THE IUP Football Thread

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Let's consider this as well...

Assume what we're talking about never happens. Whether they would still be in the PSAC or not being mostly irrelevant. Would the KCAC exist? Would IUP basketball be what it is now? Isn't the other thing that Joe has managed to land the bigger fish in town, and more dollars, because those individuals and dollars were available with football being "down?" To a point at least.

It's an interesting April conversation. I would argue that IUP basketball managed to grab the mantle because of how IUP football was neutralized, in a way. That's a long time ago, but it's not THAT long ago. I really wonder if IUP has the basketball program they do if they managed to fundraise and win at the rate that they were back then. The KCAC may not exist either. Joe was on the rise when they built that venue, and it's a fantastic multipurpose facility that gets a lot of run. That said, multipurpose or not, it's the house that Joe built. Same with the Hilton.

I also wonder how with a fully funded program, and a crap ton of extra dollars, that would look in today's game. For the longest time, the appeal for D1 players dropping down a level was to play immediately without having to sit out a year. That was a recruiting advantage for schools trying to land transfers. That exists no longer. Interesting conversation for sure.

Hard to say. BUT ... IUP was winning in basketball long before Joe arrived. In fact, to this day, the best team in school history (per most) was the 94-95 team. Gary Edwards also won Regionals and made a Final Four, too. Joe did have to do a total rebuild because of the fallout of the Edwards era, but the KCAC wasn't built because Joe started winning more. It was in the planning stages long before Joe was even hired. I also don't think the Hilton has anything to do with Joe's basketball program.

[IUP24]

Had that not happened, I doubt IUP would still be in the PSAC. Their level of dominance would have likely resulted in moving up.

Frank didn't grow magic beans. He raised money. Tons of it. When you subtract all the football hyperbole, the game comes down to which team has better players. All that fundraising he did enabled IUP to simply buy better players -- and more of them -- than everybody else.

IUP (and Frank) got punished because he could raise 2x or 3x more coin than everybody else. For a stretch, he was the Yankees in a league full of Pirates and Royals. That money also opened the door to the transfer market (much more rare in that time). Eventually, the peasants overtook the King.

My senior year here IUP had 16-17 former Big East football players on the roster.

Ironically, nobody cried about transfers more than Dr. Evil. Ironically, under the Mini Me regime, SRU now takes more than anybody in the league.

Let's consider this as well...

Assume what we're talking about never happens. Whether they would still be in the PSAC or not being mostly irrelevant. Would the KCAC exist? Would IUP basketball be what it is now? Isn't the other thing that Joe has managed to land the bigger fish in town, and more dollars, because those individuals and dollars were available with football being "down?" To a point at least.

It's an interesting April conversation. I would argue that IUP basketball managed to grab the mantle because of how IUP football was neutralized, in a way. That's a long time ago, but it's not THAT long ago. I really wonder if IUP has the basketball program they do if they managed to fundraise and win at the rate that they were back then. The KCAC may not exist either. Joe was on the rise when they built that venue, and it's a fantastic multipurpose facility that gets a lot of run. That said, multipurpose or not, it's the house that Joe built. Same with the Hilton.

I also wonder how with a fully funded program, and a crap ton of extra dollars, that would look in today's game. For the longest time, the appeal for D1 players dropping down a level was to play immediately without having to sit out a year. That was a recruiting advantage for schools trying to land transfers. That exists no longer. Interesting conversation for sure.

[Fightingscot82]

I remember being in The Fieldhouse locker room and I don't know what the original question was but Frank's reply was "The way you build a program is to continually recruit better players than what you have." I guess that was his model.

I was talking more about the fundraising and community support system he built. IUP had big-time corporate sponsors, car leases, etc. before anyone else.

[iupgroundhog]

I'd love to read a book or longform article about Frank Sr adapting the 1970s WVU model at IUP. There is a book out there about Edinboro adopting a Big Ten wrestling model to transition to Division I that is an easy and enjoyable read. Matt Burglund ?

I remember being in The Fieldhouse locker room and I don't know what the original question was but Frank's reply was "The way you build a program is to continually recruit better players than what you have." I guess that was his model.

[Fightingscot82]

Had that not happened, I doubt IUP would still be in the PSAC. Their level of dominance would have likely resulted in moving up.

Frank didn't grow magic beans. He raised money. Tons of it. When you subtract all the football hyperbole, the game comes down to which team has better players. All that fundraising he did enabled IUP to simply buy better players -- and more of them -- than everybody else.

