Any real news ???

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Westbadenboy

The All-MVC Level
Maybe I've missed it but I've usually seen videos in the spring and at least some discussion in the following months about players, games etc coming up for the fall football season. I've seen virtually nothing. Can anyone supply some info ??
What's our quarterback situation ?
Running backs ?
Rest of offensive players ?
Defense ?

Names ? Background ? Evaluations ?
ETC ETC ETC
 

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Unless I missed something here's the rundown I can give.

QB situation is solid unless Elijah Owens gets hurt. I have no idea who the backups are, but he's the best QB we've had since Ryan Boyle.

Plez Lawrence will be back as our starting RB.

Rashad Wallace was one of our top receivers last season, who transferred here from Rutgers, and he's back. We also added several FBS transfers at WR this offseason, so I'll be interested to see if we improve as a whole at that position.

On defense I saw where one of our DBs, Kimal Clark, made the 3rd team FCS All-America team. I believe he transferred here this off-season from Central CT State. I also remember the name Jorge Valdez, who might have led (or was leading at one point) the team in either interceptions or tackles last season, and he is at the other DB spot.

Unfortunately I don't really remember any of the other names on the roster other than our punter, Harry Traum. I think the team should be very competitive this year, particularly if our best players can stay healthy, but the schedule with IU, Montana, and 4 consecutive weeks against the Dakota schools definitely won't be easy.
 
I agree, not much information.

The roster does show about 20 FBS transfers into the program. Several are players who were recruited 1-2 years ago and had previous close contact with ISU.
71 players on the roster are some form of Freshman or Sophomore.

Mallory:
"We will spread it out more than we have in the past. Right now, our new coaches are still trying to get to know our players."
"Anytime you bring in new coaches, you will have new ideas."

No real knowledge here, just observations from last year.
Success starts in the offensive line. One starter portaled out to Tulane, so that will hurt. We now have a new O-line coach and a new O-Coordinator. It is expected that the move will be towards a more up-tempo offense. This is a massive shift requiring different mobility skills. Recruiting-wise, there are always transfers and freshmen in the O-line options. Most of these players were recruited by the previous staff, and will they be suited to a more spread-out, wide-open style?

QB looks promising:

Elijah Owens at QB needs to remain healthy. He is all you can hope for in a returning starter: "2024: 2024 Team Captain … 2024 Jerry Rice Award Finalist … Ninth in the 2024 Jerry Rice Award Voting … 2024 FCS Football Central Freshman All-American selection … 2024 STATS Perform FCS Freshman All-American selection … 2024 Phil Steele Freshman All-American Second Team … 2024 MVFC All-Newcomer Team "

Brock Riddle, R-FR from Greenwood, Indiana: "Recorded a combined 4,393 total passing yards and 49 touchdowns over his final three prep seasons … Added 553 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in his senior season
Keegan Patterson, R-Jr. From USC to Jr College to ISU. Played a bit for ISU last year. It will be interesting to learn where he fits with more time in the system or in the more wide open offense.
Plus a couple more.

Running Backs:
Plez Lawrence is an undersized lightning bolt. Can the O-line or the scheme get him into open space? Can he consistently catch the swing pass that he dropped on several occasions last year? In 2024, he rushed 107 times fo"r 410 yards and caught 23 passes for 218. Can he at least 2X those numbers in his Jr. season?

Deion Brown out of St. Louis, Mo.via Eastern Michigan is an interesting transfer. Had 114 yards in 25 carries for EMU and 14 kickoff returns for 275 yards.

Lots of other running backs, so perhaps someone will emerge. Right now it looks thin and inexperienced, especially if Lawrence is injured.

