MVFC Week 3 Preview
Chad Lenz & JT Nutt, MVFC Contributors | September 16, 2015
JT Says-
Missouri State @ Arkansas State
Missouri State takes on Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark, The Arkansas State rock one of the best jersey / helmet combinations in the FCS. Breck Ruddick the redshirt freshman hails from Marion, Arkansas which is an hour southeast of the Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro. Ruddick will have to lead the way by air and ground this season as the leading passer 33-58 for 229 yards 2 tds and 2nd leading rusher 22 attempts for 74 yards and a game winning score last week. Arkansas State nearly upset Missouri last week losing 27-20. They will be too much for Missouri State this week.
St. Francis (PA) @ Youngstown State
The Penquins of Youngstown State look to bounce back against the Red Flash of St Francis in Pennsylvania. Both teams are 1-1, St Francis beat Georgetown week 1 jumping out to a 21-0 lead and never looking back. Youngstown SHOULD have beat Pittsburgh but barely beat Robert Morris. The hangover could be expected last week but this week they get their focus back and take out St Francis for Bo Pelini’s second home win.
Southeast Missouri State @ Indiana State
Southeast Missouri State looks to upset another Missouri Valley school in Indiana State. Dual threat quarterback Matt Adam leads the Sycamores so far with 126 yards rushing with 1 TD to go with 27-53 passing for 358 yards and 4 TD’s. LeMonte Booker doing his best Shakir Bell impression looks to continue his 9.2 yards per run average against an over matched defense. The balanced attack from Indiana State will help them to improve to 2-1.
Drake @ South Dakota
South Dakota returns home to take on the Bulldogs of Drake. Drake’s second half comeback against North Dakota came up just short and they lost 21-18. Keaton Strudsrud led Drake with 19-30 passing for 260 yards and 3 tds. South Dakota’s defense has allowed 381 passing yards but don’t look for Drake to increase that too much. Drake will be no match for South Dakota who will be happy to be back to Vermillion.
Northern Iowa @ Cal Poly
Northern Iowa travels to Cal Poly in a pivotal FCS matchup. UNI will be deploying dual threat QB Aaron Bailey and traditional passer Sawyer Kollmorgen to keep Cal-poly off guard. Darrian Miller and a stable of running backs will also look build off of an impressive win over Eastern Washington. Cal Poly has already knocked of Montana before falling to Arizona State. Cal Poly’s passing attack has only yielded 102 yards in 2 games but 614 yards on the ground. UNI kept Eastern Washington to 26 yards and will try to force Cal Poly to the air. UNI’s defense will be disciplined enough to keep Cal Poly in check and they will escape a close one and improve to 6-1 all time against Cal Poly.
Chad says-
Southeast Missouri State @ #24 Indiana State
Indiana State has had the two extremes of their schedule the first two weeks of the season – a Pioneer League team that has relied on sub-D1 programs for a large portion of their wins and an Big Ten program. In my eyes they performed mostly as they should have in both of those games. Sadly that hasn’t gotten me a better grasp on who the Sycamores are this season. Against Butler in week one it was a group effort that punished Bulter on the ground, but last week there was nearly no production from anyone other than quarterback Matt Adams. Adams will need to up his completion percent from the 50% it’s currently at if Indiana State wants to win this game. It feels weird saying that SEMO has a legitimate shot at a MVFC program, but they did just that last weekend as they beat SIU. They key for Indiana State coming into this game is to weather the early Redhwark storm. The Redhawks have scored 57% of their season points in the first quarter, and have actually scored more points in the two first quarters than the other 6 quarters combined. If Indiana State can keep the fast start to a minimum for SEMO they should have no issue with grabbing the win. If we learned nothing else from the SIU game for the Redhawks it’s that you can’t let them hang around. Indiana State needs to throw the knockout punch early.
