4 pm Saturday at the Castle: YSU versus STFU

[Penguin Nation]

STFU (1-1) has a win over woeful Georgetown and a respectable loss @ Towson.  STFU and Towson were tied 7-7 at the end of the first quarter before the Tigers eventually pulled away and won 35-21.  In the losing effort, STFU's Lorenzo Jerome returned a kickoff for a touchdown and Terell Smith caught two touchdown passes.

The STFU offense gained 197 yards on the day.  Junior quarterback Zack Drayer completed 16 of 25 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns.  Senior receiver Terell Smith caught eight passes for 102 yards and two scores.  His second straight 100-yard game.  Senior running back Khairi Dickson had 36 yards on 15 carries.

On the defensive side, senior linebacker Semo Sila led the unit with a career-high 14 tackles, doubling his previous career high of seven.  Sila also forced a fumble and broke up two passes.  Jerome (mentioned on special teams above) also had a big day on defense, totaling 11 tackles, including one for loss, and intercepting a pass in the fourth quarter.

This is the seventh meeting of these two schools, and YSU leads the series 6-0.  Last year, YSU won 52-23, and in 2011, YSU won 49-23.  Long before that, YSU has wins of 20-6 (1939), 27-6 (1951), 35-0 (1952) and 20-13 (1953).

Last year, the YSU offense totaled 567 total yards, including 351 yards rushing.  For STFU, Dickson had 152 yards rushing, although most are from one garbage time run.

Our only common opponent is RMU.  Last year STFU beat RMU 40-7.  In 2014, STFU was 5-6/3-3, and 2-4 in away games.  In the NEC in 2014, STFU finished 4/7 place (FWIW, RMU finished 7/7).

The weather forecast for game time is 80 degrees, partly cloudy, and only a 10% chance of rain.

[Penguin Nation]

My prediction...huge day for the Penguins.  YSU has never struggled with this team.  We will be at home, and the near perfect weather should bring a nice crowd.  The team is healthy, and PO'ed about last week.

YSU 42-17.

[The YO Show]

I also envision a blowout this week. Hopefully we learned from last week and feed off that game Saturday. Hope we can contain their ground game at least as well as Towson. We need to stop the run to compete in conference play.

42-10   YSU.

[ScarletRook]

Calling for 70% chance of rain on Saturday - ugh!
I hope we do better in the passing department in bad weather.
If not, there is always running Jody Wells up the middle.

[Penguin Nation]

Scarlet, I just checked again. Down to 6% chance of precipitation at game time. The conditions are right for a whoopin.

[go guins]

Hey Scarlet, don't know what forecast you are looking at, but it sure doesn't agree with mine! 
(Hope I'm right, but at least it will be a LOT warmer than last Saturday!)

[ScarletRook]

Hey Scarlet, don't know what forecast you are looking at, but it sure doesn't agree with mine! 
(Hope I'm right, but at least it will be a LOT warmer than last Saturday!)

Cleveland and Mansfield stations this morning.
I hope you are right and I am not on this one.
Last Saturday was the first time I can recall being miserable and that includes
sitting in the snow for the ass whopin'.

[ValleyTalk]

Forecast has improved over a few days ago. Last I saw is now 84 with only a 20% chance of rain. If it does rain, it will be scattered in nature anyways.

[penguinpower]

Until we show we can stop the run, I will not make a prediction.  Hard to believe we can't do it yet.  Until the OL shows they can pick up a blitz I will not predict a blow out

[ysufan0505]

If the weather permits, I say 31-10 YSU.

[go guins]

PP "Until we show we can stop the run, I will not make a prediction."

Watching the tape delay again, I was struck by the number of downs we were in the "nickel" defensively.  5 DB's against a team that clearly had passing issues and was going to run, followed by another run, and then switch it up to a run.  The game almost had the feel of an NFL preseason game where you don't game plan, but rather work in things you have identified as weaknesses of your team.  If this is the case, and we have had real issues stopping the pass in the Wolford era, then obviously the coaching staff was guilty of looking ahead.  But to go the whole game, even to overtime without loading up the box and forcing the run is inconceivable.   How did anybody else see the D strategy?

[FOOTBALLFEVER]

PP "Until we show we can stop the run, I will not make a prediction."

Watching the tape delay again, I was struck by the number of downs we were in the "nickel" defensively.  5 DB's against a team that clearly had passing issues and was going to run, followed by another run, and then switch it up to a run.  The game almost had the feel of an NFL preseason game where you don't game plan, but rather work in things you have identified as weaknesses of your team.  If this is the case, and we have had real issues stopping the pass in the Wolford era, then obviously the coaching staff was guilty of looking ahead.  But to go the whole game, even to overtime without loading up the box and forcing the run is inconceivable.   How did anybody else see the D strategy?

Yes Go Guins and this is a excellent point you bring up. On their long TD run we blitzed a backer to the wrong hole and they hit the next hole over and know one was there. They were able to ride our defensive lineman down the line of scrimmage all night and the cutbacks were there with ease. It will be interesting to watch the defensive schemes this Saturday. There is know doubt in my mind if we line up properly to defend offenses we have the playmaker's to make consistent plays on a regular basis.

[go guins]

Read these blogs and you'd be absolutely certain RMU ran all over YSU all night long. 
Facts are:
49 rushes 152 yards 3.1 ave.
AFTER THEIR 1st CARRY
48 rushes 111 yards 2.3 ave.

Funny, I guess statistics DO lie after all!

[penguinpower]

Read these blogs and you'd be absolutely certain RMU ran all over YSU all night long. 
Facts are:
49 rushes 152 yards 3.1 ave.
AFTER THEIR 1st CARRY
48 rushes 111 yards 2.3 ave.

Funny, I guess statistics DO lie after all!

The issue for me is that we allowed a 24 scholarship team to run on EVERY SINGLE PLAY in an 84 yard drive(not sure on exactly how long the drive was) in the 4th quarter while knowing fully that they could not pass.

[ysubigred]

Read these blogs and you'd be absolutely certain RMU ran all over YSU all night long. 
Facts are:
49 rushes 152 yards 3.1 ave.
AFTER THEIR 1st CARRY
48 rushes 111 yards 2.3 ave.

Funny, I guess statistics DO lie after all!

I seen those stats, and laughed at the non-educated arm chair QBs on here

I've been saying it for 5 years now. The Defense is getting killed by YSU "O" ~ 3 and outs or score in 1 minute. BAM! Defense back out on the field. With Monty's offense over the last 5 years YSU really look great for a half/QTR or against sub-par teams. No one paid attention to the defense and the depth that it requires to play that side of the ball in a conference that plays 4 QTR's. Last week showed what a well-coached team can do to this Offense coordinator's game plan with less talent. The weather played some role in the bad team performance but come on man!

The issue for me is a ~60 scholarship team can't do a 84 yard drive in the 4th quarter while knowing fully that they can pass against a 24 scholarship team