Kudos to MVFC player-of-week QB Davis and Kicker Fenlason

[fourthandshort]

https://goredbirds.com/news/2019/9/22/football-fenlason-davis-earn-mvfc-player-of-the-week-honors.aspx

Ironically the 2 positions questioned the most during offseason. Putting aside NIU game, this was THE must win and statement game of the OOC season. We had to win this game going into MVFC season, especially opening with NDSU.

Kudos to Davis for stepping up and congrats on this player of week. Same for kicker Fenlason .. he had a rough first year, and has been a perfect 5-5 pn FGs (and XPs) sso far.

Nice way to finish OOC season for sure.

 

[Redbirdwarrior]

Brady had a WONDERFUL game and I loved his confidence, but the highlight of the season for me, so far, has been the leg of Fenlason. ISU has never had a truly reliable kicking game. Most times, even extra points were an adventure. Now I breathe much easier after a 6 in knowing it will be a 7 95% of the time instead of 70% of the time.

This is an important weapon as we enter into the conference season in the very best conference in FCS college football.

Also, James Robinson is still a damned monster. Want to see the quietest 1200 yard, 18 TD rusher in the country, there ya go. How many NFL scouts are already watching him?

 

[MadBird]

Brady had a WONDERFUL game and I loved his confidence, but the highlight of the season for me, so far, has been the leg of Fenlason. ISU has never had a truly reliable kicking game. Most times, even extra points were an adventure. Now I breathe much easier after a 6 in knowing it will be a 7 95% of the time instead of 70% of the time.

This is an important weapon as we enter into the conference season in the very best conference in FCS college football.

Also, James Robinson is still a damned monster. Want to see the quietest 1200 yard, 18 TD rusher in the country, there ya go. How many NFL scouts are already watching him?

Warrior, you're showing your age one way or the other - either you're too young to go back very far, or too old and are forgetting some pretty solid kickers.

Places 2 thru 5 in the all-time points scored records are kickers - Nick Aussieker (2010-2014), Stephen Carroll (2001-2004), Todd Kurz (1993-1996), Paul Politi (1983-86). There are 11 guys tied with 100% PAT conversion for a season, and the top 5 career PAT %'s are all above 96%, (including Sean Slattery who kicked from 2014-17).

Top 5 FG % for a season are all above 76%, and top 5 career %'s are all above 65%, with 4 of the top 5 from this century (ie. pretty solid in recent times).

But you're right, it's nice to see Fenlason step up and boot it through.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

Brady had a WONDERFUL game and I loved his confidence, but the highlight of the season for me, so far, has been the leg of Fenlason. ISU has never had a truly reliable kicking game. Most times, even extra points were an adventure. Now I breathe much easier after a 6 in knowing it will be a 7 95% of the time instead of 70% of the time.

This is an important weapon as we enter into the conference season in the very best conference in FCS college football.

Also, James Robinson is still a damned monster. Want to see the quietest 1200 yard, 18 TD rusher in the country, there ya go. How many NFL scouts are already watching him?

Warrior, you're showing your age one way or the other - either you're too young to go back very far, or too old and are forgetting some pretty solid kickers.

Places 2 thru 5 in the all-time points scored records are kickers - Nick Aussieker (2010-2014), Stephen Carroll (2001-2004), Todd Kurz (1993-1996), Paul Politi (1983-86). There are 11 guys tied with 100% PAT conversion for a season, and the top 5 career PAT %'s are all above 96%, (including Sean Slattery who kicked from 2014-17).

Top 5 FG % for a season are all above 76%, and top 5 career %'s are all above 65%, with 4 of the top 5 from this century (ie. pretty solid in recent times).

But you're right, it's nice to see Fenlason step up and boot it through.

Kurz was about the only thing going right, those last few years he was here. The Aussieker - Slattery era were pretty much the "automatic" years.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

https://goredbirds.com/news/2019/9/22/football-fenlason-davis-earn-mvfc-player-of-the-week-honors.aspx

Ironically the 2 positions questioned the most during offseason. Putting aside NIU game, this was THE must win and statement game of the OOC season. We had to win this game going into MVFC season, especially opening with NDSU.

Kudos to Davis for stepping up and congrats on this player of week. Same for kicker Fenlason .. he had a rough first year, and has been a perfect 5-5 pn FGs (and XPs) sso far.

Nice way to finish OOC season for sure.