Wide Receivers:
Rashad Rochelle: 2nd year transfer from Rutgers. "2024: 2024 MVFC Honorable Mention All-Conference selection … 2024 MVFC All-Newcomer Team … 38th in the NCAA FCS in all-purpose yards per game (107.08) … Eighth in the NCAA FCS in combined kick return yards (751) … 28th in the NCAA FCS in kick return yards per return (23.7) … 53rd in the NCAA FCS in receptions per game (4.8) … Lined up and played in all 12 games in the 2024 season … Made his Sycamore debut on Aug. 31 at Purdue … Led the Sycamores with 58 receptions for 527 yards and four touchdowns … Recorded 9.1 yards per catch and 43.9 receiving yards per game …"

Larry Stephens III - Toledo transfer. Productive JR. year but nothing his sr year. One year of eligibility.
Bryan Domino - UConn transfer. Productive kick returner with so so receiving stats. Red shirt Soph here.
Torey French: Frosh
Tre Brown: 6'2" redshirt freshman from Brownsburg.
BJ Wuest: Redshirt; HS track guy also. Caught 4 passes in 2024
Keshon Singleton, Springfield, Illinois. Air Force Transfer Redshirt Freshmen transfer. Was heavily recruited by ISU in HS. Knew a lot of ISU players before signing.

Tight Ends: (My pet project is turning some of these mobile 6'5" TE's into mobile guards who can get out in front of a runner like Plez Lawrence)
Lance Rees: Sr from Marshall, Illinois. Underutilized receiver in old offense; plays a lot. 6'5" and 255 lb
Cael Vanderbush: Plainfield, Ind. Transfer from Iowa. R-Jr; PLayed in 9 games last season 6'5" and 240 lb
Jacob Soley: True Freshman from Crown Point. 6'4" and 225 lbs Probably redshirted this season
Rocco Ciocca = Junior with limited playing time so far. Out of Bishop Dwenger.
A couple if other newbies. Seems everyone is 6'4-5" and 230-260 lbs.

O-Line
8 transfers are now on the roster. I expect the competition for playing time with returnees is fierce.
 
Lots of coaching staff turnover from last season. This season entirely depends on how well they mesh together in year 1. Appears we have 3 new coaches from Bucknell, who went 6-6 last season and 4-2 in the FCS Patriot League.
  1. OC/QB coach John Bear from Bucknell
  2. DC/LB coach David Elson from Wake Forest
  3. ST coordinator Brad Jarman from Bucknell
  4. WR coach Tito Overton from Texas Tech
  5. RB coach Jalen Banks from Bucknell
  6. DL coach Austin Flyger from North Dakota
  7. Safeties coach Ed Warinner from Pittsburgh
Essentially the only staff we kept from last season are HC Curt Mallory, DB coach JJ Henderson, TE coach Logan Hale, and defensive assistant Ryan Cook.

Around 24 transfers. Lots of unproven FBS talent who didn't receieve significant playing time at their previous schools or redshirted. Names that stood out to me were:
  1. DB Kimal Clark from CCSU
  2. WR Larry Stephens from Toledo
  3. DB Xavian Andrews from Ellsworth CC
  4. RB Deion Brown from Eastern Michigan
  5. WR Bryan Domino from UConn
  6. WR Keshon Singleton from Air Force
  7. DL Jayden Childers from Western Michigan
28 incoming freshmen. All mostly from IN/IL/MO. Lots of All-Conference type players. Names that stood out to me were:
  1. QB Brady Wilson
  2. RB Maximus McCool
  3. DL Robert Beasley
  4. DL Mason Keifer
  5. TE Jacob Soley
  6. WR EJ Hartwell
  7. WR Larry Robinson
For the positions I'm just going to assume all freshmen will redshirt unless they stand out in camp.
  1. QBs-Elijah Owens obvious QB1. Jerry Rice award finalist. If he takes a big leap we might have something this year. Behind him, Keegan Patterson likely QB2.
  2. RBs-Plez Lawrence RB1. Transfer Deion Brown will see some action. Behind those 2, theres little to no experience on the roster.
  3. TEs-Trial by jury of Lance Rees, Rocco Ciocca, and Cael Vanderbush.
  4. WRs-Rashad Rochelle WR1. Pretty good season last year after transferring from Rutgers. Expect him to be big. WR2-4 last season either graduated or transferred. Torey French? Tre Brown?
  5. OL/DL/LB-Idk man. Whoever stands out will start here.
  6. DBs-Jorge Valdez, Kimal Clark, CJ Davis, Elijah Coker.
 
I kind of forgot about all of the coaching changes. It's probably a good thing that we are opening up with McKendree to start the season with all of those changes and with the tough schedule. The Bearcats finished 5-6 last season and lost to Western Illinois 32-49 in their only D1 game of the season. I'm looking forward to the season getting underway.
 
