Uni at Illinois State (11/2/19)

[JHBird]

I was at the game with my family. I felt embarrassed such a highly anticipated game had no more than 3,000 fans at such a highly meaningful game for Spack and ISU Football. I am also disappointed at the boring offense ISU continues to run, lack of discipline with unforseen turnovers and most of all lack of effort. I can't tell you how many times I saw some of our guys on defense dogging it. First half or end of game saw it both times. Absolutely inexcusable

I was also shocked by the small crowd size. It was like a game over the Thanksgiving holiday, when none of the students are around. Makes me worry for the future of the program. It seems like everybody is losing interest, even when we're 6-2! We're a ranked team playing another ranked team at home, at that's the best crowd we can get? The weather can't be blamed either. Not a bad day at all.

I figured we'd be in trouble against the UNI def. They're great against the run and we have no passing attack. I was just hoping our Def could keep them down as well. I do think losing Edgar and Grimes was the key event of the season. We just can't run it without a WR who can get open deep. Brady would look a lot better with those guys healthy.

 

[TheTruth]

I was also shocked by the small crowd size. It was like a game over the Thanksgiving holiday, when none of the students are around. Makes me worry for the future of the program. It seems like everybody is losing interest, even when we're 6-2! We're a ranked team playing another ranked team at home, at that's the best crowd we can get? The weather can't be blamed either. Not a bad day at all.

I'm not all that shocked by these small crowd sizes. Illinois State fans have shown they want the big time atmosphere, they will tailgate like champions but quite frankly they're not interested in 1-AA football.... and to be honest, they shouldn't be. These are dangerous times for the Illinois State athletic dept, their most high profile sport of mens bball is mired in a league that now more closely resembles the summit league than the MVC of even just 10 years ago and they seemingly have no interest in fixing the problems.

 

[ricohill]

I was also shocked by the small crowd size. It was like a game over the Thanksgiving holiday, when none of the students are around. Makes me worry for the future of the program. It seems like everybody is losing interest, even when we're 6-2! We're a ranked team playing another ranked team at home, at that's the best crowd we can get? The weather can't be blamed either. Not a bad day at all.

I'm not all that shocked by these small crowd sizes. Illinois State fans have shown they want the big time atmosphere, they will tailgate like champions but quite frankly they're not interested in 1-AA football.... and to be honest, they shouldn't be. These are dangerous times for the Illinois State athletic dept, their most high profile sport of mens bball is mired in a league that now more closely resembles the summit league than the MVC of even just 10 years ago and they seemingly have no interest in fixing the problems.

As long as the Larry's (Dietz and Lyons) are employed by ISU, we are being slapped in the face as fans of ISU athletics. FCS is a dying division of football and it doesn't help that we play a 1960's Woody Hayes three yards and a cloud of dust offense. The Larry's have no clue about how to improve the athletic department. Dietz doesn't prioritize it and Lyons isn't skilled enough to do his job well.

Also, lets face it our marketing department dropped the ball on the game. It's a top 10 matchup and all they did was one ticket discount. Did they do anything to promote the game to students, go out in the community to give away tickets, full media blitz? Homecoming and Family weekend sells itself. You have to actually put in effort for a game like this. Granted, I will say this for them, I'm not sure that many people care to go watch UNI and ISU anyway.

I give Spack the benefit of the doubt, however you have to start to question his hiring of coaches. Dicken was a disaster and Beathard appears to be past his prime. The program has lost all momentum and it's looking more and more like 2014 was the "Frisco Fluke".

 

[redbirdfan04]

Last year NIU had to buy over 56,000 tickets because they couldn't reach the required 15,000 per game minimum. It cost them nearly $300,000 in buy back tickets. The amount of people begging to move to FBS I do not think have a clue about the cost it would take. Right now our stadium does not hold 15,000 and if we go off our numbers our athletic department would be writing a check for almost $220,000 for empty seats. No thanks. I hear people say fire this person or that person but bringing in someone new isn't going to magically bring national championships, move up in football, or get us to the sweet 16. Of course i would like to win more what fan doesn't want that but moving to FBS in football isnt going to make things magically better. For those breaking down the doors for that to happen please open up your checkbooks because it will be about $5 million dollars up front to make the move and in reality closer to $15 million all in. Each year we are going to dish out money for unpaid tickets and make the stadium bigger. Good luck, people forget our university alumni are mostly teachers and nurses not really rolling in the money to give big donations.

