SO WHAT'S THE LIMIT ANYWAY?...   (10/25/2006) Off My Office Floor.... Just another DI-AA game... At the end of the first quarter of the Minnesota-NDSU game, I turned to Bob and said, "This doesn't feel any different than any other DI-AA game. The Bison definitely have a better than realistic chance of winning this game." And then I looked around the crowd and I could see by the look on faces throughout the Bison crowd that I certainly wasn't alone in my thinking. Let's face the facts... Minnesota NOT a very good DI-A football team. The Gophers talent is none better than a top DI-AA team. After listening to KFAN, Sid Hartman, and other Minneapolis media types this past fore-week, a little voice in the back of my head kept telling me that this game may be a blowout and not in NDSU's favor. The Gopher propaganda slightly convincing me that there was a big difference between DI (especially Big Ten Conference) and DI-AA football. Now after witnessing the game, I've learned a few things. First, the Minneapolis media has no idea what top-flight DI-AA is? These sports writers and radio personalities are so brain-washed by Big Ten DI-A football, that they can't believe a lower classification team can compete successfully. Even after the game, these U of M football-centrics give excuses like poor execution, poor tackling, poor coaching, etc.... or whatever reason they can possibly think of. I'll sum up the reason in one word. BISON. Second, for a Big Ten program like Minnesota, their coaching staff does a real bad job of recruiting Minnesota. The Bison have 33 Minnesota players on their roster and I bet half of them are better than the players currently on the Minnesota roster. Thank you, Glen Mason... your making the Bison program better one player at a time. Third, parity between NCAA football classifications is narrowing each year. George Perles seem to say it best... "Every year there are more and more really good high school players competing for a limited number of college football scholarships." What does this mean? DI-AA football is going to keep getting better and better... year after year. Who won?... As Bob, Rich, Jeff and I were still sitting in our Metrodome seats after the Bison loss waiting for the crowd to thin, I had an overwhelming sense of pride in the Bison program after staying with 1 point of a Big Ten football team. I was satisfied. But on the way back to the motel on the tram, a feeling of anger came over me as the game kept going over and over in my mind. "There is no way the Bison should have lost that game," I kept thinking to myself. After stewing about the loss for about five minutes, coincidentally, Rich turned to me and said, "Moral victories suck. Don't they?" So I came to the conclusion this week that I'm not really into moral victories. The loss to the Gophers hurts just as much as any loss last year or any year for that matter. Sure, I know it was a Big Ten team. Sure, I know that the game will probably only help high school recruiting. Sure, I know the Gophers athletic budget is 6 times the NDSU athletic budget. At this moment, I don't care. I just want the Bison to win any game, anywhere, against any level of NCAA football team. Big Ten or not... Kudos to the press... Even though I've been critical of the Minneapolis media for their centric views, I must say that all of the Fargo and Minneapolis radio stations, newspapers and television stations, as well as other North Dakota and Minnesota media outlets, covered the heck out of this football game. Every morning I would wake to find at least a dozen new NDSU/Minnesota football related stories on the web. I'd get to work and listen to Bison talk all day on KFAN. In the evening, I could watch Bison football coverage via the WDAY web newscast. I can't remember a week where there was so much Bison info filling the air waves and news print. It was one fantastic week... The "it"... I really enjoy talking about "it". The Bison once again displayed a big helping of "it" last Saturday against the Gophers. And the "it" is going to prevent a letdown by the Bison this week against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. You can see "it" in every Bison player's eyes. They believe in themselves and their teammates... in other words "trust". Every Bison player must trust that the guy lining up next to them is going to complete their assignment for any given play. Just another life-lesson learned by playing the wonderful game of football. And they say you can't learn anything being a dumb sports jock?... One time... Does every sound system in every dome suck? In section 141 of the Metrodome, you could not make out one thing the public address announcer said. Not that I need him to make my football fan experience a steaming success, but sometimes it would be nice to hear the referee explain a