Thoughts on Western Illinois and Wisconsin

[D1B]

Had a great time at this game and while the score may not reflect it, Western Illinois did 1AA proud in Madison last Saturday. Camp Randall is a very tough place to play and with 90,000 in attendance, Western stuck it to the Badgers.

The Neck defense was on the field way too long early as the Badgers didn't punt till well into the second quarter. Still, they got to Stocco (UW QB) at least a dozen times. A few in the press box were calling for Bielema to take him out in the middle of the 2nd Q for fear that he was going to get injured. A couple times it was obvious that he did get rocked. Western compensated for an undersized line with creative blitz packages and rocked Stocco.

Western did not give up at all and man can they hit!

A big eat **** to the majority of Badger players who ran off the field without shaking hands. Classless act from a team that got throttled and looked terrible in their home opener.

La Falce looked good at times but hurried some throws that resulted in turnovers. In the beginning of the 4th quarter, WIU was still alive. An interception in the endzone and a loss of downs on the 5 yard line dashed any chance.

Neck showed no fear.

Western fans were great and I met a few parents of players. They had nothing but great things to say about Patterson and the program. "They believed in my son even after he got injured" "They really helped my son out when he was having a tough time"... I guess they can be expected to say as such but I've heard other parents rag on coaches of other teams.

In the post game press conference three Western players were respectful, confident yet humble, intelligent and well spoken. All these indicators of the future of their program - character first. Patterson was the same. A class act indeed.

There is no doubt that Western is on it's way back.

(Thanks to the Jones' for all the shots at the Gridiron! Good luck to you)

[Cap'n Cat]

Had a great time at this game and while the score may not reflect it, Western Illinois did 1AA proud in Madison last Saturday. Camp Randall is a very tough place to play and with 90,000 in attendance, Western stuck it to the Badgers.

The Neck defense was on the field way too long early as the Badgers didn't punt till well into the second quarter. Still, they got to Stocco (UW QB) at least a dozen times. A few in the press box were calling for Bielema to take him out in the middle of the 2nd Q for fear that he was going to get injured. A couple times it was obvious that he did get rocked. Western compensated for an undersized line with creative blitz packages and rocked Stocco.

Western did not give up at all and man can they hit!

A big eat **** to the majority of Badger players who ran off the field without shaking hands. Classless act from a team that got throttled and looked terrible in their home opener.

La Falce looked good at times but hurried some throws that resulted in turnovers. In the beginning of the 4th quarter, WIU was still alive. An interception in the endzone and a loss of downs on the 5 yard line dashed any chance.

Neck showed no fear.

Western fans were great and I met a few parents of players. They had nothing but great things to say about Patterson and the program. "They believed in my son even after he got injured" "They really helped my son out when he was having a tough time"... I guess they can be expected to say as such but I've heard other parents rag on coaches of other teams.

In the post game press conference three Western players were respectful, confident yet humble, intelligent and well spoken. All these indicators of the future of their program - character first. Patterson was the same. A class act indeed.

There is no doubt that Western is on it's way back.

(Thanks to the Jones' for all the shots at the Gridiron! Good luck to you)


Attaboys to Western Illinois U's football program and fans!!

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

[UNI MadCat]

Had a great time at this game and while the score may not reflect it, Western Illinois did 1AA proud in Madison last Saturday. Camp Randall is a very tough place to play and with 90,000 in attendance, Western stuck it to the Badgers.

The Neck defense was on the field way too long early as the Badgers didn't punt till well into the second quarter. Still, they got to Stocco (UW QB) at least a dozen times. A few in the press box were calling for Bielema to take him out in the middle of the 2nd Q for fear that he was going to get injured. A couple times it was obvious that he did get rocked. Western compensated for an undersized line with creative blitz packages and rocked Stocco.

Western did not give up at all and man can they hit!

Wow, what a difference perspective makes!! I'm a UW alum (grad school, went to UNI for undergrad -- so I had a tough day!!). I too was at the game and have some different thoughts on what I saw.

First off, 80,000 fans, not 90,000. Not that big of a deal, but your attention to detail at the beginning taints your credibility right away.

"Stuck it to the Badgers"?? I guess I'm curious how you can get beat by 24 and wouldn't have scored if it weren't for two incredibly bone-head plays by VERY inexperienced back-ups and still stick it to someone? Minton's fumble on the opening kickoff was unexcusable and credit should be given to WIU for knocking it loose. But your last touchdown was a gift from a terribly inexperienced back-up QB who lofted the ball up for your defender to pick and take easily to the house. Again, good play by WIU but I feel like you shouldn't get carried away and think you did anything to "stick it" to them.