This is the type of info that should be coming from the ISU SID. For a program that needs all of the pub it can get, the lack of promotion is startling. In my opinion the lack of promotion falls squarely on the head coaches shoulders. Feel free to debate/discuss.

The coaching staff, and turnover is a whole discussion in itself.
 

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Will they allow fans to watch practice this August. Trent Miles practices were always entertaining. Just had to remind my son that we don't talk like that in our house.
 
needles said:
This is the type of info that should be coming from the ISU SID. For a program that needs all of the pub it can get, the lack of promotion is startling. In my opinion the lack of promotion falls squarely on the head coaches shoulders. Feel free to debate/discuss.

The coaching staff, and turnover is a whole discussion in itself.
Click to expand...

“The lack of promotion falls squarely on the head coaches shoulders”

Interesting, you probably hate one of the top “promoting” head coach in the country Deion Sanders am I right?

The head coach has a lot of other responsibilities other than promotion. We have an entire athletic department and marketing team for promotion. It’s a difficult product to promote when most people have given up entirely on football at Indiana State. But I love that you put that squarely on Mallory ignoring decades of losing which has made promoting this program very difficult.
 
I sort of blame both to an extent. ISU is just awful across the board when it comes to promoting themselves, and that's not just limited to sports either as we can see with the lousy enrollment numbers. Why they don't get a few bill boards and radio / TV commercials advertising football and basketball ticket sales, on Terre Haute stations I'll never understand. It probably wouldn't hurt to hammer it into people's heads on those ads that we are in fact a Division 1 school. It's simply amazing how many people around here think ISU is a D2 school.

With the coaching, the Spring game is basically a top secret and the info they promise to give on a start time / date is never provided besides on Twitter/X. That's great if you use Twitter/X (I don't), but why isn't that info provided on the actual ISU FB website? Heck, why not have a sign out on Wabash by the Stadium with start times for ISU FB events like the baseball team has out by 3rd St?
 
DyedBlue said:
I agree, not much information.

The roster does show about 20 FBS transfers into the program. Several are players who were recruited 1-2 years ago and had previous close contact with ISU.
71 players on the roster are some form of Freshman or Sophomore.

Mallory:
"We will spread it out more than we have in the past. Right now, our new coaches are still trying to get to know our players."
"Anytime you bring in new coaches, you will have new ideas."

No real knowledge here, just observations from last year.
Success starts in the offensive line. One starter portaled out to Tulane, so that will hurt. We now have a new O-line coach and a new O-Coordinator. It is expected that the move will be towards a more up-tempo offense. This is a massive shift requiring different mobility skills. Recruiting-wise, there are always transfers and freshmen in the O-line options. Most of these players were recruited by the previous staff, and will they be suited to a more spread-out, wide-open style?

QB looks promising:

Elijah Owens at QB needs to remain healthy. He is all you can hope for in a returning starter: "2024: 2024 Team Captain … 2024 Jerry Rice Award Finalist … Ninth in the 2024 Jerry Rice Award Voting … 2024 FCS Football Central Freshman All-American selection … 2024 STATS Perform FCS Freshman All-American selection … 2024 Phil Steele Freshman All-American Second Team … 2024 MVFC All-Newcomer Team "

Brock Riddle, R-FR from Greenwood, Indiana: "Recorded a combined 4,393 total passing yards and 49 touchdowns over his final three prep seasons … Added 553 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in his senior season
Keegan Patterson, R-Jr. From USC to Jr College to ISU. Played a bit for ISU last year. It will be interesting to learn where he fits with more time in the system or in the more wide open offense.
Plus a couple more.

Running Backs:
Plez Lawrence is an undersized lightning bolt. Can the O-line or the scheme get him into open space? Can he consistently catch the swing pass that he dropped on several occasions last year? In 2024, he rushed 107 times fo"r 410 yards and caught 23 passes for 218. Can he at least 2X those numbers in his Jr. season?

Deion Brown out of St. Louis, Mo.via Eastern Michigan is an interesting transfer. Had 114 yards in 25 carries for EMU and 14 kickoff returns for 275 yards.

Lots of other running backs, so perhaps someone will emerge. Right now it looks thin and inexperienced, especially if Lawrence is injured.

