at UNI

[fightsd]

Oct 14, 2021 12:31:07 GMT -6 Yotes said:

Holiday on Monday delayed everything?

I hear we are 10 point underdogs. Seems a bit extreme.

Haven't seen an opening line yet, but if it's at +10, let me get my check book.

[GoYotes]

[Coyote Fan]

Vegas doesn't mess around. It seemed like USD was favored by too much last week but the spread was almost right on. UNI seems to be favored by too much as well. I was gonna use Vegas to help me with the prediction this week. I will go UNI 24-16. I would not be surprised if USD wins at all. We have completed a few big steps this year so now winning on the road against a good opponent is on the docket. That is probably the toughest step yet.

[nccyote]

For whatever reason, we've had issues winning on the road in conference as far back as I can remember. Since I've been a part of the Coyote program way back in the early 2000s its been our achilles heel. Even our best teams (2005, 2006, 2017) haven't been able to win conference road games. It's a riddle that I hope we solve this weekend.

[yoteforever]

Like most things in sports, it’s a mindset. It starts that way then soon becomes a narrative in the press and in fan forum rooms like this. The kids then feel it and enters the back of your mind. It’s like certain teams you have issues with and often times find a way to lose as opposed to finding a way to win.

I may be 100% wrong, and I’ll say it upfront, but that’s why I think this team is different. I think there’s a great deal of leadership in that locker room right now led by our linebacker group of upperclassmen. Then I know there’s a strong voice of leadership among our younger guys. I won’t name names but I’m telling you these young bucks have stood up and called out the problem makers. Combined with a strong group of seniors that basically said “no more of this crap” and we’re going through a mindset change on this team right now.

Any team sport is without question going to be affected by what goes on there. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re playing as I instead of WE, you’re doomed for failure. My personal belief is this team has a chip on their shoulder. They are out to prove something. I don’t know if we win tomorrow or not, but I like our chances. Even if we don’t, it won’t define our season. There’s a lot of football left to be played. We have talent. I’m proud as heck of our coaching staff because they are putting our guys in position to win every game.

I don’t want to put pressure on a team that we HAVE to win. These guys aren’t stupid. They know it’s a big game. But after UNI, Illinois State is a big game. And so on. Sit back and just enjoy the competitive nature of this team. Get more people to come to games. In my mind we have turned the corner. We aren’t elite, but few are. But we’re a helluva lot closer than we were in March. Let’s enjoy the game tomorrow and see where we end up.

[fightsd]

Oct 15, 2021 7:48:05 GMT -6 yoteforever said:

Like most things in sports, it’s a mindset. It starts that way then soon becomes a narrative in the press and in fan forum rooms like this. The kids then feel it and enters the back of your mind. It’s like certain teams you have issues with and often times find a way to lose as opposed to finding a way to win.

I may be 100% wrong, and I’ll say it upfront, but that’s why I think this team is different. I think there’s a great deal of leadership in that locker room right now led by our linebacker group of upperclassmen. Then I know there’s a strong voice of leadership among our younger guys. I won’t name names but I’m telling you these young bucks have stood up and called out the problem makers. Combined with a strong group of seniors that basically said “no more of this crap” and we’re going through a mindset change on this team right now.

Any team sport is without question going to be affected by what goes on there. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re playing as I instead of WE, you’re doomed for failure. My personal belief is this team has a chip on their shoulder. They are out to prove something. I don’t know if we win tomorrow or not, but I like our chances. Even if we don’t, it won’t define our season. There’s a lot of football left to be played. We have talent. I’m proud as heck of our coaching staff because they are putting our guys in position to win every game.

I don’t want to put pressure on a team that we HAVE to win. These guys aren’t stupid. They know it’s a big game. But after UNI, Illinois State is a big game. And so on. Sit back and just enjoy the competitive nature of this team. Get more people to come to games. In my mind we have turned the corner. We aren’t elite, but few are. But we’re a helluva lot closer than we were in March. Let’s enjoy the game tomorrow and see where we end up.

I think this is a pretty accurate assessment of where we're at as a team right now. From what we saw in the spring, this season has really exceeded my expectations already. With very few roster changes, the program went from a team that I was convinced had very little talent to a team that I would give a punchers chance to against any team in the FCS. Something is different with the mindset of this team. We went from not being able to block a 3 man rush this spring to being able to run the ball at will when the whole stadium knows what's coming. To me, that's the biggest difference maker. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but I fully expect the Yotes to come out swinging and at the very least be in a position to win at the end of the game. I said in an earlier post that we always play UNI tight, then Debbie Downer came in with the W-L against them. This team is wired different and I think those tight games will turn into a win tomorrow.