I'm curious as how you would define "got to" in terms of Stocco??? A dozen times?? Yes, there was some pressure but you sacked him once. I think you are referring more to the plays at the end of the game where the 2nd & 3rd string o-line imploded with penalties and you got to Donovan two times. It was when we were moving backwards the whole time and your fans finally had something to cheer about and, conversely, a majority of UW fans had left. I mean, it was cool for them and all, but, again, lets not get carried away thinking that you did much here as the only "rocking" you caused occurred when players with little or no experience were in the game. Also, Stocco's last play where your guy "got to" him on a hit, he thru a 49-yard TD pass. So, again, depends on your perspective.

I think you have to remember that the rumblings about taking Stocco out had less to do with WIU then about the man himself. No disrespect but the guy just had surgery 3-4 weeks ago and so there are a lot of people who didn't want him playing. My point is, I dont think it had anything to do with the "rocking" WIU was putting on him and more to do with, "ok, its 20-3 at half, John got a little work in but now it would be nice to sit him so he's safe for upcoming games." Sorry, but that's what it was.

As for this...


A big eat **** to the majority of Badger players who ran off the field without shaking hands. Classless act from a team that got throttled and looked terrible in their home opener.

This appears to be one of those classic, "I'm going to post this on here and no one who actually knows anything about it will be around to call me on it (or care enough) so I'll just say it," lines. For years both teams have exited Camp Randall stadium in tunnels adjacent to each other, now the tunnels have been changed with the renovation and they are on exact opposite ends of the stadium so you really go the opposite way when you leave and this has an effect on some of it. In truth, I noticed that there were just as many guys on your team that didn't shake hands but I never once thought, "oh, what a lack of respect/class" its just that the logistics dont lend itself to as many people being near eachother. That's it, nothing more. I saw plenty of people on both teams that were shaking hands and, in fact, I saw Bielema and your coach standing in the middle and talking for a good amount of time and thought that was cool. So before you go off making these idiotic assertions, make sure no one is around to refute them.

In general, I thought the WIU performance was more than respectful and made me a little curious as to why they were picked to finish so poorly this year. I think you guys have more talent than people realize and it made me a little nervous for the UNI game (and after our loss to UND, who wouldn't be nervous now?). It also confirmed my suspicions about the Badgers that they aren't going to dominate on defense and that the hype by the media is unnecessary. In truth, I dont see this as more than an 8-win UW team this year.

[Cap'n Cat]

Wow, what a difference perspective makes!! I'm a UW alum (grad school, went to UNI for undergrad -- so I had a tough day!!). I too was at the game and have some different thoughts on what I saw.

First off, 80,000 fans, not 90,000. Not that big of a deal, but your attention to detail at the beginning taints your credibility right away.

"Stuck it to the Badgers"?? I guess I'm curious how you can get beat by 24 and wouldn't have scored if it weren't for two incredibly bone-head plays by VERY inexperienced back-ups and still stick it to someone? Minton's fumble on the opening kickoff was unexcusable and credit should be given to WIU for knocking it loose. But your last touchdown was a gift from a terribly inexperienced back-up QB who lofted the ball up for your defender to pick and take easily to the house. Again, good play by WIU but I feel like you shouldn't get carried away and think you did anything to "stick it" to them.

I'm curious as how you would define "got to" in terms of Stocco??? A dozen times?? Yes, there was some pressure but you sacked him once. I think you are referring more to the plays at the end of the game where the 2nd & 3rd string o-line imploded with penalties and you got to Donovan two times. It was when we were moving backwards the whole time and your fans finally had something to cheer about and, conversely, a majority of UW fans had left. I mean, it was cool for them and all, but, again, lets not get carried away thinking that you did much here as the only "rocking" you caused occurred when players with little or no experience were in the game. Also, Stocco's last play where your guy "got to" him on a hit, he thru a 49-yard TD pass. So, again, depends on your perspective.

I think you have to remember that the rumblings about taking Stocco out had less to do with WIU then about the man himself. No disrespect but the guy just had surgery 3-4 weeks ago and so there are a lot of people who didn't want him playing. My point is, I dont think it had anything to do with the "rocking" WIU was putting on him and more to do with, "ok, its 20-3 at half, John got a little work in but now it would be nice to sit him so he's safe for upcoming games." Sorry, but that's what it was.

