off for it. Both have made NCAA hoops tournament appearances and both have been successful in football.

[skunks_sidekick]

#%$&*$%!!!

I was all-in with the Vikings, and look what happens!

It was lining up perfectly...
A "purple" team
A team close to my MIAC friends hearts
A chance to beat the Seahawks (I can't stand those guys)

All good...but NOPE!  Just remember, you could be a Cleveland Browns fan so at least you have THAT going for you.

[MIAC23]

Question for AO, Bench or someone else in the know. Does NDSU get many FBS transfers? My sense is that these titles are being won the old fashioned way, just great diamond in the rough recruiting out of high school and player development. Is that correct?

The only FBS transfer on the team this year is RB King Frazier from Nebraska and he was a walk-on (though he did have an FBS offer to Indiana).  The elite Southern teams like Jacksonville State or Sam Houston State have between 10-15 Big12 or SEC transfers on average.  NDSU doesn't actively recruit transfers, but even with all the winning it takes a lot to convince Texas or Florida kids to come up to Fargo, so they might just be saving their time.

The frustrating thing for a lot of opponents has to be that NDSU doesn't out-athlete many teams.  They don't look like the Alabama of FCS coming off the bus.  They also haven't rolled over most of their opponents like the Tide have.  They lost to South Dakota and struggled with a few other sub. 500 teams.  This looked like the least likely team to win the title and they just won it by 4 scores.  Absolutely ridiculous.

I think this is a common misnomer. The Bison out-athlete many teams. I don't have numbers in front of me, but they must be near the top of FCS when it comes to NFL players, and players with big impacts in the NFL. QB Wentz, and LT Haeg are projected to be high round draft picks this year as well. If you look athletically across the board on any Saturday, more often than not you would pick the Bison player at any position. Probably why they have won 5 straight titles, and it doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon. Best thing to happen to NDSU was Tim Brewster. They should send him a nice Christmas card every year 

[BDB]

Sid has to retire fer chrissakes. Sunday on his radio show he said he can't believe the NFL didn't move the Viking-Seahawk playoff game to an indoor stadium somewhere. 

Right Sid. Change the game to a place in another city in front of 50,000 empty seats on short notice. That would have worked well. 

[OzJohnnie]

Sometimes I wonder if Sid is putting people on and baiting for a response. He's been saying dumb stuff like that for the 30 years I've known about him.

[HSCTiger74]

                               Com   Att     %        Yds       TD   I     Rtg
Matthew Stafford:   421    663    63.5    5,038   41   16   97.2
Culpepper:              297   474     62.7   3,937    33   16   98.0

Heaps better than those losers you listed.


Arguing aside (gads!), I don't think TB has "it".  I think his stats are the best he can do, not the the worst.

The Vikes went 11- 5.  I guess we're just lucky TB could pull it out for us with so much incompetence around him.    I think the team won despite him, not because of him.  Mainly because AP was playing again.  TB's stats, despite being his second year and playing three more games, were virtually identical to his rookie year.  If you're looking for an explanation for the 7-9 2014 Vikes vs the 11-5 2015 Vikes I think you should look for The Purple Jesus, #28.

Anyway.  That's my argument and TB will have to prove it on the field to change my mind.

But I leave you with this thought challenge: Would the Vikes have been NFC North champs without AP?  Would they have still been champs with a different second-year QB?

  We heard this argument a lot about Cam Newton down in my area, too (at least until this season). Maybe give the kid another year and some more help before you write him off.

[57Johnnie]

Super Bowl I is going to be televised on Friday evening on the NFL channel. My only prediction is that the Pack will knock out The Hammer.