THE IUP Football Thread

[CUlater]

Agree with you IUPbigINDIANS ....because they do not have much help from their own coaching staff.

Hey remember when I tried to explain the frustrations and short comings of this staff to you all over the last 5 years and you guys threw out all kinds of stats and winning percentages in their defense? Those were good times, glad to see we are all finally on the same page

[IUPNation]

It is sunny and dry but the wind will absolutely play a role. It's very windy right now in Indiana so the stadium 'funnel' will be in full effect. Throwing and punting toward the cemetery will be a key item.
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I had a view of that cemetery for three years. My room at Oakland Hall faced it. A lot of crazy stuff happened on that hill at night.

[ShoNuff]

It is sunny and dry but the wind will absolutely play a role. It's very windy right now in Indiana so the stadium 'funnel' will be in full effect. Throwing and punting toward the cemetery will be a key item.
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Probably means that QB Hunter will run more rather throw in the wind. Do or die game for IUP.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It is sunny and dry but the wind will absolutely play a role. It's very windy right now in Indiana so the stadium 'funnel' will be in full effect. Throwing and punting toward the cemetery will be a key item.
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[DeepBallEnjoyer]

I’m hopeful they can piece together their first good game this season today. Happy homecoming and let’s go IUP!

[ShoNuff]

​​​​​​I've tried to analyze every situation and scenerio about this game.


Five days later, I wouldn't bet this game with real money under any circumstance.

Would it shock me to finally see IUP look like IUP again and rough up the Viet Mon? No.

Would it shock me to see a crappy, hungover effort and IUP get blown out again? No.


My final assessment after a week of what-ifs:

The players have to win this game. Cal is going to out-coach them and out-scheme them. Cal will be better prepared in scouting and in the details. They are just a better-coached program.

But, IUP is deeper and has at least the same talent level (and is deeper).

IUP's OL has its hands full. If IUP were to win, they have to have their best game of the year (by a mile). Karst has to throw the ball away instead of forcing it. Throw it in the bleachers. Whatever.

I actually think IUP will win today. But, betting real coin on them, right now, wouldn't be a wise play.

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Agree with you IUPbigINDIANS ....because they do not have much help from their own coaching staff.

[EyeoftheHawk]

​​​​​​I've tried to analyze every situation and scenerio about this game.


Five days later, I wouldn't bet this game with real money under any circumstance.

Would it shock me to finally see IUP look like IUP again and rough up the Viet Mon? No.

Would it shock me to see a crappy, hungover effort and IUP get blown out again? No.


My final assessment after a week of what-ifs:

The players have to win this game. Cal is going to out-coach them and out-scheme them. Cal will be better prepared in scouting and in the details. They are just a better-coached program.

But, IUP is deeper and has at least the same talent level (and is deeper).

IUP's OL has its hands full. If IUP were to win, they have to have their best game of the year (by a mile). Karst has to throw the ball away instead of forcing it. Throw it in the bleachers. Whatever.

I actually think IUP will win today. But, betting real coin on them, right now, wouldn't be a wise play.

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I wasn’t going to go to the game, but I’ve decided to give it a shot. I’ll probably regret it and wish I went hunting instead.

I do believe IUP has a chance, but I have them as a home underdog +6. I think Cal is the better overall team. They beat a VERY good Kutztown team and really could be undefeated if it weren’t for the heartbreaker at Shepherd. IUP hasn’t beaten a good team and has looked pretty bad against the two teams they lost to. IUP has a history of finding a way to win games just when you think they’re down and out, but I don’t see that from this group.

Happy homecoming. Off to the parade.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'll be honest, if IUP loses today, given the lofty expectations of the IUP faithful and lockerroom egos, Tort will have his work cut out for him the remaining weeks to keep this team from half assing the rest of the season.

​​​​​​I've tried to analyze every situation and scenerio about this game.


Five days later, I wouldn't bet this game with real money under any circumstance.

Would it shock me to finally see IUP look like IUP again and rough up the Viet Mon? No.

Would it shock me to see a crappy, hungover effort and IUP get blown out again? No.


My final assessment after a week of what-ifs:

The players have to win this game. Cal is going to out-coach them and out-scheme them. Cal will be better prepared in scouting and in the details. They are just a better-coached program.

But, IUP is deeper and has at least the same talent level (and is deeper).

IUP's OL has its hands full. If IUP were to win, they have to have their best game of the year (by a mile). Karst has to throw the ball away instead of forcing it. Throw it in the bleachers. Whatever.

I actually think IUP will win today. But, betting real coin on them, right now, wouldn't be a wise play.

​​​​​

[Fightingscot82]

I'll be honest, if IUP loses today, given the lofty expectations of the IUP faithful and lockerroom egos, Tort will have his work cut out for him the remaining weeks to keep this team from half assing the rest of the season.

[ShoNuff]

It's disgusting that Tort has blamed everyone and anything but himself. Not being up for a game? Come on, get real! It's not X's and O's? So you're saying the players suck? Tell that to them and it would also mean YOUR recruiting sucked too. This season is a disgusting mess and if the coach can't take some of the blame then they will never get better.

