Question Spring Game 2024

How's the OL coming along. WRs...do we have any? I think the defense is going to be good. It's the offense which concerns me.

Mikey Appel. Is he our true answer at QB?

We’ve been spoiled with two great RB transfers in the past couple of years — any good news in the RB portal for 2024?

Have we signed at least two top level (either xfer or out of HS) WRs?

Agreed - lots of questions on the offensive side of the ball.  Need to see the offense go out and compete on Sunday. I want to see guys taking advantage of their opportunities, making plays, and opening eyes.  Want to be at the top of the depth chart?  Show me.

Not as many questions on defense, but LB is an area of interest.  Have to replace a couple starters there.  Who steps up and claims a spot?

Below are my questions for the spring game:

1. How does our OL hold up against a veteran defensive front (all 3/4 starters returning for a third season)? Our Interior is Paic-Eberhart-Woody who have plenty of starts. Tackle again is a weakness with Szczepanski and Gray moving on from the program. Russell seems very promising. Rosen / McIlvenna / Stierheim / Owlsey all have different reasons for optimisim.

2. Is the offense built to our strengths? Mikey thrived in a run and shoot offense with Dawson at RB. Last season, things seemed scrambled to say the least. Keefe had a nice showing to end the season. With Vickers, Mann and our interior line back. Will the offense run between the tackles as it resorted to at the end of the season? Or will we see the spread offense with young receivers , young tackles, and blocking tight ends again.

3. Who is going to catch the football? Jiminez is our leading receiver returning with less than a stellar 2023 season transferring down from a scholarship program. Getting Jernegan back should help in this department. Outside of those two, it is complete hearsay. Yeats and Mackay are my guesses as the remaining starters based on intel. I know there have been several portal offers for transfers here. 

4. Who is the captain of the defense? This is pretty straight forward. Evan Annis was the soul of the defense since 2020. Even in his injured season he could be seen everywhere around the field. The defensive line is proven Hafner - Spelman - Kessen have played a lot of football. As have safeties Austin Chilton and Colin Graves.

5. Who replaces Tyler Geiman? This is a bigger question than many would think as Tyler locked up half the field last year. Max Franco has been a spot starter for two years and has had great moments (Marist 22) and not so great Marist (2023). Caleb Rao figures to resume his starting spot at the other corner but missed some of last year, not sure his health status. Corner has had a lot of retention in the program and Mark Johnson had a good freshman season.

6. Who takes the leap? In 2020, Evan Annis went from redshirt to second leading tackler on the team. Other guys to come off redshirt / limited action seasons in memory Appel, Spelman, Chilton. Is Max Samuel a great defensive player as well as special teams weapon? Will be interesting to see.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

From the article, was not there.

offense put up 10 points (including a 47 yard field goal). Keefe and Appel split time. Longest rush of day was 14 yards. 4 interceptions were thrown and four punts were made.

In short offense went 1 for 9

this is pretty alarming considering Valpo is returning 5/11, less than 50% of their defense. Losing their two DTs and interior LBs and still not being able to run the ball. 

let’s hope Fox had guys in waiting and we have a top of the line PFL defense next year. If that is not the case things could be bleak.

16, not unexpected here. There has been so few positive vibes coming out of the FB office since the end of the season compared to previous seasons. The assistant turnover has been catastrophic.  Recruiting, therefore, has to hey been severely hamstrung.  Fox is a good coach and deserves a competitive assistant salary budget — but now Smart bails. WTF!  This does not portend well for the 24 season. I am not excited. 

@vulb62 while typically negative myself. Seems like the largest junior day they’ve had. They brought back Jarnigan and Michael Brewster (who is probably biggest name assistant hire to date) and have kept the vast majority of the staff outside of those guys.

Recruiting seemed up this year. In terms of Smart heading out, he was pro football, as was Padilla. Don’t think too much damage/headway could be made in a year.

I am more wondering if Symmes can teach Quarterbacks to read a defense. It seemed Caron Tyler hardly played when in Paul’s preview , it seemed as he was their best big play threat. Throwing 4 picks on 9 drives is bad, considering turnover problem last year.

Appel quite literally led the PFL in efficiency as a RSFR. Like I said, I am very very much so hoping Fox has put together another relatively elite defense. Just wished we had seen more from the O in terms of putting the ball in the end zone and taking care of it.

Silas Mathis and Aaron Larkins were the two biggest contributors for the day outside of the QBs. Mathis was a converted CB with big NAIA offers and Larkins was 5th string at RB last year. Both could surprise but aren’t exactly guys projected to be banked on next season

A lot of what you listed came late. The 24 recruiting and xfer portal kids had already past. Ya think Brewster will be here more than one season? Sure 🙄

There are only two sports that generate butts in the seats.  And this one is not getting enough $upport to fill those seats. And the way to fill those seats is to bring in good athletes who will consistantly produce a winning record year after year. And it ain’t happening. 

i bought a Powerball ticket on Saturday.  If I win, I’ll throw a boat load to FB to make it viable. But if I don’t win, I’m afraid we will continue as is. Yet I do take solace in the fact that we are, at least, much more competitive now than in the Adams/Carlson era.   

it pains me to be so pessimistic, but I see colleges like Indiana Wesleyan with great facilities and NAIA national rankings (in both BB and FB)  and wonder why we can’t do that. 

@vulb62 well its like you said earlier. When these schools got good at one of the big name sports. The schools decided it was worthwhile to dump money into their programs. Valpo was too snooty and mighty to do so.

The Valpo football purpose is to be a lean mean money making machine to lure male students. I hate to be blunt even President Padilla has addressed it this way. 

@usc4valpo I get the programs shortcomings on a macro level but I’d rather talk about product on the field. 

We are a non scholarship football program, if our offense doesn’t produce three scores a game we are in trouble.

in terms of Indiana Wesleyan, they play 7-8 games annually that Valpo would consider ham and eggers. Easier to sell 8-10 wins as a good season than 5-6 for alumni. Valpo has beaten IWU and almost did last year with 6 (6!) turnovers.

Defensively we have a better product than IWU as is. offensively it was a disaster under Symmes last season and i was hoping for better than 1 touchdowns yesterday on 9 attempts.

In terms of alumni involvement…. Football has about 18-20 seniors on a given year , Basketball has 1 in the modern era. You can very easily do the math on donations and what would produce more money with results (with arguably less overhead costs)

Valpo had a real window to do this from 2020-2022, and instead they just went 7-25 in basketball, dropped a set of majors, and are down 50% in enrollment

Here is my writeup from the spring game.

https://www.thevictorybell.com/p/defense-dominates-annual-spring-game

As stated in the piece, there were 18 possessions in the game. A couple of these resulted in turnovers on the first play. If that happened, the QB would stay on for the next possession. Of those 18 possessions, Appel got 7, Keefe got 6 and Tyler got 5. They generally rotated every possession. Of those 18 possessions, Keefe got them into the end zone once and Appel got them into FG range (a 47-yarder) once. 

Defense was the order of the day.

TE do more than block, their value is the ability to score & get 1st downs.  Also gives the QB 3 viable players to throw to, WR, RB, TE