HERO FCS Pre-Season Poll

[SuperHornet]

Not sure how accurate this might be (they admit that it's the average of rankings done by TWO people I've never heard of), but at least Sac State is in the conversation....

Concerns:

1. EWU, Montana, and Weber State are too low.
2. Montana State is too high.
3. I think NDSU's poor showing last year is an anomaly. They should probably be higher.
4. SDSU is probably a fluke, and should be lower, as should Sam.

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-202 ... p-25-bzbz/

[89Hen]

One is: "A high school senior, he will major in broadcast and digital journalism at Syracuse University."

So yeah, I'm going to take a pass on this one.

[89Hen]

4. SDSU is probably a fluke, and should be lower, as should Sam.

You're a moron. I trust a high school senior, who will major in broadcast and digital journalism at Syracuse University, more than you.

[UNI88]

Not sure how accurate this might be (they admit that it's the average of rankings done by TWO people I've never heard of), but at least Sac State is in the conversation....

Concerns:

1. EWU, Montana, and Weber State are too low.
2. Montana State is too high.
3. I think NDSU's poor showing last year is an anomaly. They should probably be higher.
4. SDSU is probably a fluke, and should be lower, as should Sam.

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-202 ... p-25-bzbz/

SDSU was the best team in the Valley in the spring. Did they lose a lot of players?

NDSU has had the following QB's prior to this Spring:
- Trey Lance (2021 1st round #3 pick -49ers)
- Easton Stick (2019 5th round pick - Chargers, still on the squad)
- Carson Wentz (2016 1st round #2 pick - Eagles)
- Brock Jensen (undrafted, most wins by QB in FCS history)

Most FCS teams would be ecstatic to have 1 or 2 of those kinds of guys in a decade, having 4 in a row is incredible.

A major factor in last season's relatively poor showing was because QB play was significantly worse than what has been the norm there. Can they get back to elite QB play? Is it unreasonable to rank them lower until the new guy proves he has it?

[BDKJMU]

Not sure how accurate this might be (they admit that it's the average of rankings done by TWO people I've never heard of), but at least Sac State is in the conversation....

Concerns:

1. EWU, Montana, and Weber State are too low.
2. Montana State is too high.
3. I think NDSU's poor showing last year is an anomaly. They should probably be higher.
4. SDSU is probably a fluke, and should be lower, as should Sam.

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-202 ... p-25-bzbz/

SDSU was the best team in the Valley in the spring. Did they lose a lot of players?

NDSU has had the following QB's prior to this Spring:
- Trey Lance (2021 1st round #3 pick -49ers)
- Easton Stick (2019 5th round pick - Chargers, still on the squad)
- Carson Wentz (2016 1st round #2 pick - Eagles)
- Brock Jensen (undrafted, most wins by QB in FCS history)

Most FCS teams would be ecstatic to have 1 or 2 of those kinds of guys in a decade, having 4 in a row is incredible.

A major factor in last season's relatively poor showing was because QB play was significantly worse than what has been the norm there. Can they get back to elite QB play? Is it unreasonable to rank them lower until the new guy proves he has it?

Their MVFC offensive POTY QB is out for the season. The only transfer they got was Samford‘s BACKUP QB.

[UNI88]

SDSU was the best team in the Valley in the spring. Did they lose a lot of players?

NDSU has had the following QB's prior to this Spring:
- Trey Lance (2021 1st round #3 pick -49ers)
- Easton Stick (2019 5th round pick - Chargers, still on the squad)
- Carson Wentz (2016 1st round #2 pick - Eagles)
- Brock Jensen (undrafted, most wins by QB in FCS history)

Most FCS teams would be ecstatic to have 1 or 2 of those kinds of guys in a decade, having 4 in a row is incredible.

A major factor in last season's relatively poor showing was because QB play was significantly worse than what has been the norm there. Can they get back to elite QB play? Is it unreasonable to rank them lower until the new guy proves he has it?

