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Is it time for this thread?

Marist is 4-1 after beating Morehead. They've discovered a freshman QB who is putting up good numbers and have a WR who is getting NFL scouting attention.

Time to build off this performance and go with what won yesterday's game:  good defense and controlling the clock with the run game. Morehead did something we couldn't do -- beat Davidson.  We have got to use the momentum gained and continue that down in Kentucky.  I hope the staff has recognized that we can run the ball (hopefully Cartales is OK and we get JDM back) and that our runs open up the passing and not vis. versa.

Drake pommeled Butler 36-6.  Drake had the boys from Indy down 34-0 at 9:58 of Q4 despite BU having a stat edge in many categories and were close in others. Glaring stat is that BU had a TOP of 41:31 to only 18:29 for Drake.  That is amazing that they lost by such a wide margin.

And to just emphasize our current season woes, Davidson (now 5-1 overall and one game from a winning season)  beat JU 44-37 and had the Dolphins down  44-9 at the begnning of Q4.

Standings are attached (click to enlarge).  Going into Butler we are dragging a 5 game losing streak with us.  Meanwhile, Davidson is now tied for 3rd in the PFL with Butler (3-2 overall) tied for 5th with a 1-1 record.

From the Drake website:  https://godrakebulldogs.com/news/2018/10/6/football-beats-butler-36-6.aspx

Some excerpts:

Drake (3-1, 2-0 PFL) allowed only 253 total yards of offense and just 176 through the first three quarters. Butler (3-2, 1-1 PFL) gained only 119 yards on the ground and 134 yards in the air while running 33 more plays than Drake.

"Our defense is playing so well it gives our offense time to adjust," said Drake head coach Rick Fox. "Our defense came out, played well and our offense and special teams were able to make the adjustments they needed to get the W today."

"It always starts up front, giving Grant the time to do the things he does," Fox said. "Our receivers are just big physical guys and that gives them the chance to catch 50-50 balls and make plays."

I was pretty hard on the staff and players after an unexcusable Homecoming loss. Will that loss be the wake up call we have been hoping for? 

Valpo was the one that was supposed to have the high scoring passing O this season.  A consistent system built over time. Davidson was changing to a run oriented system under a brand new coach.

Davidson has averaged 47 points/game this season. Valpo <21.

Dayton spotted Davidson 14 points in the first qtr of their game, then pretty much shut them down on the way to a dominant win.

We haven't progressed game by game and maybe even regressed since Duquesne.  Dayton appears to be doing the opposite. Tough game. Not too optimistic at this point in the week.

[Game Stats DAV UD]

Well, we couldn't stop a D-II read option team.  Now we face another read option team in Davidson.  They got hammered by Dayton 42-21, but they had a 14pt. lead at the beginning of the game. 

Some Davidson stats that should worry the Valpo faithful.

Game Stats     DAV   UD
First Downs       19      19
Total Offensive Yds   371   392
Passing Yards      177   193
Rushing Yards      194   199
Penalty Yards      6-60   7-45
3rd Downs           8-17   3-8
4th Downs             2-3   1-2
Time Of Possession   33:54   26:06

We have a thread like this for basketball, so I thought it might be useful and interesting to have a place for PFL news that keeps us all in tune with what's happening around the league during the season.  These are things of interest outside of our specific Valpo game threads.

I'll start by providing something on that Thursday night Davidson-Guilford (basketball?) game won by Davidson 91-61.  It made national coverage by ESPN and Sporting News.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/24722622/inside-davidson-wildcats-91-61-win-guilford-college-quakers

http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-football/news/davidson-college-football-guilford-quakers-91-points/1wb9bjtvqese11soztmedwi3r0

Some tidbits: 
>> They played on Thursday because of the impending Florence landfall.
>> Davidson hasn't won three games in a season since 2011, but they are now 3-0 going into Dayton.
>> Their OOC schedule was two D-IIIs and a D-II. 
>> In those games they have scored 34, 49 and 91 points.
>> Rush to pass ratio for Davidson in those games: 334/94, 426/43, and 685/279
>> Davidson gave up 41 1st Downs to Guilford - 20 by passing.

