Leatherneck Nation

http://valley-football.org/news/2017/7/ ... -team.aspx

WIU has 6 total players receiving recognition:
RB Steve McShane, OL Jacob Judd, and LB Brett Taylor were on the Preseason Team
QB Sean McGuire, DL Khalen Saunders, and LB Quentin Moon received Honorable Mentions

Lending credence to my statement a while back that we very likely could have the best LB corps of the conference this year, Western was the only school to have two LB's mentioned.

Today they announced the conference preseason poll: http://valley-football.org/news/2017/7/ ... -poll.aspx

Western is hanging out around 6, which feels a little low to me, but is fine at this point. If we beat everyone below us and pull off a win or two from the teams above us, and do decently in OOC, then we'll be fine. NDSU beat out SDSU for the top spot by one vote (380-379).

Yeah I honestly could see us anywhere from 3 to 7 the top to are clear to me along with the bottom 2 everyone else is a toss up and health could also be a big factor

I ran the Massey Matchup-based Probability of K Wins Report for upcoming season. Here are the results.
IIRC, not too much different than last year.

[17-07-29 15:12:30:544 EDT] Probability of 0 wins: 0.0004
[17-07-29 15:12:30:545 EDT] Probability of 1 wins: 0.0052
[17-07-29 15:12:30:546 EDT] Probability of 2 wins: 0.0289
[17-07-29 15:12:30:547 EDT] Probability of 3 wins: 0.0923
[17-07-29 15:12:30:549 EDT] Probability of 4 wins: 0.1867
[17-07-29 15:12:30:553 EDT] Probability of 5 wins: 0.2506
[17-07-29 15:12:30:561 EDT] Probability of 6 wins: 0.2271
[17-07-29 15:12:30:575 EDT] Probability of 7 wins: 0.1384
[17-07-29 15:12:30:599 EDT] Probability of 8 wins: 0.0551
[17-07-29 15:12:30:652 EDT] Probability of 9 wins: 0.0135
[17-07-29 15:12:30:753 EDT] Probability of 10 wins: 0.0018
[17-07-29 15:12:30:959 EDT] Probability of 11 wins: 0.0001

STATS released their FCS Preseason All-American Team Lists today: http://www.fcs.football/cfb/story.asp?i ... 1208506704

The MVFC lead the FCS with 17 players named, and Western had two players on the team lists.

Brett Taylor made First Team Defense (3 of the 4 LBs on the first team are MVFC players....DeLuca at NDSU and Rozeboom at SDSU in addition to Taylor).
Jacob Judd made Second Team Offense.

College Sports Madness MVFC Preseason Team: http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/14981

Brett Taylor was named Preseason Defensive Player of the Year