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Week 2: #8 SAC @ UNI

Kadeezy

Kadeezy

Active member
Hornets drop in the polls during a bye week due to some impressive wins from UIW. Can we get revenge against the 0-2 Panthers in Iowa???
 
Indeed an impressive victory for UWI (#8 Coaches FCS poll) over Nevada and SIU (#19 but not ranked wk 2), a team (UWI) that has not been the radar for most football critics but definitely will be a team to watch. If I remember correctly, a couple few years ago, we struggled for that win against UWI. Cameron Wood, sophomore, QB Washington State, was transfer from UWI in the spring. He lead the Cougars to impressive win for Wisconsin (#19).
 
RangerChase said:
Indeed an impressive victory for UWI (#8 Coaches FCS poll) over Nevada and SIU (#19 but not ranked wk 2), a team (UWI) that has not been the radar for most football critics but definitely will be a team to watch. If I remember correctly, a couple few years ago, we struggled for that win against UWI. Cameron Wood, sophomore, QB Washington State, was transfer from UWI in the spring. He lead the Cougars to impressive win for Wisconsin (#19).
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The portal has certainly made things interesting in college football, and I love it. I found it interesting that UND RB Tyler Hoosman went off against his former team, UNI, last week and made some critical runs in key situations to seal the win.
 
Week 3 - #8 Sac State at Northern Iowa

The 8th ranked Hornets (1-0, 0-0 BSC) have a tough road game coming off a bye week as they head to perennial FCS playoff contender Northern Iowa Panthers (0-2, 0-0 MVFC). UNI hosts their home opener following a big 17-41 loss at Mountain West title contender Air Force followed by a close 27-29 road loss against a tough North Dakota team last week. The Panthers will no doubt be looking to take some frustrations out on the Hornets.

Offensively, UNI looks very balanced and has playmakers at every position. With offensive coordinator Ryan Clanton in his first season orchestrating the offense, this isn’t the 3 yards and a cloud of dust style of play the Hornets saw from a year ago. Quarterback Theo Day (40/59, 620 yds, 3 TD, 2 INT) has a strong accurate arm that can stretch the field with two very talented receivers in Deion McShane (12 rec, 263 yds, 1 TD) and Sam Schnee (11 rec, 131 yds). When UNI needs to get it done on the ground, they hand the ball to running back Dom Williams (19 car, 148 yds, 2 TD) who runs behind a big and very good offensive line.

Defensively, the Panthers aren’t as strong as they were a year ago due to graduation. UNI is still trying to find its footing on this side of the ball and were unable to get a stop in crunch time to give themselves a chance at a win in Grand Forks and gave up 438 yards in the process. The Hornet offense should be able to keep the Panthers on their heels if they come out and execute. Defensive back Korby Sander (18 tak, .05 TFL) and linebacker Spencer Cuvelier (15 tkl, 1 TFL, 1 sac) lead the Panthers in tackling.

UNI has an All-American kicker in Matthew Cook (3/5 FG, 5/5 PAT) and punter Cael Loecher that has dropped 3 of his 5 punts inside the 20 with a long of 51 yards. The Panther kick coverage did give up a big return last week.

I picked UNI to win this in the preseason and I haven’t seen anything over the first couple of weeks to change my mind. This is a winnable game thanks to the explosive Hornet offense, but I’m taking a “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach to the Hornets playing a complete game against a talented MVFC program.

Stingers Up!
 
This is a toss-up. Taylor has been very good with road games.
However, the Hornet DB's are very suspect and I don't think it will be a points race, meaning UNI will play solid D and control the clock like most Midwest teams like to do. Hornet's will need to control the ball, methodical drives with no turnovers.

Panthers will be at their home opener and ready for a W, so electricity is on their side. Hornet's should be fresh, but this will be no Utah Tech defense.

Lack of penalties and turnovers will determine the winner.
If UNI QB is hitting dimes, then Hornet's lose.
 
Green Cookie Monster said:
This is a toss-up. Taylor has been very good with road games.
However, the Hornet DB's are very suspect and I don't think it will be a points race, meaning UNI will play solid D and control the clock like most Midwest teams like to do. Hornet's will need to control the ball, methodical drives with no turnovers.

