IUP Football 2021

[Big Hawk15]

Never know. D1 boy had 1 grab for 3 yards in first game in the Bush Leagues. Making sure he's still on team.

You never know with these transfers.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

way to state the obvious.

Never know. D1 boy had 1 grab for 3 yards in first game in the Bush Leagues. Making sure he's still on team.

You never know with these transfers.

[Big Hawk15]

If there not dressed and not in the ballpark then it was the Vid.

way to state the obvious.

[IUP412]

If there not dressed and not in the ballpark then it was the Vid.

[Big Hawk15]

Does anybody know where our Florida Gator was last week? Was he in protocol? Injured? I didn't see him on the sideline so I assume protocol.

Obviously this guy can contribute.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It isn't done yet. This will linger all year.

By now, they should know who failed yesterday.

[IUPNation]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Does anybody know where our Florida Gator was last week? Was he in protocol? Injured? I didn't see him on the sideline so I assume protocol.

Obviously this guy can contribute.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

[QUOTE=Big Hawk15;n603663]I hear ya. But ... they don't give out astericks for being unhealthy. We can't take another one. Hopefully health improving and that tail whipping will light a fire.

[Big Hawk15]

[QUOTE=iupgroundhog;n603636]

[Big Hawk15]

Honestly, I feel like IUP may need to try out both QBs in the coming weeks. There is a big difference in competition from IUP's first two opponents and then Mercyhurst. You would think that everyone is likely to have a better day against Mercyhurst. The only way to truly get a feel is to evaluate them both against equal competition.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I don't understand why we are looking at IUP in terms of being overrated when the actual "national ratings" had SRU as #3 in the country. So, if any team stands out as being overrated in our conference it is Slippery Rock. The "ratings" had IUP behind a number of teams, including Kutztown. When IUP and Shepherd met last week Shepherd was ranked #11 and IUP #19. So, on the national D2 level I don't think IUP has been overrated.

For us posters, I think what we see is the potential of the team. I think IUP will prove to be pretty good as the season progresses.

I still think Ken Roman's departure for West Florida hurt a lot. His presence would have really bolstered the entire offense.

I'm not in the overrated camp yet. We don't even know what we have yet. Harry Football could be a superstar. Maybe our starting defense will get to play together at some point. Houser has missed 7 of 8 quarters. While we knew it was probably going to happen at some point, ... getting hit with this Covid crap immediately was a real buzz kill (especially with your hyped up QB).

I will say I didn't like a lot of things I saw this past Saturday. As IUPAlum said, ... there were some traits of 2018 on display. There are certainly some warning signs Tort better keep his eye on -- and, I'm not talking about the play between whistles. I'll chalk it up to frustration and hope it stays there.

I'll believe until the end of time it's hard to 'get up' for back to back big games. That's why I hate playing Cal and SRU back-to-back every year. This was a brutal first two games this year (without a tune up ... but that's old news).

It's an 8-game season now. Hit the reset button and move along.

[iupgroundhog]

I don't understand why we are looking at IUP in terms of being overrated when the actual "national ratings" had SRU as #3 in the country. So, if any team stands out as being overrated in our conference it is Slippery Rock. The "ratings" had IUP behind a number of teams, including Kutztown. When IUP and Shepherd met last week Shepherd was ranked #11 and IUP #19. So, on the national D2 level I don't think IUP has been overrated.

For us posters, I think what we see is the potential of the team. I think IUP will prove to be pretty good as the season progresses.

I still think Ken Roman's departure for West Florida hurt a lot. His presence would have really bolstered the entire offense.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

maybe if its 500, but Javon passed for 250 against good teams. its going to take alot against hurst to impress. I'll bet someone runs for 100 yds too. We'll see what happens in 3 weeks.

I'm not worried about the offense this week. I want to see massive improvements on the defensive side.

Kelly, Washington and Wallace (hopefully) returning will do wonders.

[Ship69]

I think that's very fair. I spent two years watching MAC football and feel the PSAC has so many similarities. Mostly regional state schools, relatively underfunded, passive fan bases, etc. but the biggest similarity is the grind of the conference schedule. The teams are so similarly resourced and matched that its possible for any team to win on any Saturday. We have some perennial bottom feeders while the MAC doesn't, but its hard to come out unscathed and being great one year doesn't guarantee much the following season. I think as much as we want to believe it isn't so, the PSAC is similarly evenly matched. We have tiers within each conference division but in reality those tiers are fluid. Cal was once a bottom feeder while Clarion and Edinboro were once top tier. Slippery Rock has had bouts of mediocrity.

IUP does have a resource advantage but its not a large gap and I'd argue that teams like Cal or Slip can sell some things that make up for a lesser scholarship offer than IUP's offer.

It seems apparent now that Division II support is all over the map. From the little I read, that Minnesota outfit that pounded Slippery Rock in the playoffs in '19 seemed to have a definite advantage in resources over any PSAC school. You're talking about the North Dakota State model where you have an area of relatively low population and few competing sports attractions. I remember Ship playing ND State in the '81 small-college playoffs. The game was fairly competitive most of the way, but it was obvious even then that the Bison were on another level and planning bigger things. We're in a conference with multiple Division II teams located in a state with declining high school enrollments, multiple pro sports teams, and Division I programs that include the behemoth known as Penn State. Probably few people outside the alums of the PSAC schools care much about their sports programs. Ship has about 70,000 living alums. Penn State draws more than that for every home football game. Student attendance isn't even good at many of the schools. We used to draw as many or more to Ship basketball games back in my day when we had a tiny gym, smaller enrollment, and losing teams.

I don't know that there would be much enthusiasm for it, but we might almost be getting to the point where another division is needed. It's quite a jump from non-scholarship Division III to giving up to 36 scholarships in Division II ball. There are a lot of schools that want to play a step above Division III, but generally lack the resources to fully fund Division II. Maybe there should be a Division II with a 40-scholarship limit and a Division below that at 20. Just a thought.

With the decline in numbers in our traditional Pa. recruiting base, I think it would be good for the football programs to cast a wider recruiting net than they have traditionally. Whether the resources exist at most of the schools to do that is another question. Jersey might be one possibility as it's basically a Division II desert. Shepherd has made a good living with players from the Delmarva area.

It's amazing to see some of the money flowing into Division I ball, which is increasingly becoming Pro Football B. Guess we need more sugar daddies at the Division II level. A gift of $10 million, relatively paltry by some Division I standards, would probably be program-changing at a lot of PSAC schools. Getting there is another thing.