Just FYI, as far as I know we (Western Illinois) still have you on our schedule for 9/10/2011 at WIU.
I'm looking forward to getting a head start on our new conference series, and hope to see a bunch of you guys in Macomb next September.
Looking forward to that game as well. Will give USD a bigger taste of what MVFC will be like. I know there are no easy road games in that conference. Looks like your team really got things on track this year after what must have been a disappointing year last year - what was the biggest factor in your turnaround?
Tough loss against So Ill this past week and now having UNI come to town makes for tough back to back conference games. Their QB is lightening fast. From watching him since UNI came to Vermillion to play us, seems he has gotten more confident with each week.
I would anticipate USD to be a deeper team and much improved in one of our weaker spots this year - DL. We have been way up and way down this year. Really ended the season this past Saturday with a whimper - losing to first year program Lamar.
Our OL is really coming along and is big and physical. Not as big as UNI, but I think as effective. We have some exciting skill players to watch as well. Our QB can be a real threat and our WR's are fast and big play gamers. Are you guys a turf or grass field team? We seem to play much better on turf.
Looking forward to making the trip down next year. Never been to your town or campus. Feel free to post here anytime - we all have a lot of learning to do as fans about the MVFC so we can fully enjoy and appreciate this new affiliation. I really hope we can establish a new rivalry with a MVFC team not in the Dakotas that becomes heated and circled on our schedules every year.
To follow up on your comments and questions:
As you mentioned, no easy road games, and as I'm sure we're going to see next weekend (home vs UNI), many home games aren't all that easy either. It's a tough conference top to bottom, but I think you guys are a great addition. I'm also looking forward to your addition into the Summit league. The addition of USD and subtraction of Southern Utah and Centenary in the next few years really improves the conference RPI for men's basketball. And it's a lot easier for us to travel to Vermillion, SD than it is to travel to Cedar City, UT, or Shreveport, LA.
So, you asked about the biggest factor in the turnaround...I'd say 2 things.
1. Matt Barr - our phenomenal QB. Last year he threw for 437 yards and 3 TDs against Sam Houston State (the only win), threw 117 yds and ran for 1 TD vs a decent FBS Northern Illinois team, threw 270 w/ 2 TDs in a loss to a good Stephen F. Austin team, then had a season-ending injury against Southern Illinois in our conference opener. At that point, we had to rely on a very mediocre freshman for the rest of the season.
This year, he has been healthy and on fire. Even including Saturday's disappointing showing against Southern Illinois, he leads the conference in Total Offense (311.9 yds/G), Passing Average (278.1 yds/G), and Passing Efficiency. He's got some great targets in WR Lito Senatus (6'3" tall, can "pull" the ball out of the air from just about anywhere) and TE Drew Helt.
2. Coaching Staff - last year, there were a lot of issues with the top coaching positions. I won't go into all the details here, but if you're curious, you can read the following:
civilityisnotdead.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/schools-coaches-lawsuit/www.wgem.com/Global/story.asp?S=11767809Anyway, for the start of the season, we had one head coach, and for the rest, we had an Interim HC (current HC Mark Hendrickson). Personally, I think both coaches are great guys, both as coaches and community members, but the Athletics department really mishandled the situation.
Flash forward to this year, the issues have been resolved, Coach Hendrickson is our official HC, and the coaching staff is much more stable.
This year, however, our D-line is fairly small, and other teams have had much success running the ball straight down the middle. That's why LB Kyle Glazier is doing so well, so many running plays get through the front line for him to stop. He can usually stop them pretty well, but that means that the ball carrier has already picked up about 4-6 yards. When teams have beaten us, that's the biggest reason why.
Looking forward to next year, we keep our two very good RBs, Caulton Ray (So. transfer from Michigan State), and Bryce Flowers (a true Freshman this year), a solid TE Aaron Muhammad (Jr.), and WRs Myers Hendrickson (son of the HC) and Terriun Crump. We lose QB Barr, WR Senatus, LB Kyle Glazier, and 14 others. I'm guessing that unless one of our new young QBs happens to be a very good passer, we're going to be very much a running team next year.
As for our field: Hanson Field, 17K+ seat, natural grass, outdoor stadium. Built in 1950. The entryways and east-side stands (the student section, marching band, and visitor's section) were completely redone in the last 5-6 years and are very nice. The home stands are original and showing their age. The athletics department is working very hard to have the field replaced by artificial turf as well as replacing the scoreboard (portions of which haven't worked since last season) by next season, and eventually replace the home (west) stands and pressbox in the next few years. If you'd like to see some photos sometime, I can send links, but I won't do that now, so I don't make this crazy-long post even longer.
It sounds like our schools and towns are very similar. Macomb (
goo.gl/maps/NGAe) is slightly larger than Vermillion (~18K vs ~10K residents). Our total enrollment for both campuses (Macomb, IL and Quad Cities IL/IA) is slightly larger than USD (~12.5K vs ~10.1K) although our Macomb campus is about the same size as USD (~10.3K).
And we're both pretty well "off the beaten path" (or as most people would say, in the middle of nowhere).
If you're curious, here's more info about WIU:
www.wiu.edu/explore_wiu/fastfacts.php and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Illinois_Universityand here's more info about Macomb:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macomb,_IL
I'd love to see an annual series between our teams become a healthy rivalry. Drive time between Macomb and Vermillion is about 7.5 hours, so I may have to take off a Friday every few years and make a weekend trip up for the games.