Panthers will be at their home opener and ready for a W, so electricity is on their side. Hornet's should be fresh, but this will be no Utah Tech defense.

Lack of penalties and turnovers will determine the winner.
If UNI QB is hitting dimes, then Hornet's lose.
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Agree. Hornets didn't take care of the ball in last years matchup. Slim to no chance at a win if we lose the turnover battle.
 
If the secondary and special teams don’t clean stuff up, we’ll be in trouble. I picked this as a loss in the preseason, and will hear too - but hoping to be wrong!

UNI 34
Sac 28
 
People are saying this is a must win for UNI, and all of the so called experts are picking UNI as well. I think it’s a must win for Sac State, being that Sac State hasn’t beaten a MVFC team since Troy has been the coach. Need to get this monkey off the back and win, otherwise everyone will keep having doubts about Sac State nationally. But I agree, our corners need to step it up in order for us to win. UNI has even dropped out of some of polls, it’s a trap game for Sac State, we win and everyone says “Sac State is in the top 10, of course they should win” they lose and everyone says that we fold under pressure!
 
Sac_hornets said:
People are saying this is a must win for UNI, and all of the so called experts are picking UNI as well. I think it’s a must win for Sac State, being that Sac State hasn’t beaten a MVFC team since Troy has been the coach.
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How many MVFC teams have we faced? Two??
And Taylor’s only coached 2 full seasons heading into 2022.

Not exactly are large sample size or long losing streak. Or akin to Jim Harbaugh’s record against Ohio State.
 
BuckeyeHornetFan said:
Sac_hornets said:
People are saying this is a must win for UNI, and all of the so called experts are picking UNI as well. I think it’s a must win for Sac State, being that Sac State hasn’t beaten a MVFC team since Troy has been the coach.
Click to expand...

How many MVFC teams have we faced? Two??
And Taylor’s only coached 2 full seasons heading into 2022.

Not exactly are large sample size or long losing streak. Or akin to Jim Harbaugh’s record against Ohio State.
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Yeah, 0-2 against MVFC teams, not a large sample size, but most likely a conference we would face in the playoffs.

Jim Harbaugh has been at Michigan since 2015.

We have had two very successful seasons under coach Taylor, but the biggest road blocks has been the MVFC teams.

I’m just saying if we want to progress from where we have been, then you need to get through the MVFC teams eventually. Can’t just keep winning against BSC teams and be content.

You know they have the MVFC BSC Challenge Series and Sac State needs to pull it’s weight lol.

https://twitter.com/fcs_stats/status/1476595937518698511?s=46&t=XiIup3lRByF-Ouch9uIdOA
 
So, we are 3 point underdogs. I’m staying with UNI 34 SAC 28. Have to unless we see drastic improvement from the defense and ST.

I foresee us going to Colorado State next week ranked somewhere in the 15-18 range, and 10 point dogs to the Rams.
 
Kadeezy said:
So, we are 3 point underdogs. I’m staying with UNI 34 SAC 28. Have to unless we see drastic improvement from the defense and ST.

I foresee us going to Colorado State next week ranked somewhere in the 15-18 range, and 10 point dogs to the Rams.
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100% agree that we need to see a big improvement on the D, or we lose, I think it’s mostly our pass coverage. To me, this weeks game is more important than the Colorado St game, pollsters will give more weight to us losing against UNI rather a FBS team.
 
Info and tracking for the team's flight from Sac to Waterloo, Iowa: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/id/AAY4121-1663350355-9-0-101
 
Kadeezy said:
So, we are 3 point underdogs. I’m staying with UNI 34 SAC 28. Have to unless we see drastic improvement from the defense and ST.

I foresee us going to Colorado State next week ranked somewhere in the 15-18 range, and 10 point dogs to the Rams.
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Skattebo is worth the 3 point delta.
Jomby says it will come down to turnovers and Theo Day being on point.
Homer refs will also be biased.
 
Of course there's not a large sample size against MVFC teams, there's only 3 OOC games a year. Bigger stat is both losses coming at home, and one was in the playoffs. Taylor has yet to lose an FCS game on the road or beat an MVFC opponent, one of those streaks gets broken this weekend. Hopefully it's the latter.
 
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