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Post by yoteforever on May 21, 2022 6:30:19 GMT -6
We are going to find out very quickly what this team is made of. For starters, the Coyotes are ranked #21 in the country in the first FCS preseason poll. I think that’s a fair and warranted place to be. We are getting better on both sides of the ball.
But I doubt there’s anyone in FCS football that can duplicate our first 5 games. We open with Kansas State in Manhattan. Next up us #4 Montana on the road in Missoula. Third game is Cal-Poly. Fourth game is SDSU preseason ranked #2 in the country and our fifth game we return home to play NDSU….the #1 team in the country. So in summation we start with a Big 12 school, then on the road at #4. Then a winnable game at home against Cal-Poly. Then on to Brookings and ending that 5 game stretch with the Bison.
No predictions at this point from me, but if we can somehow come out of this 2-3, or even 3-2, then I’ll tell you we will compete for the playoffs and be an impactful team. This team is improved, and we got better over the winter and spring.
Let’s start ramping up and encouraging friends and family to buy tickets and get involved. This team has a shot at being pretty darned good. The future is bright.
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Post by captaincoyote on May 21, 2022 12:26:56 GMT -6
I've been thinking that we could have a marginally better team than last year, but our record might not show it. I'd be happy to win 1 out of those first four tough games. 2 or more wins would be incredible. I just don't want to suffer any beat downs. The important thing will be to stay healthy and keep morale high for a second half of the season winning surge.
As a fan, I like the tough schedule. Football is for entertainment after all.
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Post by coffeedrinker11 on May 21, 2022 14:37:09 GMT -6
I understand the need to play a money game, read K-State, Oklahoma, etc. I don't understand why we always seem to play Big Sky, two last year, number 4 Montana this year. Many coaches like to play schools where the talent level is a little lower than what you will see in conference. The Griz are a thousand miles away from us, how many FCS schools are there in that thousand mile radius?
Yet we schedule Big Sky. I know we won both last year, but look at 19 when we played Montana and Northern Colorado. What's the appeal over Drake in the Pioneer? We recruit Iowa heavily and zero MT players on our roster. How many CA or AZ players on our roster, the two big sky teams last year. Very few CO. Play where we have a recruiting foot print. Florida schools make much more sense than MT. Traditionally early games are scheduled to build confidence and allow a team to jell. Another miss with this schedule. Our conference schedule is just the pits. We seem to see NDSU and SDSU in series way too often for it to be by chance in my opinion. Scheduling is an issue that should e addressed.
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Post by yoteforever on May 21, 2022 18:12:32 GMT -6
I think you raise good points but we also have to be mindful that playing Drake and any other FCS non-scholly teams will likely be a blowout. Is that what we want? Personally I don’t but maybe it’s the right thing to do. Also we were late to the D-1 party so we had to schedule teams that would play us. Montanas deal was not home and home but twice there and once in Vermillion.
You schedule games out as far as 6-7 years at times. What might look like an “easy” win today could very well not be one in 5 years. A school like Houston Baptist as an example. If we beat Montana out there, and we can, that would be like Krypton for this team. That would give us a boatload of confidence heading into the XDSU games. Hell, we’re as good if not better than the Jacks. I can’t say that about the Bison though. But we get them at home. I fall into captaincoyotes mindset of playing good teams. I get having the breather now and then but overall I’d rather play Montana or Weber State than Drake. But that’s just me.
I think we’re a little better team than just a little better over last year. I think there’s going to be a marked improvement. Plus our recruiting has stepped up. We’re getting better players. We need to keep investing in. This program. When footballs good, it makes for a better department all the way around.
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Post by elcoyote on May 21, 2022 20:15:16 GMT -6
If the goal is to make the playoffs a schedule like this is kryptonite. No one else does it and it seems to me that the committee doesn't bother to look too much at competition but won/loss record. The non-conference games for some of these teams are laughable not to mention the conference itself. I get the "playing tough competition" mantra and all that, but at what cost? I'd rather play a softer noncon and be in the playoffs than miss out with a ridiculously tough one. The MVFC in and of itself provides plenty of competition against highly ranked teams.