We hung in with YSU for a half. As posters pointed out, with YSU's superior scholarship depth and size, Valpo just wore out. Hope Chris is ok. Agree with JD24 that we will be okay in the trenches once we get to the PFL part of the schedule where depth, size and skill be be more even.

TSU will give us a bit of a measure in that regard after us facing two FCS scholly programs. Truman is D-II, but remember, they give scholarships at that level, and I can remember Carlson and Adams before him lamenting that it was tough to win against those odds. Well, not anymore. We put that in the rear view mirror at William Jewel years ago. This year's team has now experienced the adversity under fire necessary to focus going forward. I am looking for at least 3 TD margin in Valpo's favor. The guys in the trenches on both sides of the ball will deliver that no matter who starts at QB.

I intend to witness our first 2018 win in person.

Well, Duquesne scores with 2:58 remaining on the clock and holds on to win by 2.  Their reward:  A trip to Hawaii.  Valpo is unable to answer with a sustained drive to get into FG range in those last minutes.  Our reward?  A trip to Youngstown State after the  Penguins got their butts trimmed by West Virginia 52-17 and are now 0-2   

We will have to wait to find out how healthy we are coming out of that loss, but I thought Paul Oren put it correctly about not accepting moral victories:

[tweet]1038495678933229568[/tweet]

However, despite having a very experienced defense there were times when we had difficulty getting the D off the field and our offense was spotty, thus putting the D back on the field too soon too often.  After saying that, however, the statistical gaps (ToP, # of plays, rushing yds and Total Offense -- pretty much all in Duquesne's favor) were not that overwhelming.  Yes, it's somethng to build upon.  Hopefully, it gives our kids and coaches a focus for YSU.  We are not sneaking up on anyone and Butler's win in Youngstown put the Penguins on notice not to take any PFL team lightly anymore. 

Just a couple of years ago we wrote about body bag games and many on the board wanted that craziness ended.  I'm thinking that some minds have been changed after Montana and the two Duquesne games to the point where it really is worth accepting the $$ to go toe to toe and see what we are made of.

Ok, less than a week before we kick off our 2018 football season. Time to start the game thread.

A road game with a question at QB, some depth questions at receiver, and an opening game against a team that already has two under its belt is a combination of conditions that doesn't look too favorable for our boys.

With not much to go on, I'm hopeful our D keeps Duquesne off the board long enough for our offense to get into a rhythm. Also hoping for a close low scoring game. We certainly will not be taken lightly as the Dukes probably did last year.

[384 - Valpo $52,980]

Just saw the Forbes 2018 college rankings:  Here are the MVC national rankings and respective cost to attend:

191 - Drake $54,020
277 - Loyola $59,958
302 - Bradley $46,680
343 - ISUr $40,036
346 - Evansville $50,868
384 - Valpo $52,980
385 - UNI $31,872
521 - MO State $28,502
620 - SIU $42,770
646 - ISUb $32,938

Here's the link: https://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/#tab:rank

I didn't do any analysis of the criteria - just listed the rankings.

We haven't paid as much attention to MT this year as we have in the past.  But our men's team is in the Summit final today at 1:00pm. This makes 4 years in a row that Valpo is a conference finalist. The opponent is fellow MVC  member Drake who won the Summit regular season. Valpo got to the final by defeating last year's champion, Denver.

Fun fact about Drake:  of the 10 players on the Drake roster 1 is from the US, 1 is from New Zealand, and 8 are from the UK. What makes Des Moines so attractive to Brits anyway?

Zeke Upshaw, who played 3 seasons for Illinois State, died on the court during a recent G-League game in Grand Rapids, MI. 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2766673-zeke-upshaw-dies-at-age-26-after-collapsing-on-court-during-g-league-game?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

Thought I'd start this one up to collect any football news that doesn't involve recruiting or the player roster (both already covered).

