West Florida at Ferris State

[Argonut]

That close huh? Hey true facts, last time we played we were so scared we turned it over 6 times, at our own field. Now we have to do it again? You guys put up 45 on everybody. We're a down hill, smashmouth offense that all of sudden decided to go 4-5 wide and put a slot at running back. Imagine Harding waking up one morning and deciding to run a 4 wr no huddle offense. We don't have any traditional run game to worry about and most of our oline are RFr.

We don't even play with a TE unless we're inside the 5 yd line. We're hoping for a snow storm and you guys wearing basketball uniforms to try and slow you down and keep your offense in the 30s..

Thank you for explaining why your top three rushers are the QB and WR and the top RB has less than 200 yards for the year. I couldn’t understand how that could be true for Ferris unless the OC was running nothing but jet sweeps all year.

It sounds like your coach has copied the 2019 Argo offense and our coach has copied the 2019 Bulldog offense for 2022.

[West Florida]

I remember the 2019 game very well. What swung the game is a would be Ferris State touchdown reception that was fumbled and went out of the end zone and was ruled a touchback. The turnovers at the end were crazy obviously and I'm aware very uncharacteristic of such a great team.

[bigmrg74]

Just ran the 10 day forecast on the Weather Channel. Rain/Snow on Thursday and Sunday.

Saturday is partly cloudy(partial sun on the icon) with high of 38.

weather report I just looked at said that it was going to be clear all week, but eh, its michigan. Give it an hour and that forecast can change again. I would keep an eye on it.

[bigmrg74]

Boy you guys are pretty good at this sandbagging thing in SR2. We all know WF is the favorite for this game. Especially when they're playing in their all-white unis

Almost feels like they've brought in a professor from NWMSU to teach sandbagging at West Florida.

[bigmrg74]

My prediction: West Florida 3 Ferris State 84

bait

[BlazerLady]

weather report I just looked at said that it was going to be clear all week, but eh, its michigan. Give it an hour and that forecast can change again. I would keep an eye on it.

Definitely. 10 day forecasts rarely stay the same.

[Argonut]

I didn’t expect to find any real differences or edge in the trenches of the two teams and that is what the numbers seem to show.

The OL of both teams are full of 300 lb. players with the same number of upperclassmen, but the Argo starters give up fewer sacks and tackles for loss and generate more rushing yards. Ferris fans say their OL is full of RS freshman, which explains the differences and probably why the Dogs leading rushers are WR and the QB, instead of RB.

On the DL the Argos are slightly bigger, but the Dogs have a few more upperclassmen and make a lot more sacks and tackles for loss and give up less rushing yards. Having a Harlon Hill lineman with 24 sacks by himself certainly makes a big difference.

What this means is that it will be the strongest lines of the teams facing off when the Argos offense is on the field and the teams relatively weaker lines facing off when the Ferris offense takes the field. No real advantage for either team and the roster and season stats are below.

OL roster: Ferris State / West Florida

Total: 27 / 19
Upperclass: 8 / 8
+300 lbs.: 16 / 12
+280 lbs.: 20 / 19
Avg. lbs.: 298 / 307

DL roster: Ferris State / West Florida

Total: 22 / 18
Upperclass: 10 / 7
+300 lbs.: 4 / 7
+260 lbs.: 15 / 18
Avg. lbs.: 273 / 293

2022 stats: Ferris State / West Florida

Sacks made: 55-371 / 19-118
Sacks given up: 27-177 / 9-65
Tackles for loss: 118-507 / 59-209
Tackles loss given up: 89-367 / 32-114

[Bearhof]

It's not really a slam I don't think. It's just kind of how it is. Like the SEC is better than Conference USA. If the SEC says that it's not really meant as an insult. West Georgia should have been in the SR2 field. They were A LOT better than any of the non GSC schools in SR2. I agree with the loss to Newberry. West Florida had the best team in the country last year and lost to Newberry. That happened. Last year's team was absolutely better than this years team and this team is in the final 4. The loss to Newberry will sting forever.

I know how you feel because we had a better team than WF when we lost 43-38. Unfortunately our best player Kyle Duggar didn’t play and it cost us the game. He was the 37 overall pick by New England at strong safety and is one of their best players the last two years. He also returned punts for us and the big play was our substitute punt return guy in WFLA game fumbled a punt late in the game for a turnover. We still had a chance and were driving in WFla territory under two minutes to go. I still think if we had ran one more sweep it would have been a different ending because WFla was visibly out of gas. Any way hats off to Argos and good luck at Ferris State for they don’t have the speed to stop you guys in my opinion.

[West Florida]

I know how you feel because we had a better team than WF when we lost 43-38. Unfortunately our best player Kyle Duggar didn’t play and it cost us the game. He was the 37 overall pick by New England at strong safety and is one of their best players the last two years. He also returned punts for us and the big play was our substitute punt return guy in WFLA game fumbled a punt late in the game for a turnover. We still had a chance and were driving in WFla territory under two minutes to go. I still think if we had ran one more sweep it would have been a different ending because WFla was visibly out of gas. Any way hats off to Argos and good luck at Ferris State for they don’t have the speed to stop you guys in my opinion.

