North Dakota - Quality Win

[Dmills]

I would be good with Rittenhouse starting next year, he hasn’t looked like a backup the past 2 weeks. The rest of the positives, we will see, we find ways to come up short. It is the hallmark of ISU mens sports

I wouldn't mind either. My biggest concern at QB is whether Kaplan can come in at #2, if needed. A full season is going to be a lot of wear and tear on Rittenhouse as a dual threat. I don't think we can afford to go into next year with 4 QB's (Rittenhouse, Kaplan, WO Makuh, and true freshman Beckham). I think it is necessary to add either a quality freshman or a transfer.

 

[Aggie]

North Dakota is I think 43-2 / 45-2 in their building. Could have, would have, should have, but this season was not lost today. That happened way earlier in the season. It could have maybe been salvaged today, but it was not lost today. Illinois State has been a frustrating place for sports for years. We could go all the way back to when we had a good one in Donewald and the Normal elites ran him off. Spack has resurrected a program that for decades had very little success. Let him retire out and then find the person to take it to the next level. Close but no cigar should be our motto. When I was in school there we would have had celebratory parties if we went 6&5.

 

[Dmills]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't think Wagner is the primary problem in the kicking game. He was 8-10 on FGs this year (1 was blocked). He was 35-41 on PATs (at least 1 of those were blocked, probably more). We consistently allowed a lot of penetration on field goals. Multiple other kicks were affected by bad snaps/inability to get the hold down. There are times where I feel like his run up to the kick could be a bit quicker but other than that I do not have major complaints about Wagner's ability. Jasek was 4-4 on PAT and 0-2 on field goals. I don't think his kicks were very pretty. Jasek is the one who missed two critical field goals against EIU. It's unfortunate that ST cost us multiple games. I think a good portion of the blame falls on whoever is in charge of special teams.

 

[TIMMY]

I don't think we have a specials coach as such so I'm guessing they split specials up among coaches. Whoever has a PAT-field goal??? What the devil's going on?

 

[fourthandshort]

6-5, with 4 losses by total of 8 points against rankedteams with 7-4, 7-4, 6-5 in MVFC and 8-3 in OVC. And we have a lot coming back.

Love Rittenhouse .. only thing he needs to work on this offseason, beside more and more reps, is improved arm strength.

His pocket presence and throwing onfidence is already good enough and will get better with experience. Work on arm strength and overall strength and conditioning.

Some of you already liked his skill set .. you guys were right. Just needs to continue to improve.

 

[fourthandshort]

Prevent D is not preventing anything . . . need a goal line stand.

Our prevent defense is so good ... said no team ever !!-

 

[TBS_20]

Now on to mediocre men's college basketball

But Pedon has them going in the right direction.

 

[Hamdonger]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't think Wagner is the primary problem in the kicking game. He was 8-10 on FGs this year (1 was blocked). He was 35-41 on PATs (at least 1 of those were blocked, probably more). We consistently allowed a lot of penetration on field goals. Multiple other kicks were affected by bad snaps/inability to get the hold down. There are times where I feel like his run up to the kick could be a bit quicker but other than that I do not have major complaints about Wagner's ability. Jasek was 4-4 on PAT and 0-2 on field goals. I don't think his kicks were very pretty. Jasek is the one who missed two critical field goals against EIU. It's unfortunate that ST cost us multiple games. I think a good portion of the blame falls on whoever is in charge of special teams.

*Madbird...didn’t see your post in other thread.

As a team, we went 1-3 on field goals beyond 40 yards. Wagner's long was 43 yards. Read that again. We only took 3 chances on a 40-49 yard field goal, and no chances beyond 50. We hit ONE field goal beyond 40 yards. One. ONE.

The kicking game has now been a problem for multiple consecutive seasons. I don't know if its our kicker, our snapper, our holder, our protection, or none of the above or all of the above. If we have a decent kicker&crew who can (with Spack's confidence) regularly boot a 40-50 yarder...we win 5 or 6 more games over the last 2 years.

