2011 Missouri Valley Football Conference Off-Season Thread

[OSBF]

How's everyone stack up on the recruiting front?

YSU has offered 81 players.
YSU has 12 commitments.

Illinois State under Coach Spack has decided not to recruit. We just have the coaches hang out in courthouses in places like West Lafayette, East Lansing, Champaign, and Madison.

We'll open camp this fall with as many as 15 down transfers from FBS/BCS, mostly from the B10.

As many as 5 of them will have been dismissed from a team somewhere/kicked out of school somewhere.

[Thumper 76]

I'm currently putting together a team by team breakdown for what I see this coming season. Each team will get their own blog entry on my blog (click the blog link up top and will be posted on the front page), and I will do a MVFC entry as well to sum it all up. The teams will come in alphabetical order, and it will take a week or three to get them all done. I started with ISUr tonight and am looking to do this format for the set up


How long it takes for each team depends on the quality of information the school site had in terms of returning players. If I have to go through and match up class to player before I start doing stats it may take awhile...I'm looking straight at you Illinois State....


Look for Illinois State Thursday or Friday, and then every 3 or 4 days after that for other teams.

One thing to note I am basing almost completely off of returning players as it is almost always impossible to tell which freshman will play, and in what role.

We don't play SDSU twice. The 9/24 game is vs. USD.

Ahhh see this is the tricky part that people don't often realize. USD likes to pretend to be SDSU in a vain attempt to pretend they actually have a good football team, so they pay people to put them down as SDSU.

[Cap'n Cat]

Blah, blah, blah, blah fvcking blah. UNI runs away with it again.

[Maxine]

Missouri for the win!

[houndawg]

Blah, blah, blah, blah fvcking blah. UNI runs away with it again.

Not consistent enough. World beaters one week, AWOL the next.

SIU takes the MVC after being picked fourth. Again.

[eaglesfootball]

UNI
SIU
SDSU

[DJH]

Blah, blah, blah, blah fvcking blah. UNI runs away with it again.

Not consistent enough. World beaters one week, AWOL the next.

SIU takes the MVC after being picked fourth. Again.

That's a characteristic of a very young team, which UNI was last year.

And they were consistent enough to win the league outright in a rebuilding year.

[houndawg]

Not consistent enough. World beaters one week, AWOL the next.

SIU takes the MVC after being picked fourth. Again.

That's a characteristic of a very young team, which UNI was last year.

And they were consistent enough to win the league outright in a rebuilding year.

Most of the MVC was young last year and the league was clearly way down, overall.

[JayJ79]

We don't play SDSU twice. The 9/24 game is vs. USD.

It always surprises me that, for how often UNI fans complain when people confuse Northern Iowa and Northern Illinois, there is an awful lot of confusion amongst Panther fans when it comes to the Dakota schools (most often confusing USD and SDSU, or UND and NDSU).

[DJH]

That's a characteristic of a very young team, which UNI was last year.

And they were consistent enough to win the league outright in a rebuilding year.

Most of the MVC was young last year and the league was clearly way down, overall.

So?

[houndawg]

Most of the MVC was young last year and the league was clearly way down, overall.

So?

So winning the MVC will be a lot harder to do next year.

[guinzone]

Well YSU's defense was looking promising the first few weeks of spring ball until yesterday's scrimmage when the YSU offense scored 14 touchdowns... The previous meetings the defense held them to half of that.

Luckily we are expecting 3-4 of our 2011 recruits to start on D this year, 3 JUCO's and the local transfer from Michigan Davion Rogers.

Depth will be thin for the YSU defense again in the secondary. LB and DL looks solid and we finally have some pass rushers. However the MVFC offenses may have another field day with our secondary if we get some injuries.

I'd be looking at 8-3 or 7-4 if they stay healthy of 6-5 or 5-6 if they get banged up.. Margin for error is thin!

NDSU - UNI remain my top 2 in the league with the Sycamores right on their tail.

[mgbison]

UNI won the conference last year, great. However, they got their butt's kicked the last 2 games of the year (representing the mvfc at home in the playoffs with an embarassing loss).

