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I agree ^^^....  Valpo can't keep losing players every year at the rate they were lost in the past.  The good teams in the PFL are able to retain their athletes.  I think it's just as important for Valpo to retain players as it is to recruit freshman.  I think the "all about the incoming freshman" mentality was a mistake that was made by the coaching staff this year.


I'm hearing that many freshman (even some that were playing) aren't happy and want to leave.  Valpo coaches need to address this if it's true so you don't bring in 50 freshman every year.  Personally, I didn't see any freshman that played any better than the upperclassman.  No matter who was in the game the outcomes were the same but a freshman is more willing to sit behind an upperclassman and then an upperclassman is willing to sit behind a freshman. 


I think the coaches went into a panic after the EKU game and started making too many personnel changes and the season spiraled out of control.  Playing a very good scholarship team early in the season shouldn't be a negative especially when you had so many kids suspended.  They should have just accepted the loss and continued on the path from the summer verses moving all the kids positions around and effecting the team morale.

As long as you don't violate equal scholarships for men and women sports based on Title IX; A university can have teams compete in different divisions. Johns Hopkins and a few other colleges do it and that's why the PFL exist to get around Title IX laws.  The D1 basketball dictates D1 in every other sport is not a fact.  It's college football that was the catalyst for Title IX not basketball.


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I wish Valpo would either offer scholarships or just join a D3 conference. Even when teams like USD go to the playoffs they take a beating so really....what's the point?  I'd rather watch Valpo play in the D3 playoffs and watch GOOD football then to cheer for one of the worst 3 schools in D1 every year.  I watched the D3 championship game last year between Whitewater and Mt Union and it was exciting football.  The reasons fan's leave our games isn't because they aren't true football fans and want Valpo to lose; they don't want to watch BAD football.  I watch my community high school football team play every Friday night because it's GOOD football games.  Most times they win...sometimes they lose but the level competition makes it enjoyable to watch.  I'd drive to Valpo for every home game from Chicago if the games were good but they are horrible to watch. I've seen Lake Forest College play St. Norbert College (neither ranked in D3) and it was a great football game.  In the last 2 years; I've only seen Valpo play one great game that was exciting to watch and it was actually their loss to USD last year.  Yes ,I want to see Valpo win more but I also want to see good competitive football not a game against Sacred Heart where they dominate us then a game against College of Faith which also was just a travesty of a game.

I wonder what those other options are. If they are coming to Valpo primarily to play football instead of an education, they need to get a clue.

If anyone thinks that the opportunity to play football doesn't factor into probably 90% of the football roster's school choice then it is they who need to get a clue. Other options can include many things which may or may not include playing football.

I actually heard the same thing....  Actually that many of the freshman aren't happy and our considering transferring.  Yet most freshmen have a difficult time adjusting so they may change their mind after the season.

If Valpo cut the football program they'd have 100 less students at the school.  If the average player on the team is paying $25K in tuition after academic scholarships to attend Valpo that's $2.5 million dollars in lost revenue.  I really don't think the school is paying over $2.5M in coaches salaries, equipment and travel expenses.  If Valpo is losing money by having a football team it's not a substantial loss.  I don't think football at Valpo is going away any time soon.  I also don't think the new coaching staff should panic a year into turning around a program.  New weight room and locker room should help with recruiting so I feel that the next couple of years we should see some real improvement.  Also, Cecchini may have to also make some adjustments with his coaching staff in the future if the program is going to improve.

Here is a very interesting read on D3 programs profiting from football so I would assume Valpo falls into this category also.

http://deadspin.com/how-division-iii-colleges-profit-from-football-no-one-w-1440369611

I didn't see the game but was surprised at the final score as I felt it was going to be a win for Valpo. Last week I spoke to some defensive players and they told me that many offensive players were frustrated with Miran's play calling and overall offense.  I didn't know they were changing schemes mid-week. Looks like the same plays every game I've seen so I thought it was the same scheme as from previous weeks.

Some players are also irritated at the lack of substitutions especially on defense and feel that tired players that are often over matched physically is another reason for many late game losses.   


