Looking Ahead to Week #2

The Missouri Valley should collect lots of wins this week. UNI, Youngstown State, Western Illinois, and Indiana State play week competition and should blow-out their opponents. South Dakota and South Dakota State play FCS opponents Colgate and Southeastern Louisiana. The USD-Colgate game could be close, but I expect the Coyotes to pull off a close victory at home. Southern Illinois, Illinois State, Missouri State, and North Dakota State all play FBS teams.

Taylor Nelson, TE North Dakota State (Photo: GoBison.com)

Predictions:

Miami (OH) 35, Southern Illinois 14

Illinois State 31, Eastern Michigan 24

Indiana State 52, Quincy 13

South Dakota 31, Colgate 28

Louisville 45, Missouri State 10

Western Illinois 35, Indianapolis 14

Brett LeMaster, WR Northern Iowa
(Photo: Morry Gash/LacrosseTribune)

Northern Iowa 63, Central State 0

North Dakota State 24, Colorado State 10

South Dakota State 35, Southeastern Louisiana 14


All-in-all, I expect the Missouri Valley Football Conference to perform very well this week. Some blowouts, a couple close games, and a couple losses to FBS squads. I am going to keep a close eye on the Western Illinois-Indianapolis game; if Western struggles again like it did last week against Butler it might secure most peoples thinking that it will be a long season for the Leathernecks. It will also be interesting what happens in the South Dakota State-Southeastern Louisiana game. The Jackrabbits have a chance to prove how improved their defense has become over the offseason. This game should also give quarterback Austin Sumner a chance to settle down and get back to normalcy.

Some Highlights from Last Weekend

South Dakota State's Zach Zenner blasted straight up through the Kansas defense on his way to a 99-yard touchdown run. Check out what happens to the Jayhawk's defensive end and defensive tackle on the right side. SDSU had troubles running the ball last year; this year looks like they'll do a little better.

Nice little touchdown pass here from Kurt Hess to Andre Stubbs. Pittsburgh bit hard on the play-fake. I wished I could have watched this game and seen for myself how dominant Youngstown State was. Unfortunately for fans of other Missouri Valley Conference Schools, Kurt Hess & Company will likely repeat this same play many times this season.

Another Youngstown State highlight here. This is what I love to see, all those times FBS teams try to trick FCS teams in order to test how much they will bit on the run. Here, Youngstown State makes Big East Pittsburgh look silly.

This is more of a recap highlight from the entire Western Illinois-Butler game. Kevin Rudolf and Lil' Wayne were apparently calling the game.

Condensed game recap from the Montana-South Dakota game. I STRONGLY recommend muting these videos if you watch them; its just a bunch of screaming. Two separate videos equalling about half an hour long. You can watch the whole thing or just get a taste of what the Coyotes look like. (Video #1 on top #2 on bottom)

Saturday Thoughts

After a rough opening on Thursday, the Missouri Valley stepped it up on Saturday. The games on Saturday featured five games against FBS competition, two games against weaker FCS opponents, and a Big Sky-MVFC match-up. Missouri Valley teams managed only three wins out of the eight games on Saturday, however, the way they performed against higher-level competition is what stood out to me.

Illinois State RB, Cameron Hunt
(Photo: Steve Smedley/The Pantagraph)

Illinois State 56, Dayton 14

No surprise here. Illinois State welcomed a non-scholarship team and had their way up and down the field. QB Matt Brown was very solid (22-34, 192, 3 TDs) and was able to get the offense going early which allowed the Redbird run game to get going. Two Redbird running backs went over 100 yards on Saturday. Darrelynn Dunn took the majority of the carries and ran for 127 yards and 3 TDs. Cameron Hunt also eclipsed the 100-yard mark. Illinois State travels to Ypsilanti, MI this week to take on Eastern Michigan; I expect Illinois State to come out with a win.

South Dakota 24, Montana 35

South Dakota played close with Montana throughout the majority of the game; they were actually winning in the third quarter 24-16. However, as I suspected, Montana would pull away late in the game. In fact, Montana dominated this game. The Grizzlies put up 586 yards of offense compared to the Coyotes 233 yards. The 'Yotes were lucky the game was this close.

Northern Iowa 21, Wisconsin 26

This game was much closer than I thought. I knew that Northern Iowa had always played tough against Iowa State and Iowa, but Wisconsin is on a whole different level. I expected this game to look much like other FCS-BCS match-ups and Northern Iowa proved once again that it is not just another FCS team. Sawyer Kollmorgen, a freshman, threw for 265 yards and 3 TDs in his first game ever. On the downer-side-of-things, if Northern Iowa had been able to run at all then they might have been able to win this game. David Johnson was UNI's leading rusher on Saturday with 18 yards.