As for this...



This appears to be one of those classic, "I'm going to post this on here and no one who actually knows anything about it will be around to call me on it (or care enough) so I'll just say it," lines. For years both teams have exited Camp Randall stadium in tunnels adjacent to each other, now the tunnels have been changed with the renovation and they are on exact opposite ends of the stadium so you really go the opposite way when you leave and this has an effect on some of it. In truth, I noticed that there were just as many guys on your team that didn't shake hands but I never once thought, "oh, what a lack of respect/class" its just that the logistics dont lend itself to as many people being near eachother. That's it, nothing more. I saw plenty of people on both teams that were shaking hands and, in fact, I saw Bielema and your coach standing in the middle and talking for a good amount of time and thought that was cool. So before you go off making these idiotic assertions, make sure no one is around to refute them.

In general, I thought the WIU performance was more than respectful and made me a little curious as to why they were picked to finish so poorly this year. I think you guys have more talent than people realize and it made me a little nervous for the UNI game (and after our loss to UND, who wouldn't be nervous now?). It also confirmed my suspicions about the Badgers that they aren't going to dominate on defense and that the hype by the media is unnecessary. In truth, I dont see this as more than an 8-win UW team this year.


What started out as a positive thread....................


D?

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[UNI MadCat]

It was brought to my attention that I may have been too harsh in my response to this thread. I saw it as having two options, amend my statements or just apologize. I'm not one to hide and cover up, so I'll leave my original post there untouched so you can decide for yourself if I was wrong.

I do wan to apologize for going a bit over the top here. As I explained to the aforementioned individual, I am a former instructor at UW and have former students that play on the team and coach as grad assistants, so to say that I have a bias towards them is an understatement and perhaps I am a little sensitive to the "classless" accusation by the poster who started this topic. I dare say that most of you would be if you read something like this about the team you root for (regardless of the 1A/1AA distinction). Anyway, I took that and used it as fuel to my post disecting the rest of the points in his thread and for that I'm sorry and will say I overreacted.

Apologies.

[birdsflyhigh]

Have to agree with UNI Madhat in that I'm suprised how WIU's 24 point throw down by the UW Badgers is being painted as remarkable game for the Leathernecks. Think WIU may have been underated by a few before the season started. I am bewildered though that WKU (a team ranked close to WIU in the Gateway) travels to top 10 ranked Georgia Bulldogs and losses by 34 and it's just looked on as a "big payout" loss.

WIU beats an awful Morehead St. team and gets sounded defeated by the Badgers, while WKU looses to a VERY good Georgia team, and gets beaten in the last minute and a half in a road game to their arch rival ( and I-AA ranked) EKU Colonels. And where does that lead us? WIU still getting quite a few votes, while WKU is completely shut out.

Guess it's all in one's perspective. I do know that I respect BOTH WIU and WKU and think the Gateway is going to be an incredible battle between the top 6 teams. Should be VERY interesting each Saturday! :rotateh:

[D1B]

It was brought to my attention that I may have been too harsh in my response to this thread. I saw it as having two options, amend my statements or just apologize. I'm not one to hide and cover up, so I'll leave my original post there untouched so you can decide for yourself if I was wrong.

I do wan to apologize for going a bit over the top here. As I explained to the aforementioned individual, I am a former instructor at UW and have former students that play on the team and coach as grad assistants, so to say that I have a bias towards them is an understatement and perhaps I am a little sensitive to the "classless" accusation by the poster who started this topic. I dare say that most of you would be if you read something like this about the team you root for (regardless of the 1A/1AA distinction). Anyway, I took that and used it as fuel to my post disecting the rest of the points in his thread and for that I'm sorry and will say I overreacted.

Apologies.

No apology necessary, ever. I respect your opinion, however I stand by the following:

Stocco got hit alot, alot. Yes, sacked once, but I didn't say sacked, I said hit. He's a great QB cuz he can get rid of the ball and not make mistakes, but he got drilled a quite a few times after getting rid of it.

