2022 Football Post Mortem

[valpofb16]

After losing 24 seniors , their leading Passer and Robert Washington, and six of the front 7 was not sure how this season would go.


Positives:
Appel was absolutely a pleasant surprise and looks to have a very bright future. Kaplan as well. Everything should be funneled around them moving forward. Dawson had an ALL-PFL season, Vercher / Clarke showed promise. Receivers Davis, Contreras and TE Jernegan all showed flashes. Hope to return each of them.

The Dline was fantastic outside of Butler and Dartmouth. They should all be back. Birmingham and Doerer stepped up. Franco / Graves and Turner all played well. Sherman / Hines all PFL seasons.

The Bad:

Penalties. Several false starts. Personal fouls and PIs. The OL while young in 2/5 spots struggled significantly in 5/11 games , really capping off with the Drake performance.

Being able to establish and put away teams. Let Butler / IWU sneak back, traded scores with Marist , San Diego , and Morehead State.

Starting slow. Killed the team against Drake, Dayton and could've killed them against Presbyterian.


Fox has 13 wins in the last three season (one shortened). Which hasn't been done in a while. Let's see how the off-season goes. Improvement is improvement

[soapyjeans]

Clarke showed promise. Receivers Davis, Contreras and TE Jernegan all showed flashes. Hope to return each of them.

Agree with analysis except I wouldn't use the word "flashes".  Those boys you listed were consistent and contributed greatly to Valpo scoreboard.  So, it may come down to those listed considering if the transfer portal to a passing team is better than risking another year at Valpo knowing its been a running game for 2 years now and not likely to change.  Im crossing my fingers they all stay because those boys were game makers, they made a difference.   

[David81]

I hope that the downer finale and close losses inspire this team to stay together, rather than the other way around. With football teams, a season like this one -- where the W-L record cloaks the real progress being made -- can often be the prelude to a great season the next year.

Assuming Coach Fox and the core players return, the biggest variable seems to be finding another running back who play at a high level. It would be unrealistic to expect lightning to strike thrice after Dawson and Washington, but surely there are talented backs with 1-2 years of eligibility who are looking for a chance to get a steady 15-25 carries a game.

Despite the disappointing finish, it just seems like this program has the pieces to move to a next level of consistent respectability, where a .500 season is the presumptive starting place and something better is always possible.

[soapyjeans]

Valpo already has a good RB sitting on bench, after he had a impressive freshman year, Barret Labus and Clark.  Neither got much field time and it'd be a shame if Valpo lost them to greener pastures.

[valpofb16]

Soapyjeans, Valpo players have traditionally faired very poorly in the portal.

Davis is the one who can graduate. Hope he comes back for a fifth.

But yes I doubt with recent history there will be a ton of portal guys. Lots of DNPs and never made rosters at the "greener pastures"

Nothing against the guys. Just coaches get paid to win games and recruit accurately

[soapyjeans]

It will be interesting to see how things play out since its the "pandemic kids", the first group of hs players that were recruited.  Keep in mind some of those kids were recruited even though they had no senior season, thanks to covid protocols, or the coaches or the kids from 2021 just grabbed what they could.  So I expect the transfer portal to be wildly active for a few more years now because players & coaches have another chance to grab who they wanted but didn't have access to game film or the player.  I'm just saying it'd be foolish to assume nobodys gonna use the transfer portal.  I bet Fox will be watching the talent in the transfer portal just like all the other schools.  I think college recruiting is gonna be messed up for a while yet.  College players taking a 5th yr (which is great opportunity) year interferes with a hs player getting recruited.  I expect there will be some hidden gems in that transfer portal, I just don't want any of them to be Valpo's gems, lol ...

 

[FWalum]

Mason Kaplan transferring to Illinois State according to Paul Oren.