Game Thread Game 3: Valpo (1-1) @ Western Illinois (0-2)

Given the number of starters that have been injured and missed the Adrian game, I obviously see a tough game ahead. Nonetheless, Western is a really bad scholarship program.  If we were at full strength it might be a 35-10 kinda game.  Not now.

Rowan Keefe has apparently won the starting QB job as the two deep was posted today.

Caron is 5-5 as a Valpo starter, younger in eligibility.

Rowan, 2-9 VUL, pick 6

3 picks Adrian

0-6 as a starter

???????????

Maybe Keefe is a great practice player because otherwise it makes no sense. 

Or as VUFB16 speculated earlier, the OC may be trying to fit the O to his ideas instead of molding it to his players abilities. But it does seem that Rowan has been given a much longer leash (4 picks vs. 0?) than Caron over both games so far. 

Oddsmakers have a surprising amount of faith in the Beacs. Only 10.5 point underdogs on FanDuel. WIU should cover in the first half if not the first quarter.

Western Illinois 31 - Valpo 6

28-3 half. Some freshman playing key spots. Juggling QBs but both seem a bit more comfortable in the offense. Defense would have been green this year even if Nick Saban was coaching that side of the ball

Tyler with a TD pass in the third quarter . Final WIU 44 - VU 10 WIU 51 - VU 30.  Glad to see Caron performing. He’s forcing the staff’s hand. 

I'm surprisingly heartened by what Valpo showed in this game, per Paul's Victory Bell write-up.

But the QB "competition" is over and should've been over even earlier. 

* LiveStats wasn’t working.  The only thing I had going to follow the game was Paul’s updates on X until into the third quarter. The incorrect final score I reported (and corrected this morning) above was off a 3rd quarter post. Paul posted an abridged TVB last night.  Hoping that his promised update this morning will have a lot more information.  

I know a 51-30 loss is hard to take even though a drubbing was kinda expected.  But can you imagine a MVFC scholarship program losing 73-0?  Indiana State managed to do just that against Indiana. 

Well it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire at North Dakota for Valpo next weekend. 

One game won the way it should have been. One game lost almost embarrassingly and a game loss in which they probably showed better than expected. Who knows?

Hopefully the QB situation has been resolved. 

Don’t love that we gave up 51. Caron is the best playmaker on the roster. Maybe Mansaray included (Mansaray more consistent). I like that our QBs are making checks and reads pre snap.

We are really young on defense. Lendino / Johnson are the only starters on the back end that returned. Samuel played but is just starting. Outside of that it is Nurse / Salman who are new to D1 and Feltrinelli, Markley, Brown who are new to college football.

Every single starter can return on defense outside of Wilborn. Same thing is true about Offense outside of Mansaray. North Dakota and Drake should be beat downs but afterwards I think .500 in the remaining schedule should be an achievable goal

Don’t love that we gave up 51. Caron is the best playmaker on the roster. Maybe Mansaray included (Mansaray more consistent). I like that our QBs are making checks and reads pre snap.

We are really young on defense. Lendino / Johnson are the only starters on the back end that returned. Samuel played but is just starting. Outside of that it is Nurse / Salman who are new to D1 and Feltrinelli, Markley, Brown who are new to college football.

Every single starter can return on defense outside of Wilborn. Same thing is true about Offense outside of Mansaray. North Dakota and Drake should be beat downs but afterwards I think .500 in the remaining schedule should be an achievable goal

Marist and Presbyterian have jumped us. A lot of which has come organically. Proof will be if we retain these players and see improvement game to game , year/year. 

Need classes to be closer to 25 than 55. Waddle did that at Marietta and he said he thinks he can do that here