YSU vs Illinois

[IAA Fan]

I certainly cannot blame a defense that held Illinois to 7-points. The problem was that we did not put this game away when we had the chance ...the first half. Three field goals should have been 21-points.  Not 9. Then it was just a matter of time before Illinois caught fire. However, we would have had 17 second half points ...making the final score 38-27. That is still giving up the bonehead plays like the punt misfire and the wide-opened receiver because of blown coverage. Honestly this game should have 38-17 Good guys.

[Penguin Nation]

I think that if IL were a MVFC school, they'd likely finish around fourth, maybe even fifth if SIU has a good year (They came closer to beating IL last year than we did).

If we had UNI on our schedule this year, I'd have a gloomier feeling about our playoff hopes.  The SIU game in October is looming huge and likely will decide the fate of the post-season if the other games  turn out as expected.

We made mistakes today, but IL made more.  I wouldn't have passed the ball much more either given the size and speed of the IL secondary and our breaking in a new QB.  The YSU rush defense was strong but the secondary is again exposed as the Achilles heel. 

[paladin]

Nothing surprised me today. Expected YSU to lose. But they  had a good first half to keep it close. As expected, we don't have much QB help and the D continues to have problems. YSU will win the next 3 weenie games. Some will think they look good then . However, the real YSU team of FCS won't be known until the MVFC opener. Next 3 games should be used to build depth and play everyone as the scores will be lop-sided.

[ValleyTalk]

Weenie games? Duquesne lead Buffalo 28-24 before the Bulls scored the final 14 points to win 38-28. Buffalo may not be good, but Duquesne gave an FBS school all it could handle.

Next game will pose a challenge, but we should definitely win.

[paladin]

Valley Talk says "Buffalo may not be good ". Then says "But we should definitely win ". Buffalo  is awful now.

Dukes aren't very good.  Partial schollie school. Translation = weenie game.

Nania  is going to look good ! 

[Wick250]

It is always best to wait a day before reacting to a football game. 

This team is ridiculously young and inexperienced.  Under the circumstances, we played well.  This has "rebuilding year" plastered all over it.  After the failures with veteran teams in 2012 and 2013, we don't want to hear that.  But it is reality.

Nania reminds me of Jared Zwick.  Good athlete, good running ability, probably lacking the height to sustain a vertical passing game.  Nania is listed as 6' on the roster.  Anybody believe that?  Tressel eventually used Zwick as a "change-of-pace" quarterback on a few possessions and as a serviceable utility player.  That is the role that I wish Wolford would select for Nania. 

A Big Ten team that specializes in vertical passing and  runs a very fast paced offense is the worst nightmare for our defense.  We contained Illinois for three quarters before they overwhelmed us.  How could we not be pleased about that?

In his fifth year as a head coach, we should expect that Wolford would stop choking at critical times.  He admitted his error in judgment on that punt in today's paper.  Obviously, that debacle jump-started Illinois' offense.  We will never know if they would have found that groove had we just punted that ball in a traditional fashion.

That punt obscures the sequence that bothered me the most about this game.  Here we are with the lead against Illinois in the final minutes of the third quarter.  We have second and a short two from about mid-field.  I was dreaming of a touchdown drive that could have won the game.  So what do we do; run it up the middle twice and get stuffed, which set the stage for that stupid punt.  Shades of Klacik in that play-calling.

[paladin]

Coach Wick  -- heres the thing..... YSU hadn't played badly leading a bad BCS school 9-7, second half and faced a 2nd and short at mid-field. If you had an average QB its perfect time for play action pass and throw  for two yds.   and look to hit a home run play and bust the game wide open.  Your QB might even have an opportunity to fake the pass and run for 2 or more yds. But , you are an underdog FCS team, on the road playing a B1G team, awful as they are, and get conservative trying to make 2 yds on 2 runs. Doable. Why gamble ? You have controlled time of possession, even with a less than average QB.  But they fail at gaining 2 yds on 2 run plays.  Still in position for an upset.  Then, he shouldn't have gambled on the option run/punt. Punt, put them in long field and try to let your D hold them. At that point, its almost the 4th qtr and all Illinois had was one TD so far. YSU's D, whjile not great, was getting the job done.

He didn't gamble when he should have and gambled when he shouldn't. Up to that point, an upset was in the making.  That's what a young and inexperienced team with lesser players playing on the road as an underdog will do to a coach's  judgment.