4th I'd say it was important that we beat NAU, but I don't think it was the MUST win. We lose two in the OOC and two or three in the conference and we are still playoff bound. NAU, IMO was a loss we could recover from (Big Sky, tough schedule, headed toward a winning record) solid team. However, EIU and MSU were definitely must wins. No coming back from those. Were you trying to state that this was the lone FCS statement game in OOC? That resonates. Yes, we lose this one, we lose a lot of respect going into MVFC play. The conference is not dominating the OOC (thanks MSU, WIU, South Dakota, Muller) so we would need to look like an upper tier Valley team. Great win, score looked like we dominated, on a weekend where NDSU seemed to struggle a bit with UC Davis and UNI didn't shine on offense.

 

[fourthandshort]

Brady had a WONDERFUL game and I loved his confidence, but the highlight of the season for me, so far, has been the leg of Fenlason. ISU has never had a truly reliable kicking game. Most times, even extra points were an adventure. Now I breathe much easier after a 6 in knowing it will be a 7 95% of the time instead of 70% of the time.

This is an important weapon as we enter into the conference season in the very best conference in FCS college football.

Also, James Robinson is still a damned monster. Want to see the quietest 1200 yard, 18 TD rusher in the country, there ya go. How many NFL scouts are already watching him?

Warrior, you're showing your age one way or the other - either you're too young to go back very far, or too old and are forgetting some pretty solid kickers.

Places 2 thru 5 in the all-time points scored records are kickers - Nick Aussieker (2010-2014), Stephen Carroll (2001-2004), Todd Kurz (1993-1996), Paul Politi (1983-86). There are 11 guys tied with 100% PAT conversion for a season, and the top 5 career PAT %'s are all above 96%, (including Sean Slattery who kicked from 2014-17).

Top 5 FG % for a season are all above 76%, and top 5 career %'s are all above 65%, with 4 of the top 5 from this century (ie. pretty solid in recent times).

But you're right, it's nice to see Fenlason step up and boot it through.

I was thinking same thing. Slattery was iffy his first year, but improved each year and had a very good SR season .. all conference I believe. Ausiekker was very accurate his whole career and his distance got better each year. He did struggle a little his SR year, but still solid. Kutch was very good in 2009.

Fenlason is off to nice start, though hasn't really been challenged with long FG yet.

 

[MadBird]

Well, Sanantonio, you gotta admit beating NAU at HOME was important. One, beating a Big Sky rival gets us some attention in Big Sky country and nationally which won't hurt when the bids come out.

But second, our schedule isn't really a walk in the park. Tough home games with the Bison and UNI and InSU and MoState isn't necessarily a walk in the park (we should take them for sure). Road games vs. ranked SDSU and YSU and also SIU (still getting some votes). Road game at Macomb is about the only thing I see as a sure thing at this point.

So, say we gotta get to 7-5 at minimum. If we're 2-2 after NAU, then you gotta go 5-3. If you get a split in the home games, then you gotta pick up three road wins.

On the other hand, now we're 3-1 so 4-4 is probably good enough. I don't want to set our sights that low, but just in case the crap hits the fan, ya know? I think we could go 5-3 or even 6-2 the rest of the way (I'd bet against us winning 2 of NDSU, UNI, SDSU) but it's not a sure thing. 8-4/9-3 would be much nicer.

So yeah, NAU was kind of a must win, I'd say.

 

[TIMMY]

I would call it a must win.

This season is still so young. I can see anything from 11-3 to crash and burn. Gotta stay healthy and can't have a letdown.

How's Edgar by the way. Davis got his POW. Would that have happened without Edgar? That's not a knock on Brady at all. A QB needs an open receiver who can catch the ball. Edgar needs to come back healthy. A good team has a #1. Heck it would be nice for someone to step up and be a #2.

I know the defense is good. Still not sure about the O.

We'll have more answers about how good this team can be around 3pm on Oct 5.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

I would call it a must win.

This season is still so young. I can see anything from 11-3 to crash and burn. Gotta stay healthy and can't have a letdown.

How's Edgar by the way. Davis got his POW. Would that have happened without Edgar? That's not a knock on Brady at all. A QB needs an open receiver who can catch the ball. Edgar needs to come back healthy. A good team has a #1. Heck it would be nice for someone to step up and be a #2.

I know the defense is good. Still not sure about the O.

We'll have more answers about how good this team can be around 3pm on Oct 5.

I guess I don’t understand a “must-win”. My version is that when you lose a must win you are out of contention, I don’t think that’s the case here, just means the margin of error is slimmer; but whatever.