penalty... One more time... Speaking of Big Ten officiating... Honest to God, if a Big Ten referee would throw a flag for holding I would be sprawled out beside my seat from a heart attack. When was the last time you witnessed an offensive holding penalty? One thing about it though, these Big Ten officials sure let them play... One time... This off-season Bison Insider will be undergoing a major color transformation. A couple dozen pages are already complete, but it does take time that both Dave and I don't have at the moment. The color theme will be more in line with the new GoBison.com look. It's a little more subdued than now, but it looks pretty good... we'll that's what 'Bisonguy' says anyway. The Southern Utah Offense.... Base Offense: One-back/3-wide... If the NCAA rules allowed offenses to line up 10 eligible receivers for a play, this is one team I'm sure that would try to do it. The Thunderbirds like to spread the field to benefit both the running and passing of the ball. The man pulling the trigger for the Southern Utah offensive is QB Wes Marshall, a 6'1 210-pounder from Minersville, Utah. For the season, Marshall has completed 124 passes for 1347 yards and 15 touchdowns while tossing 11 interceptions. He also has rushed for another 300 yards and 2 touchdowns on 79 carries. The Thunderbirds backfield is spearheaded by RB Johnny Sanchez, a 5'9 195-pound junior from Los Lunas, New Mexico. Sanchez has carried the pigskin 87 times for 544 yards and 4 touchdowns, while catching 10 Wes Marshall passes for another 110 yards. So besides Sanchez, who catches all those Wes Marshall passes? It's All-GWFC receiver Joey Hew Len, a 6'3 220-pound senior from Sacramento, California. On the year, he has caught 36 balls for 405 yards and an impressive 8 touchdowns. So far this season, the Southern Utah offensive attack has racked up an average of 334.9 yards of total offense per game, including 162.3 yards by land and 172.6 yards through the air... *Note: The Southern Utah offense like to spread out the opposition defense to create passing and running lanes. Unfortunately, this style of offense plays right into the hands of the Bison defense. It's easy to spread out bulk, but hard to spread out speed... And the Bison defense possesses both. Safeties Craig Dahl has had big statistical games the first two times these teams played, so pick him up in your college fantasy league this week. I fully expect both Dahl and Schommer to have huge games this week, but tackling and defending the pass. I guarantee one of them will get a pick this week... The Southern Utah Defense.... Base Defense: 4-3... The Thunderbird defense is once again a team strength this season. Southern Utah is led by LB La'Var Porter, a 6'1 230-pounder from Las Vegas, Nevada. For the season, he has recorded 55 tackles including 2 for loss and 1.5 sacks. The Thunderbird secondary is led by hard-hitting SS D.J. Senter. The 6'1 205-pound sophomore from Las Vegas, Nevada, has tackled 50 opposition ball carriers including 7 for loss. The SUU defensive line is quick and athletic. Led by DE Levi Erickson, a 6'2 250-pounder from Salt Lake City, Utah. This season, Erickson has 31 tackles, including a team high 4 sacks. For 2006, the Southern Utah defense has surrendered 323.9 total yards per game, including 140.6 rushing yards and 183.3 yards through the air... *Note: Believe it or not... this year's edition of the Thunderbird defense is pretty quick and athletic. Far more so, than previous year... mostly through experience. Once again, the thunderbirds will try to take away the Bison rushing attack and make the NDSU offense one-dimensional. Same story... different week. This defensive methodology has worked the previous 7 games, so why would it work this week? It shouldn't... History.... Saturday’s game will mark the third meeting between the two schools in a series which began with a 27-21 Bison win in Fargo, N.D. during the 2004 season. Last year NDSU took a 37-21 win in Cedar City, giving the Bison a 2-0 mark against the Thunderbirds. Show Me the Keys.... * The inexperienced Bison offensive line has now established itself as a team strength. After rewatching the Bison/Minnesota game on Saturday... I came to the following conclusion. This might be the best run/pass Bison offensive line in the last decade. These young men just keep getting better and better. * I'll keep saying this until I'm blue in the face... "As Bison QB Steve Walker plays, so does the Bison offense." And was this ever true against the Gophers. When Walker struggled... the Bison offense struggled to move the ball. Might not be a better "manager of the game" in all of DI-AA football. End of story. * The Bison return game (especially punt returns) was simply brilliant versus Minnesota... even with the Travis White punt return fumble. Mr. White has really