And , yes, I've tried to warn everyone it s a rebuilding year. Young, inexperienced at QB and the OL and some questions on D.  But, that's why you play the game.

[Dmorton]

I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but the botched punt at the 50-line with only less than a yard to go should tell exactly how this season will go.  After the three weenie games, I see no better that a 500-record the rest of the way which gives us a 7-5 record at best.  Losses to SDSU, NDSU, SIU, and maybe even maybe Miss St. on the road or SD will doom us.  There has been many time where Coach W has outcoached himself which he did yesterday.  A win yesterday may have got us to play-offs, now I don't see how. Even Ind. St. will give us a ton of trouble.  And, anyone who thinks we won't lose three games, and maybe four in this league are living a pipe dream.  I'm sorry, but as one poster indicated, this is a rebuilding year.

[ysufan0505]

I think the defense will be very much improved but with Nania at QB, I mean judging from what I saw yesterday.... If we can't run the ball effectively, it's gonna be a loooooong season. And did anybody realize that Ruiz carried the ball almost 40 times yesterday??? Yikes. How about a little break for the kid. He's gonna be done by week 7.

[Dmorton]

Agreed!  We got other capable running backs that need some playing time.  Again Woffold needs to build some depth for the long haul.  Not just at rb position, but everywhere, and I'm not counting what should amount to three scrimmage games.

[Wick250]

Webb missed the second half with heat exhaustion, according to the Vindicator.  Some of Ruiz' carries would have gone to him.  He is a primary weapon.  Hymes and Moore got only a few carries.

[penguinpower]

I waited a few days and watched the game again just to try to get a better understanding of what I saw.  Here is what I took away from this game:

Wolford has improved as a coach by taking the field goals.  Not sure he does this comparing his decision making from a few years ago.  He still needs to work on his liberal use of time outs especially in the second half.  They had a good game plan and he remained patient with the run having an inexperienced QB.   This kid may have better skills than Hess, but there is a reason he didn't start and it may have to do with his ability to read the defense.   The kid throws a pretty good ball.

The defensive line performance shocked me.  Where did that come from?   I have not seen a YSU DL get into the backfield of an opponent since 2006.  Where has that been?  The LB'S played  the run well and showed some improvement but struggled at times to read the intermediate pass or better yet be in position to make a play when intermediate passes were thrown.

The secondary play has improved at the corner position.  There were times that our corners were all over their receivers and in position to make a play.  However I still do not understand how the safety we have is still starting.  He clearly does not belong at this level and that is not a knock on him personally.  I liked the fact that the defense was trying to strip the ball out on every play, but it affected tackling at times.  Their stripping efforts made Illinois put the ball on the ground 3 times. Unfortunately we only got one to go our way.

There were a couple of things that may have changed the game.  We had a dropped pick six early in the game.  Then it appeared we forced a fumble on a reception but they called an incomplete pass. I reviewed it at home and it could have gone either way (not to contradict myself but our safety was involved in this play). Then we had the TD called back for illegal man down field which was unfortunate because the player was not a factor in the outcome of the broken play that we were able to score on.  Finally the butt punt.  Well I liked the idea of it but I think when you want to run a fake it shouldn't be an option.   You are either in or out not an option to fake.

The kicker is much slower than Liste and it may hurt us later in the year.  He needs to speed up the time it takes him to get the punt off. Way way too long.  Other teams will come after us here.

With such a young OL I was not expecting us to push them around like we did.  Make that on both sides of the ball.  As we all know the game is won and lost in the trenches and it appears we are capable.   We started running out of steam in the 4th qtr and that is why we could not hold them offf. Their scholarships started to show up about halfway through the 4th.  This is a huge improvement over years past.  It happen a full quarter earlier 5 years ago.

I was not expecting a close game with a new QB and a retooled OL considering the history of our defensive woes under Wolford,  however, they gave Illinois all they could handle and they should have won the game. 

Message to Wolford:   it wasn't that you made the wrong call not to go for it on 4th and 1 at midfield,  you made the wrong play call.  The field goals kept you in the game and got you more than half of your point total.  Don't go back to high stakes gambling I thought you managed the game well and I also noticed a marked improvement with your sideline behavior with the refs and the kids.

