Leatherneck Nation

Tere North wrote:McGuir is who got us here after Norvell nearly lost the season for us. I vote McGuire throughout the playoffs.

24-7 against the easiest team we've played all season! I vote for Nielson to play whoever he thinks earns the spot this week. And I might be mistaken, but I thought it took more than 2 games to go to the playoffs, I could be wrong though; and Montana just took out the team we had to beat in overtime. Montana is on our side of the bracket and could be a potential opponent. We will not beat Illinois State if we play like this again. In fact, Norvell actually had more yds(313), same TD(2) and less INT(0) in our loss to Illinois St, than McGuire had in this game against Dayton (183, 2, 2). What really needs to happen is our defense needs to show up on Saturday like they have been the last 3 games. And to be honest, If anyone "got" us here this season it's Nikko. That boy needs some serious credit this season.

You have to go norvell he is the better qb. the last 3 teams we played were not great teams. This is a great team. Best need to play

Some thoughts...

I believe you stick with McGuire. He has won three straight games as a starter. He seems to have that intangible quality to find a way to win. It may not be pretty but he gets it done. McGuire is mobile and this fits with the way college football is played today. Norvell is more of classic pocket style passer and he is streaky. When he is "on" he puts up great numbers but the Leathernecks were just 4-5 with him at the helm this year. Regardless of QB statistics, wins are all that count in football. Norvell will be naturally rusty because of time off and recovery from his surgery. A playoff football game is not the venue to work out the rust. As such, I believe McGuire gives us the best chance to upset the Redbirds. Regardless, doing so will be a tall order. Illinois State is a very good FCS team. A game plan for Illinois State should be heavy on control of the clock and sustained drives [i.e. lots of Nikko].

Bob

I think if Norvell is 100% (not just talking about appendectomy here) AND looks sharp in his reps this week, you go with him. Whoever it is will need to run 6-8 times (not talking scrambles here) just to keep defense honest and take some heat off Nikko. Game will be decided on defensive side of ball. Cant let Warrum go hog wild like he did last time. Defensive line must maintain presence in gaps and not be suckered in to trying to to beat their blocker one way or the other to get to QB. ISU does that better than any team I have seen. All it does it open up seams for Coprich or the QB. Roberson is not that tall. Maintain a tall presence in the passing lanes and get your hands up. These guys are very beatable especially if you can get up on early.

I agree that I would start Norvell. He has the best arm talent on the roster - there is a reason he got a scholarship to a BCS school. It's probably going to make some big throws over the middle to win.

That's not taking anything away from what McGuire did. He played better than anybody could have expected and he'll make a good QB once Norvell leaves.

ST_Lawson wrote:Got my tickets to 123. It'll be a better view and hopefully enough Western people near me to make us feel less alone.

The Student Sections are 124, 125, and 126. If there is a large student turnout, they will spill over into the adjoining Section 123. You could be sitting with a bunch of ILSU students.

The weather will be the big key as to the crowd turnout as we saw yesterday when only 997 showed up on a rainy and cold day in Dayton.

Illinois State had a home playoff game on this same weekend last year (12-6-14). The attendance for that game was 5,575.

wiu712 wrote:

ST_Lawson wrote:Got my tickets to 123. It'll be a better view and hopefully enough Western people near me to make us feel less alone.

The Student Sections are 124, 125, and 126. If there is a large student turnout, they will spill over into the adjoining Section 123. You could be sitting with a bunch of ILSU students.

The weather will be the big key as to the crowd turnout as we saw yesterday when only 997 showed up on a rainy and cold day in Dayton.

Illinois State had a home playoff game on this same weekend last year (12-6-14). The attendance for that game was 5,575.

If there's only 5k-6k people there, then we should be able to scoot over a section or two if we need to (it'd be shifting further "out" anyway...so less likely for those sections to be occupied, I'd think). We'll just see how it is when we're there. Hopefully there's a huge group of purple taking over that whole area.

I would say playing conditions more miserable with rain yesterday than cold during SDSU. I think we had one eye on next week while playing Dayton. Defense was big until the offense got going.

Tom

The forecast for Saturday in Bloomington-Normal is looking good at this time:

A mainly sunny sky. High = 49.
Winds SSE at 10-15 mph.

Regardless of which qb starts, I think we need to make sure the OL stands tough - opens pockets for the ground game and gives the qb protection to make good throws. Defense needs to be heads up on Roberson, Coprich, and Warrum.

Going to be a tough game, but I'd love to see us get revenge for the game we lost in the 4th quarter.

(Please note - I am not a coach, nor do I pretend to be....so my observations are only worth the time it took to type them. )