 

[redbirdfan04]

I was also shocked by the small crowd size. It was like a game over the Thanksgiving holiday, when none of the students are around. Makes me worry for the future of the program. It seems like everybody is losing interest, even when we're 6-2! We're a ranked team playing another ranked team at home, at that's the best crowd we can get? The weather can't be blamed either. Not a bad day at all.

I'm not all that shocked by these small crowd sizes. Illinois State fans have shown they want the big time atmosphere, they will tailgate like champions but quite frankly they're not interested in 1-AA football.... and to be honest, they shouldn't be. These are dangerous times for the Illinois State athletic dept, their most high profile sport of mens bball is mired in a league that now more closely resembles the summit league than the MVC of even just 10 years ago and they seemingly have no interest in fixing the problems.

As long as the Larry's (Dietz and Lyons) are employed by ISU, we are being slapped in the face as fans of ISU athletics. FCS is a dying division of football and it doesn't help that we play a 1960's Woody Hayes three yards and a cloud of dust offense. The Larry's have no clue about how to improve the athletic department. Dietz doesn't prioritize it and Lyons isn't skilled enough to do his job well.

Also, lets face it our marketing department dropped the ball on the game. It's a top 10 matchup and all they did was one ticket discount. Did they do anything to promote the game to students, go out in the community to give away tickets, full media blitz? Homecoming and Family weekend sells itself. You have to actually put in effort for a game like this. Granted, I will say this for them, I'm not sure that many people care to go watch UNI and ISU anyway.

I give Spack the benefit of the doubt, however you have to start to question his hiring of coaches. Dicken was a disaster and Beathard appears to be past his prime. The program has lost all momentum and it's looking more and more like 2014 was the "Frisco Fluke".

You are right Frisco was a fluke. They got lucky in each game. Come on give it a rest. How about we enjoy that season for what is was special. We should all be proud of it but let's count how many teams have made it back to the national championship more than once since we were there. Are you bashing all those teams? South Dakota State most have a terrible AD and President they never make it. They did give away tickets to any kid in the reggie kids club by the way and they did a great job honoring our military at the game. Did you already forget that. I would also like to know how many business meetings you have had with either Larry. You seem to know everything they are doing so you must have sat with them to discuss what it is they do. So please let us know what was said in those meetings since you say Dietz doesn't prioritize and Lyons is not skilled enough. Where is your data other than they have not won a national championship. I mean a beautiful upgrade to our football stadium and now an upgrade to Redbird but that will get bashed im assuming. Hey the Illini are down the street and are going to make who cares bowl this year jump on that bandwagon.

 

[ricohill]

I'm not all that shocked by these small crowd sizes. Illinois State fans have shown they want the big time atmosphere, they will tailgate like champions but quite frankly they're not interested in 1-AA football.... and to be honest, they shouldn't be. These are dangerous times for the Illinois State athletic dept, their most high profile sport of mens bball is mired in a league that now more closely resembles the summit league than the MVC of even just 10 years ago and they seemingly have no interest in fixing the problems.

As long as the Larry's (Dietz and Lyons) are employed by ISU, we are being slapped in the face as fans of ISU athletics. FCS is a dying division of football and it doesn't help that we play a 1960's Woody Hayes three yards and a cloud of dust offense. The Larry's have no clue about how to improve the athletic department. Dietz doesn't prioritize it and Lyons isn't skilled enough to do his job well.

Also, lets face it our marketing department dropped the ball on the game. It's a top 10 matchup and all they did was one ticket discount. Did they do anything to promote the game to students, go out in the community to give away tickets, full media blitz? Homecoming and Family weekend sells itself. You have to actually put in effort for a game like this. Granted, I will say this for them, I'm not sure that many people care to go watch UNI and ISU anyway.

I give Spack the benefit of the doubt, however you have to start to question his hiring of coaches. Dicken was a disaster and Beathard appears to be past his prime. The program has lost all momentum and it's looking more and more like 2014 was the "Frisco Fluke".

