Just setting a placeholder for next week. I'll have the Sagarin update and scores from the other PFL games to start the week off.
If the Sagarin rankings hold, where currently they are at the bottom 2, this game has college gameday potential!
PFL Week #1 Results
Butler 25, Campbell 24
Jacksonville 20, Marist 16
Morehead State 34, Davidson 0
San Diego 38, Valparaiso 6
Drake 41, Stetson 3
Dayton 31, Kennesaw State 27
Some quick Davison stats:
6 RB's combined for 190 net yards
2 QBs combined for 9/25/2 and 64 yards.
Methinks we need to stop the run and force them to pass.
Latest Sagarin raings: Some interesting movement [Click on image to enlarge].
JU beat Marist but dropped 5 places while Marist went UP 2 places
Butler beat Campbell and went DOWN 2 places while Campbell remained unchanged
Morehead is now rated 5th in the PFL
the Sagarin futility bowl is coming up!!
Sad to say that this might be a real big game for Valpo and Davidson as well.
A much better Valpo team was up 4 in the 4th quarter in last year's Davidson game in weather Valpo is much more acclimated to. Davidson is going to try to run the ball and had a fair amount of success last year with the now sophomore RB they have. Valpo may have to stack the box to make them throw.
Valpo is going to have to figure out how to run the ball effectively and pass the ball far more efficiently and hang on to the ball. This year's squad is not a big play roster or so it appears.
Sorry but don't have the time to make pretty. Thought bold numbers interesting.
Davidson vs Morehead State (Sep 26, 2015 at Morehead, Ky.)
Team Totals DAV MOR
FIRST DOWNS 15 19
Rushing 12 7
Passing 3 12
Penalty 0 0
NET YARDS RUSHING 190 159
Rushing Attempts 53 32
Average Per Rush 3.6 5.0
Rushing Touchdowns 0 0
Yards Gained Rushing 221 174
Yards Lost Rushing 31 15
NET YARDS PASSING 64 281
Completions-Attempts-Int 9-25-2 19-38-0
Average Per Attempt 2.6 7.4
Average Per Completion 7.1 14.8
Passing Touchdowns 0 4
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS 254 440
Total offense plays 78 70
Average Gain Per Play 3.3 6.3
Fumbles: Number-Lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties: Number-Yards 4-30 3-25
PUNTS-YARDS 10-350 7-282
Average Yards Per Punt 35.0 40.3
Net Yards Per Punt 32.9 37.7
Inside 20 1 4
50+ Yards 1 0
Touchbacks 1 0
Fair catch 7 2
KICKOFFS-YARDS 1-65 6-360
Average Yards Per Kickoff 65.0 60.0
Net Yards Per Kickoff 40.0 46.2
Touchbacks 1 0
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD 3-18-0 2-1-0
Average Per Return 6.0 0.5
Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 5-83-0 0-0-0
Average Per Return 16.6 0.0
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD 0-0-0 2-51-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD 0-0-0 0-0-0
Miscellaneous Yards 0 0
Possession Time 34:08 25:52
1st Quarter 9:02 5:58
2nd Quarter 7:15 7:45
3rd Quarter 9:19 5:41
4th Quarter 8:32 6:28
Third-Down Conversions 5 of 20 6 of 15
Fourth-Down Conversions 3 of 5 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances 0-0 3-3
Touchdowns 0-0 2-3
Field goals 0-0 1-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards 1-9 4-18
PAT Kicks 0-0 4-4
Field Goals 0-0 2-3
Points off turnovers 0 17
We get back to winning this week:
Valpo 34
Davidson 23
Valpo 17
John Davidson 14
Quote from: usc4valpo on September 28, 2015, 01:03:07 PMValpo 17 John Davidson 14
Steph Curry considers them Harley Davidson.
