Minnesota State at Slippery Rock

[Ship69]

You didn't touch a nerve, and you're entitled to your opinion of Zac Zulli, pro or con. What I am pointing out is that in those two games it was Shippensburg that was shut down, not just Zac Zulli. Without a good receiving corps and an 10-1 regular season record that year, he wouldn't even have been in consideration for the award, individual award or not. If SR had gone 7-4 or 6-5 this season, Rivers would not have been in contention for anything. I will say that in D2 at least a running back or someone other than the QB wins it every great once in a while. They might as well make the Heisman another QB award these days. Jonathan Taylor of Wisconsin gained more than 6,000 yards in three seasons in one of best D1 conferences in football and didn't even get serious consideration this year.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I thought it was interesting the O-lines in the rock/Mankato game:
team 1
6-4 320
6-5 300
6-1 315
6-4 315
6-5 310
team 2
6-4 305
6-4 300
6-3 285
6-5 300
6-4 300

You can guess which is which. You can keep the one OL was prettier cuz they both looked like OL to me. One group really looked bad the more one dimensional they got.

Also, everyone knew/said before the game that bad weather favors one team/scheme over another team/scheme.
I liked seeing a team with the OL in three point stances again. You can have a huge line in two points but youre taking some of the size/power advantage away having big guys in two point stances running sideways. I was surprised SRU didn't have an option package with Rivers/snorweah and the two slot guys Sweeting and Wynn for the potential of the passing game struggling in the weather. Jet sweeps and option stuff. I wouldve assumed before hand running normal stuff wouldn't work vs Mankato. Knowing the weather coming and knowing it always seems windy on the hill at SRU. Relying on deep balls this time of year seems like potential for a butt kicking.

You're assuming a lot. Lutz may have already been gone had Roland not landed on his lap. Just sayin'

Superstars make average coaches look great. Until they don't.

[Ship69]

I agree it's regional, but I believe you posted earlier that there were no D2 teams in Wisconsin and one or very few in Iowa. That means any guys in those states who want to play D2 have to go elsewhere, and you guys are close. In Pa., there are 16 teams playing in the PSAC alone, plus several other D2 conferences within easy travel. That's a lot of people dividing the D2-level playing pool in this state. If we start losing teams and shrink to a more compact league, I think you'd start seeing some pretty damn good D2 teams from Pa. As things are at present, it ain't happening.

[Brandon]

One game isn't really telling of much. The Mavs are very, very good (obviously) but the conference overall shouldn't be ranked much higher than it is.

The NSIC South is more highly ranked according to Massey. The North really brings the conference down.

[Brandon]

Also,

Mankato had 213 yds rushing. 75 of was on one run that slipped thru a blitz with man coverage behind it. So the total up front domination by the OL had 138 rushing yds on 35 att other than the big run....vs a SRU run D that nobody would say is great. That's less than 4 yds a carry.

Big runs account for a lot of yardage all the time. They can't simply be tossed out. No running back averages four yards per carry by averaging four yards at a time.

[iupgroundhog]

It's pretty ironic that you are telling people to "pipe down."

[ironmaniup]

Also,

Mankato had 213 yds rushing. 75 of was on one run that slipped thru a blitz with man coverage behind it. So the total up front domination by the OL had 138 rushing yds on 35 att other than the big run....vs a SRU run D that nobody would say is great. That's less than 4 yds a carry.

[Red Raider 74]

I agree it's regional, but I believe you posted earlier that there were no D2 teams in Wisconsin and one or very few in Iowa. That means any guys in those states who want to play D2 have to go elsewhere, and you guys are close. In Pa., there are 16 teams playing in the PSAC alone, plus several other D2 conferences within easy travel. That's a lot of people dividing the D2-level playing pool in this state. If we start losing teams and shrink to a more compact league, I think you'd start seeing some pretty damn good D2 teams from Pa. As things are at present, it ain't happening.

It is getting tougher for PSAC schools to recruit Pa with the numbers of players decreasing.We have too many D2 schools in Pa and the talent is spread thin.I am seeing kids that are playing at Ship today would have been D3 caliber players 25 years ago.I have said this to a few of my former Red Raider teammates.Those schools in the Midwest like Minnesota State,MinnesoyDuluth,Ferris State, Grand Valley State have larger budgets for football.

