WIU vs Indiana State (10/8/2016)...HOMECOMING!

[wiu712]

I still believe that 1:00pm game times are best for afternoon games including homecoming.

Maybe a 2PM start time for Homecoming would be good. Move the Parade up a bit if necessary. These ESPN games have been running long because of the media time-outs.

I'm not a fan of a night game in late October like we will have on October 22nd vs North Dakota State. We had a night game 3 years ago on October 26. The attendance was 3,624.

[sealhall74]

Schedule is pretty favorable from here on. No YSU to worry about. Toughest games are at home. We are a 1TD favorite right now heading to Springfield, MO next weekend. That game will not be easy as it is their Homecoming game and they have a pretty darn good defense this year. If we can sneak out of there with a W, who knows what good things might happen.

[tweet]785206403329822721[/tweet]

Would be neat to see the Game Day. Bison will bring two or three hundred for sure and probably more if this does come to fruition. I know this is all just over the top wishful thinking at the moment, but if ESPN does come to Macomb, where do you think they would setup? Downtown square, on campus, ... My vote would be for smack dab in front of beautiful Sherman Hall.

[rocki]

MoST scares me. For years they have been the joke of the conference, but this year they are playing well. They beat InSU on the Sycamore's homecoming at their place. We barely squeaked out a win with the Sycamores on our homecoming at home.

I'm way more than ready to see this Leatherneck team step up and be the team we all know they can be. We let SDSU get away, and almost did the same with InSU - we should be WAY better than that. Both games we had a lead and let it get away, but we (in my opinion, and without being able to see if their center flinched a drew Brett offsides or if it was a crummy call by the refs) lucked out at homecoming. That call appeared highly questionable to me.

I don't know. I had such confidence coming into this year, and kept it after the first 2 games. NIU we damn near gave away as well. Do we just get shaky when things go too well? Odd stuff.

[letsgonecks]

Gameday would be cool, but don't see that ever happening. What I could see happening if we're 5-1 and they're 6-0 is the game being televised on ESPN2 or ESPNU which would be good exposure.

Let's clean things up this week and get the W first.

[ST_Lawson]

Gameday would be cool, but don't see that ever happening. What I could see happening if we're 5-1 and they're 6-0 is the game being televised on ESPN2 or ESPNU which would be good exposure.

Let's clean things up this week and get the W first.

Yea...ESPN has gone to Fargo a few times and it's entirely because of the Bison. They could care less who they are playing against. One year it was some mediocre MEAC team (I think) and if I remember correctly, they blew them out by like 50-60 points. It's all about the atmosphere in Fargo...and unfortunately, we don't, at this point, have that kind of atmosphere. It's a great goal to have, but we're not there yet.

I can pretty much promise you though, that a 6-0 NDSU at a 5-1 Western Illinois would be the near unanimous FCS game of the Week for pretty much every site/organization that picks that sort of thing. It looks like Ohio State at Penn State will likely be on one of ABC's "Big 3" for games at that point...ABC, ESPN, ESPN2. A lot of the other games are at this point, TBD...so it depends on when the schedule them, but I think there might be a slight chance at getting on a broadcast channel (2 or U) that evening. If they both remain undefeated, I'd imagine currently #6 Texas A&M at #1 Alabama would be the prime time ABC matchup, but it's hard to say at this point without knowing more about the scheduling of some of those other big games.

Also, in unrelated news, you can go vote for Lance Lenior for the Hero Sports "Hero of the Week" for this last weekend. He did go for 204 yards and 2 TDs (despite the issues catching kicks): http://herosports.com/news/fcs-football ... the-week-6

[Leatherneck57]

[quote="rocki"]MoST scares me. For years they have been the joke of the conference, but this year they are playing well. They beat InSU on the Sycamore's homecoming at their place. We barely squeaked out a win with the Sycamores on our homecoming at home.


Rocki, I agree that MO State is playing better this year than in the past. And agree that we have to play better in late quarters, But if you look at their schedule compared to ours it doesn't even compare.

Ok...so they beat Southwestern College of Kansas 57-0 an NAIA school. I'm sure that was a good win for them because of the history of past seasons but Southwestern College is 0-5...

They beat a horrible Murray State team by 6 and they are 1-4 with their only win coming against 0-5 Austin Peay this past weekend.

Kansas State only needed a weather delayed 1st half to put 35 on their defense for 35-0 lead and the game was cancelled at halftime.

Yes MO State played a great 2nd half against Indiana State to run away with that victory but if you think about the momentum we had in the 3rd quarter leading 27-14 when we forced them to punt and our own player got knocked into Lance and forced a fumble. Things like that happen from time to time and can't be helped. Granted the pick 6 and blocked punt is inexcusable but if we don't fumble the punt who knows...we go up 34-14 or at worst 30-14 at that point of the game.

