Yotes v Razorbacks

[yotelaw]

does anyone else see a comparison to be drawn between USD and Arkansas?Arkansas came into this game the favorite despite the fact that they lost 17 straight games in the SEC. Most people would agree that our conference is the S EC of the FCS. Both teams play in by far the best conference in our respective divisions. most people recognize Arkansas is a pretty good team but they can't seem to manage to win a game within their own division. Yet they still manage to beat most teams outside the SEC. Does USD compare? How much does the strength of our conference play into fact that we haven't managed to win a single game in the conference this year? are we the Arkansas of the MVFC?

[obc]

Interesting to think about. I do not follow the Razorback program, so just looked through the last two years results with Bielema.

Both teams have a lot of in conference losses. The Razorbacks have done better out of conference than USD.

USD's largest margin of victory (against D1 competition) I believe was against Colgate two seasons ago. 11 pt victory
USD's game against WP ended up with a large margin, but USD looked very bad, offensively and defensively most of the game.
We have watched repeated errors in special teams the first three years. In year 1 of Glenn, how many games would we have won if our punt team could block and we had a long snapper that could snap? In year 2 of Glenn, we opened the season with our starting RB as the long snapper. Then the team struggled most of the year with erratic snaps and several different snappers. The excuse given was - we had a recruit that backed out last minute..... Long snapping is repetition and practice, not athletic ability. Even in year 1 - the coaching staff could have corrected it, but let it linger until year 3. The problem seems corrected. I would ask though, how many of you would be confident this staff is preparing a good backup long snapper to step in, in the event of an injury?
The staff also put JVM at QB for 1 1/4 seasons, and it was apparent to everyone that watched that it was not working. How much further ahead would Earl have been with another season under his belt? We will never know the answer. Will Powell's talents were completely wasted his senior season with JVM at QB.
Against Montana last year, the team had the game within its grasp, scored the go ahead TD with very little time left and on the kickoff, USD kicked the ball to Montana's fastest player (even though the kick coverage had been shaky all season) and he promptly returned it completely untouched for a TD.

Now we are in year 3 and every loss in conference has been by two scores.

If we were traveling to Minnesota St, USF, Northwest Missouri St., Pittsburg St this week - would you be confident USD would win? How about McNeese St, Cal Poly, or Montana St? None of those teams are in the SEC of FCS.
Yes the MVFC is tough, but I believe the problems the FB program have are magnified by the conference strength, not necessarily the cause of them.

[sdyotefan]

Additional thoughts--USD's schedule this year is the 2nd hardest of all 123 FCS schools (not sure who was first). Last week the MVFC had 9 of 10 teams ranked in the top 25 (of again 123) in the Gridiron Power Index and the Coyotes were 54. Just imagine what the posters must be saying about the 123rd ranked team! As I stated in a previous post the Yotes have 11 seniors while as an example UNI has 21 (7-4 record), Southern Illinois also has 21 (6-5)and Illinois State have 20 (9-1) as the top 3 number of SRs this year. Average number of seniors this year for the MVFC is 16. Obviously it's always more fun to win but sometimes a person needs to ask who did you beat? Losing by double digits in the MV seems like a lot but I would argue since the MV is probably the strongest it's ever been for a season it's not as bad as it may seem at a glance especially since the Yotes were in most games into the 4th Q. Can and should things improve SURE but I believe the glass is far more half full than empty!! Clearly the Yotes have not given up as the last game showed against the 7th ranked team in the country and I admire the Coyote players and coaches for that!!!

[Charlie]

Nov 16, 2014 7:45:07 GMT -6 sdyotefan said:

Additional thoughts--USD's schedule this year is the 2nd hardest of all 123 FCS schools (not sure who was first). Last week the MVFC had 9 of 10 teams ranked in the top 25 (of again 123) in the Gridiron Power Index and the Coyotes were 54. Just imagine what the posters must be saying about the 123rd ranked team! As I stated in a previous post the Yotes have 11 seniors while as an example UNI has 21 (7-4 record), Southern Illinois also has 21 (6-5)and Illinois State have 20 (9-1) as the top 3 number of SRs this year. Average number of seniors this year for the MVFC is 16. Obviously it's always more fun to win but sometimes a person needs to ask who did you beat? Losing by double digits in the MV seems like a lot but I would argue since the MV is probably the strongest it's ever been for a season it's not as bad as it may seem at a glance especially since the Yotes were in most games into the 4th Q. Can and should things improve SURE but I believe the glass is far more half full than empty!! Clearly the Yotes have not given up as the last game showed against the 7th ranked team in the country and I admire the Coyote players and coaches for that!!!

I agree that USD plays a tough schedule. It's not even the losing that gets me the most (although is just plain SUCKS), it is the fact that the USD players play like they don't care. There are signs of fight here and there but as a fan, I want to see USD play ONE entire game with fight and determination. In my eyes, that is the biggest thing lacking this year.

[ctc2010]

Nov 17, 2014 11:35:38 GMT -6 Charlie said:

Nov 16, 2014 7:45:07 GMT -6 sdyotefan said:

Additional thoughts--USD's schedule this year is the 2nd hardest of all 123 FCS schools (not sure who was first). Last week the MVFC had 9 of 10 teams ranked in the top 25 (of again 123) in the Gridiron Power Index and the Coyotes were 54. Just imagine what the posters must be saying about the 123rd ranked team! As I stated in a previous post the Yotes have 11 seniors while as an example UNI has 21 (7-4 record), Southern Illinois also has 21 (6-5)and Illinois State have 20 (9-1) as the top 3 number of SRs this year. Average number of seniors this year for the MVFC is 16. Obviously it's always more fun to win but sometimes a person needs to ask who did you beat? Losing by double digits in the MV seems like a lot but I would argue since the MV is probably the strongest it's ever been for a season it's not as bad as it may seem at a glance especially since the Yotes were in most games into the 4th Q. Can and should things improve SURE but I believe the glass is far more half full than empty!! Clearly the Yotes have not given up as the last game showed against the 7th ranked team in the country and I admire the Coyote players and coaches for that!!!

I agree that USD plays a tough schedule. It's not even the losing that gets me the most (although is just plain SUCKS), it is the fact that the USD players play like they don't care. There are signs of fight here and there but as a fan, I want to see USD play ONE entire game with fight and determination. In my eyes, that is the biggest thing lacking this year.

Agreed. It's like every game we play really well for 1 quarter but then forget about the other 3. It's fundamentals that are lacking too. Tackling, special teams coverage, not getting burned in coverage every time the other team throws down the field. 

I don't even wanna know how bad the score would've been Saturday if we hadn't forced all of those fumbles.