The whole point of my post was that WIU made a great effort and actually hung with the Badgers. Game was closer than the score. That's all. With a few breaks and things could have been different. In your opinion, the Badgers played bad - fine. I think they underestimated the Necks a bit and the Necks made them look bad. Apparantly, I'm not the only one:

"Indeed, Bielma's home debut was one of those games where the losers walked away feeling better about themselves than the winners" Wisconsin State Journal , Tom Oates

"Hopefully , it was just a momentary lapse after UW's encouraging performance (against Bowling Green)...But it's a potential long-term problem when your quarterback has to be scraped off the turf after throwing a touchdown pass, when your defense catched the ball better than your offense, when a team from another football universe nearly plays you to a statistical standoff and when an underdog comes into your stadium and dominates large portions of the second half" - Wisconsin State Journal 9/10/06

"We shouldn't let John(Stocco) be taking that many hits" - Starting fullback Bill Rentmeester in the Wisconsin State Journal

A vast majority of the Wisconsin players ran off the field w/o shaking hands. I know that because I was on the field, and walked with WIU to center. Classless, sorry. Lafalce, I believe, alluded to this in the post game press conference, which I attended. With all due respect, your comment that just as many Necks leaving the field without shaking hands is a downright false.: smh :

In fact:


This appears to be one of those classic, "I'm going to post this on here and no one who actually knows anything about it will be around to call me on it (or care enough) so I'll just say it," lines. For years both teams have exited Camp Randall stadium in tunnels adjacent to each other, now the tunnels have been changed with the renovation and they are on exact opposite ends of the stadium so you really go the opposite way when you leave and this has an effect on some of it. In truth, I noticed that there were just as many guys on your team that didn't shake hands but I never once thought, "oh, what a lack of respect/class" its just that the logistics dont lend itself to as many people being near eachother.

is pure crap. Did you actually read this before you posted it. : smh :

You shake hands after the game no matter where the tunnels are. I've seen this **** before - lower division team plays well or beats big time school and big time schools runs off the field. When I played for Northern Iowa in the mid 80's, we went down to Kansas State and beat em pretty good, same ****, they ran off the field. Lack of class, elitism, tunnels too far away, I don't know but it looked bad.

Wisconsin kids are good kids, no doubt.

[Mr. C]

I am watching the replay of the game on ESPNU right now. I know LaFalce is a good QB for Western Illinois, but he made a lot of mistakes, throwing into coverage, forcing stuff. They ran a trick play, passing the ball to LaFalce at the goal line, but the pass was behind him, preventing the Necks from scoring a third-quarter TD as he was stuffed at the five. I was impressed (and so were the announcers) with the O-line play of WIU in the second half. The defense did a pretty nice job.

So does this mean that Western Illinois will be a factor in the Gateway race?

[D1B]

I am watching the replay of the game on ESPNU right now. I know LaFalce is a good QB for Western Illinois, but he made a lot of mistakes, throwing into coverage, forcing stuff. They ran a trick play, passing the ball to LaFalce at the goal line, but the pass was behind him, preventing the Necks from scoring a third-quarter TD as he was stuffed at the five. I was impressed (and so were the announcers) with the O-line play of WIU in the second half. The defense did a pretty nice job.

So does this mean that Western Illinois will be a factor in the Gateway race?

I should have mentioned the fact that WIU's O-line held their own against what many consider the best D-Line in the Big 10. You'll notice they ran boots, floods and rollouts quite a bit. Smart move as they tired out the d-lineman and controlled the rush. It's tough to throw the ball on the run like that though.

[Mr. C]

Have to agree with UNI Madhat in that I'm suprised how WIU's 24 point throw down by the UW Badgers is being painted as remarkable game for the Leathernecks. Think WIU may have been underated by a few before the season started. I am bewildered though that WKU (a team ranked close to WIU in the Gateway) travels to top 10 ranked Georgia Bulldogs and losses by 34 and it's just looked on as a "big payout" loss.

WIU beats an awful Morehead St. team and gets sounded defeated by the Badgers, while WKU looses to a VERY good Georgia team, and gets beaten in the last minute and a half in a road game to their arch rival ( and I-AA ranked) EKU Colonels. And where does that lead us? WIU still getting quite a few votes, while WKU is completely shut out.

Guess it's all in one's perspective. I do know that I respect BOTH WIU and WKU and think the Gateway is going to be an incredible battle between the top 6 teams. Should be VERY interesting each Saturday! :rotateh:
Having seen both the WKU-Georgia and the WIU-Wisconsin games on TV, I can tell you that Western Kentucky was not competitive in the least in their money game, while Western Illinois had some good moments. The score by Georgia against WKU could have been much worse, like the punt return TD that one of the Bulldogs celebrated too soon and fumbled away.

