WIU at Coastal Carolina University (9/14/2015)

[wiu712]

Story about the game as seen on Myrtle Beach television station WMBF:
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/30071689/ ... o-beat-wiu

Interesting side note: Joe Murano (not the reporter in the above video) is the Sports Director at WMBF. Western fans in the Quincy television market will remember that Joe Murano was the weekend sports anchor at KHQA-TV-7 for 3 years before moving on to WMBF in 2011.
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/16771161/ ... joe-murano

[Mizzou Rah]

Some observations:
1) Great Western crowd, very impressed with the number of people wearing purple.
2) No way CCU will ever be a D1 program. With all the excitement of the teal turf and new stadium and #1 ranking the place was very near capacity but not full. Many I spoke with said if they can't sell this game out, how would they by putting 10-20,000 more seats in?
3) Spoke with many fans from CCU that were older people that had moved to Myrtle Beach area and had adopted this program. Impressive for sure.
4) Beautiful facilities for football, baseball and softball. Campus was very nice as well. Loved the architecture, looked new and was very attractive.
5) Coaching at the end of the 1st half was horrid. I believe we had 3 TO's and did not use any. Rushed field goal attempt. Had to have points there.
6) Defense was not great, poor tackling although their RB was a ton.
7) special teams as has been mentioned. If I saw us kick to their return man again I was going to die. How could a coach not inform kicker to NOT kick directly to their return guy. This more than anything else cost us.
8) Norvell was much better. Seemed to look off receivers much better. I would love to see a TE just ONE time this year actually go out on a pass route and even CATCH a pass someday but #13 ran the slot and did a wonderful job in the middle of the field.
9) Nikko was AWESOME! CCU not prepared for him. When we ran the ball effectively it is amazing to see how the rest of the offense can follow suit.
10) Lenoir was very disappointing. Did not seem to want the ball on kick returns. Let #13 return it several times, none for more than 20 yards. Seemed to shy away from teh ball.
11)Crucial play on last punt. Did not call for a fair catch and let the ball roll an extra 15 yards. Ball must be fair caught. Did not even try to block on a few bubble screens. Dropped 2 crucial passes, 1 for 1st down and 1 for TD.
12) CCU is a long ways from a #1 program. I truly believe that if WIU plays them 10 times it is 5-5 or 6-4. CCU would probably be in top half of MVC. Not a physical team at all.
13) Hope to build on this positive showing. Very proud of the boys and their efforts and it appeared the coaches had a very good game plan. Looking forward to October 3. Must have these next 2 home games as W's.

[bodoyle]

Seal where did you park? I haven't taken the shuttles. Were the shuttles packed, or just not running frequently?

[bodoyle]

Mizzou - I agree that we are not a very physical football team on defense. I think we are moreso on offense when we run the ball. Hop isn't a physical runner. He is more of a speed and make you miss RB. We have had bulldozer RBs in the past - similar to Nikko - when we had Mike Tolbert (on Panthers now) and Lorenzo Taliferro (on Ravens now).

Also keep in mind our defensive secondary was beat up and our QB played most of the game with a sprained ankle. Not an excuse, but it did cause an effect.

[sealhall74]

Seal where did you park? I haven't taken the shuttles. Were the shuttles packed, or just not running frequently?

Not sure what lot I was in. It was across street from ROTC building. I walked over to the Wall Building for our Alumni get-together. Then took shuttle from there to stadium. I did not mean to complain. Actually, the shuttle system was fine and was running effectively. We got to stadium about 15 minutes before kickoff. After game, I walked back instead of taking shuttle. It was a bit of a hike but not unreasonable. If you do get to the point where you are packing 20-25K people into stadium, I could see parking and transportation becoming a major issue. But UVA and most big schools have those problems figuring out how to utilizing virtually every parking lot on campus to accommodate the throng that shows up there for a football/basketball game.

Folks at Western need to be thankful they have the big QLot for tailgating and parking all within a stone's throw of the action. Still haven't figured out why they can't get to the field on time for kickoff though.

[sealhall74]

Is it just me, or is there anyone who thinks we still take too much time to get the plays signaled in. I see the QB, RBs, and WRs paying a lot of attention to to the signal caller (behind the big white towel) but do the O-Line guys also get clued in as to what play is getting called via some verbal signal from Novell? If not, IMO that is exactly why we don't see our RBs shooting through a lot of gaps, leaving them to be creative on their own (Baker was crafty, Watson is a horse and can drag a couple along for the ride). I guess I am just old school - all running plays are designed to exploit a specific hole along the line and a couple or three blockers are crucial to opening up that hole. But if a guy does not know the play is going to a specific hole, how effective can his blocks be?

[bodoyle]

I'm not even sure where the ROTC area is. They keep building more and more stuff. The walk to from the Wall Building isn't too bad. There are some shortcuts you can take. I agree with you that parking and transportation, if things don't change, will be an issue. I haven't take a shuttle after the game either, but I was looking for one this game as my father was with me and he couldn't walk to where I park. I didn't see one, but they do let you pull your car up to the Teal Lot (right in front of the stadium) and pick people up.

[Western_101]

Seal, until the 'Necks can start posting winning seasons the "Tailgating" is the main event (for students anyway).

Just reporting the facts Sir.

[Western_101]

Hey Bodoyle, you beach bums lol better not renege on the return game to Macomb. You guys owe us one, we have flown out to the coast twice now.

[bodoyle]

Hey Bodoyle, you beach bums lol better not renege on the return game to Macomb. You guys owe us one, we have flown out to the coast twice now.

I hope that we don't! I talked to a source that I know and he said he wouldn't be surprised if we do go to the cornfields of East St. Louis...I I mean Macomb Ok I might have edited his statement after being in Macomb circa....1998 as a Jr in HS when my brother went to WIU and some Purple Posse thing.