Good Luck against Davidson Saturday. :thumbsup:
Thanks Colonel. We need this game as a building block for the rest of the season. I'm content this season to wrestle with the lower tier PFL teams (Davidson, Stetson, Morehead and Butler) and just try to be competitive with the iron (SD. Jacksonville, Drake and Dayton). We made a quarter of it against USD but.....
Stokes might be good to go. No word on Scott's concussion recovery yet.
[Tweet]649270746599002112[/Tweet]
So those of us that were at the Honors Breakfast last Saturday had the privilege of hearing Scott Staal speak. What an impressive young man! He has been out now for three weeks. Any hope of him being ready by Saturday??
Quote from: vu72 on September 30, 2015, 01:40:11 PM
So those of us that were at the Honors Breakfast last Saturday had the privilege of hearing Scott Staal speak. What an impressive young man! He has been out now for three weeks. Any hope of him being ready by Saturday??
IIRC Scott's dad posted here a few times in the past. Coach Cecchini's eyes said no when asked the question as to whether he'd be available in the preview (I think).
More from Brandon Vickrey:
[Tweet]649270348786089984[/Tweet]
[Tweet]649271477674606593[/Tweet]
Nate is the hub of the OL and a 5th year senior captain. Kyle Jones is the starting RG. AJ is listed a a starter at CB. Mike is listed as backup to Sr. DT Nick Scoville
Our line apparently took a literal beating last Saturday, which could explain the less than stellar running game and the shuffling mentioned in other posts. Let's hope for the best on all of these guys. On the OL, if these guys can't go, we will line-up with RT-Soph, RG - Soph, C - Soph, RG - Fr, RT - Sr. LT, LG, RG and RT backups are freshmen.
More scouting material from the Game Notes release earlier today.
Scouting Davidson: Like Valpo, Davidson has stumbled out of the gate in 2015. Opponents have posted 138 points in three games versus the Wildcats for an average of 46 points per contest. The discord hasn't been quarantined to the defensive side of the ball, either. Davidson has been on the wrong end of two shutouts in three weeks. The Wildcats put 21 points on the board at home versus Catawba College, but were kept on the perimeter of the Citadel 40-yard line in Week 1, and marched no farther than the Morehead State 29 in Week 3.
While Davidson's passing game has been unfruitful at times (32-for-78, 1 TD, 7 INT), Jeffrey Keil has emerged as a force at running back. As a freshman last season, Keil led all rushers in the 2014 season finale at Brown Field with 132 yards on 26 carries versus the Crusaders. The sophomore has totaled just under 200 yards on 34 attempts and is responsible for two of Davidson's three touchdowns on the young season. Coach Nichols has one of the elite receivers in the PFL in William Morris, but getting him the ball has proven easier said than done. Morris's 1,224 receiving yards last season led the league and was good for 9th-most in the nation. Furthermore, only two players in Division I FCS reeled in more passes than his 98. In last November's tilt at Valpo, Morris and then-senior Tanner Kuramata produced carbon copy games of 10 catches and 122 receiving yards. Taylor Mitchell and John Cook both project to take snaps under center Saturday. [Edit note: Cook led all rushers last week with 72.]
The Davidson defense is a young unit as just three seniors grace its two-deep. Having surrendered an average of 338.7 yards on the ground per game, the Wildcat rush defense is last in all of D-I FCS. Valpo's four-man running back rotation of Jake Hutson, Brandon Hall, Grayson Bastin, and Legend Choudhry should expect more success on the ground than last Saturday versus San Diego.
In addition to serving as quarterback, Cook logs overtime on special teams. All 24 of Davidson's punts have come off the junior's foot (34.7 yards per punt average). Trevor Smith handles the kicking duties for the Wildcats. He's been flawless on his three PAT attempts, but came up short on his lone field goal attempt - a 48-yarder - versus Catawba on September 12th.
The more I look at the scouting report, the more I see 8 in the box ( 1st and 2nd downs at least) and a tight 3-deep m2m in the secondary until they prove they can complete passes.
