Anyway, IT’S HOMECOMING!!! Time to get your butts back to campus and cheer on the Leathernecks as they take on the Fighting Saplings.
VS 
Date/Time: Saturday, October 8 at 3:00 PM
Location: WIU’s own Hanson Field
Weather Forecast (as of 10/4): 68 degrees, very low humidity, clear skies, and minimal wind with 0% chance of rain….should be a beautiful day for Leatherneck Football
TV: Like all MVFC matchups this season, available on ESPN3/WatchESPN.com
Links:
- Stat Tracking for the game: http://www.sidearmstats.com/wiu/football/
- ISU’s Message Board (remember, don’t be a troll): http://www.sycamorepride.com/forumdispl ... 4736200802
- ISU’s Football Website: http://www.gosycamores.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=7269
- ISU’s Athletics Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SycamoreFootball
- ISU’s Athletics Twitter: https://twitter.com/indstathletics
Indiana State comes into this game at 3-2 overall, 1-1 in the conference. They started the season by beating Butler (41-25) and then traveled to Minnesota to take on the Gophers, where they lost 58-28. They then went down to Southeast Missouri State and won a close one, 27-24. Then they headed back home for two games, a 34-31 win over Illinois State and a 45-24 loss that spoiled the Sycamores’ Homecoming Game.
The History
Western has a 24-15 record over Indiana State dating back to 1967. Western has won the last 3 in a row against ISU and 13 of the last 16 seasons. In the last 20 years, only two of the games in Macomb have been losses (1996 and 2012).
Team Stat Analysis
Indiana State has a fairly decent offense, currently ranked 32nd in the FCS with 414.2 yards per game. Their scoring offense is about the same, 38th in the FCS putting up 30.8 points per game. The Sycamores rely strongly on their passing game, currently 19th in the FCS in passing yards per game but 87th in rushing offense. Defensively they allow 445.6 total yards per game (97th in the FCS) with 183.6 of that on the ground (76th in the FCS) and 262 through the air (97th in the FCS). They allow 36.6 points per game, 102nd in the FCS. Overall, that means that their defense is fairly porous, allowing quite a few passing yards.
Other interesting stats is that ISU is the 8th best team in the FCS at gaining first downs, but the 117th in the FCS in giving up first downs. They’ve lost 6 fumbles this season and have had 4 passes intercepted, so there should be an opportunity to gain some from turnovers for us. ISU is also very low in their time of possession ranking (111th in the FCS).
Click here to view their full rankings list as compared to us.
Key Opposition Players
QB Isaac Harker - averages 287 yards per game, 11 TDs and 3 interceptions through 5 games (so, one more game than anyone else in the conference besides Illinois State). Passing efficiency of 135.74. Total yards and TDs are both just within the FCS top 10, efficiency ranks him at 36th in the FCS.
WR Robert Tonyan - averages 73.2 yards per game and has 5 receiving TDs. He generally gets about twice as many catches as anyone else on the team and has an 11.1 yard per catch average.
WR Miles Thompson - averages 52.0 yards per game and 13 yards per catch. Has 3 receiving TDs on the season.
WR Bob Pugh - a multi-faceted receiver, he’s averaged 61.5 yards per game (playing in 4 games) and 17.6 yards per catch, and has 1 receiving TD. He also works as a kick and punt returner, averaging 11.7 yards per punt return and 23.8 yards per kick return, which means he leads the team with 120.5 all-purpose yards per game. He also has, in one situation, thrown a 10 yard TD pass (so….a 514.0 passing efficiency rating
)DB Tsali Lough - second on the team for tackles with 35 total so far, but also has 1 sack, 2 interceptions, and a fumble returned for TD.
LB Jameer Thurman - leads the team with 46 tackles (9.2 per game), 7 tackles for loss including 1 sack, also 3 forced fumbles and 1 fumble recovery.
PK Jerry Nunez - 7 for 7 on field goals including 43 and 41-yarders. Also a perfect 17 for 17 on XPs.
The Game
Despite our lack of offense in the SDSU game, I like our matchup against Indiana State with our receivers and their lack of passing defense. Their rushing defense is a little better, but we’re pretty strong there too. Their passing offense is pretty decent, but not really on the level of SDSU...probably closer to Eastern Illinois when we played them, so I think we will actually be able to defend them, since they don’t have anyone that’s ANYTHING like what we saw out of SDSU’s big TE. Very few teams have anything close to those kind of weapons...honestly, I don’t think we’ll see anyone else even close to that type of offense until maybe the playoffs, if we’re in it (UNI has a good offense, but they’re more run-oriented)...but I digress. ISUb is probably feeling somewhat disheartened by losing to the usual conference “doormat” Missouri State, and our guys are probably going to be playing angry after the loss at SDSU. Combine that with Homecoming, a good crowd, a great day….I think we’ll take this one pretty solidly. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we do a bit of running up the score if we are able to...just to get some of that anger out of our system. I think Western will put up a lot of points, maybe 40+, and win by at least 10, possibly nearing 20.
Miscellaneous
We’re actually still first in the FCS in red zone defense (at .500) because...in case you hadn’t noticed...SDSU only got to the red zone once. All the rest of their scores came from further out than that. So, it’s a bit of a misleading stat, but it still means that once teams get down to within 20, only half the time they are able to come away with any points. Limiting long passes is probably going to be the focus of the defense going forward...that’s probably our weakest area at this point.
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