I find this astonishing, and I place it DIRECTLY at Brock's feet. Am I the only one who finds this incredibly frustrating?? If we go into another season with a guy who can't regularly hit a freakin' 40 yarder, somebody needs to take Brock's mustache hostage. Permanently.

 

[Hamdonger]

There's no doubt we were close(r) this year and I do applaud the Redbirds for that! But the record book still states 6-5.

 

[StLRedbird]

*Madbird...didn’t see your post in other thread.

As a team, we went 1-3 on field goals beyond 40 yards. Wagner's long was 43 yards. Read that again. We only took 3 chances on a 40-49 yard field goal, and no chances beyond 50. We hit ONE field goal beyond 40 yards. One. ONE.

The kicking game has now been a problem for multiple consecutive seasons. I don't know if its our kicker, our snapper, our holder, our protection, or none of the above or all of the above. If we have a decent kicker&crew who can (with Spack's confidence) regularly boot a 40-50 yarder...we win 5 or 6 more games over the last 2 years.

I find this astonishing, and I place it DIRECTLY at Brock's feet. Am I the only one who finds this incredibly frustrating?? If we go into another season with a guy who can't regularly hit a freakin' 40 yarder, somebody needs to take Brock's mustache hostage. Permanently.

The kicking game was an issue early on in the Spack years, but improved. It's been looking lately like it did then. And yeah, that's frustrating.

 

[Brick]

The first missed extra point was a bad snap. Second on blocked and not on the kicker. We don’t really know how the bad leg affected his kicking But like most serious injuries the second year generally is way more comfortable.

I know I am gonna get hammered for this but this is gonna be a really good football team next year. I am not worried about the transfer portal. Blake more already talking about how he’s gonna get better next year. Clearly we have a solid qb too. Defense will be a year older and stronger. I am really ok with Brock coming back. So Sue me!

 

[Total Red]

Terrible review. You could see the chalk puff...only happens if his foot is out of bounds.

On turf, chalk paint is used on the sidelines. The puff may have been the rubber pellets in the turf being tossed in the air, with the pellets embedded in the sideline painted white.
Regardless, I thought the replayed showed his toes out-of-bounds but most of the close calls went to UND.

 

[Total Red]

The Redbirds started the season with a youthful defense and that was cause for concern. The defense exceeded expectations. It finished in the top half of the MVFC and it performed well in 7 of 11 games including the finale. North Dakota came in averaging 31 ppg and the Redbird D held them to just 22 providing the opportunity for victory. The game was lost to the kicking game and calls not going our way.
Our other 1 pt. loss this season was to EIU. That game was lost by the kicking game and the offense.

The offense should have scored more yesterday but it was really banged up. Annexstad out. Sobkowicz - WR, Zambrano - OL and Bromagen - OL all left the game with injuries with Sobkowicz leaving very early.
Gudaitis - OL was held out of the starting lineup. He had a soft cast on his wrist. When Bromagen went down Gudaitis was forced into the game anyway. Both Gandy TE and Gudaitis OL were playing with a cast at that point.

If the placekicking had been adequate this team could have been at least 8-3. It hurt us this season, but it shows that we have a good nucleus of players returning and if we solve the placekicking woes, we could have a very good team next year.

 

[Total Red]

Fun Fact - QB's

Two QB's yesterday.

Both named Tommy (Rittenhouse and Schuster). Both are smaller dual-threat types. Both averaged 7.3 yards per carry rushing.

But some evidence shows our Soph Tommy outplaying UND's Senior Tommy.

Rittenhouse -ISU 241 yards passing, 66 yards rushing
Schuster - UND 169 yards passing, 22 yards rushing

Rittenhouse can play and I'm more than willing to go into '24 with him as our QB but we still need to see what's out there.

1) It is possible that we could find a veteran QB that's even better. 2) QB's get injured. Depth is needed.

 

[fourthandshort]

Fun Fact - QB's

Two QB's yesterday.