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Post by Yotes on May 21, 2022 21:32:28 GMT -6
If the goal is to make the playoffs a schedule like this is kryptonite. No one else does it and it seems to me that the committee doesn't bother to look too much at competition but won/loss record. The non-conference games for some of these teams are laughable not to mention the conference itself. I get the "playing tough competition" mantra and all that, but at what cost? I'd rather play a softer noncon and be in the playoffs than miss out with a ridiculously tough one. The MVFC in and of itself provides plenty of competition against highly ranked teams. 100%. The committee does not care about strength of schedule at all. Stop scheduling Montana and do Drake instead. Can't play for a title if you aren't in the playoffs. We get every challenge and then some in the MVFC. Playing Montana isn't going to sell a crazy number of tickets at home either. It's just a bad move any way you slice it. I've complained for years about our scheduling. Hope those in power wake up. |
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Post by fightsd on May 23, 2022 7:55:33 GMT -6
We gain nothing out of pounding Drake. My opinion is that losing to any of those teams outside of Cal Poly wouldn't hurt our playoff chances too much so long as we take care of business the rest of the way. The bigger issue for me is staying healthy through that early stretch. Those will be some really physical ball games.
Not all D1 wins are created equal. We have a lot to be optimistic about with this team. Let's not start bitching about scheduling losses 3 months before they happen.
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Post by Yote 53 on May 23, 2022 8:10:50 GMT -6
We gain nothing out of pounding Drake. My opinion is that losing to any of those teams outside of Cal Poly wouldn't hurt our playoff chances too much so long as we take care of business the rest of the way. The bigger issue for me is staying healthy through that early stretch. Those will be some really physical ball games. Not all D1 wins are created equal. We have a lot to be optimistic about with this team. Let's not start bitching about scheduling losses 3 months before they happen. Disagree. Having games like Drake allow you to work out the kinks, play more in the 2 and 3 deep so you find out what depth you have, build confidence, and net an FCS counter win while building some confidence. All the SEC and Big Ten teams have an FCS or G5 game, why is that? It's for the same reasons we should be scheduling a "lesser" team. Not to mention having that P5 game on the schedule more often than not means you are starting the season with 1 L in the bank already. An easy game just balances the ledger. We don't need to be scheduling like this because the MVFC is a tough enough test. We get plenty of quality games to put on the resume from the conference schedule. The playoff committee has shown they do not care about SOS, just how many counter wins do you have. A bottom half MVFC team could be a conference champ in most FCS conferences. We don't need to make it any harder than we need to. |
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Post by elcoyote on May 23, 2022 14:48:18 GMT -6
^^^^^^^Can't like this enough^^^^^^^
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Post by Yotes on May 23, 2022 16:02:34 GMT -6
We gain nothing out of pounding Drake. My opinion is that losing to any of those teams outside of Cal Poly wouldn't hurt our playoff chances too much so long as we take care of business the rest of the way. The bigger issue for me is staying healthy through that early stretch. Those will be some really physical ball games. Not all D1 wins are created equal. We have a lot to be optimistic about with this team. Let's not start bitching about scheduling losses 3 months before they happen. The playoff committee cares very little how tough your schedule is. Teams that schedule 2 FBS games aren't given a break, and teams that schedule 0 FBS games aren't scrutinized. Montana may not be FBS but it illustrates the point that your record is way more important than your SOS. Hypothetical scenario: If we go 8-3 with a loss to Montana then we likely have no shot at a playoff seed. 9-2 with a win over Drake instead and that makes a playoff seed very likely. Same goes with the difference between 6-5 and 7-4 with the playoff bubble. We are guaranteed a top 10-15 SOS every year just from playing an FBS game and our MVFC slate. Nonsensical to put another top FCS team on that pile. Beats the hell out of our team too. |
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Post by fightsd on May 24, 2022 7:34:59 GMT -6
I played through some of those tune up games. Missouri S&T, NW OK St, William Penn, etc. They don't work the kinks out of anything - frankly you get a lot better look out of the scout team than you do bringing in teams like that. The players don't get up for them and the fans don't care about boring matchups.
I get it might be an easier road to a playoff seed, but is that really the kind of atmosphere we're going for? An empty dome for a third of our home games? We have a hard enough time getting people to show up for conference games.