On another thread a question came up about the 2018 Schedule.  I started to look at some postings on the PFL site and a few teams have already posted their schedules for next season.  Here's what I noticed regarding games scheduled with Valpo.

9/1
9/8
9/15 @ Youngstown State
9/22
9/29
10/6  @ Dayton
10/13  Butler
10/20
10/27
11/3  @ Marist
11/10  Jacksonville
11/17  @ Stetson

Of note, Butler announced their 2018 schedule and Youngstown State is listed as their body bag game 9/1. So I Checked EKU and they are bringing in Morehead for a sacrificial slaughter on that date.  Further investigation indicates we will have 2 games under our belt before we meet YSU (finally, we don't open with a body bag game!!!).  We catch YSU after they play a guarantee game @ West Virginia.  Hopefully we open with a NAIA school followed by Duquesne.  That's a good progression toward YSU. 

Been waiting for this, so I might as well start it.

Might it be a Happy Valentine's Day?

Saw this in USAToday.

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/2018/01/13/college-football-coaches-support-changes-to-redshirt-rule/

Of course coaches would like this -- play a kid up to four real games in a season as a "try out."  Then stockpile him for an additional year. I like    Berry's violin strings rationale about being forced to burn a kid's red shirt year in the last game of the season for 10 measily plays because they ran out of bodies.

Couple of things.  This would be added expense to scholarship programs (and the cost goes up and up).  But, how about our level (non-scholarship), would that actually be advantageous in terms of player retainment?  Right now, any kid that is slated to be red shirted sits out every single game and might leave in frustration.  OTOH, if he plays in at least 4, maybe that'll give him the incentive to stick around because he got to play amost 4 and 1/2 seasons. 

Any other thoughts on this either plus or minus?

It's been quite a year. Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for a great 2018.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/football/news/2017-18/17828/cecchini-wins-pioneer-football-league-coach-of-the-year-award/

Well deserved.  Congratulations Coach Cecchini   

Just setting up the place holder. 

Just setting the stage. You guys might set up game threads but there is no break between games.

We open with Kent State  (3-1). They just lost to SELU 66-70. Their record so far:

YSU - Won - 111-78
Ohio Christian - Won - 90-45
Miss Valley State - Won - 80-67
SELU - Loss - 66-70

Then we play UNC Wilmington......

NC Wesleyan - Won - 105-81
@ Davidson - Loss - 81-108
Campbell - Won - 88-84

What's the forum prognosis?

PS:  if you'd like I can change the icon to a game thread instead just let me know.

From the PFL Fan Board:

http://pflfan.proboards.com/thread/3091/presbyterian-joining-pfl-2021

I've seen the letter sent to current team members. No new football scholarships will be given. Current scholarships will be honored. PC will compete the next four years as follows.

2018- Big South
2019- Big South
2020- Independent
2021- PFL

Formal announcement tomorrow.

Opened the ValpoAthletics website this morning and was surprised to see a whole new look and feel to it.  Very professionally done.  Presentation of information, graphics and photos is very well done.  Roster pages use [players pictures as an intro to bios.  Lots of good stuff!

Kudos to Valpo IT for the redesign.  Puts us on a par with the best sites in the MVC.  Things certainly are falling into place in regard to our transition to the MVC.

SB just signed their incoming 2018 class of 5.  This group is taylor made for the Valpo program.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/softball/news/2017-18/17782/five-players-sign-nlis-with-softball-during-early-signing-period/#.WgoHHLaZNTY

Need to regroup and put the disappointment behind us. Jimmy has to shake off the bad game.

The first team defense finally played the game I thought they might be capable of yesterday. That is good news going into Saturday's game with the Bulldogs.  We will need great effort on both sides of the ball to be competitive.

I was surprised to notiice that we didn't start this thread sooner.

