Valpo Home Opener

[SgtHulka]

Patriot League will be BRUTAL this year.

 

[WoodlandWarrior]

Agree. Hard to believe the game is this close. Should be an automatic win. We need to get it together.

 

[TIMMY]

I have watched better high school Facebook streams. Terrible broadcast. Embarrassing.
We don't cover well.
Nice having Lewan back.
Where was Brock Annexstad on the muffed punt?
We're going to miss Mueller.
Hard to watch half.
I was going to rake my lawn but there are no leaves.
Spack needs some help with his shirt.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

Old Spack needs to be wearing a non-ISU shirt, period. Time to move on, IMO.....program is stale and going in wrong direction. Rough start to this season. PLease, we don't need another long bus ride to complete irrelevancy in another sport aka what Muller did with the bball program. Our new AD has his guy as the bball coach now let him get his guy as football coach. A coaching change can put some energy back into the program.

 

[WoodlandWarrior]

Valpo barely beats Indiana Wesleyan and they’re hanging with us. Good grief!

 

[Bird Friend]

Wow . . . onside kick and Valpo has a chance to tie . . . Sorry, but we look weak and unmotivated. The D has holes. And lack of a FG kicker is gonna kill us. Teams can play to just keep us out of the end zone.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

That performance was pathetic. The defense looked to be sleepwalking through it until the last couple of series. The offense can't pick up a 4th and inches to win the game. Special teams had a pretty good night but that last field goal attempt looked like a High School kid kicking. Give credit to Valpo, they played their hearts out. Their QB I thought played a really solid game. And yes...we are certainly going to miss Mueller this year. A couple of keys dropped passes by the receivers. They have to make those catches. It is a "W" but not one to be proud of.

Yes, it was a very poor-quality broadcast. That one announcer is intent on using each and every football cliche ever made in the history of the game! He is so damn annoying! I am not feeling very comfortable about next week and a rivalry game with Eastern right now.

 

[Hamdonger]

And lack of a FG kicker is gonna kill us.

I've thought about this for the last month, but honest to goodness, I think they should have on-campus tryouts. Right now. I bet there's a kid or 3 that was booting 45-yarders regularly in high school, 50 in practice...living in a dorm or apartment in Normal tonight. No, it's not 55 yards and not under FCS lights...but it IS going to kill us and will help cost Spack his job.

 

[ISUBU]

It’s a painful watch in all aspects. Graphics, camera work, announcers, etc and so on.

Doesn’t help that we are letting an inferior opponent hang around far too long.

Wasn't much better in person...

Clock operator needs to be much better, I've never seen so many instances of officials making clock adjustments.
Sound system operator needs to turn down the volume overall, and then needs to learn to turn it down when the officials are describing calls/replays.
We looked detached the whole game. Valpo had a bounce in their step.
Too many penalties (8 for each team) and delays for replay viewing. It killed any flow.

Shout out though to the students in attendance. Good showing from them. Hope the play on the field didn't scare them away from returning.

 

[Dmills]

Kicking game has got to improve... I think it will with the return of Jasek, at least marginally. Otherwise, a solid game punting for Takerian. The muffed punt can't happen again. Nice kickoff return for Carr.

On defense, the pass rush was decent, became pretty good at the end in particular. Zeke ended up with a huge game with some second half sacks. QB was under pressure on every throw at the end. Tackling has got to improve, too many times we are trying to kill the guy and fail to get him on the ground. Pass coverage could improve too.

On offense, I think Zack needs a better feel in the pocket. We should not have had 3 sacks given up against these guys and I don't think that was entirely the fault of the o-line. As someone mentioned, we cannot fail to convert a qb sneak against these guys. I didn't think our run blocking was that good.

Also, I like Wenkers a lot, but it makes me nervous how he's always looking to put the boom on someone instead of making guys miss and going for a big gain. It is good to have a guy like that and he does have talent, but having him as a RB1 scares me a little at times. I hope he can stay healthy. Congrats to him on his first 100 yard rushing game!

 

[Birgs]

Old Spack needs to be wearing a non-ISU shirt, period. Time to move on, IMO.....program is stale and going in wrong direction. Rough start to this season. PLease, we don't need another long bus ride to complete irrelevancy in another sport aka what Muller did with the bball program. Our new AD has his guy as the bball coach now let him get his guy as football coach. A coaching change can put some energy back into t

Other than Coach Berry, Coach Spack has done more for ISU Football than imaginable. It's a basketball school and he took an under-budgeted team to multiple playoffs and a title game. Troll away and give me a better answer for a replacement.

 

[Chi-bird]

Old Spack needs to be wearing a non-ISU shirt, period. Time to move on, IMO.....program is stale and going in wrong direction. Rough start to this season. PLease, we don't need another long bus ride to complete irrelevancy in another sport aka what Muller did with the bball program. Our new AD has his guy as the bball coach now let him get his guy as football coach. A coaching change can put some energy back into the program.

Spack is doing just fine and like other coaches, is adjusting to the ripple effect of all the chaos that was the pandemic and the fast-changing college football landscape. Unlike some other coaches, Spack is not going to look to cut corners in the rebuilding. As the dust settles, I believe he’s going to get this team back to National Prominence - and have an even more successful run than his previous pre-Covid stellar run. I see next year being a big step forward for the program, and a National Championship a couple years after. Maybe even back-to-back. I’m calling it, ISU Football - FCS champs 2025 and 2026.

For me, last night’s win was not as encouraging as last week’s loss, but our defense will continue to keep us in most games, and will win us a few.

As the offense gains more experience, and learn to better manage a game, we’ll be a tough team to beat.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

Wasn't much better in person...