IUP (and Frank) got punished because he could raise 2x or 3x more coin than everybody else. For a stretch, he was the Yankees in a league full of Pirates and Royals. That money also opened the door to the transfer market (much more rare in that time). Eventually, the peasants overtook the King.

My senior year here IUP had 16-17 former Big East football players on the roster.

Ironically, nobody cried about transfers more than Dr. Evil. Ironically, under the Mini Me regime, SRU now takes more than anybody in the league.

I'd love to read a book or longform article about Frank Sr adapting the 1970s WVU model at IUP. There is a book out there about Edinboro adopting a Big Ten wrestling model to transition to Division I that is an easy and enjoyable read. Matt Burglund ?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Dr. Evil with a serious clown move in the nineties crying to League office about Frank bringing some notoriety to the League. Probably set the League back if it even recovered at all…just sayin.

Had that not happened, I doubt IUP would still be in the PSAC. Their level of dominance would have likely resulted in moving up.

Frank didn't grow magic beans. He raised money. Tons of it. When you subtract all the football hyperbole, the game comes down to which team has better players. All that fundraising he did enabled IUP to simply buy better players -- and more of them -- than everybody else.

IUP (and Frank) got punished because he could raise 2x or 3x more coin than everybody else. For a stretch, he was the Yankees in a league full of Pirates and Royals. That money also opened the door to the transfer market (much more rare in that time). Eventually, the peasants overtook the King.

My senior year here IUP had 16-17 former Big East football players on the roster.

Ironically, nobody cried about transfers more than Dr. Evil. Ironically, under the Mini Me regime, SRU now takes more than anybody in the league.

[Iupgh]

Frank owned Dr. Evil. Their head to head record wasn't even close.

Dr. Evil with a serious clown move in the nineties crying to League office about Frank bringing some notoriety to the League. Probably set the League back if it even recovered at all…just sayin.

[IUPNation]

Frank owned Dr. Evil. Their head to head record wasn't even close.

Slimey Pebble was ahead in the series in the early 80's.

IUP won every game from 1984 through 1996.

Then Dr, Evil got his returns from the IUP Rule and got McKavish and ripped off 3 straight victories before IUP ended that crap with the playoff win in 1999 and won every meeting through 2005.

Then it kind of went back and forth but nobody has run off a long streak.

IUP wins in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021

Slimey wins in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019.

So since I enrolled in IUP in 1984...we are 27-11 vs the Fighting Gym Teachers.

IUP leads the series 48-39-2.

[IUPNation]

Less than 50 students total studying phys ed. IUP has more.

So now we are even better at training the gym teachers than the gym teacher school. IUP is simply the best!

[IUPNation]

Great article in the Indiana gazette on the knew big time transfer Quarterback. I did not realize that Karst Hunter has two years of eligibility remaining as well.

Yeah well lets not get ahead of ourselves...we thought Sexton was here for two years as well.

[iupgroundhog]

Great article in the Indiana gazette on the knew big time transfer Quarterback. I did not realize that Karst Hunter has two years of eligibility remaining as well.

Yeah, that article is brief but has a lot of good info in it about Spring drills. Of note, Qadir White is out with some knee issues and it sounds like Marshall is holding down that spot on the OL for the time being. Also, because of the abundance of DB's and dearth of RB's Washington is on offense this Spring. Tort says they will be looking for a DT in the portal.

Edit: Come to think of it the QB article and the other article are separate articles.

[IUP Crimson Hawk]

Great article in the Indiana gazette on the knew big time transfer Quarterback. I did not realize that Karst Hunter has two years of eligibility remaining as well.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

For all of his talk about IUP, Dr Evil didn’t have such a good record vs us. His success came in spurts.

Frank flipped the series in favor of IUP by beating them for over a decade straight!

Frank owned Dr. Evil. Their head to head record wasn't even close.

[Fightingscot82]

For all of his talk about IUP, Dr Evil didn’t have such a good record vs us. His success came in spurts.

Frank flipped the series in favor of IUP by beating them for over a decade straight!

Less than 50 students total studying phys ed. IUP has more.

[IUPNation]

If Tort goes 3 straight that's a big thing. It hasn't been done too many times in the series.

They get juiced for that trip. All those jackass gym teachers get real excited when the big team visits.

For all of his talk about IUP, Dr Evil didn’t have such a good record vs us. His success came in spurts.

Frank flipped the series in favor of IUP by beating them for over a decade straight!