Overall we are not as good on offense as we were last year, but we have potential to develop.  We could be pretty good by end of year.  We appear to be much better on defense.  And we are not as good on special teams.  Looks like we are very well rounded at this point.  No glaring deficiencies just nothing that stands out. But we beat a the he'll out of them statistically for 3.5 quarters.....them being a B1G team. We also forced them to eat our game plan.  They couldn't get us off the field at times.

Could be an interesting season since we don't have to play all 3 powers in the Missouri Valley.

I watched NDSU.  Wow.  They are impressive.  They looked better than last year.   They are clearly the team to beat.  They look how we looked back in the 1990's.  Men against boys.  They should be ranked in the top 25 in the BCS. They could be top 10?  They were faster and bigger than Iowa State.  Iowa State looked like the FCS team.  NDSU smashed them and it wasn't even competitive.

[ELPENGUIN]

Coach, you must replace your free safety. He had not shown much over his injured years. Find someone who can play the position and I mean not just "trying to make tackles". 

[IAA Fan]

As Wick and Power said ...it is best to wait. Here is my take:

1) Nania is your starter, with Garry at #2 ...Davis #3. All of this could change ...but only at #2 and #3 ...Nania is your starter.

2) Blown punt was a terribly executed play and an even worse call to begin with. Yes it was Wolf's call; he took it like a man. Did not cost us the game. We gave two up very short field positions.

3) The offense's inability to score TD's cost us the game ... 9-21 = -12 points in the first-half alone.

4) Inability of the secondary to cover the big passes,as Illinois did not move the ball well against us at al. In Short ...Illinois is a TERRIBLE football team. Would not even be close to upper half of the MVFC; not even close. We need to improve dramatically to be a post-season team. That Illinois QB was afraid to challenge our secondary, as we keep-up well, but the teams in our own league will not be fooled; as with last year ...they will throw all day against us.

5) D line play much improved ...Kromah was in there all day ...just could not get to the QB. Caoch will work on that ...he is going to be a stud by conference play.

6) Ryan Moore is the real deal ...bigger and more powerful. I hope for him to step up to #1 spot very soon. Does not have the "eyes" of Ruiz though ...I hope that comes.

All-in-all, I was very happy with the play against a bigger team, but that score would have been lopsided against us, had that QB caught fire before the 4th. We have a lot of work to do ...we have play-makers ...but let's see if a team shows up the next 3-weeks. Great job guys, I had to let one get away like that; but it is Monday. Time for week 2.

[ysufan0505]

As Wick and Power said ...it is best to wait. Here is my take:

1) Nania is your starter, with Garry at #2 ...Davis #3. All of this could change ...but only at #2 and #3 ...Nania is your starter.

2) Blown punt was a terribly executed play and an even worse call to begin with. Yes it was Wolf's call; he took it like a man. Did not cost us the game. We gave two up very short field positions.

3) The offense's inability to score TD's cost us the game ... 9-21 = -12 points in the first-half alone.

4) Inability of the secondary to cover the big passes,as Illinois did not move the ball well against us at al. In Short ...Illinois is a TERRIBLE football team. Would not even be close to upper half of the MVFC; not even close. We need to improve dramatically to be a post-season team. That Illinois QB was afraid to challenge our secondary, as we keep-up well, but the teams in our own league will not be fooled; as with last year ...they will throw all day against us.

5) D line play much improved ...Kromah was in there all day ...just could not get to the QB. Caoch will work on that ...he is going to be a stud by conference play.

6) Ryan Moore is the real deal ...bigger and more powerful. I hope for him to step up to #1 spot very soon. Does not have the "eyes" of Ruiz though ...I hope that comes.

All-in-all, I was very happy with the play against a bigger team, but that score would have been lopsided against us, had that QB caught fire before the 4th. We have a lot of work to do ...we have play-makers ...but let's see if a team shows up the next 3-weeks. Great job guys, I had to let one get away like that; but it is Monday. Time for week 2.

I-AA, I agree with all your points except for 3! Garry is so far buried on the depth chart, he will never see the field this year. 3 solid QB's ahead of him. I think Moore should be the #2 back behind Ruiz, like you said he's big and powerful and can get those short yardage gains. Ruiz is the starter and will remain that way for however long he's here at YSU. The last point I disagree with, the butt punt most certainly cost us the game. That play changed momentum whole way around. Illini got swagger after the block, if you can even call it that. Went right down and scored and then Uncle Mo was fully on Illinois side, especially offensively. Cannot make those mistakes.