On O I'd power run (lots of big boys -h backs- in the backfield and overwhelm them. Starting like that should open Ryan up for easy completions. Go Crusaders😈
BTW I have a favorite movie clip that runs through my brain a lot when I think of football. It's from the movie Gladiator. Russell Crowe issues the command: "On my command unleash hell." That is what we need to do with our ground attack on Saturday. Our kids can do it.
Oh, BTW, I hate this whole spread trend. Let's play freakin football. There. I said it and I don't regret it. Let's move on.
Concerning the game on Saturday, don't you think trying to play in a foot of water may be a little to tough! I doubt the game will be played with what is soon to be a category 3 or 4 hurricane bearing down on North Carolina this weekend
If there are hurricane effects on Saturday, it favors Valpo as their running game should be more effective against Davidson's defense than Davidson's passing game against Valpo's defense.
On the other hand, with 2 young teams trying to establish an identity, who knows what will happen.
Latest computer models have the hurricane most likely going out to sea towards Bermuda. However, the Weather Underground 10 day forecast for Davidson, NC, still is for 100% chance of rain, temps in the mid-50s, and winds of 17 mph.
Love the Weather Underground reference. :thumbsup: http://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:28201.1.99999 (http://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:28201.1.99999)
Davidson is pretty far inland. The forecast seems to show that Joaquin is moving fairly slowly and, as stated, the majority of models have the track further East. While the forecast for the Charlotte area is for significant rain it doesn't appear to be of Hurricane proportions.
(http://icons.wunderground.com/data/images/at201511_5day.gif)
Not so good update.
[Tweet]649630083251052544[/Tweet]
Quote from: VULB#62 on October 01, 2015, 10:37:22 AM
Latest computer models have the hurricane most likely going out to sea towards Bermuda. However, the Weather Underground 10 day forecast for Davidson, NC, still is for 100% chance of rain, temps in the mid-50s, and winds of 17 mph.
Major concern in wet weather is turnovers particularly with the two young teams.
This may be old news to some but I just noticed on the Valpo football page that the College of Faith game essentially didn't happen.
This makes a perfect game environment for what is at stake.
So I saw that the football team is busing it to Davidson. That's about a 13 hour trip. Which games get air flights? Just Jacksonville and San Diego??
That may just have been the bus to the airport (yes?) They always flew to Campbell so this is about the same. Also used to fly to Marist. This year, of course, USD came to us.
The went via air
Quote from: VU2624 on October 02, 2015, 02:24:03 PM
The went via air
Thanks. I was hoping the kids didn't have to endure 26 plus hours of drive time!
I live in Charlotte, NC and it has been raining for days. The field is going to be a mess. I hope they have good cleats.
Big question is whether it is natural or artificial turf. Grass would be sloppy but art-turf will not be as much of a factor.
Surface is listed as Field Turf so footing will be better if not great.
Video froze with 6 minutes to go in the first Qtr. I paid $5.95 for this?????
Got the video back but down 14-7 at the half. Gave up a 37 yard pass down the middle for the second score.
We know they like to run the ball so we "load the box" with 4 DLs and 2 LBs to stop them with a front 4 of: 5'10/210, 6'4/260, 6-1/245, 6-2/205. John Guilford is playing inside rather than his DE spot. No Del La Rosa (6-2/275) ? They must be averaging 5 yds/per carry. And, therefore, we are not getting much of a pass rush when we do get them in a passing situation. We did not look good on defense in the first half.
I missed our first drive for our only score :( But what I saw on O, with the exception of Brandon running hard was not overwhelming. On O they smelled out our middle screen and Davidson almost had another DL interception al a SHU. Tipped pass interception again. Ryan is waiting too long to release it I think.
Lets hope we pull it together in the second half.Need two scores and need to hold them.
Good start to the second half - 2 unanswered TDs/ Oooops gave up a long KO return and a short jump pass for a Tieing TD.
50 yard TD Pass - Clark to Catrine Back up on top 28-21.