I very much know who Kyle Duggar is and I agree that was a huge loss for you guys. I can only imagine how good LR was with him because you guys were an outstanding team even without him.

[Argonut]

At first glance it appears that the Ferris D is far superior to the Argo D if you focus on sacks, tackles for loss, rushing yards and points given up. But an interesting thing happens when you factor in the 83 yds. and 12 points per game the Argo D gains and scores in the playoffs.

Deducting yards and scores for both teams’ efforts in the playoffs cause the total yards given up to shrink to 200 for Ferris and to 290 for West Florida. The points shrink even more to 12 points for Ferris and 10 points for the Argos.

The 2022 Argo D is actually quite similar in many stats and points given up to the 2017 and 2019 championship teams, but it is very different in defensive scoring where it is #1 in D2, has tied D2 records for scoring in a game and has shattered school records in their 2022 playoff run where they are +9 in turnover ratio (Ferris is even) and have scored 6, yes, 6 TDs in 3 games.

The Argo D has never been about yards, it’s about making timely stops and big play turnovers at critical times in big games. The 2022 Argo D appears to be amping up its big play frequency and scoring the deeper the teams goes into the bracket. Given the Bulldogs history and talent for coughing up the ball at untimely moments in big games and the Argos current escalation in explosive defensive plays, we could have a nuclear core meltdown on Saturday that turns Top Taggert Field as hot as Miami Beach.

The 2022 defensive stats are below along with some more roster info. on the LB and DBs.

LB: Ferris / West Fla.

Total: 13 / 18
Upperclass: 2 / 6
+220 lbs.: 8 / 8

DB: Ferris / West Fla.

Total: 28 / 18
Upperclass: 8 / 8
+6 feet: 18 / 10
* 1/3 Ferris DB roster from Fla.

2022 Defensive Stats: Ferris State

Points given up: 14
Rushing yds.: 68 / gm.
Passing yds.: 156 / gm.
Total yds: 224 / gm.
Rushing TDs: 11
Passing TDs: 11
Avg. Yds. Rush: 2.1
Avg. Pass Attmpt: 5.5
Sacks: 55-371 yds.
TFL: 118-507 yds.
Intercept.: 16-110 yds.
Fumbles (forced-recover): 18-8

2022 Defensive Stats: West Florida

Points: 22
Rush yds.: 171 / gm.
Pass yds.: 202 / gm.
Total yds. 373 / gm.
Rush TDs: 20
Pass TDs: 16
Avg. Rush Yds.: 4.2
Avg. Pass Attmp.: 6.9
Sacks: 19-118 yds.
TFL: 59-209 yds.
Intercpt.: 15-384 yds.
Fumbles (force/recover): 22-10

[Argonut]

The special teams numbers show the Argos with a slight edge in many categories, with exception of blocked kicks and returns for TDs.

Ferris has blocked 4 kicks and given up no TDs on returns compared to Argos 2 blocked kicks and Delta State’s KO return for TD in their first game. Argos have returned 2 punts for TDs and Dogs have no TD returns on punt or KO.

Ferris also uses their QB and WR to punt on 9 occasions and the QB Cummins has a better average than the regular punter Beck. I would guess that these 9 punts were a diversionary quick kick to catch the defense off guard. The Argo punter has a lot more FC and punts downed inside 20 (15-19) than the Ferris punter Beck (5/14).

The Argo FG kicker is used more often, has made longer FG and is perfect on PAT compared to the Ferris kicker who is not used as often, has shorter long FG and has missed 4 PAT. That could be a big difference in a close game.

Ferris doesn’t list info. for kickoff yardage or onside kicks, but the listed 2022 stats for both teams are below.

2022 season Ferris State / West Florida

KO yds.: NA / 61
KO returns: 22 / 26
Opp. returns: 18 / 19
Punt Avg.: 37 / 41
Punt returns: 5 / 14
Opp. returns: 10 / 5
FG: 7-12 / 15-21
Long FG: 36 / 41
PAT: 57-61 / 71-71
Penalties: 81 yds./gm. / 66 yds./gm.

[UWAalum]

Will this game feature any lacrosse players? In last year's game vs Valdosta it was mentioned but no more the 87 times.

[Argonut]

Will this game feature any lacrosse players? In last year's game vs Valdosta it was mentioned but no more the 87 times.

I expect the announcers will talk about Argo kicker Cerra donating bone marrow two weeks ago, especially if he misses a kick.

[Brandon]

Deducting yards and scores for both teams’ efforts in the playoffs

Wouldn't it make sense to also look at playoff-only statistics? The two teams would theoretically be playing the toughest opponents and the trends would be more recent.

[Argonut]

Wouldn't it make sense to also look at playoff-only statistics? The two teams would theoretically be playing the toughest opponents and the trends would be more recent.

My first post on this thread has the playoff stats for two teams.