THE IUP Football Thread

[IUPalum]

I actually think IUP hammers them tomorrow.

If it was at Miller, I'd agree it would be close.

Tort's teams lack focus at home (likely for a variety of reasons). They are (historically) a nasty bunch on the road.

Aside from distractions, we know Miller has the excitement level of a phone booth.

This road trip has the best timing in the world.

Zero home field advantage at Miller. Funeral homes are more exciting than that crowd. I'd be willing to bet half the team is hung over from Friday night too.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Zero home field advantage at Miller. Funeral homes are more exciting than that crowd. I'd be willing to bet half the team is hung over from Friday night too.

The program as a whole (starting up top) lacks attention to detail (this season has been a wonderful case study). I think in the comforts of home that gets further exploited. Due to this issue, IUP could easily be 1-2 right now. It could also easily be 3-0.

To your point, I do think Tort has way better control on the road. The team ALWAYS looks 10 times more focused and in tune away from Miller. He plays up that 'everybody hates IUP' mantra pretty good on road trips. Most home games they unfortunately just look disinterested. IUP also usually has better, more engaged crowds away from home.

[Ship69]

Did they lose a World Series and a Super Bowl just months apart? What

LOL. Chicago is a continual gut punch. At least Philly was IN the World Series and Super Bowl.

[Ship69]

That show has just ticked me off the past two weeks. Tort just rubs me the wrong way. Finally watched last weeks episode and just zero accountability from the guy. As a coach you need to take the blame for a loss and he just spent the whole show whining about how there should have been penalties called to save the team from his terrible game day coaching.

Was happy to see them field a question from the audience about Karst's "low ball flight" to put it lightly. Glad the coaching staff is aware of that glaring issue(as oblivious as they seem). Glad to hear them touch on this and the incredible strength of their WR core's height and athleticism.

Tort seems confident they can get the run game going, but I think he's just blowing smoke. Some major improvements are gonna need to happen with that OL in order to make it happen. Talked about how the game was a big win and how the offense played much better in the second half, but I seriously worry about this coaching staff if they aren't breathing a sigh of relief after making it out of that game alive. Can NOT count on the defense to force 3 turnovers a game in order to win.

Zinobile interviewed pretty well, but I guess that's to be expected out of a player with that much experience. Audibly laughed when he said there was not much drop off between the D2 competition he's facing compared to D1 teams last year. Maybe he's being serious and on average it's true, but I think he's just being humble and avoiding speaking ill of his competition. The kid's opening game was against BAYLOR last year! Surely Shippensburg's DBs are on the same level as Baylor's LOL!

That's pretty funny about the DBs because that is probably the weakest part of Ship's defense. I'd settle for IUP's defensive backs, let alone Baylor's.

[DeepBallEnjoyer]

IUP beats one of the worst teams in the PSAC by 2 and a half scores and celebrates like they won nationals. I’m beyond confused at how a good football team could be that happy with that outcome. Once again a win is a win, but we’re NOT going to beat (Insert any decent team) with this performance.

Sorry to seem so pessimistic all the time guys but geez. My confidence in this team falls lower every week.

[iupgroundhog]

IUP beats one of the worst teams in the PSAC by 2 and a half scores and celebrates like they won nationals. I’m beyond confused at how a good football team could be that happy with that outcome. Once again a win is a win, but we’re NOT going to beat (Insert any decent team) with this performance.

Sorry to seem so pessimistic all the time guys but geez. My confidence in this team falls lower every week.

Yeah, I was going to ask if this was a good win. I think the answer would be no, overall. I do think Hunter was quicker releasing the ball and threw a lot of good passes today.

It's over, though, and it's all about next week now.

[EyeoftheHawk]

I’m confused about the posts downgrading IUP’s win today. They dominated in every facet of the game. They ran for over 200 yards, which we’ve all been waiting for. They didn’t turn the ball over and had less than 30 yards in penalties. The QB made good throws in and out of the pocket and also had some big runs. The defense played really well and Hurst wasn’t really able to sustain much. What does it take to be satisfied with a win? When it was 30-7, IUP called off the dogs and played a lot of reserves because they have bigger things ahead of them. I thought they put together about as good of a game as they’ve had this season.

If IUP had won 50-6, would that have been better? I don’t think it’s fair to move the goal posts on what an acceptable looking win looks like. It was a divisional game on the road. I’m not going to pretend that Mercyhurst is good but they played hard today for the entirety and like everyone else, gave IUP their best shot. It looked to me like IUP wanted to just take care of business and get out of there healthy considering their next two opponents. I say mission accomplished.

[IUPNation]

LOL. Chicago is a continual gut punch. At least Philly was IN the World Series and Super Bowl.

Chicago has won far more championships in the last 45 years than Philly. The Chickenhawks stole the 2010 Stanley Cup ftom
Philly.

[IUPalum]

IUP loses by 20 next week.

[Ship69]

Chicago has won far more championships in the last 45 years than Philly. The Chickenhawks stole the 2010 Stanley Cup.
Philly.

