I agree, I have them as a sleeper somewhereQuote:
Originally Posted by Go Lehigh TU owl
Sam Houston
N Dak St
JMU
followed by
S Dak State
Mizzu st
anyone else have a chance? No really
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I agree, I have them as a sleeper somewhereQuote:
Originally Posted by Go Lehigh TU owl
Sam Houston
N Dak St
JMU
followed by
S Dak State
Mizzu st
anyone else have a chance? No really
I'll roll with SHSU, NDSU, JMU, EWU, Montana and Nova as my main contenders. Missouri State and Sac State as "sleepers". SDSU and Montana State will flame out....Quote:
Originally Posted by caribbeanhen
I honestly like ETSU but they got a brutal draw. They'll get by KSU and fall in a respectful manner to the Bison imo....
If Montana had a better draw I’d include them. Having to win at Bridgeforth and the Fargodome in back to back weeks is almost an impossible task.Quote:
Originally Posted by caribbeanhen
Does Villanova have much of a chance? I like SDSU to make the semis from that group but can easily see Nova winning that game instead and going to Sam Houston instead.
EWU just doesn’t have the defenseQuote:
Originally Posted by Go Lehigh TU owl
Nova so inconsistent, I could see Holy Cross pulling an upset, but if Nova is clicking they could cruise to victory but no further
Montana is in the grove but get them out of Big Sky and let’s see what happens at JMU
EWU has a serviceable defense which could be good enough to make it to Frisco depending on the draws. I like their program culture too this time of year.Quote:
Originally Posted by caribbeanhen
Villanova has a defense that will travel, they play smart , QB that that knows how to win and the Cats won't be intimidated by other venues (won at JMU, stood tall at Penn State).
I'm interested to see how much momentum the "Petrino Story" will pick up should the Bears advance deep into the playoffs. I'm friends with a current kinesiology professor at Missouri State (previously worked at Georgia Southern) so I would like to see the Bears do well just for the chance to talk a little FCS football with him. That said, Petrino just gives me bad vibes (doubt I am alone). I could see him becoming the overriding story which would be a shame....
I was "shocked" to learn this is ONLY the Bears 4th playoff appearance. While UT-Martin will be making only their second trip to the postseason...
Bears will go as far as Shelley can carry them by himself. Their OL is not very good. They could easily lose this weekend.
An unpopular opinion is the MVFC was down this year. The top was down, the middle was the same, and the bottom was the same as usual. Alot of pretty solid teams but not nearly as high-end as previous years.
That's pretty tough to say when the conference lost 2 games total out of conference to FCS teams in the regular season. Somebody had to lose the 44 conference games that were played this year. Despite that there were 5-6 MVFC teams ranked in the top 25 all season. Let's see how the playoffs go before making declarations about the conference being up or down.Quote:
Originally Posted by F'N Hawks
Never mind the fact that the 2 losses were by WIU...Quote:
Originally Posted by Professor Chaos
Excited to go to the game. I would imagine we have ~7500 at the game this week based on where ticket sales are at and the lack of season ticket holders and a band to prop up numbers. I'm talking actual butts in seats here. Seeing how previous first round games are attended, that's a solid showing I believe. Would be excited if the nice weather leads to a large walk-up crowd and they get to 10,000, but it would surprise me.
I've been a fan of the Bears so long I'm bracing for disappointment. I vividly remember listening on the radio in 1990 when the Bears reached #1 for their one and only time as they lost to UNLV 31-24. That year, they went on to host Idaho in the first round of the FCS playoffs (coincidentally, Bobby Petrino was the OC of Idaho at the time). In that game, the Bears had 8,750 in attendance. Can they top that number this week? That's what you want to see.
Missouri State is 1-3 in the playoffs, all-time, with their lone victory being a 38-35 win over Maine in 1989. We are talking a long history of futility here, which has left its mark. Hence, the trepidation.
Exciting times for the program and I imagine I will have nerves for the entirety of the game.
Given Missouri State's size, location and other athletic success I really thought the Bears had more history. This is a big opportunity for them to given the fact they have a proven coach in Petrino and what seems like a legitimately, battle tested team. Got to strike while the iron is hot because you never know when Petrino will bolt or do something dumb. Those "occurrences" might not be mutually exclusive...Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearvision
I had no idea just how small a school UT-Martin; about 6,500 students, located 2+ hours from anywhere of note. In a lot of states it would be a D2 school imo.....