Youngstown State 31, Pittsburgh 17

YSU WR's Andre Stubbs and Christian Bryan
(Photo: US Presswire)

The Penguins made a statement in this game that they are the real deal. I knew that Youngstown State would be good this year, but I was skeptical of their defense. This upset of Big East Pittsburgh erased any doubts I had against Youngstown State. Kurt Hess was solid and threw two touchdown passes, but the standout performance on offense was freshman Andre Stubbs. Stubbs had over 170 yards all-purpose and scored twice. Next up for Youngstown State is FCS non-scholarship Valparaiso.

South Dakota State 17, Kansas 31

This game played out like a typical FCS-FBS match-up. South Dakota State hung in their--trailing 10-7 at half-- but SDSU's defense wore out and Kansas took control. Austin Sumner threw 4 INTs, but three were in garbage time in the fourth quarter. This week SDSU will battle SE Louisiana; look for a close game but I expect SDSU to come back to South Dakota with a victory under their belt.

North Dakota State 52, Robert Morris 0

The nations best defense last year made a statement in this game that they're back. North Dakota State absolutely destroyed Robert Morris. The Colonials were held to 88 total yards of offense. This week the Bison travel to Colorado State. Colorado State is coming off of a fresh 22-17 win over rivals Colorado. We'll see how Colorado State responds at home this week. I still expect North Dakota State to win.

Sycamore RB, Shakir Bell (Photo: ISUAthletics)

Missouri State 9, Kansas State 51

I was following this game pretty closely. I saw the 9-6 halftime score and thought maybe Missouri State might be a different team this year--then the fourth quarter happened. Kansas State scored 35 fourth quarter points. The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Bears this week as they travel to Louisville.

Indiana State 17, Indiana 24

I was pretty confident that Indiana State would pull of the upset here. I figured Shakir Bell would run all over the Hoosier defense--and he did (192 yards and a TD). However, it wasn't enough to keep up with the Hoosiers. This week the Sycs will take out their frustration on Quincy; the starters should be out by halftime.

Miller's Power Rankings: Week #1

Youngstown State's RB Jamaine Cook stiff arms Pittsburgh DB
Lafayette Pitt in Youngstown State's 31-17 trashing of the Panthers
(Photo: PittsburghSportingNews.com)

#1 Youngstown State (1-0)

Can't argue with Youngstown State being #1. A powerful performance against FBS Pittsburgh was a great start for the Penguins. Next up: Valparaiso.

#2 North Dakota State (1-0)

Very strong performance against Robert Morris. This week will be more of a test for North Dakota State as they travel to Colorado State. 

#3 Illinois State (1-0)

Much like North Dakota State, Illinois State demolished a weaker FCS opponent. This week Illinois State will travel to Ypsilanti to take on lowly MAC member, Eastern Michigan.

#4 Western Illinois (1-0)

Western Illinois is barely hanging on to the #4 spot merely because they got a win. Next week they should get another win (Indianapolis) but they'll drop below Indiana State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, and maybe South Dakota with the strength of schedule penalties for playing non-scholarship and sub-D1 opponents.

#5 Indiana State (0-1)

Indiana State played well against Indiana. However their defense needed to step up just a little more to pull off the upset. Regardless, Shakir Bell ran for 192 yards on a Big Ten team. He is a serious contender for the Walter Payton Award. 

#6 Northern Iowa (0-1)

Northern Iowa played well against a Big Ten opponent as well. However, they will need to figure out their run offense to make a move to beat Iowa in a couple weeks. 

#7 South Dakota State (0-1)

South Dakota State managed to hang with Kansas until the fourth quarter. The Jackrabbits pulled within a touchdown but the defense wore out and Kansas took control. SDSU will travel to Louisiana and battle it out with Southland member SE Louisiana. 

#8 South Dakota (0-1)

The Coyotes are going to need to come together on defense; giving up 568 yards of offense is just unacceptable. Despite their poor defensive performance they led Montana 24-16 in the 3rd quarter. They can't count on being in that position in most games. The Coyotes have Colgate at home this week. 

#9 Missouri State (0-1)

I thought Missouri State was on upset alert, then they gave up 35 points in the fourth quarter. Next week they travel to Louisville. 

#10 Southern Illinois (0-1)

Southern Illinois by far had the worst performance in the MVFC in the past week. With all the talent they have on their team they should not give up 49 points. This week Southern Illinois will see if they can do better against MAC opponent Miami (OH).