Leatherneck Nation

cool helmets.

Just a reminder to anyone coming to the game: http://goleathernecks.com/news/2015/10/ ... 53313.aspx
The northwest corner entrance of q-lot (by Western Hall) is now closed. The new entrance is a bit further east, towards the middle of Q-lot, and there are new stop signs at that intersection as well. Just something to be aware of if you're driving in to see the game and aren't familiar with the new layout.

Not much YSU chatter going on. My mind was pondering WIU's body of work thus far:

EIU W 33-5 Big win over a then 25th ranked EIU which is currently in 1st place in the OVC with a perfect 4-0 record
UofI L 0-44 Never easy to play in a BIG TEN stadium, this Illinois team is much improved...WIU was not in the game mentally, not great, long shot to win anyway.
CCU L 27-34 Coastal was the #1 team in the Nation going into this game.....WIU lead almost the entire game....lost by one score at the end.
SIU W 37-36 Southern is a very good team, should have beat BIG TEN Indiana (lost by 1) they beat #10 ranked Liberty, gutted out a nice win against YSU
USD W 40-21 Would not have been that close if we didn't pull srtrs. USD has a wining record and went into Fargo to take down the Reigning Champs.
UNI W 24-19 UNI is a beast, and hard to beat at the UNI Dome, they were ranked 12th in the Naiton at the time. they have had a tough schedule too.
ISU L 28-48 ISU is currently ranked 3rd in the land, and we were leading this ball game midway through the 3rd. ISU has big playmakers and top tier coaching.

So the way I see it our losses are to a #1 on the road, a #3 on the road, and a Big Ten team on the road.

WIU has 2 wins over ranked teams (When WIU was not ranked) 3 wins in the MVFC, and an OC win against the OVC's top dog EIU (not Jacksonville St...but still).

I would love to hear peoples feed back that are way more knowledgeable than me.

Hero Sports has predicted WIU to beat Youngstown by 7

http://herosports.com/game-predictions/ ... edictions/#

RedNeck wrote:Not much YSU chatter going on. My mind was pondering WIU's body of work thus far:

EIU W 33-5 Big win over a State rival and 25th ranked EIU is currently in 1st place in the OVC with a perfect 4-0 record
UofI L 0-44 Never easy to play in a BIG TEN stadium, this Illinois team is much improved...WIU was not in the game mentally, not great, long shot to win anyway.
CCU L 27-34 Coastal was the #1 team in the Nation going into this game.....WIU lead almost the entire game....lost by one score at the end.
SIU W 37-36 Southern is a very good team, should have beat BIG TEN Indiana (lost by 1) they beat #10 ranked Liberty, gutted out a nice win against YSU
USD W 40-21 Would not have been that close if we didn't pull srtrs. USD has a wining record and went into Fargo to take down the Reigning Champs.
UNI W 24-19 UNI is a beast, and hard to beat at the UNI Dome, they were ranked 12th in the Naiton at the time. they have had a tough schedule too.
ISU L 28-48 ISU is currently ranked 3rd in the land, and we were leading this ball game midway through the 3rd. ISU has big playmakers and top tier coaching.

So the way I see it our losses are to a #1 on the road, a #3 on the road, and a Big Ten team on the road.

WIU has 2 wins over ranked teams (When WIU was not ranked) 3 wins in the MVFC, and an OC win against the OVC's top dog EIU.

I would love to hear peoples feed back that are way more knowledgeable than me.

That's pretty much it though. I mean, the only teams we've lost to are Top 5 FCS (or better). Depending on where you look, either us or UNI have the toughest schedule this year. On the Massey Ratings, we have the toughest schedule in the FCS including estimating future games (with UNI at #2), but if you just look at it based on games that have been played so far, UNI is #1 with us at #2. That's mostly because UNI still has games upcoming against USD (surprisingly better team than expected, but still not top half of the conference probably) and conference doormat Missouri State. We've already played USD and don't have a game against MSU, so by the end of the season, we will likely end up with the toughest schedule. It would also help our SOS and playoff chances somewhat if EIU were to win out, or at least take down one of the other top 2 OVC teams (Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky).

I'm really happy with where we are at this point. I'd love to have another shot at the Coastal game...I think that the way we've been playing lately, we could probably take them. Still, we've won the games I expected to win, we've lost the games I expected to lose, and we're now 1-1 for games that I thought would be toss-ups...and I felt I was being somewhat "optimistic" with those expectations.

As for ISU's ranking...honestly, I'd consider them the #1 team in the country right now. A case could be made for Jacksonville State, but ISU's only loss this season was the season opener against an Iowa team that is significantly better than anyone expected this year, and Jacksonville's near-win against (at the time #6 Auburn) has gotten significantly less impressive now that Auburn has dropped to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in their conference.

Also wanted to mention a bit about the odds for this game. 5Dimes is showing us as a 3 point favorite, over/under of 55 (so...projected score of 29-26). We have the advantage, but it's not by much. They'll have to go out there and play to the best of their abilities to win against YSU, but it's entirely do-able.

Saturday's forecast looks to be cool and wet.

It will be in the mid to upper 40's in the morning for Tailgating.

It will be cloudy with periods of rain. 90% chance of rain. Rainfall of 0.25 inches expected.
High will be 53.
Winds: South at 10-15 mph.

As luck would have it, both Friday and Sunday look to be sunny days.

REMEMBER: Daylight time ends this weekend. Set your clocks back one hour on Saturday night!

Really hoping someone can step of in the pass rush down the stretch. Sitting at 7 sacks on the year and on pace to have 11. Last year we racked up 25 which was the most since we had 27 in 2007. The highest sack total since Mike Stieren had 7 in 2010 was 4 by Durley and a few guys with 3 or 3.5.

Stieren, Kreczmer, Bennett and Galloway were getting their sacks off the end in a different scheme. Got me thinking about Taylor lining up off the end a few weeks back. On passing downs, why not rotate into more of a 3-4 scheme to bring pressure that way instead of bringing blitzes as only one of our sacks is by a non D-Lineman. Bring some speed and pressure of the end by moving Taylor to a stand-up or hand down 3-4 OLB and have Swenson or Olson on the other side. You can move Eddy inside like they did when Taylor moved up previously (think that was still a 4-3 scheme) and have the two other bigs pushing up the middle. Pressue off the end can lead the Qb right into the the bellies of the bigs.

Still have 4 DB's and you'd sub Bishoff in for Brott, so you'd have two faster Inside backers with he and Nichols. Those backers can cover and have a little more speed to get to any dump-offs or QB's scrambling.

Just hoping for something different and a spark to get more pressure that forces more bad passes or to get a strip sack here or there. D-L gets some pressure, but doesn't get there nearly enough and the LB blitzes have been getting picked up completely or not getting there quick enough.

Just some of my rambling thoughts!!!!

Letsgonecks, nice breakdown there, I like the way you think.

I would be curious to know if you have any special teams expertise, if so, I urge you to submit a resume to Coach Nielson.

Sudden unexpected torrential downpour turns Hanson into a lake. Penguins prevail.

YSU 52
WIU 13

Updated Game Day Forecast:

A steady rain in the morning.
Showers continuing in the afternoon.
High = 53.
Winds South at 10-15 mph.
Chance of rain = 90%

The one "positive" in this forecast is that it will be a "light rain", totaling around 0.25 inches.