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I think Dayton is the best team in the PFL this year so this may be an ugly game for the home team.  I was at the Dayton game last year and the second half was a blowout and this year's Dayton team looks even better and Valpo isn't as good.

Is this the school we are playing.....?  Seems most high schools football teams would beat them.  We should be ashamed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNntwh2g6aQ

I agree totally.....^^^^  I watched this game live and thought the coaching was HORRIBLE.  Sacred Heart was a very beatable team but the Valpo coaches are in panic mode already.  They changed half of the kids on defense to different positions and when they made a mistake they were immediately benched. By the 2nd quarter half of the defensive starters were benched for the rest of the game other than on special teams.  I watched Sacred Heart run a wide receiver screen 8 times in a row for a score and we didn't adjust one time on defense.  Also, Sacred Heart did a great job of scouting our offense as the stacked the box and dropped defensive lineman back four yards into pass coverage on our slants and they got 3 interceptions by their defensive tackles.  It was like they knew what our offensive plays were before we did.....

I thought the team played great against EKU regardless of the score so for the players to be switched in game two to different positions was ridiculous. You can't have a kid play safety for 3 years and move them to linebacker or cornerback a week before playing a scholarship team then get mad and bench them when they make a mistake. 

I don't see practices so maybe they coaches are giving up on upperclassman and just want to play freshman moving forward.  Yet if that's the case then you can't blame the kids when the game play is sloppy.

I was able to make the trip to the EKU game last night and here are my thoughts....

• EKU looked like an NFL team and our kids were no match for them physically. They were laying some big hits on our guys that you could here in the stands especially in the first half of the game.
• Our young offensive line did a great job of pass protection for most of the game.  Even though we had several freshman starting they did fantastic considering their last game was in high school and first college game was against a Top 20 program.
• I felt Dalton did really well and has quick feet and a quick release that made him hard to sack.  Although he was going underneath the defense most of the game he was very accurate.
• Most possessions they were defending a short field because the punt returner on EKU was blazing fast and our punt team needs some more athletic players like we have on the kickoff team.  Our kickoff coverage was good but punt coverage was very poor.
• The Valpo freshman class is very good.... They didn't play at all like freshman and when the Valpo second unit played against EKU second unit they had 2 interceptions and forced them to punt at least twice.  I don't think EKU punted at all in the second and third quarters but don't quote me on that.
• I think the defense did a good job of slowing down the EKU running game.  Also, the only BIG plays from EKU were against the special teams units.
• The Valpo receivers looked good and broke some tackles and made some EKU players miss and look silly on a few plays.
• Valpo never quit!

EKU has some issues if they want to live up to expectations as they seem to have a discipline problem on their team.  A bunch of unnecessary personal foul penalties and some of the players showed no class considering they were up 40 points.  On the other hand the fans and EKU staff was great and very hospitable.  The EKU fans really know how to party and tailgate as there parking lot was rocking before the game.

Although our team is young we looked much better than our first game against WIU last year so I think we may really surprise some teams in the PFL.  We had a lot of starters sitting this game so I'm now optimistic about the season as I feel the team overall is deeper this year than last year and has more athletic talent.  [/list]

[I recall Grayson Bastin is one of them.]

Valpochgo, WIU gets added cred just because they belong to the MVFC.  Kind of like a mid SEC team is thought equal to, say, teams in the top 3 in the AAC.  But, definitely,  EKU is legit. 

  The troubling thing that was mentioned near the end was that there are some kids who won't be suiting up because of suspensions.   

I recall Grayson Bastin is one of them.

[/b]

any idea how many or what for?

They were at a party and alcohol was present....  approximately 17 suspended. 

I don't know much about Sagarin rankings but I know EKU is ranked #17 in the FCS NCAA Coaches Poll and I don't see WIU anywhere on that list either this year or last year so I'm not the only personthat thinks EKU is better than WIU.

EKU is a much better program than WIU. I personally don't see any benefit to playing highly competitive scholarship programs as all it does is put our kids in a situation where it's a higher probability of them being injured.  There is great non-scholarship football played in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference which most teams would be a really good early season challenge for Valpo. I know FBS and FCS schools play each other early in the season but it's a big difference between the programs at scholarship and non-scholarship football programs.

