Go ahead, I would. I didn't join to rub any salt in the wounds though. I just wanted to give you guys a little perspective.
For starters, as you can tell by the avatar I picked out, I'm from Minnesota, and although the Gophers have never given us anything to brag about (not in our lifetimes anyway) I have to stay true to my roots. Believe me, I'd love to call myself a Bison fan, but bandwagon isn't my style. Yeah, I'm a Vikings fan too, so that should explain things.
I've read a number of comments blaming the Hawkeyes' loss today on all their shortcomings and bad officiating. I have seen people giving NDSU their props, but there's a lot of "yeah, buts" and other rationalizations to go along with it. It was a good game all around. Both teams executed well at times. Both teams had their share of miscues and non-calls. It all came down to who was able to control the line of scrimmage the longest and minimize their mistakes down the stretch. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, Hawkeye fans. But, don't minimize anything that transpired on that field either. NDSU is a class act. They know how to play football.
Having a tradition of playing winning football is probably more valuable to a program than anything. It's invaluable, really. You certainly can't buy it. They've been playing winning football at NDSU for as long as I've followed them. 13 National Championships worth. Yeah, I know, it's easy to discount those titles when they were won at a lower level, but tell the people in Fargo that. This is a town that built a million plus dollar baseball park for a sub-A farm league team, to the exact field dimensions as Yankee Stadium (the old one) just because of their adoration for Roger Maris. To them, a winner is a winner, and they treat their teams like world beaters at every turn. I envy those fans for their passion and success and I wish there was a way to extract that "it" factor so the boys in Dinky Town could have a little taste. I was at one of the Gopher-Bison games at the Metrodome a few years ago, and it was shameful how those NDSU fans out fanned the majority Gopher crowd. I knew then that Minnesota fans, be it Gophers, Vikings, Twins, Wild...etc, would NEVER have that kind of pride or passion, and it pissed me off.
I don't know how they do it up there. You'd think it had something to do with the coaching staff, which it does, in part. But Chris Klieman is virtually the only holdover from Craig Bohl's staff that won the first 3 of their latest 5 National titles. Going back to the 80s, the 5 DII titles they won were under 3 different head coaches in just an 8 year span. The one thing they do that seems to have worked is promote from within. Klieman was on Bohl's staff and the 2nd and 3rd coach to win championships in the 80s were on the previous coaches staff. Funny thing is, when the winning coaches left NDSU, they never came close to having that same success again. How the hell Bohl ended up in Wyoming is baffling. It must be something in the water up there.
Anyway, don't hate on your boys too much. It's a shame that the pollsters will only see FCS when they look at this loss. NDSU should be in the FBS and in a power 5 conference at that. Not with the budget and the facilities they have now, no, but give them a Big 10 budget and a bigger stadium, and I'd bet my pension that they'd be a perennial top 25 team. No joke.
For starters, as you can tell by the avatar I picked out, I'm from Minnesota, and although the Gophers have never given us anything to brag about (not in our lifetimes anyway) I have to stay true to my roots. Believe me, I'd love to call myself a Bison fan, but bandwagon isn't my style. Yeah, I'm a Vikings fan too, so that should explain things.
I've read a number of comments blaming the Hawkeyes' loss today on all their shortcomings and bad officiating. I have seen people giving NDSU their props, but there's a lot of "yeah, buts" and other rationalizations to go along with it. It was a good game all around. Both teams executed well at times. Both teams had their share of miscues and non-calls. It all came down to who was able to control the line of scrimmage the longest and minimize their mistakes down the stretch. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, Hawkeye fans. But, don't minimize anything that transpired on that field either. NDSU is a class act. They know how to play football.
Having a tradition of playing winning football is probably more valuable to a program than anything. It's invaluable, really. You certainly can't buy it. They've been playing winning football at NDSU for as long as I've followed them. 13 National Championships worth. Yeah, I know, it's easy to discount those titles when they were won at a lower level, but tell the people in Fargo that. This is a town that built a million plus dollar baseball park for a sub-A farm league team, to the exact field dimensions as Yankee Stadium (the old one) just because of their adoration for Roger Maris. To them, a winner is a winner, and they treat their teams like world beaters at every turn. I envy those fans for their passion and success and I wish there was a way to extract that "it" factor so the boys in Dinky Town could have a little taste. I was at one of the Gopher-Bison games at the Metrodome a few years ago, and it was shameful how those NDSU fans out fanned the majority Gopher crowd. I knew then that Minnesota fans, be it Gophers, Vikings, Twins, Wild...etc, would NEVER have that kind of pride or passion, and it pissed me off.
I don't know how they do it up there. You'd think it had something to do with the coaching staff, which it does, in part. But Chris Klieman is virtually the only holdover from Craig Bohl's staff that won the first 3 of their latest 5 National titles. Going back to the 80s, the 5 DII titles they won were under 3 different head coaches in just an 8 year span. The one thing they do that seems to have worked is promote from within. Klieman was on Bohl's staff and the 2nd and 3rd coach to win championships in the 80s were on the previous coaches staff. Funny thing is, when the winning coaches left NDSU, they never came close to having that same success again. How the hell Bohl ended up in Wyoming is baffling. It must be something in the water up there.
Anyway, don't hate on your boys too much. It's a shame that the pollsters will only see FCS when they look at this loss. NDSU should be in the FBS and in a power 5 conference at that. Not with the budget and the facilities they have now, no, but give them a Big 10 budget and a bigger stadium, and I'd bet my pension that they'd be a perennial top 25 team. No joke.