In line with some posts in other areas like volleyball, Valpo is proving that it is going to be immediately competitive in MVC play in more than just MBB.  Our ladies  (9-8-0, 3-3) beat Indiana State this weekend and assured themselves a spot in the MVC WSO Tournament.  They could even finish the regular season as high as 3rd or 4th in the standings that establish the seeeds.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/wsoccer/news/2017-18/17705/womens-soccer-secures-mvc-tournament-berth-with-win-at-indiana-state/#.We3nlkyZMo8

Quite a weekend in the PFL. Morehead escaped Deland, FL with a 29-26 win over Stetson setting the stage for this coming Saturday at Brown Field.

But a couple of the other scores were noteable. USD absolutely killed Jacksonville 63-10 AT Jacksonville and Butler beat Campbell in Indianapolis 37-23.

We should have a rested and, hopefully, fully recovered Jimmy Seewald on Saturday. I did not realize he was nursing both an injured quad as well as his throwing shoulder going into the Marist game. See the Trib link in Brandon's retweet.

[tweet]921118823700422656[/tweet]

Gotta have a game thread for this week even if we aren't actually playing.   

I promise I will start a Morehead thread once we see how the PFL spills out next weekend - especially Morehead both against USD this weekend and their next game.

OK, It is now 8:30 PM Saturday, GAME DAY.  The PFL site has yet to post a single final score.  That  is really lax.

In other threads, we have wondered how much of a spine and motivation this confrence office posseses (i.e.  Mercer and now Campbell).  This is not what I would call an impressive conference track record — more like a hobby.

[Rushing - Campbell 460 - MSU 35]

Campbell shut out Morehead 38-0 today. 

Total Off - Campbell 589 - MSU 240
Passing - Campbell 129 - MSU 205
Rushing - Campbell 460 - MSU 35
1st Downs Campbell 30 - MSU 11

We better be prepared for a grind it out running game -- that plays right to our strength -- NOT.

And you will recall that Morehead beat Dayton last week 34-28.  Sheesh!

After the 2nd half collapse at Drake, it makes the Stetson game that much more important, but also more unpredictable.

I was unable to watch or track the Drake game (except for watching the first 'good' 20 or so minutes and checking the final score  ).  That second half was totally out of character for this team. In 3 previous games we have shown we could score in any quarter against any opposition. Let's hope the staff can figure out what went wrong and correct it before Saturday.

In a league where football schoarships do not exist and players are required to pay their way, the practice of Red Shirting seems to me to be illogical and worthless. What is the point of preserving a year of eligibilty only to have a player graduate after 4 (and sometimes 3) years and leave school to avoid paying for another semester or year of tuition, room and board?

In scholarship programs the cost to the player (and his family) is absorbed by the football scholarship for 5 years. Not so in non-scholarship programs like the PFL. So, who cares whether a kid plays as a freshman?  It really doesn't matter, because unless there is some incredible reason to stay, that kid is out of there after 4 years.  I, as a parent who has already paid 4 years of tuition, etc., would certainly question paying for that additional period just to make my kid happy.

So, I'm wondering what other poster's oppinions are on this subject.

[National]

We are the #4 Midwest Regional University in the 2017 rankings.  Ahead of us are:  #1 Creighton, #2 Butler and #3 Drake (MVC).

Regarding other fellow MVC schools:

#7 Bradley
#9 Evansville
#25 NIU
#106 Missouri State
#103 (National Universities) Loyola
#159 (National Universities) Illinois State
#216 (National Universities) SIU
Rank not published - (National Universities) - Indiana State

Also.... Valpo is rated #1 among Midwest Regional universities as Best Value.

As always it is hard to figure out why little Trinity International University is considered a National university and Valpo is a Regional university.

This probably is a stupid thing to do at this point,  but regardless of how we do at TIU, I wanted to point out that Drake opened the season against South Dakota and got crushed at home 77 million to whatever. They had a breather this past weekend, but now they face Hurricane Irma, er, SDSU, rated #4 in FCS. SDSU crushed Duquesne without taking a deep breath.

What am I getting at? Once they assess their casualties and the injured return from local hospitals, Drake players, IMO, will have to be looking at Valpo as another breather. I think they will be surprised.

BTW again, as I monitor the PFL forum, I am seeing more and more of the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reactions (who are those guys?) from posters regarding Valpo. One guy even thinks we might finish ABOVE .500.  And that guy wasn't me.