I was on the sideline when we hit the second extra point and got called for illegal procedure for not having enough guys on the line of scrimmage...hmmm we lined up the same way for the retry and it hit the upright. BTW...the side judge on our sideline the first half was not the best official...believe me.

MO State lost to #1 NDSU 27-3 but the Bison held them to 176 yards of offense - 30 yards rushing and 146 yards passing and forced 4 turnovers. Plus NDSU probably didn't have to show much offensively because of the defense playing so well. NDSU will remain #1 regardless of the score and until someone beats them.

Good teams find ways to win and we did. We really are a good football team and they never stop fighting and you have to like that about them. I feel sorry for the team that we play perfect for 4 quarters. We never get passes that reflect off someone's shoulder pads and our guy catches it and runs 60 yards for touchdowns...our TD's are all legit! That happened against Northern Arizona and Indiana State! Take those lucky TD's out of the equation and the scoreboard is a lot different!.

We will handle Mo State this weekend but they will battle us...no doubt!

LN57

[rocki]

Any clues as to why we have the late game fades? It's like we play well and then just sputter. Is it conditioning? Is it the fact that the games last so long due to being on TV? Do we get complacent?

I believe you when you say how hard these kids are working, how they don't give up, and the like; but damn - wouldn't it be nice to have the leads like we had at NIU and with InSU be the final score instead of heading to heart attack city? I get that every game wouldn't be a blowout, but why, when you at least have a good lead wouldn't you keep it instead of letting it go?

I knew SDSU would be tough, with their receivers. I didn't think it would end as badly as it did, though. Yeah, there have been some freakish plays that very seldom happen.

Just hoping they pick things up - I'd love to see them go deep in the postseason, what with it being Lance and Joey's final year. I know we've got great stuff to build on with the youth that is on this team, but I'd like to see them turn it around sooner than later, know what I mean?

[ST_Lawson]

I was on the sideline when we hit the second extra point and got called for illegal procedure for not having enough guys on the line of scrimmage...hmmm we lined up the same way for the retry and it hit the upright. BTW...the side judge on our sideline the first half was not the best official...believe me.

....

Good teams find ways to win and we did. We really are a good football team and they never stop fighting and you have to like that about them. I feel sorry for the team that we play perfect for 4 quarters. We never get passes that reflect off someone's shoulder pads and our guy catches it and runs 60 yards for touchdowns...our TD's are all legit! That happened against Northern Arizona and Indiana State! Take those lucky TD's out of the equation and the scoreboard is a lot different!.

We will handle Mo State this weekend but they will battle us...no doubt!

LN57

To the first point...I think there was more than just the one official who had some issues, but there were definitely problems with that side judge that I noticed from all the way up in the top of the band area.

And to the second point...you're right. Our defense has been able to really step up when it comes down to fighting it out for a close game...like in the NIU game and last Saturday. Sure the SDSU game was a blowout, but two of their TDs weren't even on the defense (2 pick-6's), and one was that crazy bobbling catch that they somehow held on to. Any other player, any other day, and that's a dropped pass. Their receivers were just operating on another level that day.

Like LN57 said, I'd hate to be the team on the other end of us putting together all 4 quarters of playing at our best. I'd love to see it against NDSU in a couple of weeks, honestly. At this point, we've had good quarters here and there, but not a full game, and we're still 4-1 with wins against good full-scholarship teams, as well as an FBS team.

I'm a bit worried about the MSU game, but only to the level that I'm worried about any MVFC game. All the teams can be tough...we're known for beating each other up quite a bit...and you always have those occasional odd upsets (USD over NDSU last season, for example), but if we play like we can for the majority of the game...I think we got this one.

[Western_101]

Some excellent observations.

MSU has a non-counter win against a NAIA

MSU also has a win over Murray, which is arguably the 2nd worse team in the FCS (with Austin Peay being arguably the worst team in FCS).

So in my mind MSU does appear to better than last year, but only has 1 real win(ISU) to our 4 (two being on the road).

MSU's Stadium upgrades certainly do look nice. If ESPN were to come to WIU for game day we could show the sports world our beautiful West side.

[ST_Lawson]

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Check out Coach P showing up at the end to give a bit more of a boost to the guys. I'm so glad our current staff has such a great relationship with him now. Obviously, it's still early in Coach Fisher's tenure here, but I'd say that those two guys are probably my favorite two coaches that I've had the opportunity to see in person. This isn't just a job to them...it's about passing along the passion, drive, and work ethic to be able to succeed both on the football field and in life.