You are right Frisco was a fluke. They got lucky in each game. Come on give it a rest. How about we enjoy that season for what is was special. We should all be proud of it but let's count how many teams have made it back to the national championship more than once since we were there. Are you bashing all those teams? South Dakota State most have a terrible AD and President they never make it. They did give away tickets to any kid in the reggie kids club by the way and they did a great job honoring our military at the game. Did you already forget that. I would also like to know how many business meetings you have had with either Larry. You seem to know everything they are doing so you must have sat with them to discuss what it is they do. So please let us know what was said in those meetings since you say Dietz doesn't prioritize and Lyons is not skilled enough. Where is your data other than they have not won a national championship. I mean a beautiful upgrade to our football stadium and now an upgrade to Redbird but that will get bashed im assuming. Hey the Illini are down the street and are going to make who cares bowl this year jump on that bandwagon.

I wasn't saying that team going to Frisco was a fluke. They were good. It appears that it was a one-time outlier instead of that being a consistent playoff winning program. They won 1 playoff game under Spack before and won 1 since Frisco. Not looking like this team is capable of doing much other than FCS football is bad enough outside of a couple teams that anything is possible if you stay away from NDSU.

What do Dietz and Lyons have to do with Hancock Stadium? They had nothing to do with it. Have you been to the Horton side of Hancock? A friend of mine sent me a photo that the bathroom stall doors have fallen off and they haven't fixed them. I wouldn't call the upgrade to Redbird Arena anything special. They were forced to do something because it had become so run down and the ADA required them to make changes. It's not like they did a full Arena upgrade like the State Farm Center at the UofI. They did the bare minimum they could.

There were 3,000 people there for a "Top 10" matchup. Either the product is bad or someone is bad at selling it.

 

[Total Red]

I'm not all that shocked by these small crowd sizes. Illinois State fans have shown they want the big time atmosphere, they will tailgate like champions but quite frankly they're not interested in 1-AA football....

I'm not shocked either. I said before the Homecoming game that it would be our last big crowd (if the weather had cooperated). Illinois St. Football is a social event for most fans and that is reflected in the tailgating. Playing bags and drinking beer and a desire to spend 3 hours watching football are two totally different things.

This has been often repeated but I guess it needs to be said again. We have some fans that crave big-time football but a move to the FBS would include membership in a low level FBS conference like the MAC and that would not satisfy their desire for big-time football. Fans that don't want to see Western Ill, Eastern Ill and Indiana St. aren't going to fill the stadium for Western Mich, Eastern Mich and Ball St.

redbirdfan04 has a grasp on the situation. Great posts.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

Last year NIU had to buy over 56,000 tickets because they couldn't reach the required 15,000 per game minimum. It cost them nearly $300,000 in buy back tickets. The amount of people begging to move to FBS I do not think have a clue about the cost it would take. Right now our stadium does not hold 15,000 and if we go off our numbers our athletic department would be writing a check for almost $220,000 for empty seats. No thanks. I hear people say fire this person or that person but bringing in someone new isn't going to magically bring national championships, move up in football, or get us to the sweet 16. Of course i would like to win more what fan doesn't want that but moving to FBS in football isnt going to make things magically better. For those breaking down the doors for that to happen please open up your checkbooks because it will be about $5 million dollars up front to make the move and in reality closer to $15 million all in. Each year we are going to dish out money for unpaid tickets and make the stadium bigger. Good luck, people forget our university alumni are mostly teachers and nurses not really rolling in the money to give big donations.

Explain the accounting on how niu has to buy tickets from itself or its subsidiary department? Money out one pocket and back in the other. I take it is basically accounted as a subsidy from the university to the athletic department? However hard to knock NIU athletic department finances/business practices when ISU has the bigger athletic department subsidy..niu subsidy is $15.8mil and ISU is 19.4 mil annual. NIU athletic department (non-subsidy) revenue is greater than ISU by $500,000 annually. Yes ISU would have some investment needed for a higher football/improved conference but certainly there are some decent opportunities to increase revenues to pay for it. Football buy games, increased rights/licensing aa well as possibly ticket sales and stadium naming rights. I believe ISU could add several million dollars annually to their revenue. The big revenue in college sports is in football yet we play in an expensive football level (fcs) where there is little revenue opportunity overall and none post season to pay for expenses. Why is there little to no revenue in fcs football...because very few football fans are interested in FCS football.

With all that said I too was surprised the stadium was as empty as it looked on tv given the significance of the Uni/ISU game. However many (relative to fcs football fan size) may have been watching online which has value as well. I wonder if ISU is advised as to how many people watch their games online.