If our kids stay healthy after our first 2 games than I call that a success no matter what the final scores are.....

I remember Noah Spence from OSU.  I thought he was one of the best defensive players in the Big 10 and had no idea he ended up at EKU.  I actually thought he was just going to the NFL after being expelled. 

I was there also today.....  If the upperclassman don't stay healthy it's going to be a long season.  I was impressed with the freshman running back #24.  He looks pretty good.

I'd still like to see a PFL/IVY League challenge just like the ACC/Big Ten does in basketball.

New lockers video

https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/621785739466899457

Tough schedule and 50% newbies = Challenging season

There will always be injuries so many of the freshman will probably have to play this year. 3 weeks of camp before EKU won't give them a lot of time to learn the system so I wouldn't expect much early in the season.  If we can win 4 games again playing a much tougher schedule than last year than I'd consider that a successful year with such a young team.

Brown (offense) won the game by a wide margin but the scoring system was heavily slanted towards offense as defense could only get 7 points for a turnover and the offense never really went down field until the last drive and it ended (top picture above with Kellen) with an INT.

I thought the QBs and RBs looked decent.....  Play calling was great for a real game but rather boring for a scrimmage where it was just the offense vs. the defense. I couldn't tell if one QB stood out vs another as all seemed to manage the "underneath" offense scheme very well.  I did think the RBs did a nice job and ran hard......

I saw a lineman limp off the field once but I think he came back into the game.

Defense overall played flat to me.....  Offense seemed to have more energy.  They had over 20 freshman recruits visiting and overall they looked much bigger than I expected and some looked very athletic also.

I believe only 95 players can get an invite to summer football camp in the PFL.  With 44 freshman being invited the coaching staff is going to have to make some tough decisions on what upperclassman they invite and which ones they don't.  Hopefully, the freshman are as good as advertised because the bigger the class the more upperclassman that you have to pass on.  As Valpo gets better in future years the coaches will have to scale down the freshman recruiting class some....seems 30"ish" is a good number in the next few years.  I'm sure that the 40+ this year balances out the smaller class of 20 from last year yet I'm sure the coaches have a strategy moving forward.

Great post VU2624.....  I don't remember his name but I heard from many of the returning players that the transfer QB that was redshirted last year is REALLY good and was a scholarship player at another university before coming to Valpo.  I think he's smaller than Ryan but has a cannon of an arm.  I also think if Ryan doesn't start next year he may move to TE or another position because he's a very versatile and talented athlete. 

I'd like to see the PFL play the IVY League every year in a PFL/IVY Challenge similar to how the ACC/Big Ten does in basketball.  I'm sure the IVY League is stronger currently from top to bottom but it would be the fairest challenge for PFL teams overall competing against non scholarship D1 athletes.

This game was heartbreaking! There was a nice crowd on the Valpo side and we were very loud.  Yet when that final Hail Mary happened it was a shocked silence and disbelief.  If I can find positives out of this it would be that Valpo has proved that it can play with anyone in the PFL now....  Time is over for the predictions of Valpo being blown out in the PFL.

I feel bad for the kid who got beat on that last TD.  Valpo was in a Cover 2 so a safety had to blow "help" coverage as no corner should have 1 on 1 coverage in the end zone on a Hail Mary play.  I was glad to see his teammates supporting him on the field at the end of the game because his coverage was great but the receiver was taller and jumped up over him to make that final TD catch.

What a great game!  Valpo dominate on both sides of the ball and the play calling (like the QB punts on 4th down) was fantastic!  When I watched the Brown and Gold game last spring many high school football teams looked more impressive than Valpo.  Now they are a totally different team as the improvement has been amazing in such a short time.  If this coaching staff can recruit as well as they can motivate and coach than Valpo football future looks very bright! 

I was at the Dayton game today.  Valpo offense again had difficulty scoring in the red zone early then Dayton just dominated the second half of the game.  Although Ryan Clarke was playing against Dayton's second unit; he looked very composed and has a nice arm.  I think some of the young guys look really good so I'm looking forward to some better years ahead.  This year is basically done so the coaches may as well let the seniors play instead of the freshman as it's their last year and they are playing for the love of the game;so I say let them play.....