Western @ Youngstown State - 10/11/14

Mon Oct 06, 2014 3:56 pm

Time to shake off the last few losses and get a conference win. Up next...the #16 ranked Youngstown State Penguins.

Gametime is 6 PM (Central) at Stambaugh Stadium (The Ice Castle) in Youngstown, Ohio.
YSU is 4-1 overall, with wins against Duquesne (34-23), Butler (44-13), St. Francis PA (52-23) and conference opponent Missouri State (14-7). Their only loss was against Illinois...28-17.

As near as I can tell, against quality opponents (Illinois and Missouri State), YSU primarily runs the ball more than they pass. In those two games, they ran for 414 total yards and passed for 307.
Their leading rusher, Martin Ruiz, averages 106 yards per game, although their #2 RB, Jody Webb, did run for 117 yards against MSU (most of that in a 81 yard TD run).

They've got two receivers that average 70-75 yards per game, Jelani Berassa and Andrew Williams, although the team only put up 130 total yards (+1 TD and 1 INT) in the air against Missouri State.

Overall, it looks like Youngstown State has roughly the same offensive output as North Dakota State, but doesn't have quite as good of a defense.

YSU is averaging 13,761 fans in their 3 home games so far. This game will be a "Red Out" game, with their fans encouraged to wear red.

[tweet]519213138324254720[/tweet]

WIU0812 · Mon Oct 06, 2014 4:05 pm

I will say a 21-17 win for WIU, but that is just looking on the bright side. I really wonder how the team is going to come out next game. I know when I used to play, it was very difficult to come out after a game that you winning and just gave up in the end. It tended to really drag on the team through the week and that next game. Even though everyone says a loss will make a team hungrier for a win, the losses like that make it difficult to get everything together and go out for another strong game. Here is to hoping for strong leadership and some cup half full players as this game is winnable especially if we can get passing game going again.

Also, I did not think we were playing any more ESPN 3 games, but according to the YSU Athletics Schedule the game is on ESPN3??

Neckfansince71 · Mon Oct 06, 2014 4:59 pm

At some point in time we (WIU) have got to win a close one against a ranked opponent That should not be a problem basically because the whole MVFC almost is ranked. I think our game against NDst. Announced our arrival, but we have got to win one of these very soon!

jc

SunDevilLawyer · Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:30 pm

We will not win close games because of our coaching. Notice how we have the athletes to compete for the first half, against ANY team. We don't make halftime adjustments, and other teams do. That is why we lose the way we do. Notice how the Bison looked COMPLETELY different than they had ALL game on those touchdown drives. Notice how we did not? Good coaches make good teams by making adjustments, our coaches do not. We WILL not win close games against respectable opponents. We will only win a close game if we play teams that do not make adjustments either (i.e. if they have bad coaches).

WIU0812 · Mon Oct 06, 2014 6:33 pm

SunDevilLawyer wrote:We will not win close games because of our coaching. Notice how we have the athletes to compete for the first half, against ANY team. We don't make halftime adjustments, and other teams do. That is why we lose the way we do. Notice how the Bison looked COMPLETELY different than they had ALL game on those touchdown drives. Notice how we did not? Good coaches make good teams by making adjustments, our coaches do not. We WILL not win close games against respectable opponents. We will only win a close game if we play teams that do not make adjustments either (i.e. if they have bad coaches).

The NDSU forum must have seen a different game because they were saying they were out coached is why the game was so close. Plus we did have our only touchdown in second half. I wonder if we just do not have talented enough depth and once the first string is tired the second string can not fill in enough to compete?

WIU0812 · Mon Oct 06, 2014 8:45 pm

It was just put on twitter that WIU goes into this weekends came playing the 6th toughest schedule in the nation.

wiu712 · Mon Oct 06, 2014 9:30 pm

WIU0812 wrote:I did not think we were playing any more ESPN 3 games, but according to the YSU Athletics Schedule the game is on ESPN3??

I just checked the ESPN line-up for Saturday and our game is not listed.

But there will be two MVFC games on ESPN3:
2PM, EDT: Southern Illinois vs North Dakota State
4PM, EDT: Northern Iowa vs South Dakota

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/ty ... /football/

WIU0812 · Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:55 pm

Now I am even more confused. First, congrats to JC Baker on his CFP honorable mention and second the very last line of the article says this weekends game is on ESPN3.

http://goleathernecks.com/news/2014/10/ ... 40140.aspx

Daved · Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:07 pm

SunDevilLawyer wrote:We will not win close games because of our coaching. Notice how we have the athletes to compete for the first half, against ANY team. We don't make halftime adjustments, and other teams do. That is why we lose the way we do. Notice how the Bison looked COMPLETELY different than they had ALL game on those touchdown drives. Notice how we did not? Good coaches make good teams by making adjustments, our coaches do not. We WILL not win close games against respectable opponents. We will only win a close game if we play teams that do not make adjustments either (i.e. if they have bad coaches).

This has been one of YSU's biggest downfalls in the past--failure to make adjustments--many games in the past few years we have failed to make these adjustments while our foes have,completely changing our momentum.Tressel was great @ making adjustments,hopefully our new coaches will start.

Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:42 pm

WIU0812 wrote:Now I am even more confused. First, congrats to JC Baker on his CFP honorable mention and second the very last line of the article says this weekends game is on ESPN3.

http://goleathernecks.com/news/2014/10/ ... 40140.aspx

Yea, it lists it as being on ESPN3 on YSU's website also. There's actually two categories of games that ESPN3 "broadcasts"...games that an ESPN crew actually produces, and games that are produced locally and then ESPN just gets the stream and rebroadcasts it. I'd bet that ESPN sometimes doesn't list games that they don't actually produce themselves, and the YSU game is one of those. If that's the case, then it might pop up on the ESPN3 site on Saturday and it'll be a non-ESPN broadcast (like when our broadcasting department produces games, for example).