http://www.valpoathletics.com/football/schedule/2014-15/ (http://www.valpoathletics.com/football/schedule/2014-15/)
Finally someone is listening... we have 12 games including Missouri Baptist for homecoming. This is will be their first year with football.
Thanks for posting the schedule.
In 2003 when the Crusaders came off a 1-10 season to go 8-4 and win the PFL, the Saturdays in the season fell on the same dates as they do this year. Among their other victories, the 2003 team beat Dayton-USD-Drake on Oct. 11, 18, 25. It may be pure coincidence...or a sign of a huge turnaround!
\V/s Up!
I think this is the earliest in the last few years that the next season schedule has come out. Love it.
With 12 games, conceivably I see a potential .500 season (if all the stars align):
Definite Loss: WIU (but they are no YSU)
Pretty Definite losses (but hopefully with a competitive score):
Marist * (but they lose a lot from their co-champion team)
Drake *
Dayton
Butler (but no more Lancaster)
USD (but no more Mason Mills)
Possible Wins:
St. Joe's
William Jewell
Campbell
Missouri Baptist
Morehead State
Davidson
* nominees for long shot upset wins (We have played Drake pretty well the last couple of years. Marist lost a lot of senior talent (Chuckie Looney to mention one) plus it's our home PFL opener and we could be coming into that game at 3-1.
With that schedule I can see Valpo winning 4 to 5 games with very little improvement. Last year VU almost beat both St Joe and William Jewell so if the team makes slight progress we should be able to beat those opponents. Missouri Baptist is in it's first year of football so that should be a win and the Crusaders have already beaten Campbell 3 years straight so that adds up to 4 wins. If Valpo can pull out an upset over a team like Drake or Marist with a higher level of improvement than that is 5 wins. Boy, that would seem like a huge improvement with actually only playing slightly better than last year. It shows you how close last season's Valpo team was to having 3 to 4 wins.
Let's remember that Mercer was also a first year football opponent and we got clobbered by them. Too bad we didn't schedule Little Sisters of the Poor for our homecoming opponent as we might have skirted another loss. My pick: Baptists over the Lutherans by 7. BOOK IT! :lol:
Quote from: setshot on January 31, 2014, 09:08:13 AMBaptists over the Lutherans by 7. BOOK IT!
MORE BAPTIST-FIGHTING LUTHERANS
Quote from: setshot on January 31, 2014, 09:08:13 AM
Let's remember that Mercer was also a first year football opponent and we got clobbered by them. Too bad we didn't schedule Little Sisters of the Poor for our homecoming opponent as we might have skirted another loss. My pick: Baptists over the Lutherans by 7. BOOK IT! :lol:
Frame of reference: Mercer was a 1st year D-IAA scholarship program disguised as a non-scholarship PFL team. They built a 12,000 seat stadium and opulent field house in preparation for year 1. MO Baptist is a NAIA squad and play their home games at a (nice) high school stadium.
and St. Joe's under the lights for the Home Opener on 9/6... and Senior Day on 11/22... when the students are leaving for Thanksgiving break...
I like that it's full!
Quote from: VULB#62 on January 31, 2014, 11:01:53 AMQuote from: setshot on January 31, 2014, 09:08:13 AMLet's remember that Mercer was also a first year football opponent and we got clobbered by them. Too bad we didn't schedule Little Sisters of the Poor for our homecoming opponent as we might have skirted another loss. My pick: Baptists over the Lutherans by 7. BOOK IT! :lol:
Frame of reference: Mercer was a 1st year D-IAA scholarship program disguised as a non-scholarship PFL team. They built a 12,000 seat stadium and opulent field house in preparation for year 1. MO Baptist is a NAIA squad and play their home games at a (nice) high school stadium.
MBU is 5,200 students in the western St Louis suburbs near I-270 and I-64. They feature 7 graduate programs so my thought is that they have mostly undergraduate students. They are using the high school football field of Christian Brothers which looks to be a financially well catholic high school.