[houndawg]

UNI won the conference last year, great. However, they got their butt's kicked the last 2 games of the year (representing the mvfc at home in the playoffs with an embarassing loss).

The playoffs are a whole different thing, bro, weird things happen. How often does an RB torch a playoff caliber team for 200 yards in one half? If you make the playoffs again you'll see, every team in the playoffs can pick two or three plays that if they'd fallen different would have put them in the title game.

[houndawg]

Well YSU's defense was looking promising the first few weeks of spring ball until yesterday's scrimmage when the YSU offense scored 14 touchdowns... The previous meetings the defense held them to half of that.

Luckily we are expecting 3-4 of our 2011 recruits to start on D this year, 3 JUCO's and the local transfer from Michigan Davion Rogers.

Depth will be thin for the YSU defense again in the secondary. LB and DL looks solid and we finally have some pass rushers. However the MVFC offenses may have another field day with our secondary if we get some injuries.

I'd be looking at 8-3 or 7-4 if they stay healthy of 6-5 or 5-6 if they get banged up.. Margin for error is thin!

NDSU - UNI remain my top 2 in the league with the Sycamores right on their tail.

ISU was overrated by quite a bit from what I saw. Much, much, better than recent years, to be sure, but I didn't see much at the game and the game wasn't as close as the 49-21 score.

[eaglesfootball]

UNI won the conference last year, great. However, they got their butt's kicked the last 2 games of the year (representing the mvfc at home in the playoffs with an embarassing loss).

The playoffs are a whole different thing, bro, weird things happen. How often does an RB torch a playoff caliber team for 200 yards in one half? If you make the playoffs again you'll see, every team in the playoffs can pick two or three plays that if they'd fallen different would have put them in the title game.

+1

[houndawg]

The playoffs are a whole different thing, bro, weird things happen. How often does an RB torch a playoff caliber team for 200 yards in one half? If you make the playoffs again you'll see, every team in the playoffs can pick two or three plays that if they'd fallen different would have put them in the title game.

+1

Thanks. It's easy to forget they lack playoff experience given they have been the dominant team in FCS since the day they arrived.

[guinzone]

Well YSU's defense was looking promising the first few weeks of spring ball until yesterday's scrimmage when the YSU offense scored 14 touchdowns... The previous meetings the defense held them to half of that.

Luckily we are expecting 3-4 of our 2011 recruits to start on D this year, 3 JUCO's and the local transfer from Michigan Davion Rogers.

Depth will be thin for the YSU defense again in the secondary. LB and DL looks solid and we finally have some pass rushers. However the MVFC offenses may have another field day with our secondary if we get some injuries.

I'd be looking at 8-3 or 7-4 if they stay healthy of 6-5 or 5-6 if they get banged up.. Margin for error is thin!

NDSU - UNI remain my top 2 in the league with the Sycamores right on their tail.

ISU was overrated by quite a bit from what I saw. Much, much, better than recent years, to be sure, but I didn't see much at the game and the game wasn't as close as the 49-21 score.

In my humble opinion they were the best team to step foot at Stambaugh Stadium last year. Their QB was the best I've seen in this league in numerous years and they got some pure athletes on defense. Again I am going by what I saw at YSU last year.

[clenz]

ISU was overrated by quite a bit from what I saw. Much, much, better than recent years, to be sure, but I didn't see much at the game and the game wasn't as close as the 49-21 score.

In my humble opinion they were the best team to step foot at Stambaugh Stadium last year. Their QB was the best I've seen in this league in numerous years and they got some pure athletes on defense. Again I am going by what I saw at YSU last year.

Yeah...nevermind that record of theirs...or the fact their defense couldn't stop most junior high offenses.

Illinois State was clearly the best team last year. I'll tell coach Farley and AD Troy Dannen to send our outright conference title to the team we beat 42-14

[houndawg]

In my humble opinion they were the best team to step foot at Stambaugh Stadium last year. Their QB was the best I've seen in this league in numerous years and they got some pure athletes on defense. Again I am going by what I saw at YSU last year.