Defense has adjusted and brought in more size up front -- Guilford back at DE
Really need the D to come through now. 35-35
REALLY REALLY need the D to come through now 42-35 VU less than 2 minutes left.
Quote from: historyman on October 03, 2015, 02:45:53 PMReally need the D to come through now. 35-35
and they do. 42-35 Valpo wins!I wonder what our record is in North Carolina.
VALPO WINS! 42-35
But not pretty.
Things to work on for Drake:
Secondary coverage
Player discipline
Better pass execution
Secondary coverage
Pressuring the passer
KO coverage
Secondary coverage
Stopping the run
It is pale ale time!
Quote from: historyman on October 03, 2015, 03:05:27 PM
Quote from: historyman on October 03, 2015, 02:45:53 PMReally need the D to come through now. 35-35
and they do. 42-35 Valpo wins!
I wonder what our record is in North Carolina.
Recently? Since 2000.......
CecchiniWon @ Davison 2015 42-35 -
Lost @ Campbell 2014 34-24
CarlsonWon @ Campbell 2013 49-42 (OT)
Lost @ Davidson in 2012 28-27
Lost @ Davidson 2011 30-22
Lost @ Campbell 2010 56-14
AdamsWon @ Campbell 2008 47-14
Lost @ Davidson 2007 44-6
Lost @ Davidson 2005 48-17
Interesting that each of the last three coaches got at least one win th NC
Tom Horne lost to Davidson in 2002, but that was at Brown Field.
I think every point today was scored by a player with Freshman or Sophomore eligibility which is great news for the future.
Need better performance on defense. Shouldn't give up the points they did to Davidson particularly in the passing game.
See my Honey-Do list below :lol:
Quote from: VULB#62 on October 03, 2015, 03:32:12 PM
See my Honey-Do list below :lol:
But do we need better secondary coverage?
The pressure is a big issue because it's not there. It seemed better last year.
We'll see who the QB is when Stokes is healthy. I think he was looked upon as being ahead when he was hurt last week. He moved the offense the couple of drives he had vs. San Diego but is more effective in a short passing game. Clarke is more inaccurate short and throws a better deep ball.
There were two situations, for example, that in my mind requires the secondary coverage note - one a long TD and the other another long TD except the Davidson kid drop a sure TD in the end zone. On the latter, the DB, in 1-1 coverage, was 5 yards off and looking in the backfield and the kid ran right past him without a move and, fortunately, dropped what would have been maybe a 40yd TD. There wasn't time for the rush to get the QB on that one. The first was a Post-Flag that, with 6 DBS, should have been covered but wound up being a TD. In the second half, the heavier D-Line did put better pressure on the QB, but BOTH, no, ALL phases of D need to execute better. Davidson was a team that lived by the run and wound up being pretty good at passing against us. Speaking of the rush, I am not seeing any stunts, twists and associated blitzes. When we rely on a lighter, faster D line, bull rushing doesn't work. The other thing that I would like to see covered better is the LOS-5 yd depth pass. We give up a lot of catch and runs in that zone too.
At the end of the day though, what all of us expected to be kick-butt, the D, is not meeting expectations at this point in the season. There are still 6 games left in the schedule to get that sorted out. And Stetson, Morehead and possibly Butler can be wins if we do that. But Morehead shut out Davidson, so......
Yikes. Lost in the noise: Ryan had FIVE (5) TD's. Holy cow! That ties him with Dave Lass and David Macchi (among 2 others) for #1 on the all-time record list. Congrats Ryan!!
Thanks VULB. Can't say I disagree and maybe losing the CBs from last year has hurt more than anticipated.
Re: Morehead...they gave Jax a good run today.
During the stream I tried counting the people on the Valpo side. Guessing at least 60, maybe 70 made the soggy trip. Hats off to the the fans and parents who were there to support our team. :thumbsup:
Ryan gets the PFL Offensive Player of the Week. Congrats Ryan!
http://www.pioneer-football.org/news/potw/ (http://www.pioneer-football.org/news/potw/)