Both named Tommy (Rittenhouse and Schuster). Both are smaller dual-threat types. Both averaged 7.3 yards per carry rushing.

But some evidence shows our Soph Tommy outplaying UND's Senior Tommy.

Rittenhouse -ISU 241 yards passing, 66 yards rushing
Schuster - UND 169 yards passing, 22 yards rushing

Rittenhouse can play and I'm more than willing to go into '24 with him as our QB but we still need to see what's out there.

1) It is possible that we could find a veteran QB that's even better. 2) QB's get injured. Depth is needed.

I'm becoming a believer in Rittenhouse being our starter in 2024 ... not 100% yet, but feeling very good about him with another offseason of development. But the way he stepped in 2 weeks ago against a weaker team, and then his past week against a much stronger team with the game on line all game .. so impressive and encouraging for next season.

And like you said, as this season and most seasons again proved, we need a #2 who can come into the game where we don't have to toss half the playbook. Little did we/I know, for 9 games this season, we had that guy.

The one thing he needs to work on is his arm strength .. he's got a little over 9 months to develop even further. Let's make sure we keep our WR and RB groups in tact as best we can, find a TE, and find next years OL group sooner than later. On the OL group, you'll recall we were still experimenting with who played where, well into August camp.

Frustrating season for sure .. 4 losses by 8 points against 4 teams in playoff hunt. That and our "relatively weak" SOS (still top 33%ile) doomed our playoff hopes this season. Need to win those close games more often, like we did against MoST on road.

Now we gear up for 2024 .. lot's coming back, unless portal takes more than it gives. Right now, the players need to recognize, this roster is a playoff team in 2024. There is reason to stay.

If you look at our offensive stats a year ago, and then look at how much we lost from a very good 20119 defense. Then consider how bad our defense looked against SDSU and YSU, though settled down some in 2nd half. As well as settling down against UNI. Yhen look at how it played on road against UND yesterday .. an offense very similar to YSU and UNI in their ability to run and pass, there is cause for optimism in our defense .. especially with so much returning. I would say we need more stoutness up the middle, so a DT or 2 from portaal, or roster, wouldl sure help.

 

[Manchester Matt]

I've definitely been on the Rittenhouse bandwagon since we signed him. Love his skillset and hope he can pick up right where he left off starting next year.

Let's hope the portal doesn't kill us this offseason. Looks like a very talented roster on paper, but we know how the portal can take that away quickly.

 

[DaveBird10]

That loss stinks but this team is close and hopefully they can carry this too off-season and it drives them for next year. Rittenhouse, I was impressed with him during spring and even then the fall scrimmages I saw him in. Kid can scramble and even shows some good RPO action. I thought o-line held up pretty good with a few injuries and became impressed with redshirt freshman Rylan Crawford when he was forced to step in.
On defense, if Gearheart leaves Jack Dwyer can more then do that job. You have a lot of starters and guys that got valuable reps. Get a d-end and nose and lets go on defense.
As everyone said special teams and the kicking hurt this team this year. Love Ian Wagner but not sure he can do all 3 and thats ok. Ian can punt and kickoff, get a consistent place kicker and this team is set, can't leave easy points off the board. Frustrating season but a lot to look forward to. Besides after watching the Bears the bed yesterday, I wish that there were more ISU games too watch.

 

[MadBird]

Re: the portal -- I hate the issue, and hate that I'm bringing it up, BUT get that truck back from Annexstad and have Heller give it to Rittenhouse and/or Blakemore and/or the defensive line and offensive line, etc. etc. etc. You get my point. I hope "we're" not just sitting around wishing and hoping, but doing what can be done to lock down our current squad.

I wonder about backup QB Kaplan - he's played some FCS ball already (granted, at Valpo). Has a season "in the room" with OC Peterson and Zach and Tommy got him in a better/productive place? We've also got the kid from Arizona coming in, we assume still at this point, and its hard to believe he's coming all the way out here to the flatlands to sit around and be a backup. Or that they went to all that trouble to bring him here if he didn't have lots of potential.