grown into the punt returner role. Just another added weapon for the Bison... * Control... The Bison offense must finish what it starts... Key factors in the loss to the Gophers were penalties and turnovers in the red zone. The NDSU offense can afford for this to happen in the upcoming weeks of GWFC competition... * Kicking... Shawn Bibeau and Mike Dragosavich are nice weapons for the Bison and a pair other coaches would love to have on their roster. This is one area where the Bison have a distinct advantage over the Gophers, but Southern Utah has already blocked seven kicks this season. Bibeau has got to keep his confidence. He's got to remember that it takes a whole team to lose a game... not just a blocked field goal and an upright banger. * This is a very big game for the Bison coaching staff. The Southern Utah game begins a 4-game stretch of GWFC games. The Bison coaching staff must prove that they can consistently win on the road and at home within the Great West. Unfortunately, this is one thing that the current Bison coaching staff has yet to accomplish. * One word -- 'Consistency'.... from play to play; from game to game. The maturation of young players such as CB Derrius Colvin, CB Courtney Mitchell, CB Richard Bowman, DT Michael Fairbairn, LB Ramon Humber, OT Sam Laudner and others is so crucial to the success of the Bison program this Saturday. These young men must continue their progress to greatness... * As for the Southern Utah game specifically... The Bison must guard against any emotional letdown. If the Bison go to Cedar City and take care of business... this game will be over after the third quarter. If not... anything can happen. * Sacks, interceptions, fumbles... Goal for takeaways this week for the Bison defense? Two... Three turnovers forced by the Bison defense means the route factor comes into play... Adding five sacks means the Bison win by 4 touchdowns. A Bison defensive touchdown this week only adds to Thunderbird misery... Jottings.... * The weight in the trenches: Offensive line: NDSU 300, Southern Utah 293 Defensive line: NDSU 270, Southern Utah 263 * Injuries this week: WR Shamen Washington - out; DE Nick Compton - out; OG Justin Buckwalter - out; RB Symeon Cabell - out; FB Tyler Jangula - out; OG Jerrod Wagner - probable. * The Bison are tops in NCAA Division I-AA in rushing defense, allowing 49.7 yards per game... * NDSU senior strong safety Craig Dahl is one of 37 I-AA semifinalists for the Draddy Trophy, known as the “Academic Heisman”. Craig maintains a 3.58 grade point average majoring in mechanical engineering... * Southern Utah has six returning all-conference players, cornerback Brian Kofoed, defensive linemen Levi Erickson and Derek Hood, wide receiver Joey Hew Len, and offensive linemen Mike Knight and Matt Roan. All but Roan, a junior, are seniors this year... * The Thunderbirds picked up their 200th win as a four-year school in the season-opener vs. Montana Tech... * Southern Utah has turned the ball over just twice at home, but 16 times on the road... * When the Thunderbirds failed to pass for 100 or more yards at UC Davis it marked the first time in the past 41 games the Thunderbirds had not broken the century mark, a streak that stretched all the way back to the 2002 season... * WR Joey Hew Len is poised to tie or break the SUU single-season record for touchdown receptions. His 14-yard TD grab at UC Davis gave him eight for the year, one shy of Bob Stookey’s SUU record of nine back in 1990... * Southern Utah's special teams have blocked seven kicks this season – counting punts, PATs and field goals – including one in four straight games... * Fifteen different Southern Utah players have caught at least one pass this season.... * Thunderbird LB La’Var Porter has led or the team in tackles in three of the last four games. He had a team-season-high 15 stops at UC Davis last week... * Southern Utah's Larue Burley is 15th in kickoff returns at 26.06 ypr and 13th in punt returns with a 13.13 ypr average, according to the latest national DI-AA statistics... * Audio of Southern Utah football games is available on the internet free of charge. Click Here to listen... * The Great West Football Conference is the top-ranked IAA conference in the nation for the sixth straight week, according to USA Today’s Sagarin Rankings as well as in Gridiron Power Index... * SUU has had five players named Great West Football Conference Player of the week so far this season, three on the offensive and two on the defensive side of the ball. QB Wes Marshall, RB Kyle Coop, SS D.J. Senter, LB Robert Takeno and RB Johnny Sanchez have all earned the honor... * Poll Watch: The Bison are currently ranked #6 in the Sports Network, Football Gazette, Any Given Saturday and the Bison Insider polls. Southern Utah is not ranked in any DI-AA polls this week...