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Post by nccyote on May 24, 2022 8:30:35 GMT -6
I played through some of those tune up games. Missouri S&T, NW OK St, William Penn, etc. They don't work the kinks out of anything - frankly you get a lot better look out of the scout team than you do bringing in teams like that. The players don't get up for them and the fans don't care about boring matchups. I get it might be an easier road to a playoff seed, but is that really the kind of atmosphere we're going for? An empty dome for a third of our home games? We have a hard enough time getting people to show up for conference games. We need wins, period. A 5-1 team will get a lot more looks than a 3-3 or 2-4 team from everybody...pollsters, playoff committee, media, fans. Wins will eventually put butts in the seats. IMO we can't get people to the dome consistently because we can't win big games consistently. With the exception of the SDSU games, when is the last game of importance we won? If you want big home crowds, you have to win when it matters, too. Last year we laid an egg against ISUr when we could have locked up a playoff bid and possibly a share of the conference title. Then we beat WIU and state to set up a huge battle against the bison and get our doors blown off. Only to come home and lay another egg in the 1st round of the playoffs. That's not going to get people in the door quite frankly. As far as SOS...even Alabama has a hard time getting people to watch the cupcake games, but they still play them. |
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Post by Yote 53 on May 24, 2022 8:31:15 GMT -6
Nobody will be at the Dome for a road game at Montana either.
I see your point but there should be a balance in the schedule to position it for a playoff berth. I'd like to say that we should just take on all comers. I don't think NDSU fans would be having this type of conversation, but I'll admit we're not at that level yet and we need to help ourselves a little until we can get to the level. But speaking of NDSU, have you all taken a look at what their OOC schedules have looked like the last several years? Or SDSU's? They don't schedule near as difficult as we have.
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Post by nccyote on May 24, 2022 8:37:22 GMT -6
Nobody will be at the Dome for a road game at Montana either. I see your point but there should be a balance in the schedule to position it for a playoff berth. I'd like to say that we should just take on all comers. I don't think NDSU fans would be having this type of conversation, but I'll admit we're not at that level yet and we need to help ourselves a little until we can get to the level. But speaking of NDSU, have you all taken a look at what their OOC schedules have looked like the last several years? Or SDSU's? They don't schedule near as difficult as we have. part of the xdsu's scheduling comes from FBS schools not wanting to play them anymore, though. It's a lose/lose for them. If the FBS team wins it doesn't look great because they're playing an FCS team. If it's close or God forbid they lose, it's the end of the world since you lost to an FCS team, even if they're damn good. |
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Post by fightsd on May 24, 2022 9:03:53 GMT -6
I played through some of those tune up games. Missouri S&T, NW OK St, William Penn, etc. They don't work the kinks out of anything - frankly you get a lot better look out of the scout team than you do bringing in teams like that. The players don't get up for them and the fans don't care about boring matchups. I get it might be an easier road to a playoff seed, but is that really the kind of atmosphere we're going for? An empty dome for a third of our home games? We have a hard enough time getting people to show up for conference games. We need wins, period. A 5-1 will look get a lot more looks than a 3-3 or 2-4 team from everybody...pollsters, playoff committee, media, fans. Wins will eventually put butts in the seats. IMO we can't get people to the dome consistently because we can't win big games consistently. With the exception of the SDSU games, when is the last game of importance we won? If you want big home crowds, you have to win when it matters, too. Last year we laid an egg against ISUr when we could have locked up a playoff bid and possibly a share of the conference title. Then we beat WIU and state to set up a huge battle against the bison and get our doors blown off. Only to come home and lay another egg in the 1st round of the playoffs. That's not going to get people in the door quite frankly. As far as SOS...even Alabama has a hard time getting people to watch the cupcake games, but they still play them. Depends on what you consider a game of importance I guess. I thought the wins against UND and at UNI were important wins. I thought boat racing 2 Big Sky teams early were nice wins. Obviously WIU isn't a good program, but we went on the road in November and picked up a win, which hasn't been easy for us. I feel like those were all pretty important wins. If beating NDSU and SDSU are the only important wins to you, I think your priorities are misplaced. Alabama scheduling gimme games is not a good comparison. They don't give away large swaths of tickets and still pay for a half full facility during SEC games like we do in conference play. |
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