Fourthandshort is always talking about our historical failure to develop HS QB's, and so here's our chance with Rittenhouse. And it wouldn't hurt for future HS QB's to know you can come here and get your chance and not get recruited over.

 

[fourthandshort]

That loss stinks but this team is close and hopefully they can carry this too off-season and it drives them for next year. Rittenhouse, I was impressed with him during spring and even then the fall scrimmages I saw him in. Kid can scramble and even shows some good RPO action. I thought o-line held up pretty good with a few injuries and became impressed with redshirt freshman Rylan Crawford when he was forced to step in.
On defense, if Gearheart leaves Jack Dwyer can more then do that job. You have a lot of starters and guys that got valuable reps. Get a d-end and nose and lets go on defense.
As everyone said special teams and the kicking hurt this team this year. Love Ian Wagner but not sure he can do all 3 and thats ok. Ian can punt and kickoff, get a consistent place kicker and this team is set, can't leave easy points off the board. Frustrating season but a lot to look forward to. Besides after watching the Bears the bed yesterday, I wish that there were more ISU games too watch.

I worried Rittenhouse would be like Blake Winkler .. Winkler could throw it, but was a lot like Bears Rex Grossman ... struggles in pocket due to size and inability to feel the pressure and get out of trouble. But Rittenhouse can move better and has now proven he can mentally handle the pocket pressure .. he feels the pocket and can move well to buy time or run with it. If youre undersized as a QB, you have to have these qualities or you won't last long unless you have great OL, WRs, run game. We already knew Rittenhouse had the physical ability to deal with the QB position .. so did Jefferson. BUt Rittenhouse can make the throws and decisions under pocket pressure, where Jefferson struggled.

The only weakness I see in Rittenhouse is experience and arm strength ... experience will come, arm strength should be his top priority this offseason.

 

[fourthandshort]

Re: the portal -- I hate the issue, and hate that I'm bringing it up, BUT get that truck back from Annexstad and have Heller give it to Rittenhouse and/or Blakemore and/or the defensive line and offensive line, etc. etc. etc. You get my point. I hope "we're" not just sitting around wishing and hoping, but doing what can be done to lock down our current squad.

I wonder about backup QB Kaplan - he's played some FCS ball already (granted, at Valpo). Has a season "in the room" with OC Peterson and Zach and Tommy got him in a better/productive place? We've also got the kid from Arizona coming in, we assume still at this point, and its hard to believe he's coming all the way out here to the flatlands to sit around and be a backup. Or that they went to all that trouble to bring him here if he didn't have lots of potential.

Fourthandshort is always talking about our historical failure to develop HS QB's, and so here's our chance with Rittenhouse. And it wouldn't hurt for future HS QB's to know you can come here and get your chance and not get recruited over.

1000% this should be the ultimate priority.

So whether Peterson stays another couple years or not, Spack needs to have learned this lesson and learn to TRUST others as far as the pass game. This is how we get to next level .. Spack knows defense and run game. The pass game is where we historically have fallen short .. until 2023, the anomaly of all anomalies. Can you imagine if we had last years defense with this years offense ... it would have been a top 8 or better team.

But the lesson learned this year has to be for Spack to get to point of TRUST sooner than later than his instincts tell him. 2022 was great example of him failing in that regard. 2023 is great example of him succeeding in this regard. But it took 2 years with Peterson/Annexstad to get there. I'm so tired of playing not to lose when we struggle to win .. like last season.

This approach IMO will help us win more, make playoffs more, recruit better, keep players from going to portal as much, AND not have to rely on the portal entirely for the QB position because we'll have more QB depth coming from HS recruitment.

As Spack said very early this season ... "its the modern game" ... let's work to stay with this, even if Peterson leaves in 1 or 2 years. No coach is good at every phase of game, that is why we have coordinators and position coaches, Spack needs to think like a CEO when it comes to pass game ... hire expertise and give them the reins.