Overall, great game by the team. Defense finally played like the squad we have been waiting for. Offense did a good job managing the game with a nice balance of run and pass plays. The team improved by one game from last season. Hope this a momentum builder and recruiting tool for next season.
So far they are only playing one FBS team, Illinois, so hopefully the schedule will be on WIU to maybe get them into the playoffs.
11/22 - vs Indiana State
Exciting game, great way to send off the seniors. Can't get them into the playoffs, but at least we can finish out with a victory in the final game. The crowd was small, but those that were there were loud. The rain held off the entire game and the weather was really nice for the game. Mid-50s, overcast, light breeze. Had a few layers and didn't even need to break out the coat. Felt great.
Indiana State is pretty much done for the season now too...there's almost no chance they'll make the playoffs at this point.
Gonna put together a review of the season, comparison the the last couple of seasons and kinda "preview" next year here in the next few days. There also should be at least 3-4 MVFC teams that we can root for in the next couple of weekends in the playoffs...NDSU and ISUr for sure, not sure who else at this point...likely SDSU (8-47 after their win at USD today) and a good chance for UNI (currently 7-4, but leading MSU 14-7 near the end of the second half...as of right now). If UNI wins, they'll be 8-4 and likely also in the playoffs. That may be it though, since the other teams that had a chance (ISUb and YSU) both lost today).
Indiana State is pretty much done for the season now too...there's almost no chance they'll make the playoffs at this point.
Gonna put together a review of the season, comparison the the last couple of seasons and kinda "preview" next year here in the next few days. There also should be at least 3-4 MVFC teams that we can root for in the next couple of weekends in the playoffs...NDSU and ISUr for sure, not sure who else at this point...likely SDSU (8-47 after their win at USD today) and a good chance for UNI (currently 7-4, but leading MSU 14-7 near the end of the second half...as of right now). If UNI wins, they'll be 8-4 and likely also in the playoffs. That may be it though, since the other teams that had a chance (ISUb and YSU) both lost today).
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
Trenton had a damn good year, especially for a sophomore. I'm looking for big things from this offense next season. I haven't compared yet from a statistical standpoint, but I'm sure Trenton crushed Matt Barr's sophomore year, and is probably not far off from a Michna type year. Those are two of Western's best qb's since I've been a fan.
So, to compare Norvell to the last few good QB's we've had:
Starting with Russ Michna:
Michna played very little his first two seasons as a backup. The two years he started...
2002 - 3,037 yards, 23 TDs, 5 INTs, QB Rating of 155.1, Completion % of 57.3%
2003 - 3,160 yards, 21 TDs, 14 INTs, QB Rating of 139.6, Completion % of 56.9%
Career total - 6,434 yards, 44 TDs, 19 INTs, QB Rating of 145.4
Immediately following Michna was Steve LaFalce:
LaFalce started in '04-'06.
2004 - 1,767 yards, 12 TDs, 11 INTs, QB Rating of 122.7, Completion % of 52.9%
2005 - 2,586 yards, 19 TDs, 8 INTs, QB Rating of 156.01, Completion % of 67.4%
2006 - 2,121 yards, 11 TDs, 9 INTs, QB Rating of 133.50, Completion % of 63.1%
Next up, Matt Barr:
Barr started all but one game of his freshman year and played in all 11 games, started all games his sophomore year, was injured his Junior year, only playing in 4 games, and came back with a vengeance for his Senior year (2010), coming in second in the Payton Award voting and leading the Leathernecks to a first round playoff win at Coastal Carolina.
2007 - 1,305 yards, 4 TDs, 6 INTs, QB Rating of 109.09, Completion % of 55.6%
2008 - 1,347 yards, 9 TDs, 5 INTs, QB Rating of 118.9, Completion % of 50.8%
2009 - 914 yards, 5 TDs, 3 INTs, QB Rating of 140.6, Completion % of 56.7%
2010 - 3,410 yards, 27 TDs, 10 INTs, QB Rating of 148.7, Completion % of 58.3%
Finally, Trenton Norvell:
Started all 12 games both his Freshman and Sophomore years.
2013 - 2,140 yards, 16 TDs, 16 INTs, QB Rating of 103.0, Completion % of 50.8%
2014 - 2,891 yards, 24 TDs, 11 INTs, QB Rating of 139.15, Completion % of 58.71%
So, the closest comparisons I can make at this point:
Norvell had roughly as good of a season this year as Russ Michna's senior year (when we went 9-4 and got to the second round of the playoffs). Norvell had slightly fewer yards than Michna (2891 vs 3160) but more TD passes (24 vs 21) and fewer INTs (11 vs 14) for a nearly identical QB rating (139.15 vs 139.6).