Edgar: I’ve watched the video over and over. Seems he could move his arm without a great deal of pain, immediately after; and he was still putting some weight on it to pull himself off the ground. Truth is, it still could be a fractured collarbone bone hard to tell but my hope is that he won’t be out long. Info not coming out freely, but that is usually the case with these things.

 

[TIMMY]

For me at the end of the season every game counts the same. It doesn't matter when you win or lose them. But you have to win the ones you're supposed to win. This was one of those. They had to win this game. Losing this week would have put this team behind the 8 ball for sure. Then lose to NDSU (not sayin they will) and you're 2-3. 3-2 is a whole lot better. 4-1 and you're cooking with gas!!!

 

[Sanantoniobird]

Well, then NDSU is a must win. There are only two teams, arguably 3 that are absolutely Natty contenders and NDSU is one of them. However, IMO I don’t think they are better than JMU this year. If we can’t beat them or make it competitive we are playing for third like everyone else.

 

[StLRedbird]

Kudos to both Davis and Fenlason. Now it becomes about consistency for our QB. But I like the comparison between Slattery and Fenlason. Hope it plays out that way...

I haven't felt this good about our chances against the Bizen for three years. Been trying to think of the biggest weakness in the defense, and there is no glaring issue there that an opposing OC could say - we could exploit that. If the offense has a good day, we could take this one.

 

[fourthandshort]

Well, then NDSU is a must win. There are only two teams, arguably 3 that are absolutely Natty contenders and NDSU is one of them. However, IMO I don’t think they are better than JMU this year. If we can’t beat them or make it competitive we are playing for third like everyone else.

As fans only, NDSU is not a must win ... it's a nice to win game. Idea is looking at season 8 weeks from now, we need to be 8-4 to ensure playoff bid, so we can "afford" 4 losses. Having lost to NIU, which was more likely loss than most games, we can afford 3 more losses .... which would be NDSU, SDSU and then maybe UNI or YSU.

But if we had lost to NAU, then we can only afford 2 more losses, which means we have to go 6-2 in MVFC ... very hard to do. But by beating NAU and just importantly, getting our pass game on track, we can now make playoffs even if we go 5-3 in MVFC.

Now that we have our pass game on track, I do think we can go 6-2, which would mean 9-3 .. which could mean top 8 seed. But that's a big "if" .. there are some really good teams in upper half of MVFC this year.

 

[TIMMY]

Well, then NDSU is a must win. There are only two teams, arguably 3 that are absolutely Natty contenders and NDSU is one of them. However, IMO I don’t think they are better than JMU this year. If we can’t beat them or make it competitive we are playing for third like everyone else.

I think we were talking about must win in terns of making the playoffs. Coming off the last few years I think it's a legit conversation.

The NDSU game will certainly tell us where we are in terms of being in a National Championship discussion. Davis and Fenlason are central to all of it.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

My point is that I absolutely hate the “must win” term outside of a tournament. They are generally all must win situations, because it is completely out of our hands what happens to the team we just played in the regular season. NAU could go on to be Big Sky Champ or doormat, Same with just about any MVC team. We gotta win ‘em all and must win every playoff game.

 

[fourthandshort]

My point is that I absolutely hate the “must win” term outside of a tournament. They are generally all must win situations, because it is completely out of our hands what happens to the team we just played in the regular season. NAU could go on to be Big Sky Champ or doormat, Same with just about any MVC team. We gotta win ‘em all and must win every playoff game.

eh ... we only "gotta" win 8 games to make playoffs. If we had lost to NAU, our chances of going at least 8-4 drop considerably ... sitting at 2-2 and not having played a single MVFC game. Now that we beat NAU and are sitting 3-1, if we lose to NDSU in 2 weeks, our chances of going 8-4 and making playoffs do not drop at all IMO.

Make no mistake, I want to win every game ... but the main goal is making playoffs and being in position to make a playoff run. That discussion starts at 8-4 record ... or better.

I do not trust the FCS selection commitee if we go 7-5, even though we might deserve a bid depending on the quality of our losses to ranked teams. But if we got 3-5 in conference, we probably won't deserve a bid this year. The upper half of MVFC is very strong, but the lower half is questionable right now ... thoughg last week was a but improved from prior weeks for our lower half teams.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

I'm not going to say I don't agree with you, interesting convo: But if we lose to EIU and beat NAU, we still have the same issue of having to be stellar in the MVFC. So, EIU becomes a must win, as well? I just don't feel like "must win" is a term that should be thrown around until we are heading into our last game and we are 7-4 or we are in the playoffs. We are still a known commodity, we are still a big 3 conference at 8-4, we aren't denied. To your point: I think a loss to NDSU does drop our chances, especially if it is one of our 5 losses at the end of the regular season. No game is a freebie, not even NDSU.