As an aside it surprises me that some mock playing in a televised football bowl game that pays money when ISU’s most recent post season football game was played 3 years ago at central arkansas on thanksgiving weekend and was non-televised.

 

[MadBird]

A few thoughts about the game and some of the comments on the board . . . . . .

Davis makes a couple nice "cross-field" passes, puts the ball on the dime, then proceeds to miss open men and toss some awful picks. I can see where he looks good in practice, then somehow gets in games and it leaves him. He had a bad 4th quarter, at minimum. Not sure what to do with him.

Why is football the only sport, for the most part, where one position/one guy can't ever be subbed for? I mean, Michael Jordan sat for a while on the bench. Pitchers in baseball get taken out, sometimes after one pitch. Linemen and RB's and WR's, etc. get rotated in and out. Pinch hitters and runners and defensive replacements in baseball. But in football??? No, the QB stays in till the bitter end. Playing crappy, not getting the job done, no deal, stay in and keep trying. I don't know what our backup QB's have to offer, but Saturday they needed to provide at least a change, a breather to Davis to collect himself, look over the plays from the sideline. I have to believe they could have done that. Guessing Jefferson could offer a change of pace - he is a running threat, yes?

One of our experts (Timmy for example) could correct or enhance this comment - seems like the OC has to develop plays, draw them up I mean as an offensive scheme (mostly pre-season, you know, the playbook), and then has to call the right plays during the game, and has to evaluate whether the players can execute the plays. Maybe you have some great long pass plays, but the QB doesn't have the arm, or the WR's don't have speed or can't get separation - so you don't call the long passes much. You might have, say, an all American RB but the line can't open up the holes. I sit and wonder which part of that equation is where we are failing. Do we not have "decent" plays? Does our OC not call the right plays during the game? Is our talent not up to the challenge? You sit and watch opponents, and somehow they have some "dazzling" looking plays, not every one, but when they need one. Some kind of blocking action or surprise motion or cut or something. We seem to pound ahead on run plays, do some plain vanilla sweeps, etc. I keep waiting for some nice looking something out of our offense, and we never seem to have one.

What would be wrong with putting Proctor in the wildcat now and then?

I'm not sure I agree with those who criticize Spack as the "root" of the offense problem. Isn't Spack a Joe Tiller disciple? There isn't anything dull about the Tiller offense. Wiki says he's one of the pioneers of the spread offense. Drew Brees? Kyle Orton? I don't know, I've gotta believe Spack isn't that much against something a little more open.

Why do other teams seem to hit their tight ends over the middle when they need a first, and us, not so much?

From the "game experience" department - okay, the crowd could have been bigger and more into it, but still . . . . There's like 150-200 people sitting over there on the west side in purple rooting for the visitors and chanting UNI-UNI when they were piling on, and you know, there's nada from our cheerleaders, nada from the BRMM. I get that it might have been too little too late at that point, but you know, let's make an effort to drown out the bad guys.

I know free speech and all of that, but I sure wish there were a prohibition against political advertising in the tailgate area. And enforce the no amplification device rule.

Luther Kirk made some serious hits in the secondary. Glad he came back.

Not sure if it's been Total Red or 4thandshort or both probably pointing this out - I'm intrigued by the apparent lack of recruiting success at the QB spot. And my thought is, no one who has left has seemed to come back and bite us. I could be forgetting someone, but it seems like we have these guys here and then some leave and disappear from the face of the earth, and others show up at WR or DB. But is it just a failure to score someone decent, or misjudging the talent? Or what? Did we have a walk-on a couple years ago who had a great spring and seemed lined up to be the backup and then never got a chance and went DIII or something and was successful? But I don't seem to remember any of our QB's moving on and showing up in the "headlines".

I may have more, but will send this along for now.

 

[JHBird]

I kinda think the NDSU blowout meant more than our 6-2 record. That probably sapped enthusiasm for the rest of the year. I know it was only one loss but it felt like 4 losses. It was hard to believe we were really ranked 7th after that, and then UNI showed us what a top 10 team looks like. That big UNI lineman kept yelling "this is our house", but it was really NDSU's house. NDSU couldn't have been more dominant against us on your own field. It's hard to believe how they ran all over that UNI defense. And then NDSU doesn't even want to go to the FBS. That tells you something.

 

[Phantom]

Can't get pushed around and shoot ourselves in the foot at home that bad - again. It wasn't too long ago we at least had the narrative of how good we are at Hancock...well, not right now.