Barr improved significantly in his Junior and Senior years, so it's hard to say if we'll see anything close to that level of improvement from Norvell.
Norvell had more yards and TDs than Barr did during their freshman years, but significantly more INTs as well. During their sophomore years, Barr improved slightly, but Norvell took a pretty large step forward (TDs from 16->24, INTs from 16->11). For him to become in the same discussion with the best QBs we've had in the last few decades, he pretty much would just have to get a little better at reducing interceptions and essentially "stay the course".
I must say, when I was first looking at the numbers and thinking about the QBs, I was thinking that Norvell has a tendency to overthrow and otherwise miss passes that he should be hitting. Then I went and double-checked the completion percentage and he has a better completion percentage this season than either Michna or Barr had in any season. Steve LaFalce actually had a better completion % than anyone else during his Junior and Senior years (67.4% and 63.1% respectively), although he threw nearly 100 fewer passes his senior year, being able to rely more on the running game (Herb Donaldson's first year where he averaged 128.8 ypg and had 18 TDs).
The NCAA hasn't released their updated stat rankings (with stuff from today's games), but I'll check out where Norvell falls on some of those in the next couple of days.
Suffice it to say, Norvell had a very good season for a sophomore and should continue to see a lot of success in the next couple of years, especially considering our #1 (Lenoir) and #3 (Borsellino) receivers will only be Juniors as well, and our #4 receiver (Mireles) will be a Senior next season.
Starting with Russ Michna:
Michna played very little his first two seasons as a backup. The two years he started...
2002 - 3,037 yards, 23 TDs, 5 INTs, QB Rating of 155.1, Completion % of 57.3%
2003 - 3,160 yards, 21 TDs, 14 INTs, QB Rating of 139.6, Completion % of 56.9%
Career total - 6,434 yards, 44 TDs, 19 INTs, QB Rating of 145.4
Immediately following Michna was Steve LaFalce:
LaFalce started in '04-'06.
2004 - 1,767 yards, 12 TDs, 11 INTs, QB Rating of 122.7, Completion % of 52.9%
2005 - 2,586 yards, 19 TDs, 8 INTs, QB Rating of 156.01, Completion % of 67.4%
2006 - 2,121 yards, 11 TDs, 9 INTs, QB Rating of 133.50, Completion % of 63.1%
Next up, Matt Barr:
Barr started all but one game of his freshman year and played in all 11 games, started all games his sophomore year, was injured his Junior year, only playing in 4 games, and came back with a vengeance for his Senior year (2010), coming in second in the Payton Award voting and leading the Leathernecks to a first round playoff win at Coastal Carolina.
2007 - 1,305 yards, 4 TDs, 6 INTs, QB Rating of 109.09, Completion % of 55.6%
2008 - 1,347 yards, 9 TDs, 5 INTs, QB Rating of 118.9, Completion % of 50.8%
2009 - 914 yards, 5 TDs, 3 INTs, QB Rating of 140.6, Completion % of 56.7%
2010 - 3,410 yards, 27 TDs, 10 INTs, QB Rating of 148.7, Completion % of 58.3%
Finally, Trenton Norvell:
Started all 12 games both his Freshman and Sophomore years.
2013 - 2,140 yards, 16 TDs, 16 INTs, QB Rating of 103.0, Completion % of 50.8%
2014 - 2,891 yards, 24 TDs, 11 INTs, QB Rating of 139.15, Completion % of 58.71%
So, the closest comparisons I can make at this point:
Norvell had roughly as good of a season this year as Russ Michna's senior year (when we went 9-4 and got to the second round of the playoffs). Norvell had slightly fewer yards than Michna (2891 vs 3160) but more TD passes (24 vs 21) and fewer INTs (11 vs 14) for a nearly identical QB rating (139.15 vs 139.6).
Barr improved significantly in his Junior and Senior years, so it's hard to say if we'll see anything close to that level of improvement from Norvell.
Norvell had more yards and TDs than Barr did during their freshman years, but significantly more INTs as well. During their sophomore years, Barr improved slightly, but Norvell took a pretty large step forward (TDs from 16->24, INTs from 16->11). For him to become in the same discussion with the best QBs we've had in the last few decades, he pretty much would just have to get a little better at reducing interceptions and essentially "stay the course".