#26 North Dakota @ #3 North Dakota State
I don’t know if there is enough bandwidth on the internet to hold the talk of this game. This rivalry is the most played game in Division 2 history as they two have met 110 times. This, however, is the first meeting of the two since 2003; a 28-21 North Dakota win. As-a-matter-of-fact UND has actually won 10 of the last 13 meetings, though I think the two programs are in very different states than they were 12 years ago. It seems like both sides fans want to downplay the game, but I can’t imagine there is going to be a more tense atmosphere in the FargoDome this year. The Bison enter this game as massive favorites (~30 points according to betting guides….not that we advocated gambling), and I can’t argue that line. We all know who NDSU is, and with Carson Wentz healthy they are a scary team. UND has an FBS win, which looks a little less impressive as the Wyoming team they beat just got blasted by Eastern Michigan, and non-scholarship Drake nearly knocked UND off last weekend. I see this game going one of two ways, and only one of those ways. The first is what most expect and that’s NDSU coming out and rolling UND. The other is UND riding a wave of emotion and making this a game real late into the 4th (think Indiana State in 2012 Bison fans). While I expect NDSU to roll, I’m secretly pulling for a tight game.
#29 Western Illinois @ #2 Coastal Carolina
Before the season I mentioned that Western Illinois has a chance to be a very good team this year IF the secondary could find themselves. In week one, against an Eastern Illinois program with some preseason hype (that has fallen completely on it’s face three times over) it looked like the secondary would be better than expected. Then Illinois happened last week. I expected Illinois to win, I didn’t expect Illinois to dominate like they did, and it created an abundance of questions about the Leathernecks in my head. The secondary was torched for 353 yards passing. Potentially more concerning for the Leathernecks was how bad the offense was. They managed just 4 offensive first downs and 141 total yards. The offense has the talent, in my opinion, to recover. The defense has me very concerned heading into a game like this. This Coastal Carolina offense is lead by, potentially, the best quarterback/running back combo in the FCS. Quarterback Alex Ross is on just about every single watch list an FCS quarterback can be on. He completes 72% of his passes and averages just under 300 yards per game. On his own Ross is a threat, but he has AGS All American De’Angelo Henderson behind him at running back. Hunderson is averaging 5.9 yards per carry this season and well over 100 yards per game. The Leathernecks better hope the defense plays the game of the season this week or we might see a repeat of last week, unfortunately. Trenton Norvell and Lance Lenoir Jr. can’t put up enough points, or production, to matter unless the defense gets better.
#5 Illinois State at Eastern Illinois
The 104th Mid-America classic looked like a good game when scanning schedules preseason. The Panthers entered the season in the AGS Top 25 but after two games look like they belong in the bottom 25. A revitalized Redbird team has to be chomping at the bit to enter this game. Eastern Illinois has scored just 5 points all season while giving up over 200 yards rushing per game. Once again look for the Redbirds to put this game in the hands of AGS All American Marshaun Coprich early and often to punish the Panthers. After struggling against Iowa, Coprich found his groove last week against Morgan State with one of his ho-hum 130+ yard games on just 20 carries. After watching two games of this Panther defense I see no way they manage to do anything except become a minor annoyance for Coprich, Roberson, and company. I don’t know that this game gets as ugly as last week’s blowout of Morgan State, but I see no reason to expect the Redbird starters to see the field much in the second half.
| 2:00 PM | Southeast Missouri State @ Indiana State | NO TV |
| 2:00 PM | Drake @ South Dakota | Midco and ESPN3 |
| 2:30 PM | North Dakota @ North Dakota State | NBC North Dakota and EPN3 |
| 3:00 PM | St. Francis (PA) @ Youngstown State | ESPN3 |
| 5:00 PM | Western Illinois @ Coastal Carolina | Big South Network (online) |
| 6:00 PM | Missouri State @ Arkansas State | ESPN3 |
| 7:00 PM | Illinois State @ Eastern Illinois | WCIA (Central Illinois station |
| 9:30 PM | Northern Iowa @ Cal Poly | KGAN (Iowa), Comcast Sports Chicago, American Sports Network, and ESPN3 |