[GoldenRam94]

It is getting tougher for PSAC schools to recruit Pa with the numbers of players decreasing.We have too many D2 schools in Pa and the talent is spread thin.I am seeing kids that are playing at Ship today would have been D3 caliber players 25 years ago.I have said this to a few of my former Red Raider teammates.Those schools in the Midwest like Minnesota State,MinnesoyDuluth,Ferris State, Grand Valley State have larger budgets for football.

You could fully fund the Rock, IUP, WCU or any PSAC school, and the result would be the same.

[Red Raider 74]

You could fully fund the Rock, IUP, WCU or any PSAC school, and the result would be the same.

I agree. We just have too many schools. Can you imagine Cal and the Rock being one school or West Chester and K town.

[IUPalum]

I said it from the get go that the SRU lines would get dominated and I was right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[UWFMubbish]

LOLLL!! Come on man! Ferris State made mistakes, but they made similar mistakes all season. However, they were able to overcome them until yesterday. According to Massey and everyone else but the Argos, UWF was inferior to Wingate (W), inferior to Valdosta State (W), inferior to Lenoir Rhyne (W), and inferior to Ferris State (W, 19.5 dogs). At some point, you gotta figure that maybe the Argos aren't inferior after all since they are still standing and preparing for the natty!

[EdinboroFB]

Big runs account for a lot of yardage all the time. They can't simply be tossed out. No running back averages four yards per carry by averaging four yards at a time.

Ya, Because that's what I meant by that.

It was based on the Mankato line being all the sudden Big Ten caliber by conversation throughout this thread. The big run broke through a blitz and like a 4 and 1 type run that goes all the way. But it does count. Good point.

[iupgroundhog]

No doubt everybody is correct. The PSAC can't match up with some of the other conferences and our best teams have had a lot of difficulty when they get deep into the NCAA tournament. But I don't give up hope. I don't necessarily think the difference is insurmountable.

It is definitely possible for a PSAC team to break through. IUP was pretty good 2 years ago but they blew it. And it's been discussed many times if Redfield didn't get hurt against Assumption we could have been competitive. We will never know.

NDC from SR1 was competitive last year. Slippery Rock wasn't the PSAC Team of the Decade like they were made out to be. After all, they beat 3 PSAC teams by a grand total of 8 points.

Everybody is fretting about the blowout yesterday but I think it's possible the Rock got a bad matchup. After watching the other semifinal I think it's possible SRU would match up better with either Ferris State or UWF.

It seems that there are always 3-4 teams in D2 that are clearly superior. But those teams change. Where is Pitt State? NWMSU? Grand Valley?

The history does reflect a weaker conference but things can change. Programs rise and fall. I think one of our teams can make a cinderella run at some point.

[Ship69]

It is getting tougher for PSAC schools to recruit Pa with the numbers of players decreasing.We have too many D2 schools in Pa and the talent is spread thin.I am seeing kids that are playing at Ship today would have been D3 caliber players 25 years ago.I have said this to a few of my former Red Raider teammates.Those schools in the Midwest like Minnesota State,MinnesoyDuluth,Ferris State, Grand Valley State have larger budgets for football.

I did see that at Ship this year. There were some good individual skill players, but I didn't see the depth they had on coach Mac's better teams. The difference between the top few teams and rest of the league was really a chasm this year. A year after beating both Slippery Rock and Indiana, Ship wasn't even competitive with them this season. They did have some young guys playing and I'm hoping we'll see improvement next season. Discussion about the disparity in D2 scholarships is nothing new. I think there are only so many small schools with the desire and means to fund 30 or more scholarships. This probably wouldn't be a popular opinion, but I'm wondering if they shouldn't go to something like an NAIA model with a 24-schollie limit in football. I know the NCAA is generally sexier to most schools than the NAIA, but there are more than 160 schools playing D2, probably enough to add another NCAA division if there was a desire. Teams that wanted to go big could still go big. I'm just afraid you're going to see more schools drop out of D2 or drop football entirely if things go on as they are.

And I agree that you could fully fund some of our schools with the way it is now and probably still not be nationally competitive. The schools that have been doing well in the PSAC in recent years aren't necessarily the ones with the most scholarships.