Attendance/atmosphere-wise? It's the same thing every season. Home opener, Homecoming and Family Weekend draw big and that's pretty much it. Like an earlier post said, those games sell themselves. Maybe we get lucky one other game with a big crowd but that's not the norm. Moreover, the minute it gets below 50 degrees or starts raining/snowing that has an adverse effect. Most students use football as an excuse to tailgate, nothing more. The ones that actually do make it into the games leave at halftime - the atmosphere feels like a HS game to them, and probably not even that good depending on where they came from. You want to bring the attendance & atmosphere back the way we had it for a long stretch there? You don't lose at home. You hype each game up like it's THE thing to do. You play an exciting brand of football. You make the games fun for those in attendance. You get students excited - shit, some of them don't even realize we are DI. And again, you don't lose at home.

As for the pipedream to FBS...we were closer to that 10 years ago than we are now.

 

[Reggie Redbird]

Last year NIU had to buy over 56,000 tickets because they couldn't reach the required 15,000 per game minimum. It cost them nearly $300,000 in buy back tickets. The amount of people begging to move to FBS I do not think have a clue about the cost it would take. Right now our stadium does not hold 15,000 and if we go off our numbers our athletic department would be writing a check for almost $220,000 for empty seats. No thanks. I hear people say fire this person or that person but bringing in someone new isn't going to magically bring national championships, move up in football, or get us to the sweet 16. Of course i would like to win more what fan doesn't want that but moving to FBS in football isnt going to make things magically better. For those breaking down the doors for that to happen please open up your checkbooks because it will be about $5 million dollars up front to make the move and in reality closer to $15 million all in. Each year we are going to dish out money for unpaid tickets and make the stadium bigger. Good luck, people forget our university alumni are mostly teachers and nurses not really rolling in the money to give big donations.

I've always had a question about this. If you're having to buy tickets from yourself to hit an artificial attendance number, are you really out any/much money? You aren't spending to print tickets. You probably aren't paying taxes because you're a public/not-for-profit entity. So what are you really out on that piece? I'm not arguing with you, but it's something that popped out.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

As an aside it surprises me that some mock playing in a televised football bowl game that pays money when ISU’s most recent post season football game was played 3 years ago at central arkansas on thanksgiving weekend and was non-televised.
[/quote]

The play off game with Central Arkansas was televised...I can vividly remember the pain of watching the complete and utter collapse of the Redbirds in the 4th quarter after controlling the game. That 4th Quarter was just heartbreaking.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

Last year NIU had to buy over 56,000 tickets because they couldn't reach the required 15,000 per game minimum. It cost them nearly $300,000 in buy back tickets. The amount of people begging to move to FBS I do not think have a clue about the cost it would take. Right now our stadium does not hold 15,000 and if we go off our numbers our athletic department would be writing a check for almost $220,000 for empty seats. No thanks. I hear people say fire this person or that person but bringing in someone new isn't going to magically bring national championships, move up in football, or get us to the sweet 16. Of course i would like to win more what fan doesn't want that but moving to FBS in football isnt going to make things magically better. For those breaking down the doors for that to happen please open up your checkbooks because it will be about $5 million dollars up front to make the move and in reality closer to $15 million all in. Each year we are going to dish out money for unpaid tickets and make the stadium bigger. Good luck, people forget our university alumni are mostly teachers and nurses not really rolling in the money to give big donations.

I've always had a question about this. If you're having to buy tickets from yourself to hit an artificial attendance number, are you really out any/much money? You aren't spending to print tickets. You probably aren't paying taxes because you're a public/not-for-profit entity. So what are you really out on that piece? I'm not arguing with you, but it's something that popped out.

I am guessing it is a transaction between the university and the athletic department. Again shifting funds at the parent level and recorded as a subsidy to NIU athletics or possibly ticket revenue? Please tell me it is not the athletic department merely buying tickets from itself as that is nothing but inflating both revenue and expenses for NIU athletics and is bogus accounting.

 

[TheTruth]

Fans that don't want to see Western Ill, Eastern Ill and Indiana St. aren't going to fill the stadium for Western Mich, Eastern Mich and Ball St.