Their MVFC offensive POTY QB is out for the season. The only transfer they got was Samford‘s BACKUP QB.

I know that. With him, they're #1 or #2. They're a solid team and they've got the summer to get the next guy ready, I'm not sure #3 is unreasonable.

[JALMOND]

Going on vacation next week. Bringing my dartboard along so I should have the Big Sky power rankings ready to go by August.

[andy7171]

All of these pre-season polls are taking last spring way to seriously. Monmouth and VMI? Sure they had a fantastic run and I'm happy for them. But outside the Big South, remind me who they played? I mean, Kennesaw isn't ranked, so thats saying something.

[andy7171]

All of these pre-season polls are taking last spring way to seriously. Monmouth and VMI? Sure they had a fantastic run and I'm happy for them. But outside the Big South, remind me who they played? I mean, Kennesaw isn't ranked, so thats saying something.

Check that VMI is in the SoCon now.

But still.

[SuperHornet]

SDSU was the best team in the Valley in the spring. Did they lose a lot of players?

NDSU has had the following QB's prior to this Spring:
- Trey Lance (2021 1st round #3 pick -49ers)
- Easton Stick (2019 5th round pick - Chargers, still on the squad)
- Carson Wentz (2016 1st round #2 pick - Eagles)
- Brock Jensen (undrafted, most wins by QB in FCS history)

Most FCS teams would be ecstatic to have 1 or 2 of those kinds of guys in a decade, having 4 in a row is incredible.

A major factor in last season's relatively poor showing was because QB play was significantly worse than what has been the norm there. Can they get back to elite QB play? Is it unreasonable to rank them lower until the new guy proves he has it?

Their MVFC offensive POTY QB is out for the season. The only transfer they got was Samford‘s BACKUP QB.

What BDK says, but with THIS added: it took me awhile to admit the dominance of NDSU. What convinced me was dominance over the long term. One outstanding season isn't good enough. We'll see five years from now....

[clenz]

NDSU's issues over the spring weren't just QB related, FWIW

[UNI88]

NDSU's issues over the spring weren't just QB related, FWIW

The jury is still out on whether Jethro is up to snuff as a head coach.

[clenz]

NDSU's issues over the spring weren't just QB related, FWIW

The jury is still out on whether Jethro is up to snuff as a head coach.

I've had many, lengthy, conversations about their current coaching staff with fans from NDSU, JSU, SDSU, SFA, UNI, etc.

I'm not entirely convinced by their coaching staff right now. Klieman is a monster of a coach and I'm not sure what they have now is going to be able even half replicate what he did.

[Ivytalk]

No Ivies?

This is a BS poll.

[clenz]

Are the Ivy schools playing this fall?

[kalm]

No Ivies?

This is a BS poll.

Ivies are ranked once you run out of 4 and 5 loss teams with decent SOS’s. They should start creeping in around November.

[UNI88]

No Ivy playoff participation?

This is a BS league.

FYP

[Ivytalk]

Are the Ivy schools playing this fall?

Yes.

[Gil Dobie]

The jury is still out on whether Jethro is up to snuff as a head coach.

I've had many, lengthy, conversations about their current coaching staff with fans from NDSU, JSU, SDSU, SFA, UNI, etc.

I'm not entirely convinced by their coaching staff right now. Klieman is a monster of a coach and I'm not sure what they have now is going to be able even half replicate what he did.

Klieman was a great coach. If the new staff doesn't do very well this season, they may be gone. A few things that are different and I'm not sure if it's the coaching staff or the new transfer rule. NDSU has been bringing in a higher than usual number of transfers, and also losing a higher than usual number of young players to the transfer portal. One of the big recruiting tools was, if you stay, you can earn a spot on the field, now they are bringing in outsider players and the work your way thru the system looks to be changing. This change to a winning tradition is very concerning.

[clenz]

I've had many, lengthy, conversations about their current coaching staff with fans from NDSU, JSU, SDSU, SFA, UNI, etc.