LOL. So now you're going back 45 years? Gee, then let's bring the Frank Chance Cubs of 1908 into the picture if we're going into ancient history. The only real edge for Chicago over Philly in the 21st century has been hockey, where the Hawks won three Stanley Cups (their first Cups since 1961 when I was in junior high school watching Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita). They've won two World Series to the Phillies one, but they also have two baseball teams to Philadelphia's one. The Eagles have a Super Bowl win, which the Bears haven't had since 1985. The Bulls have seldom been relevant since Michael Jordan. Basically outside of hockey the 21st century has been a wash.

[ShoNuff]

I’m confused about the posts downgrading IUP’s win today. They dominated in every facet of the game. They ran for over 200 yards, which we’ve all been waiting for. They didn’t turn the ball over and had less than 30 yards in penalties. The QB made good throws in and out of the pocket and also had some big runs. The defense played really well and Hurst wasn’t really able to sustain much. What does it take to be satisfied with a win? When it was 30-7, IUP called off the dogs and played a lot of reserves because they have bigger things ahead of them. I thought they put together about as good of a game as they’ve had this season.

If IUP had won 50-6, would that have been better? I don’t think it’s fair to move the goal posts on what an acceptable looking win looks like. It was a divisional game on the road. I’m not going to pretend that Mercyhurst is good but they played hard today for the entirety and like everyone else, gave IUP their best shot. It looked to me like IUP wanted to just take care of business and get out of there healthy considering their next two opponents. I say mission accomplished.

Yes....agree.... IUP ran for over 200 yards today. But when half of the rushing yards came from the 2 QBs and the runs by WR Lockhart, I do not think IUP ran the ball all that great, with 103 yards on 27 carries. But agree that I am VERY happy IUP did not turn over the ball and did not commit too many penalties. But there's still work need to be done with that OL, and that needs to be fix rather quick with Slippery Rock and Cal U up next.

[DeepBallEnjoyer]

Yes....agree.... IUP ran for over 200 yards today. But when half of the rushing yards came from the 2 QBs and the runs by WR Lockhart, I do not think IUP ran the ball all that great, with 103 yards on 27 carries. But agree that I am VERY happy IUP did not turn over the ball and did not commit too many penalties. But there's still work need to be done with that OL, and that needs to be fix rather quick with Slippery Rock and Cal U up next.

I agree with what you say here. Felt like an improvement in the penalty department, but run game was deceptive.

If the stats on the IUP site are correct, then Hurst averaged 5.6 yards per carry (not including sacks on the qb). If you include rushes by both QB's and Lockhart, IUP averaged 5.4 yards per carry. If you look at yards from our running backs, they averaged 3.96 yards per carry. So we played an extremely average run game against Hurst's D(4 YPC), while their backs averaged 5.6 YPC against our highly touted defense.

Not fully blaming our backs here either! If our OLine can't get push off the line of scrimmage or at the very least open a hole against Mercyhurst, then how can we expect to run against other teams. I think it seemed the gameplan for today was to try to get our run game going to get the line and backs some confidence, putting up big numbers against a worse team. If that was indeed the plan, I don't think it worked.

I know I sound like a broken record, always harping on the team, but it's only because I think they have SO MUCH potential. I'm sure the last thing these guys want is a mediocre season, but that's where I think things are headed if they don't shape up soon.

[DeepBallEnjoyer]

Yeah, I was going to ask if this was a good win. I think the answer would be no, overall. I do think Hunter was quicker releasing the ball and threw a lot of good passes today.

It's over, though, and it's all about next week now.

I think Hunter seemed better at times today. threw a couple good balls and a couple bad ones. He really raised my expectations in the first half. Saw him get the snap stare at Zinobile running downfield in coverage, then actually decide to hit another receiver. Think that was the only read I saw him make as he went back to staring down receivers after, but it excited me nonetheless. Another pass that stood out to me was an overthrown ball to Lockhart. It was an incompletion, but had pretty good loft on it and was barely overthrown. Hard to say whether or not it was a good week of improvement for his passing game, but as I said previously, I think the focus of the game today was to try to get the ground game up and running. In that regard, he did his part. Broke a LOT of tackles and picked up a LOT of rushing yards for the team. Overall a decent performance on less passing attempts, and a really good rushing game for him.

Also, not explicitly a bad throw from Hunter, but how about that one handed snag from Lockhart! Good hands!

[iupgroundhog]

I know I sound like a broken record, always harping on the team, but it's only because I think they have SO MUCH potential. I'm sure the last thing these guys want is a mediocre season, but that's where I think things are headed if they don't shape up soon.

We'll know a whole lot more next week.

[IUPNation]

LOL. So now you're going back 45 years? Gee, then let's bring the Frank Chance Cubs of 1908 into the picture if we're going into ancient history. The only real edge for Chicago over Philly in the 21st century has been hockey, where the Hawks won three Stanley Cups (their first Cups since 1961 when I was in junior high school watching Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita). They've won two World Series to the Phillies one, but they also have two baseball teams to Philadelphia's one. The Eagles have a Super Bowl win, which the Bears haven't had since 1985. The Bulls have seldom been relevant since Michael Jordan. Basically outside of hockey the 21st century has been a wash.

Philadelphia has 4 championships in the last 45 years. We went 25 years without anything.

The Sixers haven’t won a title in 40 years.

The Flyers are clocking at 48 years without a title.