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2016 season

A

Alan1

Active member
From the 10/6 Tribune: After a cold start PSU Vikings warm up.

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/326273-201381-after-cold-start-psu-vikings-warm-up
 
If we can get a road win with the next two at home, it would be huge. Need to play mistake free football.

I'm headed down south this weekend to watch my daughter's school battle UNLV, but I have a feeling my eyes may be stuck to my phone getting updates on how we're doing.
 
Good read on Barnum in the Deseret News, courtesy of Brad Rock.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865664194/Brad-Rock-Football-and-fun-Portland-State-coach-shows-they-can-coexist.html

Don't worry, he didn't call Ogden "Whoville" this time.
 
Hoping now to get two more wins. I'm completely confused by the play calling still. Before the game Barnum said PSU would continue to run first. Then they came out throwing. The line got manhandled by their defense all day. This is going to be a long season. Who would have thought? I thought after the schedule they played last season, this schedule looked to be very favorable to the Viks. Oh how wrong I was.
 
GreenGiant said:
I thought after the schedule they played last season, this schedule looked to be very favorable to the Viks. Oh how wrong I was.
Click to expand...

The schedule did look easier in the preseason but there have been some changes that made it just as formidable as last season.
1. Washington has emerged as a strong, legitimate contender to the Pac-12 title that decreased our chances of getting a momentum creating FBS win (they beat the Ducks worse than they beat us).
2. Cal Poly and EWU are two contenders for the title and we play both. NAU and North Dakota are not and we don't play them. At the start, it would have been difficult to put Poly and EWU near the top, and NAU and UND not at the top.
3. Our two toughest conference road games (Southern Utah and Weber State) were at the beginning of our conference season. Last year, our toughest conference road game was at the end of the year (EWU).
4, Five conference opponents play the Viks after having a bye week the previous week, giving them two weeks to prepare for us. Last year, no one had an extra week to prepare for us.
 
bigskyconf said:
GreenGiant said:
I thought after the schedule they played last season, this schedule looked to be very favorable to the Viks. Oh how wrong I was.
Click to expand...

The schedule did look easier in the preseason but there have been some changes that made it just as formidable as last season.
1. Washington has emerged as a strong, legitimate contender to the Pac-12 title that decreased our chances of getting a momentum creating FBS win (they beat the Ducks worse than they beat us).
2. Cal Poly and EWU are two contenders for the title and we play both. NAU and North Dakota are not and we don't play them. At the start, it would have been difficult to put Poly and EWU near the top, and NAU and UND not at the top.
3. Our two toughest conference road games (Southern Utah and Weber State) were at the beginning of our conference season. Last year, our toughest conference road game was at the end of the year (EWU).
4, Five conference opponents play the Viks after having a bye week the previous week, giving them two weeks to prepare for us. Last year, no one had an extra week to prepare for us.
Click to expand...

you make excellent points. Especially #4. I made the same comment to my wife yesterday. Also, how many games do we play against opponents that are "Home Coming". Maybe not a huge thing, except that the atmosphere is more amped up in the beginning of the game.
 
GreenGiant said:
bigskyconf said:
GreenGiant said:
I thought after the schedule they played last season, this schedule looked to be very favorable to the Viks. Oh how wrong I was.
Click to expand...

The schedule did look easier in the preseason but there have been some changes that made it just as formidable as last season.
1. Washington has emerged as a strong, legitimate contender to the Pac-12 title that decreased our chances of getting a momentum creating FBS win (they beat the Ducks worse than they beat us).
2. Cal Poly and EWU are two contenders for the title and we play both. NAU and North Dakota are not and we don't play them. At the start, it would have been difficult to put Poly and EWU near the top, and NAU and UND not at the top.
3. Our two toughest conference road games (Southern Utah and Weber State) were at the beginning of our conference season. Last year, our toughest conference road game was at the end of the year (EWU).
4, Five conference opponents play the Viks after having a bye week the previous week, giving them two weeks to prepare for us. Last year, no one had an extra week to prepare for us.
Click to expand...

you make excellent points. Especially #4. I made the same comment to my wife yesterday. Also, how many games do we play against opponents that are "Home Coming". Maybe not a huge thing, except that the atmosphere is more amped up in the beginning of the game.
Click to expand...

I don't want to make it sound like excuses. We've also seen an increase in turnovers and penalties this year. That also doesn't help.
 
Frankly,I was not expecting us to have the level of success we had last year. Barnum inherited some good players left over from the Burton years who under Barnum's leadership jelled and reached their full potential, but then they graduated, leaving lots of holes that will be hard to fill (it will be a long time before we get another "Peanut"). We lost a lot of good players and the injury bug has hit us hard this season with some key starters out for the season we have had to put younger less experienced players into the holes and it shows.

