Western @ Youngstown State - 10/11/14

[sealhall74]

Thanks, Huskie. I just looked at the map and realized I should have said "Heart of the Rust Belt". Damn thing extends all the way into Davenport along I74. Who'd have thunk it?

[WIU0812]

I am beyond pumped for this game... if we can get some good QB play from Trenton, you hear that Norvell I am looking for over 300 yards passing, we should come away with a win. We know our RB's have the ability to compete against the best and still put up scary good numbers so let's balance this attack and take some heat off the defense for once! I seriously expect a win here even with the tough loss. This could be a turning point in a season or a entire coaches history at a school. Make a statement show them we are coming back with a vengeance and going to push to the top in the coming years. We are missing the final and biggest piece of the puzzle and that is consistent QB play with the ability to hit those wide open down field receivers, no more short on long passes on the players who would go for an easy TD.

Wish I still had my video editor I would attempt to put a pump up video together like what YSU did over on their board. I have placed videos together before typically takes about a hour or two and finding the right quality video is the hardest thing to do. This may be something I look in to once I get my new computer. Lets go 'Necks!

[ST_Lawson]

Thanks, Huskie. I just looked at the map and realized I should have said "Heart of the Rust Belt". Damn thing extends all the way into Davenport along I74. Who'd have thunk it?

I think it's less "Davenport" and more just the Quad Cities being some manufacturing but mostly that it was a port along the route that could be used to get heavy manufacturing products from Chicago (and other areas) west to the Mississippi and down the river to other areas. I know they probably used the Ohio River a lot as well from areas like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, but further west, you'd need to get it on the Mississippi if you wanted it to head up to Minneapolis/St. Paul, or down the St. Louis. I think a lot of the shipping stuff was based in Rock Island (Rock Island Line?).

[wiu712]

Are we flying or busing over to the "Rust Belt"?

I remember that last plane trip to Youngstown two years ago. The cabin lost pressure. Oxygen masks came down, and the plane had to quickly drop to a lower altitude.

[sealhall74]

That was last year I think.

[wiu712]

That was last year I think.

You are right. We are playing Youngstown on the road for the second year in a row.

Last year's game at Youngstown was on October 19, 2013. Attendance at that game was 13,607. Youngstown scored 10 fourth quarter points to win that game 24-14.

[sealhall74]

Are some of these bizarre schedule oddities (like us not playing NDSU for two years in a row and this one with us going to YSU two years in a row) because some conference teams MUST play each other every year like Michigan and Ohio State do in the B1G? NDSU and SDSU have played each other for years, long before joining the MVFC. IMO having them play each other every year might put other schools at a disadvantage during some years.

[lovethenecks]

This is a Huge Game for the Leathernecks this week as so many things will happen if we lose. First if we lose this will eliminate us from any chance of making the playoffs. Secondly if we lose and South Dakota wins it most likely place us as the last MVC team on the Sagarin Rankings of ALL D1 teams. Third any real chance of a 500 series are pretty much gone with the teams that are left on the schedule. On October 11th you hate to looking at NEXT YEAR.

[ST_Lawson]

Are some of these bizarre schedule oddities (like us not playing NDSU for two years in a row and this one with us going to YSU two years in a row) because some conference teams MUST play each other every year like Michigan and Ohio State do in the B1G? NDSU and SDSU have played each other for years, long before joining the MVFC. IMO having them play each other every year might put other schools at a disadvantage during some years.

Yea, there's a couple of quirks of the current schedule like that.

1. There's 10 teams in the conference, and they want each team to play 8 conference games a year, so then they have room for 3-4 non-conference games (depending on the calendar) per year. So, each set of 2 years, one conference team is removed from your schedule...essentially a set of home and away games. Last two years it was NDSU that we were "lucky" enough to not have to face. This year, it's Missouri State. The other pairings of teams that don't play each other this year are: UNI & YSU, NDSU & ISUr, USD & ISUb, SDSU & SIU. I don't know if part of the agreement was that they'd never pair up the Dakota schools with each other for not playing in a set of 2 years or what. I only know that this is year 3 of this scheduling system (they started it when USD joined the conferencein 2012) so we're only on the second set of pairings. Last two years it was Western & NDSU, YSU & MSU, SIU & USD, SDSU & ISUr, ISUb & UNI.

2. If I remember correctly, part of the agreement to bring in all the Dakota schools was that a few of the eastern teams wouldn't have to travel out to the Dakotas quite as often (there's a set # of times...can't remember what it was though). To compensate for that adjustment of scheduling, some teams occasionally have to deal with odd things like playing at Youngstown State two years in a row.

Unless something changes in the membership of the conference, I don't see it changing any time soon. Personally, I'd love to see us add 2 schools (maybe Eastern Illinois and North Dakota, just as an example), break into East and West Divisions of 6 teams each, play everyone in your division (5 games) every year and 3 of the teams in the other division every year, with those 3 teams switching up every year. Maybe splitting it at the Mississippi River with UND, NDSU, SDSU, USD, UNI, and MSU in the Western Division and WIU, ISU (both), SIU, EIU, and YSU in the Eastern division. You'd still have a strong conference with practically no increase in travel time/expenses over where we're currently at, plus you'd have less of every team beating up on every other team (like when we had half the conference end up 4-4 and almost nobody made the playoffs even though everyone was really good). I think it'd also help increase rivalries too...the Dakotas would all play each other every year, the 4 FCS Illinois schools would all play each other every year, etc. Maybe there could even be travelling trophies....the Illinois cup, going to the Illinois school with the best record against the other Illinois schools (with overall conference record being the tiebreaker)...ISU, EIU, SIU, WIU.

[letsgonecks]

Would love to get EIU back in our conference. Would be ideal to have all the IL FCS schools in the same conference, but unlike the the other IL FCS schools, they'd have to move in all sports. Wouldn't image the OVC allowing them to leave for football and stay for everything else. That could possibily be the hangup there if they're content in the OVC.

If that would happen, they could then try to work something out with NIU, Northwestern and UofI to rotate their scheduling between the schools. I know the Big14 wants to eliminate that, but we'll see how that goes.

By the way.....WIU 21 YSU 14