Yeah...nevermind that record of theirs...or the fact their defense couldn't stop most junior high offenses.

Illinois State was clearly the best team last year. I'll tell coach Farley and AD Troy Dannen to send our outright conference title to the team we beat 42-14

I was talking about the Sycamores, but it's about the same thing, both were overrated from what I saw.

[clenz]

Yeah...nevermind that record of theirs...or the fact their defense couldn't stop most junior high offenses.

Illinois State was clearly the best team last year. I'll tell coach Farley and AD Troy Dannen to send our outright conference title to the team we beat 42-14

I was talking about the Sycamores, but it's about the same thing, both were overrated from what I saw.

Oh...I should read better.


I guess we will send the trophy to the team that didn't finish above .500 against D1 opponents....

[Neckfansince71]

I truly love the spice that Capt’n Cat brings to any forum he involves himself in. He is blunt, dirty mouthed, but a true gentleman whether you can tell it from his posts or not. I will always remember how classy the UNI fans were last year in Macomb. They definitely know how to tailgate too.

Okay, enough of the BS! I want to talk about three things! Jason Hudson/Will Lunt, Theon Dixon/Kevin Palermo, and Purple/Green turf.

Let’s talk turf first. I should have also mentioned video scoreboard. Both will be brand new when the season begins at Hanson Field. Gone will be the green, green grass of home! Replacing it will be artificial turf. The question though is what color???? Well I think you can count on green between and classy purple and gold end zones. It will definitely dress up Hanson. Now if we can only start the west side rehab project before I am too old to enjoy it, or see it, whichever comes first.

Kyle is gone! What a great linebacker, one who could go sideline to sideline and did so many times! The #2 in the Buch voting will be hard to replace. But Kevin Palermo is ready for the job and Theon Dixon (Ball State) is really going to help too! I think both will be on the field throughout the season. Last year the Neck defense seemed to be just so so, especially against the run! This year it, with the experience at D-Line, it will be the strong point which will allow the offense to catch up!

Matt is also gone. What a phenomenal athlete!!! #2 in the Payton voting! Do we have another Payton candidate to take his place, not this moment! But there is a really good competition going on between Will Lunt and JC transfer Josh Hudson. Lunt was the QB during the 1-10 season and he is going to have to get the monkey off his back if he is going to help WIU. He has a bazooka, but the question is, can he run from pressure. The jury is still out in that regard. Hudson, well he is lean, can throw, and can run!!! I liked what I saw at last Saturday’s scrimmage in Naperville and he just may be the real deal. Having Caulton Ray in the backfield is going to take some pressure off both of them.

So go ahead and throw the Necks to the basement in the preseason. It really doesn’t matter. WIU is no longer transfer University although we all know that some key transfers are very important to success at the FCS level. I get a kick out of the posters who talk about a down year in the MVFC. Who cares! Seems like in a down year a couple of teams had some good success in the playoffs. I think the definition of a down year is when SIU and YSU happen to not be so good, and UNI has trouble dominating like they think they should. For some reason, I call that cyclical and competitive!



jc

[clenz]

If you want proof I can be a reasonable, "classy", guy just as neckfan (or any of the WIU tailgators from last year). That really was a great time in Macomb, until the game started and UNI decided not to play.


I can't wait to head back to Macomb in 2 years and see the renovations (maybe I'll head down this year for a game). What was laid out to me sounded like it was going to look awesome once put in. The set up WIU has could be AMAZING if they could get the support to bowl the campus endzone and connect both sides in a horse shoe. Beautiful campus around there the stadium

[JBB]

I thought the Necks were the best MVFC team NDSU played last year. I have them 3rd. They hit hard, play well and are well coached. Im glad they are in Fargo. Its going to ba another great game in the Prestigious Fabulous Fargo Dome.

[western-101]

I believe NDSU is on the road this year with the WIU series. Which I guess is good news for the Bison...as the road team has won each of the four contests played so far in the series.