I'm not entirely convinced by their coaching staff right now. Klieman is a monster of a coach and I'm not sure what they have now is going to be able even half replicate what he did.

Klieman was a great coach. If the new staff doesn't do very well this season, they may be gone. A few things that are different and I'm not sure if it's the coaching staff or the new transfer rule. NDSU has been bringing in a higher than usual number of transfers, and also losing a higher than usual number of young players to the transfer portal. One of the big recruiting tools was, if you stay, you can earn a spot on the field, now they are bringing in outsider players and the work your way thru the system looks to be changing. This change to a winning tradition is very concerning.

The recruiting piece is a big part of the conversations I've had.

NDSU's fans have always been "once a bison always a bison" and "next man up" and all that other cliche garbage. Now all of a sudden the program is bringing transfers to fill holes rather than develop and go next man up. On top of that I think a large part of that is they are losing recruiting battles that Klieman didn't. UNI, SDSU and NDSU target a ton of the same players and NDSU seemed to win 80% of the with Klieman. They aren't doing that anymore. UNI and SDSU are winning far more of them, and coming up on a majority. I think depth, which has always been the main strength of the program while Klieman was there (even as an assistant in charge of recruiting), is becoming a bit of an issue. Look at this past spring, it wasn't just the lack of an NFL QB that was the problem. The OL was getting pushed around, when they are used to being bulldozers. Defensively there were players out of position, and the secondary was a MAJOR issue. There's a lack of discipline and game awareness happening right now.

Which is the second issue I see. I don't think the staff is this amazing staff that people want to think it is. Yes, Entz was a lead assistant with Klieman, but people don't realize just how damn good K is. How much control over the program he had. The type of demands he had. I was shocked when they hired Entz because he, in the big picture, was kind of a stretch for a program to NDSU to take a risk on for HC. 10 years at the D2 level as a position coach, 3 years at UNI as a position coach, 1 year at WIU as a position coach/assistant DC, and 4 years at NDSU as the LB coach and DC for a part of that. I know K worked as coming from a career as a position coach and DC to HC, but again he is just different. I could have seen Entz getting a head job at many places, but a program like NDSU handing everything over to a guy with no experience running a program, and whose personality doesn't fit the "NDSU culture" that fans love to beat the drum of, seemed interesting to me. I also look at the guy that Entz has to run his defense and secondary. Let's just say I'm not shocked the NDSU defense looked normal over the spring, especially the secondary. Braun is a guy that UNI demoted to assistant special teams coach because when he took over for Bryce Paup on the DL when Paup went to Minnesota, UNI's DL went from the best in the conference to bottom half within a year and a half. He gets demoted, Paup comes back and all of a sudden UNI is rolling All American after All American out there on the DL. Braun's experience is half of what Entz's is, and involves him getting demoted from his position. That same type of story plays out through the entire coach's room.

I've touched on it some, but we can also see how Entz's culture is so vastly different than what Bohl and K had. Those two were militaristic. Entz is a "modern" outspoken, brash, show you how big my balls are kind of attitude. It's why he has made it a point to run the score up in his first season, and made it a point to go for two far more than anyone else to try to show how brave and confident he is. It worked in 2019 when he had a roster full of Klieman recruited and developed players. Over the spring a year plus later you see that the discipline within the culture is gone. You have players taunting on the field like every other team in the country when NDSU fans have banged about the fact NDSU doesn't do that because they expect to make plays. You have Entz giving the media exactly what they want for sound clips and quotes in interviews and social media posts.NDSU fans love to point out how Eck, at SDSU, should spend more time coaching and less time being a brash asshat, and yet Entz is Eck.

