THE IUP Football Thread

[Ram Tough]

So, an honest question. You guys seem to have something medical going on to start every season to a key player and/or position. What is the deal with that? Poor preparation or conditioning? Just plain old bad luck? A combination of the two or something else?

I know all of our teams have health issues at times, but you all seem to get them earlier than most.

[IUPalum]

This isn't looking real good for y'all.

Adam Houser's mom just said on Facebook that Adam separated his shoulder; they popped it back in, but he's out for the game.

Go fist yourself you troll!

[ironmaniup]

It’s one game and the first game of the season so you don’t want to overreact, but at this stage this looks like a 7-2 team at best, but more likely a 6-3 team. The lofty expectations put on the program annually makes it seem worse than it is. It’s like Groundhog Day when this board crowns IUP PSAC and regional champions in July only to be highly disappointed when the team is a one and done in the playoffs, or doesn’t make it at all.

By the way, that unsportsmanlike conduct call on Sexton when he was 10 yards away from the line of scrimmage and walking away was utterly ridiculous. There were three other refs standing closer to it than the idiot that threw the flag. Talk about a homer call and a ref that seemed to want to influence the outcome of the game. Completely unacceptable.

I agree about the defense. Given they were missing a starting DT, and had a few injuries, biggest one being Howard. Terwilliger figured out the defensive scheme halfway through the 2nd quarter, and IUP stuck with it until the 4th Q, not good. Taylor really underpreformed, lets hope it was just a bad day, and they will improve - but they have a long way to go. Losing houser seemed to hurt the run game, ESU's best players are D-lineman, So I'm not too concerned about the line - but all those false starts for such a senior group was not good.

There are some pluses though

1 -they won
2 - Sexton to Brown is all that we expected and more. they are able to carry the offense against a pretty good ESU defense, the depth at WR is really good. If they have a running game at all they will be hard for anyone to stop.
3 - The Offensive game plan was solid, The new OC did well
4 - The kicking game did well, should be OK
5. ESU is much better than its loss to Pace - someone said they were looking past Pace - might be true
6. They fought back after they were down, and beat up.

The last unsportsmanlike call was really bad. I think the distraction call after that was a bit of a makeup call - never have I seen that called before.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Its going to be another excruciating season.

You can clean up strategic errors but you can’t make players better than they are. That defense is simply not good. Stop me when you’ve hard this before. If the defensive backs were as good at playing as they are talking, they’d be All-Americans. Chief among them was Naszhir Taylor. He should find a way to be sick during film review, and he’s not alone. The defensive line got handled and made almost no impact plays. When is the last time IUP had ZERO sacks? There are no elite players among that group. The linebackers are average at best. There was a lot of jogging around and at times the defense looked disinterested in tackling. I don’t think the ceiling is very high for the defense and that indeed makes for a long season. Shepherd would hang at least 50 on this defense.

The offensive line got very little push and it looked like the best running back on the field wore a red uniform. IUP averaged 3.7 yards per rush to ESU’s 5.6. To be fair, Houser looked good when he was in there, but he can’t stay on the field. Who knows how long he’ll be out with the shoulder and who knows how long he’ll last when he returns. Some kids just have bad luck in that regard and he seems like one of them, unfortunately. None of the others showed much, but it wasn’t like they had consistent holes to run through. Also, there were SIX pre-snap penalties on the offensive line.

Sexton is a gunslinger, and also appears to be a tough competitor. He’s going to throw a few picks along the way, but if he stays healthy he’s going to do some special things this fall. Brown…what can you say? He’s an elite player and was easily the best on the field last night. Let’s hope he can stay healthy but his workload is concerning. Eventually he’ll see a defense that can handle him better so then we’ll see if the other receivers can step up. As a group, I thought the receivers looked sharp and there’s clearly some depth there. I think they’ll get Carter back, but Lockhart’s injury sure looked season-ending. That’s too bad for him, and IUP. The combination of him and Brown would have been fantastic.

Special teams were solid throughout. I admit I was pretty nervous when Andrasi missed his first extra point, but he was lights out after that and didn’t flinch on the game winner. Kickoff and punt teams were solid. Snaps were good. This group should continue to gain confidence and could even be a strength this season.

It’s one game and the first game of the season so you don’t want to overreact, but at this stage this looks like a 7-2 team at best, but more likely a 6-3 team. The lofty expectations put on the program annually makes it seem worse than it is. It’s like Groundhog Day when this board crowns IUP PSAC and regional champions in July only to be highly disappointed when the team is a one and done in the playoffs, or doesn’t make it at all.

By the way, that unsportsmanlike conduct call on Sexton when he was 10 yards away from the line of scrimmage and walking away was utterly ridiculous. There were three other refs standing closer to it than the idiot that threw the flag. Talk about a homer call and a ref that seemed to want to influence the outcome of the game. Completely unacceptable.

[IUPNation]

It's just good ESU didn't have any extra timeouts.

Its going to be another excruciating season.

[iupgroundhog]

It was just a very rough day all around for IUP Foosball.

It's just good ESU didn't have any extra timeouts.

[IUPNation]

It was just a very rough day all around for IUP Foosball.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Lot of wake-up calls on this ride home tonight.

Defense survived. Only way to say it.

The banged up offense bailed them out. Better have a role reversal next week.

First game garbage. Free pass. Clean it up.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

See, this is why we chuckle at you when you clutch your pearls. LOL.

Right. And we chuckle at you on the Ship thread (which doesn't exist).

[jrshooter]

You're right, you trolling dickhead.

See, this is why we chuckle at you when you clutch your pearls. LOL.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

VERY fortunate to win this game.....very fortunate.

Enjoy tonight. It may not last long.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Hey, you do that without your top two running backs and two of your top three receivers, you earned it.

You're right, you trolling dickhead.

[iupgroundhog]

Aside from the injuries, that was actually a good game. They have a lot to work on.

Hopefully, the injuries aren't bad. You never know.

[jrshooter]

Hey, you do that without your top two running backs and two of your top three receivers, you earned it.

[ShoNuff]

IUP went out of its way to get the young kicker some confidence.

ugly, ugly, ugly. Win and move on I suppose but there are more questions than answers for this team.

Agree....100%....