We lose to NAU and EIU, but we make a run in the Valley do you still think those were must wins? Pretty sure we are playoff bound, with probably a seed. I'm playing a little devil's advocate here.

In terms of football at ISU and it's fanbase, I think any home game is a must win just to keep interest. Does the casual ISU fan know what NDSU at home means? I don't know.

The manner in which we won was a "must". Now we look like a problem on film and come in with some confidence on offense.

 

[fourthandshort]

I'm not going to say I don't agree with you, interesting convo: But if we lose to EIU and beat NAU, we still have the same issue of having to be stellar in the MVFC. So, EIU becomes a must win, as well? I just don't feel like "must win" is a term that should be thrown around until we are heading into our last game and we are 7-4 or we are in the playoffs. We are still a known commodity, we are still a big 3 conference at 8-4, we aren't denied. To your point: I think a loss to NDSU does drop our chances, especially if it is one of our 5 losses at the end of the regular season. No game is a freebie, not even NDSU.

We lose to NAU and EIU, but we make a run in the Valley do you still think those were must wins? Pretty sure we are playoff bound, with probably a seed. I'm playing a little devil's advocate here.

In terms of football at ISU and it's fanbase, I think any home game is a must win just to keep interest. Does the casual ISU fan know what NDSU at home means? I don't know.

The manner in which we won was a "must". Now we look like a problem on film and come in with some confidence on offense.

To me, beating EIU was a given .. baked into my 8-4 minimum record, as a sure win. NAU was a likely win in my eyes ... and therefore a "must win" from sense it was a game we could have lost, unlike EIU or Morehead St. If lose against NAU, I'm also less confident in our ability to got 4-4 in conference, much less 5-3.

Hence, of the 4 OOC games, NAU was THE must win game. The other 3 outcomes were all pretty likely.

Though if the Davis that showed up against NAU had shown up against NIU, we win that game. He really looked good last week. I finally watched on replay ... he came out determined to throw with confidence and seem to settle his feet more with a resolve to hang in the pocket and let plays develop another second or 2. If he keeps doing that, we will see his upside more consistently.

Tough break losing Edgar and Grimes, but I feel ok now that Davis seems to have found some confidence and resolve in the pocket. And as a result, now we can see his arm.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

I'm not going to say I don't agree with you, interesting convo: But if we lose to EIU and beat NAU, we still have the same issue of having to be stellar in the MVFC. So, EIU becomes a must win, as well? I just don't feel like "must win" is a term that should be thrown around until we are heading into our last game and we are 7-4 or we are in the playoffs. We are still a known commodity, we are still a big 3 conference at 8-4, we aren't denied. To your point: I think a loss to NDSU does drop our chances, especially if it is one of our 5 losses at the end of the regular season. No game is a freebie, not even NDSU.

We lose to NAU and EIU, but we make a run in the Valley do you still think those were must wins? Pretty sure we are playoff bound, with probably a seed. I'm playing a little devil's advocate here.

In terms of football at ISU and it's fanbase, I think any home game is a must win just to keep interest. Does the casual ISU fan know what NDSU at home means? I don't know.

The manner in which we won was a "must". Now we look like a problem on film and come in with some confidence on offense.

To me, beating EIU was a given .. baked into my 8-4 minimum record, as a sure win. NAU was a likely win in my eyes ... and therefore a "must win" from sense it was a game we could have lost, unlike EIU or Morehead St. If lose against NAU, I'm also less confident in our ability to got 4-4 in conference, much less 5-3.

Hence, of the 4 OOC games, NAU was THE must win game. The other 3 outcomes were all pretty likely.

Though if the Davis that showed up against NAU had shown up against NIU, we win that game. He really looked good last week. I finally watched on replay ... he came out determined to throw with confidence and seem to settle his feet more with a resolve to hang in the pocket and let plays develop another second or 2. If he keeps doing that, we will see his upside more consistently.

Tough break losing Edgar and Grimes, but I feel ok now that Davis seems to have found some confidence and resolve in the pocket. And as a result, now we can see his arm.

Perfectly logical;