SIU's opener is on Fox Sports Net tonight at 7:00. Looking forward to seeing how their two D-1 transfer RB's do. Anyway, It's has to better than watching the Utah/Texas A&M game and seeing Urban Meyer running up and down the sidelines making the "first down" gesture on every freakin' first down made.
You cannot tell me that Urban Meyer did not have something to work with when he took over Utah. I don't understand why they fired the other coach. It will be interesting to see how Maryland will do this year. In Ron Vanderlinden's last season at MU, they redshirted the whole frosh class, looking to the next year as the breakout. They got fired and Ralph was the beneficiary of that talent. Remember, Ralph's seniors are still the other guys players. To think what Coach Novak had to work with compared to these geniuses
Oh, Urban had plenty to work with. But he does a good job getting his players to believe immediately that they're good and can compete with anyone.
Also, Utah has benefited from the Salt Lake Olympics - many facilities built to house the Olympians are now used by the U of Utah, and from what I've heard they're damn nice.
Dan, will I see you in Maryland
gcd Wrote:Dan, will I see you in Maryland
I'm afraid not. I have some things going on, so I won't be to quite as many games this year. I'll be at the home games, at Ball State and hopefully WMU, maybe EMU.
Chicago Huskie Wrote:SIU's opener is on Fox Sports Net tonight at 7:00. Looking forward to seeing how their two D-1 transfer RB's do. Anyway, It's has to better than watching the Utah/Texas A&M game and seeing Urban Meyer running up and down the sidelines making the "first down" gesture on every freakin' first down made.
Anyone watch the SIU game yesterday? My finger is sore from bouncing between the SIU and TCU games and the convention. Anyway, if anyone watched that game, can you tell me that SIU won't be a formidable opponent? I have said from day one that SIU will be one of our two toughest opponents. They have some monsters and speedsters on that team. If anyone still thinks we will blow them out, I have a nice bridge over the Chicago River I'd like to sell you!
If you were flipping back and forth between the two games. Did you not notice the speed difference between the two games? I tend to think that NIU plays closer to the game on ESPN thant the one on Fox. SEMO is terrible & they were missing their best players to boot. Anything less than a 2 TD game would be disappointing next week.
I saw some of the game. SIU didn't look that impressive. They are a good team, with some goos backs and also receivers, but they didn't really dominate their opponent. Maybe they'll be better in game two, and they do have more time to prepare for us than we do for them, but I was more concerned about them before I saw them than now.
They are not to be overlooked, but we should certainly be able to handle them.
SIU didn't impress me at all last night. I agree with Chihuskie, I was more concerned before seeing them, rather than after.
That toss sweep they ran all night isn't going to work against us. And our O-Line is going to steamroll their front 4.
Dog Fan Wrote:Chicago Huskie Wrote:SIU's opener is on Fox Sports Net tonight at 7:00. Looking forward to seeing how their two D-1 transfer RB's do. Anyway, It's has to better than watching the Utah/Texas A&M game and seeing Urban Meyer running up and down the sidelines making the "first down" gesture on every freakin' first down made.
Anyone watch the SIU game yesterday? My finger is sore from bouncing between the SIU and TCU games and the convention. Anyway, if anyone watched that game, can you tell me that SIU won't be a formidable opponent? I have said from day one that SIU will be one of our two toughest opponents. They have some monsters and speedsters on that team. If anyone still thinks we will blow them out, I have a nice bridge over the Chicago River I'd like to sell you!
Oh out here with the dish i was flipping through all sorts of games, but the funny thing was that when I was watching the SIU game, which was for at least a half hour to really learn about our opponent, they seemed small and slow.
Did you see who they were playing? Was Wheaton North out there or something? Because the other teams qb, goodenough, really wasn't good enough, he jumped everytime he passed. SIU does not look that impressive even though they beat up on wheaton's HS.
I mostly watched the SIU game and flipped to the other games at commercial. A couple of things I noticed:
1. They run a similiar offense to us. All three back-ups looked good with Jacobs looking like the stud of the bunch. The O-line looked small to me, but they dominated the SEMO D-line all game. We'll actually face two different backs in the Maryland game a power runner and a speed runner, so we'll see more of the same against SIU.
2. Their quarterback did nothing at all to impress me. If we can get an early lead and force them to throw, we should be fine. They have one Wr/Kr, Little who is quick and got seperation on numerous plays, but I think either of our corners can handle him. The tight end, #86 looked pretty solid.
3. Their D-line did a pretty good job of containing between the tackles. SEMO broke a couple runs, but for the most part SIU dominated the battle in the trenches. SEMO had more luck with the screens and slant passes and the runs they took outside. Their stud linebacker #34 had a nice hit, but nothing overly impressive. Their db's are SMALL, I think they go about 5'9 each. The other thing I noticed was by the end of the first quarter SIU's D was definitely winded. SEMO had spread the ball around the field and SIU had a hard time catching their breath before the next snap.
I'm feeling better about this game in general, as they have to play a one-dimensional game on offense. We'll see how are young DL does against Maryland, if they fair well we'll be fine against SIU. Get SIU behind early is the key. Get A.J his carries but I would pass a little more against them utilize Hurd's height and Sheldon's and Perez's speed.
SIU will be ready for us. Had we seen Western Illinois a couple years ago before they played us, we would have said that we would manhandle them. (I think we did say this.) This will be a tough game because SIU will give it everything they've got. If we blow them out, I'll be impressed. I just can't get too optimistic because I keep remembering those losses to WIU. I'm thrilled this is not a conference game.
The Harleys certainly added a bit of class to the TV coverage...remember when NIU did a simlar promotion? It just doesn't work well. If SIU was a sellot there were several thousand no shows. If you thought Baker was bad on radio , any comments about some of the comments by TV reporters last nite? I thought the remark about a coach kicking a player in the you know where was real classy on air.
SIU wears down opponents much like what NIU seeks to do with pounding the football. This could be a slugfest next week,
In coaches show yesterday , Joe mentioned taking what MD defense will give ya...... Might the defenses for both NIU and SIU play 8 or nine in box first several series next week?
While the speed displayed in TCU-NU game was alot faster than SIU-SEMO, i'm not so sure we are closer to the former game than the later by comparison but somewhere in between.
dawgs gone wild Wrote:The Harleys certainly added a bit of class to the TV coverage...remember when NIU did a simlar promotion? It just doesn't work well. If SIU was a sellot there were several thousand no shows. If you thought Baker was bad on radio , any comments about some of the comments by TV reporters last nite? I thought the remark about a coach kicking a player in the you know where was real classy on air.
SIU wears down opponents much like what NIU seeks to do with pounding the football. This could be a slugfest next week,
In coaches show yesterday , Joe mentioned taking what MD defense will give ya...... Might the defenses for both NIU and SIU play 8 or nine in box first several series next week?
While the speed displayed in TCU-NU game was alot faster than SIU-SEMO, i'm not so sure we are closer to the former game than the later by comparison but somewhere in between.
SIU seemed more worn down than did their opponent. Their opponent wasn't worn down, they were just bad.
Here is one of many intersting schedule quirks I noted recently.
We may learn a bit about BGSU after getting blown out by OU then facing SEMO.