I must say, when I was first looking at the numbers and thinking about the QBs, I was thinking that Norvell has a tendency to overthrow and otherwise miss passes that he should be hitting. Then I went and double-checked the completion percentage and he has a better completion percentage this season than either Michna or Barr had in any season. Steve LaFalce actually had a better completion % than anyone else during his Junior and Senior years (67.4% and 63.1% respectively), although he threw nearly 100 fewer passes his senior year, being able to rely more on the running game (Herb Donaldson's first year where he averaged 128.8 ypg and had 18 TDs).
The NCAA hasn't released their updated stat rankings (with stuff from today's games), but I'll check out where Norvell falls on some of those in the next couple of days.
Suffice it to say, Norvell had a very good season for a sophomore and should continue to see a lot of success in the next couple of years, especially considering our #1 (Lenoir) and #3 (Borsellino) receivers will only be Juniors as well, and our #4 receiver (Mireles) will be a Senior next season.
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
WIU02 wrote:Trenton had a damn good year. especially for a sophomore.
Trenton Norvell's 24 TD passes this year rank third-most in a season. His 2,891 passing yards rank him fifth.
During the game, he became just the sixth WIU quarterback ever to reach 5,000 passing yards (5,031).
Trenton Norvell became just the third Leatherneck to record 3,000 yards of total offense in a season (3,035), and the most since Matt Barr's record of 3,859 four years ago. He joined Barr and Russ Michna (2002 and 2003).
Haha...I was just going to post that stuff as a follow-up.
I will add, in terms of career numbers:
Norvell is now 6th on the career yardage list and will likely pass #5 (Jeff Hecklinski) at some point next season (needs 949 yards to take the #5 spot)
Norvell is also 6th on the career TD list with 40 so far, although only 6 more TDs would move him into 2nd place (ahead of Bob Majka, Steve LaFalce, Russ Michna, and Matt Barr, and behind only Paul Singer).
If (and it's a BIG IF), Norvell were to continue on the average pace that he's set down his first two years, barring injury, he will end up with 80 TDs (18 more than the current #1) and 10,062 yards (1,805 more than the current #1).
In both of those cases, #1 is Paul Singer, an excellent QB in the mid-to-late '80s who had the similar benefit of playing all four years, racking up his numbers over the course of 44 games.
I will add, in terms of career numbers:
Norvell is now 6th on the career yardage list and will likely pass #5 (Jeff Hecklinski) at some point next season (needs 949 yards to take the #5 spot)
Norvell is also 6th on the career TD list with 40 so far, although only 6 more TDs would move him into 2nd place (ahead of Bob Majka, Steve LaFalce, Russ Michna, and Matt Barr, and behind only Paul Singer).
If (and it's a BIG IF), Norvell were to continue on the average pace that he's set down his first two years, barring injury, he will end up with 80 TDs (18 more than the current #1) and 10,062 yards (1,805 more than the current #1).
In both of those cases, #1 is Paul Singer, an excellent QB in the mid-to-late '80s who had the similar benefit of playing all four years, racking up his numbers over the course of 44 games.
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
Wow, thanks so much Scott. You really never disappoint. Those were the exact stats I was looking for. I would like to also add that two of Trenton's top receivers, as previously mentioned, are both only sophomores. This means two important things - they are also really young in their development, and the rapport between Norvell, Lenoir, and Borsellino is really something of a rarity. These three will be together for another two years, which means what? Assuming they have solid work ethics, all will continue to improve. Typically an offense will progress or decline based on the retention, or lack thereof from the previous season. Folks, we will return all five starting offensive linemen from this season. I can't help but think that this offense is primed to do some record breaking type things in 2015. If the coaching staff focuses on the defensive side of the ball heading into next year, this is going to be a team we are really, really happy with. The arrow is pointing up, and Nielson has proven every time in his career, that after a couple of seasons, he puts a product on the field that does not disappoint.
Excellent game by the Leathernecks! A great way to punctuate the season - with a victory. The crowd was better than I expected. Based on the facts and data posted above, the prospects look good for next year. Note to schedulers: Please do not schedule another "pay day" game against a FBS opponent. One is enough. This team deserves to have winnable games on the schedule and the MVFC is tough enough. I believe Cupcake State is available next year. On to recruiting!
Bob
Bob
WIU - Class of 1974
https://www.linkedin.com/in/boblovely
https://www.linkedin.com/in/boblovely