Clock operator needs to be much better, I've never seen so many instances of officials making clock adjustments.
Sound system operator needs to turn down the volume overall, and then needs to learn to turn it down when the officials are describing calls/replays.
We looked detached the whole game. Valpo had a bounce in their step.
Too many penalties (8 for each team) and delays for replay viewing. It killed any flow.

Shout out though to the students in attendance. Good showing from them. Hope the play on the field didn't scare them away from returning.

I did not know it was an issue in the stadium but the stadium sound system was so loud that it was almost impossible to hear the broadcast announcer on TV. The stadium sound system drowned him out it was so loud. Maybe that was not a bad thing I guess.

 

[Total Red]

Sound system operator needs to turn down the volume overall, and then needs to learn to turn it down when the officials are describing calls/replays.

+1. They've been told and yet it continues. Evidently the high-volume energy plays well with younger audience members. As long as the students show up I'll tolerate it.

 

[Phantom]

What kind of Mickey Mouse outfit is running the broadcast? Awful. Graphics? 1970? Camera work? Whew.

This. I was tweeting about this during the game. The production was the only thing uglier than the game itself.

Truthfully, ALL our games look like shit. The direction is bad, the production is awful with those Windows98 graphics in the score bug, the sound is never right and the cameras look low-res. I mean, I understand it's "only" FCS football and an ISU/Valpo broadcast isn't gonna blow anyone's skirt up but come on. I don't know if this is on Marquee or the university, but our football telecasts always look like HS sophomore game film...from 1996.

 

[TIMMY]

This is a 12-personnel offense. When there are 2 TE's in the game the ball moves. When we go 4 quick forget about it. 4 receivers do you no good if 2 of them..... nuf said. IMO our TE's are tough matchups. Linebackers can't cover them and DB's can't stand up to their blocks. Go watch it if you can stand watching the Jr. high production again. When Deming lines up as a wing outside Taula it's formidable. If you go back and chart it that's what got Wright going.
I like big Zack when he rolls. Move the pocket, drag those TE's and figure out which 2 WR's might run a crisp route and catch the ball.
I thought we'd cover better. Very disappointed in that. We let a 2nd team non-scholarship QB make us look bad. We did a bad job setting the edge. Damn that's basic. Ugh.

 

[MadBird]

Haven't totally made up my mind about last night's "performance" - it wasn't all that good - but will say those of us somewhat optimistic after our showing vs. Badgers may have to re-evaluate after UW's egg laying last night vs. Washington St. Haven't read up on that yet but have to believe the natives are none too happy.

 

[Total Red]

The Equalizer showed up at Hancock yesterday. We got a good pass rush against Valpo, but Kaplan, the Valpo QB, demonstrated exceptional scrambling ability. He was able to extend plays and then run or pass for good gains. Kaplan neutralized the pass rush and our only real solution was to sneak up on him with blindside safety blitzes. Annexstad does well on designed runs, but he lacks escapability. Those are different skill sets. He doesn't appear to anticipate the pressure very well and he isn't agile enough to escape. We've had a string of these type of QB's - Davis, Jefferson and now Annexstad. They all can run but they aren't/weren't scramblers. You can't really assess that in the preseason when the QB isn't live, but it showed up Game 1.
Btw, we did win the game so I shouldn't forget that, and they were great plays by the 'Birds. Carr provided a huge spark with his effort and speed. Deming made an acrobatic TD catch and he was tough enough to hang on to it. I thought Gearhart had the most impressive INT because he had to cover a lot of ground to get there.
Coach Spack made the right comment after the game. Good teams win when they don't play well. You don't want your team or your fanbase to get too low after a victory. That's the psychology of the situation. Looking at it realistically there are some concerns like missed tackles, failure to break RB's free for long gains and failure to sneak the ball for a yard. The botched punt return should be an easy fix. He won't do that again. I think we'll raise our game from here, but QB mobility could dog our offense for much of the season. The Valley has a lot of unforgiving defenses. We have a QB with scrambling ability in Rittenhouse, but I don't think he has the arm that Annexstad has. We may need to rely on a lot of quick strike passes and be choosy about going deep.

 

[cubird]

The officiating needs some work too.I thought they screwed up the spot on the late 4th and 1. Regardless, should have been able to handle them up front.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

This. I was tweeting about this during the game. The production was the only thing uglier than the game itself.

Truthfully, ALL our games look like shit. The direction is bad, the production is awful with those Windows98 graphics in the score bug, the sound is never right and the cameras look low-res. I mean, I understand it's "only" FCS football and an ISU/Valpo broadcast isn't gonna blow anyone's skirt up but come on. I don't know if this is on Marquee or the university, but our football telecasts always look like HS sophomore game film...from 1996.

I subscribe to the NFHS channel. I like High School football and enjoy watching a few games from my old High School back in Illinois and some of the very good HS teams in the Tidewater area of Virginia. The broadcast is very poor, which you have to expect with a High School channel. There is no narration just the PA announcer. The camera people are constantly looking at the game and not through the camera viewfinder. I used to film games for one of the local teams here and that is a basic mistake. You can always tell when the camera person is looking at the game instead of the viewfinder. The picture starts to wave all over the place and misses the action. Sadly, while the production is much better for the FCS games the camera work is really bad. If you want to be a camera person...look through the viewfinder and don't look up to watch the game! I assume the crew is mostly students? Does anyone know? Is there some professional personnel involved in the broadcast or mostly students learning? I seem to recall when ESPN started broadcasting FCS there were some informational clips of student involvement as part of the hands-on learning process. I can cut some slack if this is a learning opportunity for ISU students. For me, there is no option to attend in person so I will take what I can get. My wife and I tune into the Redbirds every game during the season. Last night was rather frustrating though!