One last point. For some crazy reason, Valpo has traditionally given Drake all they could handle -- even in the Carlson era.

Please consider this just as a placeholder until we get past TIU, okay?

Wow ----- a 5 point loss to a scholarship program and one that is in the chase for the NEC title. That's two impressive starts against schoarship programs. So......... After two very promising performances in, unfortunately, losing efforts, it's time to move on to TIU. They ran an option offense last time we played them and put some pressure on or D. 

When I first saw the 2017 schedule, I sorta felt it would have been better to have TIU as the second game. But after what the coaches and players have shown us so, this is better. I am not taking these guys lightly. I am just saying we now face a team that we will match up with a bit better.

Our O is clicking early (it's usually the D early on) and the D needs to start pulling it's weight.  No better time an to start on Saturday.

It's a 2 ½ drive for me and I do not have a shift at Lambeau Field, so I will be there. I hope VU Illinois football alumni and other VU alumni show up to root for the VU Football #CRU.

Really excited to start this thread given how well we played in the loss to full scholarship Montana. The Dukes, I don't believe, grant the full allotment (65) but they do give some FB schoarships just like Sacred Heart.

It was good to see both QBs do well. They each have different strengths which can cause opponents some problems.

I decided to start that thread.  Here's agibson's post from the Soccer Roster thread to start it off.


We should get a proper season thread going. Maybe this could be it.

As usual, the men are mostly on the road in the non-conference.

They took Northwestern to overtime in the season opener before falling in sudden death.

Then, after taking the lead at Michigan, they held on to a 1-1 draw through both "golden goal" sudden death overtime periods. A nice result!

So, they're still playing hard against big teams in the non-conference, as has been their tradition. The challenge, at least naively, has been translating that into conference success.

Lots of graduates last year, so a very new look to the starting 11. Lots of international talent, as usual.

Notched... was it two pre-season all-MVC players as well? Ramone Howell and... OK, just Ramone Howell. Still, with Loyola and Evansville landing three players each on the sole all-conference team, it's not a given that you get a player on. One coach voted Missouri state #1 in the conference, yet they didn't land a single player on the squad.

Loyola looked was the choice for #1 by a significant margin, with Evansville second, and Missouri State and Central Arkansas (?!) not far behind. Loyola got 47 of a max 49 points (every coach named them #1 or #2), while Valpo edged Bradley for 6th of 7 (getting 15, above the minimium of 7, points in the polling; Drake not far above with 18).

Should be an exciting season!


I concur on the depth of talent among the young players.  Mike is cautiously optimistic about this bunch. They have many unknowns, yet they might be the dark horse in the conference this year.

We will know very soon what we are made of as MSO travels to Loyola Friday night for their MVC opener.

Here is the MTU placeholder.

Hope we can be competitive for 4 quarters. Regardless, I will be there. GO VALPO!

[both]

This is pretty big. Not often do you see Valpo announcing a departure.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mswim/news/2017-18/17511/hunte-steps-down-from-valpo-swimming-program/#.WZ5BiK2ZMo8

Bottom line: A Div-I coach has left Valpo to coach a club team. 

Uhh..... what does that mean?  What does this tell us about our program?  What does this tell us about priorities?

I hope this is the event that forces Valpo to make a strong commitment to this program. We are talking as many as 40 student athletes and little in the way of scholarship expense and Howard Hunte coached both the men's and women's squads.   

It is time to shift to rumors, guessing, conjecture and discussion of the preseason football camp goings on.

My first observation is that there was no discussion about positional depth - just experience. No mention about the QB position especially. I hope there will be lots of VUFB tweets and stuff that help us see what is happening on a daily/weekly basis.

GO VALPO.

Be sure to vote for our Crusader.  He's up against Bradley's Kaboom and leading by a slim margin.

https://www.facebook.com/MissouriValleyConference/?pnref=story

Between this post on Around the Valley and the MBB string we should have this pretty well covered.