[yoteforever]

Love it…on board with you 125%

[nccyote]

I wasn't trying to downgrade anyone when I mentioned our struggles on the road, just kind of stating it as fact. I'm not as close to the pulse of this team as I have been to others, but I like what I'm hearing about the team's mindset and leadership. The thing is, those other teams I mentioned('05, 06,'17) had the same mindset, the same strong leadership, but still struggled on the road. I agree, sometimes it's a mental thing. But as player, I never once was I worried or psyched out about playing on the road. There was never a time in '05 when I didn't believe we weren't going to whoop whoever we played, wherever we played. But we still struggled on the road. We might have been the best team in the country at home, but for whatever reason, it didn't always translate away from the dome. The fact is, the NCC was a tough freaking conference. Just like the MVFC is a tough freaking conference. Its difficult to win at anyone's home field in this conference, no matter what their record is. The hardest part about becoming a consistently good or great program is winning those tough road games. Hopefully this is the group that can get us over that hump.

[ElsenMidco]

[Yote 53]

If the big road conference win is going to happen the best chance is at UNI. Short road trip and the UNI-Dome is a very similar environment to the DakotaDome. It's a comfortable place for USD as opposed to a long road trip, outdoors, on grass.

That said the "can't win on the road in-conference" narrative is kind of dead already. We've won in Fargo, Normal, Springfield, Carbondale, Macomb, and Terre Haute the last however many years. We win 1-2 conference road games each season. The next hump to get over is to win 3 or more each season and to win in places like Cedar Falls and Brookings.

[nccyote]

Oct 15, 2021 10:18:37 GMT -6 Yote 53 said:

If the big road conference win is going to happen the best chance is at UNI. Short road trip and the UNI-Dome is a very similar environment to the DakotaDome. It's a comfortable place for USD as opposed to a long road trip, outdoors, on grass.

That said the "can't win on the road in-conference" narrative is kind of dead already. We've won in Fargo, Normal, Springfield, Carbondale, Macomb, and Terre Haute the last however many years. We win 1-2 conference road games each season. The next hump to get over is to win 3 or more each season and to win in places like Cedar Falls and Brookings.

Its true, we have won in all of those places.  But I just went back and looked at our conference road record since 2017. we are 4-12 on the road in conference (including this year), with wins at WIU(2017), SIU(2018), MSU(2019), and ISUr(Spring 2020).  Thats 1 road win a year, and none against the upper tier of the Valley.  So while we have won road games, we haven't won a big one in recent memory.   

this will be my last post on the topic because it is sort of a dead horse and I don;t want to bring anymore negative energy into a huge weekend.  But it has definitely been an issue for our program.  One that hopefully is in the rearview mirror after this week.  

Go Yotes!

My prediction:
Yotes win 24-17.

[Yote 53]

Well, to be fair we used to not win any conference games on the road. Then we took the step of winning one here and there, so we got that going for us. Now we need to take the next step and win against a good conference opponent on the road. Even then, we have beaten NDSU in Fargo. So I'm saying we need to up the number of road wins to 2, 3, 4. Two road wins is .500 on the road, sweep at home and it's a 6-2 conference record, 8-3 overall. That's playoffs. Just need to take that next step and win more on the road than we have been.

It's odd because we have demonstrated an ability to win on the road way out on the West Coast, which in my mind is not easy to do. Bigtime FBS programs have a hard time playing out West, especially at night.

[Yotes]

Just as I always expect to win in the dome, I'm sure every other team feels the same about their home stadium. It's just really damn hard to play on the road.

We've got a good team though. Play right and we can win. Make mistakes and we won't. Talent won't be the difference here.

[yoteforever]

Loading the truck now for a 10:00 am departure to Cedar Falls. Potentially a big opportunity for upset. Although I don’t think it would be.

If you watch on TV watch their offensive left tackle. 6’7” 340 big dude. He’s the real deal. Sunday afternoon player.

LETS GET THIS DONE. IM PUMPED

[88grad]

I see they've finally started a thread about the game on Panthernation - hopefully there's a bit of overlooking us on the coaches and players parts too.