General Information
|
Opponent
|
University of North Dakota
|
| Nickname |
Fighting Sioux |
| Location |
Grand Forks, ND |
| Enrollment |
12,748 |
| Conference |
Great West |
| Head Coach |
Chris Mussman |
| 2008 Record |
6-4 |
| Starters Returning/Lost |
7/14 |
| Blogs |
- |
| Links |
2009 Prospectus (pdf) |
Statistics
|
 |
 |
|
Statistic
|
North Dakota
|
Texas Tech
|
| Pass Offense |
245.60 |
413.15 (1) |
| Rush Offense |
145.80 |
117.84 (94) |
| Total Offense |
391.40 |
531.00 (4) |
| Scoring Offense |
32.10 |
43.77 (3) |
| Pass Efficiency |
- |
158.76 (9) |
| Sacks Allowed |
2.70 |
1.00 (4) |
| Pass Defense |
267.50 |
242.23 (94) |
| Rush Defense |
113.20 |
140.38 (61) |
| Total Defense |
380.70 |
382.62 (79) |
| Scoring Defense |
26.30 |
27.85 (74) |
| Pass Efficiency Defense |
- |
130.56 (72) |
| Sacks |
1.60 |
2.62 (18) |
| Tackles For Loss |
- |
4.85 (95) |
| Turnover Margin |
0.82 |
0.62 (22) |
Top Returners
|
Category
|
Player
|
| Rushing |
Josh Murray (188 / 1,146 yds / 12 TD) |
| Passing |
Jake Landry (3-4 / 77 yds / 1 TD / 0 Int) |
| Receiving |
Ismael Bamba (21 rec. / 310 yds /3 TD) |
| Tackles |
Dominique Hawkins (50) |
| Sacks |
Ryan Kasowski (3.0) |
| Interceptions |
Dominique Hawkins (3) |
A Few Things
I'm not sure that I need a disclaimer, but I'll go ahead and give it anyway. I've never seen a single play of NDU football, so all of these observations are based on the statistics above.
-
NDU vs. NDS: When I first started this, I found the statistics for what I thought was North Dakota, but was actually were the statistics for North Dakota State, obviously an entirely different university. Not noticing the difference I had typed it up quite a bit until I realized what I had done. I can only imagine the ire that I would have received from faithful Fighting Sioux and Bison had I continued with my mistake.
-
New Quarterback: ND loses their starting quarterback and much like Texas Tech, the Fighting Sioux will be relying on a new signal caller. It's tough to tell from the limited action what type of success Landry will have, but he's got a great last name. Of course, Landry's biggest hurdle is being good enough to win on the road.
-
Murray Returns at Running Back: The backbone of the NDU offense is led by RB Josh Murray with 114 yards a game and I could imagine that the NDU offense will rely heavily on Murray for the first game, in Lubbock.
-
Replacing Defense: NDU loses 3 of their top 4 tacklers from 2008 and considering the defense gave up over 260 yards a game last year might mean that NDU is going to have a tough time with Texas Tech.
-
Hawkins the Ballhawk: The Fighting Sioux's best defensive player appears to be Dominique Hawkins (6-0/180) and had a great redshirt freshman year in 2008 and would expect that to continue in 2009.
-
Catching On: NDU also loses their top two receivers in Brady Trenbeath (69/859/8) and Alex Nichols (39/444/6), leaving Bamba as the top returning pass catcher. Josh Murray is also a pretty decent receiving threat, grabbing 21 catches for 187 yards.