Coach Tort has no ideal how far that would go if he and the coaching staff verbally tell their team they can take some of the blame. They would respect them, and probably be motivated to play better.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Yeah, the coach has to figure out what's wrong, not sure what every one wants him to say other than we have to be better. SRU played really well. If a team has better players on game day, not much a coach can do. This isn't the first year IUP has had transfers not perform up to expectations, and IUP have a lackluster year because of it. I don't expect Tort to publicly call people out, or do an "its all my fault" moment. I expect him to fix it. Fixing it would mean winning out, and getting 1 or 2 playoff games, preparing to do better next year with many returning starters. Not fixing it will be Losing 1 or 2 more games, and go into spring hoping to reload by Fall.

Well, he's been talking about 'fixing' things since Week 1. It's now Week 6 and the same things are still broken.

In the past 6 games, this program has been blown out twice, is 3-3 and is 0-3 vs teams with winning records. Those are facts.

This OL isn't going to be fixed by tomorrow. Karst will toss 1-2 picks tomorrow. Question is can they do enough to overcome their shortcomings (including making extra points)? And, ... that does come down to X's and O's.

Jack may be blamed if they lose tomorrow. Running out of options.

[Ram040506]

Although it's not there yet, the division is slowly starting to get back to where it should be. Taking nothing away from the excellence of Shepherd in recent years, but you and Kutztown have kind of been the giants in a field of midgets recently. Stroud, Millersville, and even Lock Haven seem to be on the rise. West Chester still should be better β€” I don't know what is going on there. Some say they have few scholarships, which doesn't make sense, but I suppose could be true. Why they would want to do that baffles me. Ship and Bloom need to get off the snide, although I think Ship might finally have found a kid who can perform consistently at QB. Now they just need to retain the young o-linemen for a couple of years and strengthen that area of the team. Bloom has some work to do.

Agreed, Bloom may be the current pushover with their offense struggling.

[Ship69]

As a Shepherd fan, I'm hopeful for a blowout against Lock Haven but don't see it happening either. Lock Haven and Millersville are vastly improved and can win for sure. There doesn't seem to be any pushovers in the East.

Although it's not there yet, the division is slowly starting to get back to where it should be. Taking nothing away from the excellence of Shepherd in recent years, but you and Kutztown have kind of been the giants in a field of midgets recently. Stroud, Millersville, and even Lock Haven seem to be on the rise. West Chester still should be better β€” I don't know what is going on there. Some say they have few scholarships, which doesn't make sense, but I suppose could be true. Why they would want to do that baffles me. Ship and Bloom need to get off the snide, although I think Ship might finally have found a kid who can perform consistently at QB. Now they just need to retain the young o-linemen for a couple of years and strengthen that area of the team. Bloom has some work to do.

[ironmaniup]

All this talk about who is to blame is not the way I see it. If you are the coach in this situation, the blame game is not going to help anything.

What he is saying to the media is that WE have to play better. That's all. He's not blaming the players. I think that, if you really need to break this down, when Tort says WE he means the entire team, including coaching. We don't know what he is saying to the players.

Win tomorrow and the discussion changes. Of course, lose tomorrow, and the discussion changes, too.

If it's on the coaching staff and Tort, I think it's related to adapting to the new portal/transfer environment. Hey, just a few weeks ago Tort was being heralded as a master of the new portal world.

But maybe the new world requires a new kind of coaching. Obviously, you have to develop things in a couple of weeks that in the past were developed over many months or even years. It might be unnerving to some, but let's compare Lock Haven and IUP. Now, LHU might get blown out tomorrow and we'll see that their recent success is a mirage. I don't think we'll see that tomorrow, though. In reality, LHU has been able to bring in a much higher percentage of brand new players to the program and make it work. In contrast, everybody (including myself) is citing that as a big reason for IUP's problems. Just something to think about.

Yeah, the coach has to figure out what's wrong, not sure what every one wants him to say other than we have to be better. SRU played really well. If a team has better players on game day, not much a coach can do. This isn't the first year IUP has had transfers not perform up to expectations, and IUP have a lackluster year because of it. I don't expect Tort to publicly call people out, or do an "its all my fault" moment. I expect him to fix it. Fixing it would mean winning out, and getting 1 or 2 playoff games, preparing to do better next year with many returning starters. Not fixing it will be Losing 1 or 2 more games, and go into spring hoping to reload by Fall.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've been saying this since that ESU game. Shameful that he took no responsibility for that. And every week since he's shown me that he has ZERO accountability. The dude is a joke. He said on the Hawk Talk this week that Slip did nothing different than what they expected at all. Then HOW ON EARTH did you come out so flat and get punched in the face like that. Tries to deflect all blame to the refs for the ESU loss and ALL the blame to the players for the Slip loss.

Another thing that made me laugh from the show was when he talked about the lack of turnovers. He was whining about how his defense has "got to get some turnovers" against a high powered offense. Does he know how football works? If your game plan requires you to get turnovers in order to stay competitive, then your game plan sucks. Turnovers are a bonus. A cherry on top. You CAN NOT count on turnovers to win games. Dude is a complete clown and does not deserve to coach from what he's shown me thus far this season.

I said earlier in the week the first five minutes tomorrow are so important.

I don't know what Tort should do if IUP wins the toss. I'm not sure which beleaguered unit I'd want to send out there first.

I promise this: If IUP has its usual slow start tomorrow, that already shaky confidence is going to hit rock bottom quickly.

It is imperative they start fast tomorrow.