How come CC only has 4 meets spread out over nine (9) weeks prior to the MVC Championships?  Are distance runners that delicate that they need two weeks between meets to recover from a 10K (men) and a 6K (women) race?  To me, that's a lot of time practicing for little in the way of competition.  Just wondering.  Valporun?

A Butler guy who I think most of us respect just signed with Boston and Brad Stevens. He is set for life.

Hopefully in a couple of years AP wil be in the same position.

Cool.  I'm the first post on the Around the Valley thread!   

Let's hope this becomes a lengthy string.

Valpo is seeded 4th and must advance to the 4-team double elimination phase by beating #5 Oaklannd in a play-in game on Wednesday May 24th at Granderson Field, UIC.

Go Valpo!

[preeminent Lutheran national university]

BRAND LEADERS AMONG RELIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES
Catholic - Notre Dame
Baptist - Baylor
Mormon - BYU
Evangelical - Liberty (Trump gave their graduation speech)
Methodist - SMU
Presbyterian - Presbyterian (duh)
Jewish - Yeshiva
Lutheran - WHO?
Others?

Ever since I can remember, I pictured Valpo as the preeminent Lutheran national university. It is why I enrolled way back when. Yet there are bigger Lutheran-affiliated colleges (e.g. Concordia University Wisconsin w/ >5000 -- but they are mainly commuter/online and are D-III in athletics).

Now we are on the cusp of joining the MVC and moving up in terms of national recognition. On another post about IPFW ( soon to be PUNW) there as banter about taking over their notable music program from a Purdue that has no music department. Although I posted half in jest on taking it over, it has some merit. It is a way to expand Valpo's brand and geographical footprint to all of northern Indiana 

My three+ part question to all of you:

1. Who do you think is the preeminent Lutheran university in the US?
2. If it is not Valpo, then who and how can we surpass them?
3. If it is Valpo, why haven't we risen to at least a Liberty level in terms of national recognition?
+  ...... And what more can Valpo do to reach that level?

[MVC Sports Valpo Sports]

Here are the MVC-sponsored sports and where we fit.

MVC Sports                  Valpo Sports
Baseball                           YES
Basketball (M)                   YES
Basketball (W)                   YES
Cross Country (M)              YES
Cross Country (W)              YES
Golf (M)                            YES
Golf (W)                            YES
Soccer (M)                       YES
Soccer (W)                       YES
Softball                            YES
NO                                   Swimming & Diving (M)
Swimming & Diving (W)    YES
NO                                   Tennis (M)
Tennis (W)                        YES
Indoor Track & Field (M)     YES
Indoor Track & Field (W)     YES
Outdoor Track & Field (M)   YES
Outdoor Track & Field (W)   YES
Volleyball                           YES
NO                                    Bowling
NO                                    Non-Scholarship Football

Football will remain in the PFL.  Bowling has always been outside our main conference affiliation so that also remains the same.  Indications are that Men's Tennis will become an associate member of the Summit.  So that leaves Men's Swimming & Diving.  Three MVC schools (SIU, EU and MO State) swim in the MAC, but that is a huge leap for the program we sponsor.  The Summit also sponsors Men's Swimming (Travel?).  Affiliate member in the HL (Probably not)? MAC?   So..... where to go?

Now that the Spring Game is behind us, I thought that it might be good to open a thread for general football discussion about the up coming season.  As in the past, we'll always try to have game threads as each game comes up on the schedule.  And if a major issue surfaces that deserves a separate thread, then let's open that up as well.  But this should be a good place to start. 

And to start, I have posted a Facebook video entry by the VU FB staff called Call Outs.  The first one is with Mark LaBarbera interviewd by Ernest Moore, the DC. MLB reviews the history of Valpo FB among other topics.  The FB staff will try to post one each Saturday for a while.

https://www.facebook.com/ernest.moore.54390/videos/1862350937360693/

Hey Paul (Valpo 78)!  What were your thoughts and observations on being a speaker at the Student-Athletes Academic Honors Banquet?

Good spring so far.  Only loss 1-2 to Indiana.

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