We are now 3 years removed from the last Klieman coached team.2 years removed from the last Klieman recruited class (because he did 98% of the work on that 2018/2019 class). It is going to be interesting to see what the progression under Entz looks like and how long NDSU fans and admin are going to put up with 8-3 with a quarterfinal loss for a record before they demand to catch lightning in a bottle twice with a coach like K. The run of success, and spoilage of fans could cause a Nebraska like situation to play out where a .688 win percent isn't good enough so you fire him to get someone better, who then goes under .500 and gets fired, and the next guy wins nearly 70% of his games but that also isn't good enough so you then go looking again, find another .500 coach which isn't good enough, and then the prodigal son returns home and goes .375 (FWIW I think NDSU skips a few steps and sees Tyler Roehl as their Scott Frost and I'm not sure it goes much better)

[clenz]

I've had many, lengthy, conversations about their current coaching staff with fans from NDSU, JSU, SDSU, SFA, UNI, etc.

I'm not entirely convinced by their coaching staff right now. Klieman is a monster of a coach and I'm not sure what they have now is going to be able even half replicate what he did.

Klieman was a great coach. If the new staff doesn't do very well this season, they may be gone. A few things that are different and I'm not sure if it's the coaching staff or the new transfer rule. NDSU has been bringing in a higher than usual number of transfers, and also losing a higher than usual number of young players to the transfer portal. One of the big recruiting tools was, if you stay, you can earn a spot on the field, now they are bringing in outsider players and the work your way thru the system looks to be changing. This change to a winning tradition is very concerning.

The recruiting piece is a big part of the conversations I've had.

NDSU's fans have always been "once a bison always a bison" and "next man up" and all that other cliche garbage. Now all of a sudden the program is bringing transfers to fill holes rather than develop and go next man up. On top of that I think a large part of that is they are losing recruiting battles that Klieman didn't. UNI, SDSU and NDSU target a ton of the same players and NDSU seemed to win 80% of the with Klieman. They aren't doing that anymore. UNI and SDSU are winning far more of them, and coming up on a majority. I think depth, which has always been the main strength of the program while Klieman was there (even as an assistant in charge of recruiting), is becoming a bit of an issue. Look at this past spring, it wasn't just the lack of an NFL QB that was the problem. The OL was getting pushed around, when they are used to being bulldozers. Defensively there were players out of position, and the secondary was a MAJOR issue. There's a lack of discipline and game awareness happening right now.

Which is the second issue I see. I don't think the staff is this amazing staff that people want to think it is. Yes, Entz was a lead assistant with Klieman, but people don't realize just how damn good K is. How much control over the program he had. The type of demands he had. I was shocked when they hired Entz because he, in the big picture, was kind of a stretch for a program to NDSU to take a risk on for HC. 10 years at the D2 level as a position coach, 3 years at UNI as a position coach, 1 year at WIU as a position coach/assistant DC, and 4 years at NDSU as the LB coach and DC for a part of that. I know K worked as coming from a career as a position coach and DC to HC, but again he is just different. I could have seen Entz getting a head job at many places, but a program like NDSU handing everything over to a guy with no experience running a program, and whose personality doesn't fit the "NDSU culture" that fans love to beat the drum of, seemed interesting to me. I also look at the guy that Entz has to run his defense and secondary. Let's just say I'm not shocked the NDSU defense looked normal over the spring, especially the secondary. Braun is a guy that UNI demoted to assistant special teams coach because when he took over for Bryce Paup on the DL when Paup went to Minnesota, UNI's DL went from the best in the conference to bottom half within a year and a half. He gets demoted, Paup comes back and all of a sudden UNI is rolling All American after All American out there on the DL. Braun's experience is half of what Entz's is, and involves him getting demoted from his position. That same type of story plays out through the entire coach's room.

I've touched on it some, but we can also see how Entz's culture is so vastly different than what Bohl and K had. Those two were militaristic. Entz is a "modern" outspoken, brash, show you how big my balls are kind of attitude. It's why he has made it a point to run the score up in his first season, and made it a point to go for two far more than anyone else to try to show how brave and confident he is. It worked in 2019 when he had a roster full of Klieman recruited and developed players. Over the spring a year plus later you see that the discipline within the culture is gone. You have players taunting on the field like every other team in the country when NDSU fans have banged about the fact NDSU doesn't do that because they expect to make plays. You have Entz giving the media exactly what they want for sound clips and quotes in interviews and social media posts.NDSU fans love to point out how Eck, at SDSU, should spend more time coaching and less time being a brash asshat, and yet Entz is Eck.

