Welcome to EKU

[usc4valpo]

When did Valpo get rid of their marching band? They used to be pretty good, but nothing like Butler's, who had a little bit of Stanford in them.

[VULB#62]

Lots of praise for Valpo by the announcers.  These guys are ranked #17 in the country.  Score at the half Valpo 3 - EKU 31.  But there are some good things being shown by our kids.  Problem is that you can see a definite speed and strength gap.  Still, if the 2012 or 2013 team were here it would be UND all over again at this point. We can stay with these guys for maybe 2 out of 5 plays.  The 3 we can't give them the advantage.  Our goal over the next couple of years is to narrow that to 3 out of 5, then 4 out of 5 and then, hopefully, 5 out of 5 so that we can play a competitive game at this level.  BTW the announcers referred to all the suspended players and the huge amount of freshmen a number of times and were surprised at how well we were playing.  Despite the score we are making them work for it.

[VULB#62]

Announcers don't realize Staal is in theme.     Staal is moving the team on his first drive.

[VULB#62]

Staal sacked after some good plays and fumbles. Big hit by Noah Spence. 

[usc4valpo]

It is very hard to evaluate how Valpo will do this year based on this game. The talent level difference is significant between Valpo and EKU. Also, 7 players are out.

[VULB#62]

It took the announcers a full quarter to recognize Scott was on the field.

[VULB#62]

They have BOTH a marching band AND a pep band.  The pep band played throughout the game.  The marching band di half time and that was it.  What with that?

[VULB#62]

Even down big time, after a Valpo Pic the kids were all over the guy (Martinez). They are still into the game.  That's good.

[vu72]

Some positives.  Great uniforms!  Finally using GOLD instead of YELLOW!!  (Pay attention here, basketball!)  With 17 guys out on suspension and having given away two scores on a punt return and pick six, we did pretty well.  At full capacity we lose 45-14.  No embarrassment.

First game for our quarterback, (who has a weird motion, looks like he is shot putting the ball) but seems to be pretty much on target.  My guess is that as the season progresses we will see passes deeper then 4 yards.

Overall, good showing.

[vu72]

They have BOTH a marching band AND a pep band.  The pep band played throughout the game.  The marching band di half time and that was it.  What with that?

Ah, they have 14000 undergrads.

[bbtds]

Are any of you guys in Richmond for the game. Cooking a big Boston Butt as we speak. Stop by for some home-made pulled pork, baked beans and coal slaw.

You had Tom Brady over to your house?

[bbtds]

Will someone go over the predictions? I don't want to brag.

Okay. I do.

[VULB#62]

Will someone go over the predictions? I don't want to brag.

Okay. I do.

Deservedly so, but Tex had it at 52-7.  Yours was a 44 pt  margin and his was  45.  He nailed the EKU score. You got the Valpo score.  Both damn good. 

[valpotx]

Some positives just in watching the game, besides the score.  We look much better than prior years against scholarship programs, where we were down by 35-40 or so at half.  This felt different, as we were able to move the ball and get first downs, and hold them to 3 and outs.  This did not happen with Carlson.  Congrats to Staal on being the first Valpo QB to throw a TD against a FCS scholarship program, and he looked much better than last season where he looked completely lost.  I take it as a very good sign, and hope that we can get to the .500 mark this season!

[usc4valpo]

I have to pat myself on the back... I got the 42 point spread (55-13), but was up a FG for each team. What is the official rule for being closest to the hole?

[VU2624]

Some positives.  Great uniforms!  Finally using GOLD instead of YELLOW!!  (Pay attention here, basketball!)  With 17 guys out on suspension and having given away two scores on a punt return and pick six, we did pretty well.  At full capacity we lose 45-14.  No embarrassment.

First game for our quarterback, (who has a weird motion, looks like he is shot putting the ball) but seems to be pretty much on target.  My guess is that as the season progresses we will see passes deeper then 4 yards.

Overall, good showing.

One of the guys out is the QB with the strongest arm. It will be tough to dink and dunk all season. So one of these guys will have to demonstrate that they can get the ball over the top on occasion or the defenses will be loading up within 10 yards of the LOS and take away the runs and dinks and dunks.

[FGColonel]

Hey guys, good luck the rest of season. Even though the score does not show it, I saw a lot of positives for you last night. Love your QB, he got rid of the ball really quick ,making accurate throws under constant pressure. He made a lot of good decisions. The biggest thing I saw  was that they NEVER give up.  I hope there were no serious injurious. We had a couple guys get banged up, but as far as I know it was late in the third quarter after all the starters were sitting. I know it sounds stupid given a 44 point win, but I was pretty disappointed in parts of our game. Especially our run game. I know you take what the D gives you and you were selling out, loading the box to stop the run, but we still should have done better. I was pleased with our passing game considering three top receivers did not play. I hope for the Valpo fans that showed up last night it was a good time. That we were good courteous host. Because of construction going on to expand the stadium, opposing fans are sitting on the home side in the upper deck this year. Because they are the same side  I have no idea how many Valpo people were there.  GOOD LUCK next week against Sacred Heart !!!!

[VULB#62]

Colonel, thanks for your kind words.  I'm very curious about your assessment of where we are in year two of our rebuilding program under Dave Cecchini in comparison to Morehead State who you guys have played over the past three years.

You guys have NC State to look fwd to next week.  Hope we helped you guys get ready for that one.

[usc4valpo]

I know this - it is hard to evaluate a team after a game like this - but they look much better coached and have more promise than what we saw 2 years ago.

[VULB#62]

Agree.   Knock on wood -- gone are the days where we routinely give up 600 yards and 60 points.  You can see it in the kids - how locked in they are all game despite a lot of adversity and making some bad mistakes.   For us fans, it's hopefully seeing improvement every game despite our youth and inexperience.

[valpo95]

When did Valpo get rid of their marching band? They used to be pretty good, but nothing like Butler's, who had a little bit of Stanford in them.

The last year of the marching band was the fall of 1990. Some in the VU Music Department wanted to kill both the marching band and Crusader Band, then swooped in and took equipment that had been paid for by the Athletic Department.

[valpochgo]

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]

[VULB#62]

Nice (and pretty spot-on) review Chgo.  Nothing beats being there and getting the  feel of the game.  The stream was spotty and even the EKU people complained on their forum about it.  Valpo got a lot of compliments during the feed and Colonel also pointed to the fact that our kids played the full 60 minutes.  I, too, am optimistic about our competitiveness in the PFL schedule.   We may not win more than two games again, but we will not be embarrassed as in the past.  And that is 2015.  As these kids get more mature and as the next class comes in and pushes, we could be really good.  I can't wait for 2017 and Montana (unless they go FBS).   

[Colonels12]

Montana will not be going FBS anytime soon.  I hear they feel they have nothing to gain by being FBS.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[VULB#62]

Thanks 12.  Still interested in EKU  observers' assessments of how Valpo compared to Morehead over the past three years. Please see my post about two or three back.