Great point, Illinois State's history of incompetence in athletic dept leadership has painted them into a corner and that's also why it needs to be communicated that an entry level league is not the endgame. But to be honest, it doesn't appear that Illinois State has the level of leadership necessary to do that and that's sad....so much potential being wasted. Illinois State needs to focus on getting a new AD in place first and then focus on putting together a plan they can communicate to fans to reach their potential.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

As an aside it surprises me that some mock playing in a televised football bowl game that pays money when ISU’s most recent post season football game was played 3 years ago at central arkansas on thanksgiving weekend and was non-televised.

The play off game with Central Arkansas was televised...I can vividly remember the pain of watching the complete and utter collapse of the Redbirds in the 4th quarter after controlling the game. That 4th Quarter was just heartbreaking.
[/quote] thanks for the correction...I thought I watched it online

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

As an aside it surprises me that some mock playing in a televised football bowl game that pays money when ISU’s most recent post season football game was played 3 years ago at central arkansas on thanksgiving weekend and was non-televised.

The play off game with Central Arkansas was televised...I can vividly remember the pain of watching the complete and utter collapse of the Redbirds in the 4th quarter after controlling the game. That 4th Quarter was just heartbreaking.

thanks for the correction...I thought I watched it online. Yes that was a win that slipped away
[/quote]

 

[Total Red]

that's also why it needs to be communicated that an entry level league is not the endgame.

We had an administration that told the fans that we could be Kansas St. It didn't move the needle. Donations remained sparse and the much needed Hancock renovation still had to wait until student fee funds could be secured. If Redbird Nation really wanted to FBS we would be there.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

With regards to putting Baltz in for the last series, I saw a video clip of Coach Spack saying the coaching staff wanted to see what he could do. Also he said it was Baltz's turn in the rotation and that was why he was put in instead of someone else. I thought all of that was just Coaching BS speak. He wanted to see what Baltz could do by handing off a few times with seconds left in a lost game? Yeah, right coach...we all buy that line of total BS. The rotation thing was kind of interesting to me. It indicates there is not clear backup and they just take turns putting players in. I am figuring in reality he pulled Brady because that 4th quarter was so terribly awful for him he really had to get him out of the game to preserve some confidence in his starting QB. Who is second string QB? Who knows? It really will not matter until next season now.
No issue with Coach Spack for those comments. It is the BS all coaches spout in those type of situations. They are not going to say what is really going on. You want another example just look north a bit to Coach Nagy. Is Nagy really going to say he has a team that just sucks on offense? No, he can't but everyone can see it.
I have not given up on this team. I will be watching next week. At the same time I am not going to act like this team has no problems. QB play is inconsistent. Offensive line play is not very good but every team knows who is getting the ball and where it is going. That puts quite a bit of pressure on the O-Line. The overall offensive game plan looks to be extremely one dimensional. The loss of two starting receivers has hurt no doubt but every team is going to have injuries. When they do open it up there is some success it seems but balls are not thrown accurately and big plays are missed or turnovers happen. This is just not a good offense and good defenses are showing its weak spots.
I like FCS football but I am in the minority I guess. I like the FCS playoffs overall much better than the system at FBS. It is a shame that the games are not better attended. I have no idea what the athletic department does to promote the games since I don't live in the area. My guess is not very much but that admittedly is just a guess.
I went to a game a couple years ago and it is a nice stadium now and it was a great experience for a really cheap cost ($15 a ticket I recall). Hell, the High Schools down here charge you $8 - $10 a ticket for a High School game! I think it is great value for the money but you cant force people into the seats. Winning is what usually gets fans in the seats. Maybe if the offensive play was more exciting that would help even if you are not winning consistently. Being so far away I find it hard to get information especially in the off season. Even heading into the season during fall camp information is hard to come by. That is one reason I am on this board...you can find out what it going on. If you rely on the ISU athletic department you will be in the dark. I love having the ability to watch the games though...well except for times like the 4th quarter last week maybe...
See everyone next Saturday on the board.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

As an aside it surprises me that some mock playing in a televised football bowl game that pays money when ISU’s most recent post season football game was played 3 years ago at central arkansas on thanksgiving weekend and was non-televised.

The play off game with Central Arkansas was televised...I can vividly remember the pain of watching the complete and utter collapse of the Redbirds in the 4th quarter after controlling the game. That 4th Quarter was just heartbreaking.

thanks for the correction...I thought I watched it online. Yes that was a win that slipped away

[/quote]

Who could forget that Purple and Grey field? :shock: