WIU at University of Illinois (9/12/2015)

Tue Sep 08, 2015 10:21 am

at

Both teams has impressive wins last week. This week, we'll get to see if Western can hang with the "big boys".

Game is scheduled for 11 AM at Illinois Memorial Stadium in Champaign, IL.
The game will be available streaming on BTN2GO and on the Big Ten Network (might be regional...they're also doing Bowling Green at Maryland at that time...likely the western side of their coverage area will have our game). Or, as always, you can listen to the game on the Leatherneck Sports Network.

Weather in Champaign on Saturday is supposed to be clear with a high of 70 (low of 47), with it projected to be ~66 degrees and partly cloudy at kickoff...should be a beautiful day for a game.

Nobody has odds posted for the game, at this point, but Massey Ratings lists Western as having ~24% chance of winning this game currently with the most likely score projected to be a 34-24 Illinois win. I'd love for Western to come away with a victory obviously, but I think if we're able to stick within 10 points of Illinois and not have any major injuries, I'll come away from this game pretty happy about the rest of the season.
Sagarin has Illinois ranked at #47 and Western at #108. For comparison, they currently have Kent State (U of I's first opponent) ranked at #164 and Eastern IL ranked at #155.

I'll be driving down early Saturday morning for the game with my sister-in-law (marched with the color guard at U of I). Won't make it to the pregame alumni social though (we'd have to leave Macomb pretty early to get there soon enough). Not exactly sure where we'll be sitting, although probably it'll be to the north end of the east side stands (in the area of sections 101, 102, 103). If you're at the game and see a short guy in purple (me), a taller girl in Illinois colors (sister-in-law) and a taller guy in purple (her boyfriend, a fellow Marching Leatherneck alumni), stop by and say hi.

I don't want to take anything away from the great discussion at the "Scouting" thread (http://www.leathernecknation.net/forum/ ... ?f=7&t=627) but just wanted to get together more of a standard "info" thread.
Also, the thread about this game over at the Illinois fan forum is here: http://www.illinoisloyalty.com/Forums/s ... hp?t=22610

wiu712 · Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:22 pm

ST_Lawson wrote: The game will be available streaming on BTN2GO and on the Big Ten Network (might be regional...they're also doing Bowling Green at Maryland at that time...likely the western side of their coverage area will have our game).

Most everyone should be able to see this game since The Big Ten Network operates 3 distinct channels which allows up to 3 games being shown at the same time.

For example, the Macomb Comcast channel line-up has The Big Ten Network on channels 65, 692, and 693. In Macomb, the Western game will be on channel 692.

BTN football games on Macomb Comcast TV for Saturday, September 12th
12:00 PM (ET) / 11:00 AM (CT)
- BOWLING GREEN VS. MARYLAND: channel 65 or 958 (HD) and BTN2Go
- WESTERN ILLINOIS VS. ILLINOIS: channel 692 and BTN2Go

3:30 PM (ET) / 2:30 PM (CT)
- HAWAII VS. OHIO STATE: channel 65 or 958 (HD) and BTN2Go

8:00 PM (ET) / 7:00 PM (CT)
- SOUTH ALABAMA VS. NEBRASKA: channel 65 or 958 (HD) and BTN2Go
- FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL VS. INDIANA: channel 692 and BTN2Go

Western fans outside of the Macomb Comcast area can find the correct channel by going to the following website:
http://btn.com/about/btn-gamefinder/

Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:45 pm

Oh good, I was wondering if they'd have that info up. I actually checked that gamefinder when I was writing up the earlier post this morning and all it said were which channels were BTN ones...didn't mention anything about which games were going to be shown. They must have just updated in the last hour or so.

Fri Sep 11, 2015 8:58 am

Anyone heard if we have anyone sitting due to injury? I know that Nikko will be out for this game as well (game 2 of his 2-game suspension), but otherwise...everyone good to go?

According to a post on IllinoisLoyalty.com, here's who they have on their injury report:
#44 LB Julian Jones – Questionable
#13 TE Caleb Reams – Out
#14 STAR Eric Finney – Out
#18 WR Mike Dudek – Out
#19 WR Justin Hardee – Out
#34 LB Mike Svetina – Out
#39 TE Nathan Echard – Out
#55 DL Jamal Milan – Out

Western_101 · Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:41 am

I have no idea what to expect Saturday. It could be competitive, or it could be a blow out. It is so hard to tell based upon our game against EIU and their game against Kent.

I know the weather will be nice and I will be enjoying watching my Leathernecks play in a Big Ten stadium......that's more than enough for me to call the day a success

Heck if the Illini beat up the 'Necks bad that's fine....just hope that Cubit keeps on winning and finally brings some respectability back to the beleaguered Illini.

My FBS team is an obvious choice in the Illini, but, they are just not very good, lets hope for change.

Western_101 · Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:02 am

I love how Sagarin has the 'Necks rated higher than half of the teams in the MAC.

Sagarin has the 'Necks ranked 56 positions higher that MAC member Kent State.

I have not done the research but I am pretty sure that WESTERN plays a harder/more rigorous SOS that most all of the MAC schools.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/

Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:19 am

Yea, if you look at the conference rankings (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sa ... onference/), the MVFC is ranked higher than the Sun Belt and MAC East division and just barely below both of the Conference USA divisions. MAC West is helped quite a bit by having pretty good Toledo and Northern Illinois teams.

At the end of last season, we were actually ranked ahead of all G5 conferences except for one division of one the conferences (can't remember which one). We only dropped because our best teams played some pretty big-time teams and most of them lost (ISUr lost to Iowa, YSU lost to Pitt, SIU barely lost to Indiana, UNI lost to Iowa State, NDSU barely lost to a very unpredictable Montana team). I think that other than a couple more FBS matchups, the MVFC isn't likely to lose any more OOC games, so that'll help our ranking. Also having a large group of teams playing in the playoffs helps too.

WIU0812 · Fri Sep 11, 2015 12:32 pm

Next two weeks will make rest of season easier to predict. We face a middle to lower end big ten team and then the number 1 FCS team so should give us an idea of where we stand in the FCS hoping for competitive game this weekend and then a win for us the next week but both of those will be tough and would take some near perfect play in all aspects.

yokedneck · Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:16 pm

Team arrived at the stadium.

Tom

wiu712 · Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:41 pm

The Big Ten Network has moved some of the games around.

The Western vs UIUC game will now be on the main BTN channel in Macomb: Comcast Channel 65 and WIU Cable Channel 43.

The Bowling Green vs Maryland game will now be on Comcast Channel 692.

Fans outside of Macomb will need to re-check the BTN Game Finder to find the correct channel:
http://btn.com/about/btn-gamefinder/