Bruce has always said, his primary goal was to build a program and given the kudos he received last year helped. I think he is well on the start to do that, and given time will continue to do so.
 
GreenGiant said:
...I'm completely confused by the play calling still. Before the game Barnum said PSU would continue to run first. Then they came out throwing. The line got manhandled by their defense all day. This is going to be a long season...
Click to expand...

I appreciate @Casey positive attitude but it won't solve some core issues we seem to have. The Oline did get pushed around again. We got overconfident playing a very weal ISU. We seem to be getting worse not better. Not sure if that is due to our personnel or to brand new young coaches. We need to play the line we had against Washington. That game looks better as time goes on. Defense looks better...but thank goodness for Seisay. Without a couple injuries defense could have been even better. And honestly Alex is having a tough year. Something about playing on the road maybe???

Barnum did inherit some good players. I think his laid back approach helped them to excel last year. Now what? I truly believe we have the talent to compete. Here's hoping the coaches can be brutally honest with themselves and fix this. All the fun road trip plans don't help much when your players stop believing...
 
bigskyconf said:
GreenGiant said:
I thought after the schedule they played last season, this schedule looked to be very favorable to the Viks. Oh how wrong I was.
Click to expand...

The schedule did look easier in the preseason but there have been some changes that made it just as formidable as last season.
1. Washington has emerged as a strong, legitimate contender to the Pac-12 title that decreased our chances of getting a momentum creating FBS win (they beat the Ducks worse than they beat us).
2. Cal Poly and EWU are two contenders for the title and we play both. NAU and North Dakota are not and we don't play them. At the start, it would have been difficult to put Poly and EWU near the top, and NAU and UND not at the top.
3. Our two toughest conference road games (Southern Utah and Weber State) were at the beginning of our conference season. Last year, our toughest conference road game was at the end of the year (EWU).
4, Five conference opponents play the Viks after having a bye week the previous week, giving them two weeks to prepare for us. Last year, no one had an extra week to prepare for us.
Click to expand...

How is UND not a contender for the title? 3-0 in conference play, and already beat Cal-Poly ... not sure I understand that.
 
GreenGiant said:
bigskyconf said:
GreenGiant said:
I thought after the schedule they played last season, this schedule looked to be very favorable to the Viks. Oh how wrong I was.
Click to expand...

The schedule did look easier in the preseason but there have been some changes that made it just as formidable as last season.
1. Washington has emerged as a strong, legitimate contender to the Pac-12 title that decreased our chances of getting a momentum creating FBS win (they beat the Ducks worse than they beat us).
2. Cal Poly and EWU are two contenders for the title and we play both. NAU and North Dakota are not and we don't play them. At the start, it would have been difficult to put Poly and EWU near the top, and NAU and UND not at the top.
3. Our two toughest conference road games (Southern Utah and Weber State) were at the beginning of our conference season. Last year, our toughest conference road game was at the end of the year (EWU).
4, Five conference opponents play the Viks after having a bye week the previous week, giving them two weeks to prepare for us. Last year, no one had an extra week to prepare for us.
Click to expand...

you make excellent points. Especially #4. I made the same comment to my wife yesterday. Also, how many games do we play against opponents that are "Home Coming". Maybe not a huge thing, except that the atmosphere is more amped up in the beginning of the game.
Click to expand...

I think point number four is something that the Big Sky should ensure doesn't happen to any program in the conference. Five games of opponents having two weeks to prepare against you seems a bit excessive.
 
martymoose said:
I think point number four is something that the Big Sky should ensure doesn't happen to any program in the conference. Five games of opponents having two weeks to prepare against you seems a bit excessive.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Smells fishy to me, as if someone was setting us up after a good year...
 
The bigger problems are undisciplined play (read turnovers and penalties), the lack of an overall offensive scheme, and other worldly play calling.
 
Alan said:
The bigger problems are undisciplined play (read turnovers and penalties), the lack of an overall offensive scheme, and other worldly play calling.
Click to expand...

We've had bouts of what you mention all year long, but looking back at the Weber State game, we just didn't make the plays when we needed to (well, other than Seisay) in order to come home with a win.

- Win turnover battle, check (zero turnovers for us over the last two games)

- 1st downs off of penalty for WSU, one (drive didn't result in a score for WSU)

- Out gain opponent, check

- Hold WSU under 100 yards passing, check

If one were to just look at the stats of this game, probably nine out of ten would say we're coming home 2-1 in conference with a big home game this weekend. Who knows, perhaps I'm just not giving Weber State credit.

It's like we don't have the 'mojo' that we had last season. Well, I think we have it, but for some reason it seems like either the 'mo' or the 'jo' gets left out of the equipment bag on most Saturdays.

Frustrating.
 
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