[Mr. C]

I should have mentioned the fact that WIU's O-line held their own against what many consider the best D-Line in the Big 10. You'll notice they ran boots, floods and rollouts quite a bit. Smart move as they tired out the d-lineman and controlled the rush. It's tough to throw the ball on the run like that though.
The TV announcers (who were being very fair to Western Illinois) said that the Wisconsin coaches were not going to be pleased with the pass protection they provided their QBs.

[D1B]

So does this mean that Western Illinois will be a factor in the Gateway race?

Obviously, I was very impressed and think they can compete in the race.

I was in near the locker room before pregame and saw "the look" in their eyes - no fear. Saw the same look after the game. I think Patterson may have things back on track.

[D1B]

The TV announcers (who were being very fair to Western Illinois) said that the Wisconsin coaches were not going to be pleased with the pass protection they provided their QBs.

The coaches bear some responsibility as WIU was running 3-3-5 and went with a 4 man front for this game. They threw in some weird blitzes too. UW did not and or could not adjust.

[*****]

... Apparantly, I'm not the only one:...Thanks for posting the writeups, I wondered what happened at the game. I saw the pictures...
http://i-aa.org/stats/2006/roadralph/WIU@WI/index.htm

xcoffeex

[leatherneck177]

I am glad to hear that WIU played well and represented I-AA well. I had to work at the NIU-OU game, so I was not able to make it up. I was looking forward to attending as I was present at the NIU, LSU, and Nebraska games.

Despite them losing by 24 I believe they made many steps in the right direction. The fact that we actually had positive rushing yards was good, so was the fact that our defense (I don't care if it was against 2nd teamers) made major strides between Week I and Week II. Against Morehead State we had holes all over the field. I was really worried that our defense would give up something in the neighborhood of 50-56 points.

If we can get the next two games (Kentucky Weslyan, @ Northern Colorado) we will be 3-1 heading in to Gateway play. I am not saying we are a title contender, I would just like to be in the thick of the Gateway race and have some important games come November.

[Cap'n Cat]

Thanks for posting the writeups, I wondered what happened at the game. I saw the pictures...
http://i-aa.org/stats/2006/roadralph/WIU@WI/index.htm

xcoffeex



LMAO @ D1B in that first pic, voguin' I-AA on the floor at Camp Randall!!!!


xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx

[igo4uni]

LMAO @ D1B in that first pic, voguin' I-AA on the floor at Camp Randall!!!!


xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx

Ralph would be proud!!

Also, I noticed a nice lookin' UNI jacket in pic #2!!!!! :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

[purduecrum]

"Stuck it to the Badgers"?? I guess I'm curious how you can get beat by 24 and wouldn't have scored if it weren't for two incredibly bone-head plays by VERY inexperienced back-ups and still stick it to someone? Minton's fumble on the opening kickoff was unexcusable and credit should be given to WIU for knocking it loose. But your last touchdown was a gift from a terribly inexperienced back-up QB who lofted the ball up for your defender to pick and take easily to the house. Again, good play by WIU but I feel like you shouldn't get carried away and think you did anything to "stick it" to them.


Now you know how I feel about some fans thinking ISU had a game with Purdue. If you consider 14 points came against muffed punts and 7 during the last two seconds of the game, then you are talking about a 60-14 game instead of a 60-35.

I like to see WIU do well, but it doesn't make sense to make something out of nothing.

[Mr. C]

No one is making something out of nothing. There were some real positives for Western Illinois against Wisconsin and the Indiana State-Purdue game, no matter how they scored, was still a 33-28 contest late in the third quarter. For a team that won one game last year, playing that tough against a Big 10 team, no matter how you did it, was a big deal and something that the team can build on.

[igo4uni]

No one is making something out of nothing. There were some real positives for Western Illinois against Wisconsin and the Indiana State-Purdue game, no matter how they scored, was still a 33-28 contest late in the third quarter. For a team that won one game last year, playing that tough against a Big 10 team, no matter how you did it, was a big deal and something that the team can build on.

Agreed.

[*****]

These I-A lovers that post here masquerading as I-AA fans are pathetic. "Oh, Wisconsin and Purdue are great." Geez. Go back to your Big Supposedly boards and post that crap. xlolx