We are now 3 years removed from the last Klieman coached team.2 years removed from the last Klieman recruited class (because he did 98% of the work on that 2018/2019 class). It is going to be interesting to see what the progression under Entz looks like and how long NDSU fans and admin are going to put up with 8-3 with a quarterfinal loss for a record before they demand to catch lightning in a bottle twice with a coach like K. The run of success, and spoilage of fans could cause a Nebraska like situation to play out where a .688 win percent isn't good enough so you fire him to get someone better, who then goes under .500 and gets fired, and the next guy wins nearly 70% of his games but that also isn't good enough so you then go looking again, find another .500 coach which isn't good enough, and then the prodigal son returns home and goes .375 (FWIW I think NDSU skips a few steps and sees Tyler Roehl as their Scott Frost and I'm not sure it goes much better)

[BDKJMU]

All of these pre-season polls are taking last spring way to seriously. Monmouth and VMI? Sure they had a fantastic run and I'm happy for them. But outside the Big South, remind me who they played? I mean, Kennesaw isn't ranked, so thats saying something.

After the Top 10 or so teams, there aren’t many good proven teams, and having Monmouth & VMI 12-13 is reasonable.

Monmouth destroyed KSU and took SHSU to the wire in the 1st round. They had a chance to beat SHSU at the end just like NDSU, JMU, and SDSU did. They’ve dominated the Big South 2 atraigjt seasons. Definitly legit Top 15.
https://monmouthhawks.com/sports/football/schedule/2020

VMI went 6-1 in the So-Con and played JMU tough in the 1st round, only losing 31-24. Granted the game was never in doubt, with JMU up 21-3 amd 28-10, amd VMI scored in the last minute to make it a 1 TD margin. While they did lose there QB to Maryland, the guy who came in vs JMU looked good. They have one of the top WR in the country (HERO has #12 from SHSU and the VMI WR as the top 2):
https://herosports.com/fcs-football-202 ... vers-bzbz/
and a decent defense. They are probably legit Top 15.

[BDKJMU]

I've had many, lengthy, conversations about their current coaching staff with fans from NDSU, JSU, SDSU, SFA, UNI, etc.

I'm not entirely convinced by their coaching staff right now. Klieman is a monster of a coach and I'm not sure what they have now is going to be able even half replicate what he did.

Klieman was a great coach. If the new staff doesn't do very well this season, they may be gone. A few things that are different and I'm not sure if it's the coaching staff or the new transfer rule. NDSU has been bringing in a higher than usual number of transfers, and also losing a higher than usual number of young players to the transfer portal. One of the big recruiting tools was, if you stay, you can earn a spot on the field, now they are bringing in outsider players and the work your way thru the system looks to be changing. This change to a winning tradition is very concerning.

Gil’s annual sandbagging thread..

[UNI88]

Klieman was a great coach. If the new staff doesn't do very well this season, they may be gone. A few things that are different and I'm not sure if it's the coaching staff or the new transfer rule. NDSU has been bringing in a higher than usual number of transfers, and also losing a higher than usual number of young players to the transfer portal. One of the big recruiting tools was, if you stay, you can earn a spot on the field, now they are bringing in outsider players and the work your way thru the system looks to be changing. This change to a winning tradition is very concerning.

Gil’s annual sandbagging thread..

Read clenz's posts - there are cracks in the bizumb concrete. It remains to be seen whether they are in the foundation or just cosmetic.

[BDKJMU]

Gil’s annual sandbagging thread..

Read clenz's posts - there are cracks in the bizumb concrete. It remains to be seen whether they are in the foundation or just cosmetic.

Those 10k word JSO length posts are TL/DR. But I‘ll go with your cliff notes version.