Wide Receivers:
Rashad Rochelle: 2nd year transfer from Rutgers. "2024: 2024 MVFC Honorable Mention All-Conference selection … 2024 MVFC All-Newcomer Team … 38th in the NCAA FCS in all-purpose yards per game (107.08) … Eighth in the NCAA FCS in combined kick return yards (751) … 28th in the NCAA FCS in kick return yards per return (23.7) … 53rd in the NCAA FCS in receptions per game (4.8) … Lined up and played in all 12 games in the 2024 season … Made his Sycamore debut on Aug. 31 at Purdue … Led the Sycamores with 58 receptions for 527 yards and four touchdowns … Recorded 9.1 yards per catch and 43.9 receiving yards per game …"

Larry Stephens III - Toledo transfer. Productive JR. year but nothing his sr year. One year of eligibility.
Bryan Domino - UConn transfer. Productive kick returner with so so receiving stats. Red shirt Soph here.
Torey French: Frosh
Tre Brown: 6'2" redshirt freshman from Brownsburg.
BJ Wuest: Redshirt; HS track guy also. Caught 4 passes in 2024
Keshon Singleton, Springfield, Illinois. Air Force Transfer Redshirt Freshmen transfer. Was heavily recruited by ISU in HS. Knew a lot of ISU players before signing.

Tight Ends: (My pet project is turning some of these mobile 6'5" TE's into mobile guards who can get out in front of a runner like Plez Lawrence)
Lance Rees: Sr from Marshall, Illinois. Underutilized receiver in old offense; plays a lot. 6'5" and 255 lb
Cael Vanderbush: Plainfield, Ind. Transfer from Iowa. R-Jr; PLayed in 9 games last season 6'5" and 240 lb
Jacob Soley: True Freshman from Crown Point. 6'4" and 225 lbs Probably redshirted this season
Rocco Ciocca = Junior with limited playing time so far. Out of Bishop Dwenger.
A couple if other newbies. Seems everyone is 6'4-5" and 230-260 lbs.

O-Line
8 transfers are now on the roster. I expect the competition for playing time with returnees is fierce.
Click to expand...
Riddle is a solid passer, needs some bulk, I believe he led the state in passing his senior year at Greenwood, I believe Patterson will be used as a wildcat, but make no mistake Owens is the man
 

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needles said:
This is the type of info that should be coming from the ISU SID. For a program that needs all of the pub it can get, the lack of promotion is startling. In my opinion the lack of promotion falls squarely on the head coaches shoulders. Feel free to debate/discuss.

The coaching staff, and turnover is a whole discussion in itself.
Click to expand...
You are right about SID, but Mallory is not responsible for publicity, I believe.
 
Ya know, the more I think about it, the schedule--brutal as it is--doesn't completely foretell a losing season. Lose to IU, Montana, 3 of the 4 Dakotas.....fine. Then maybe a loss against SIU or ILSU. Wins against McK, Y, EIU, Murray, UND, ILSU or SIU, So that's 6-6 with one of the toughest FCS schedules of anyone this year. But only 5 D-1 wins so probably not a playoff resume. Beat both SIU and ILSU with a UND win? 7-5. That's an FCS Playoff resume. I don't care if it's only 6 D-1 wins. You'll need to play the Dakotas and Montana close to impress the committee though.

It could happen.....
 
Hooper said:
Ya know, the more I think about it, the schedule--brutal as it is--doesn't completely foretell a losing season. Lose to IU, Montana, 3 of the 4 Dakotas.....fine. Then maybe a loss against SIU or ILSU. Wins against McK, Y, EIU, Murray, UND, ILSU or SIU, So that's 6-6 with one of the toughest FCS schedules of anyone this year. But only 5 D-1 wins so probably not a playoff resume. Beat both SIU and ILSU with a UND win? 7-5. That's an FCS Playoff resume. I don't care if it's only 6 D-1 wins. You'll need to play the Dakotas and Montana close to impress the committee though.

It could happen.....
Click to expand...
6-6 would be a great season with that schedule.
 

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I honestly think we should be able to be compete with everyone on our schedule besides probably IU. The Dakotas, particularly the DSU's, always reload, but all 4 of them have lost key pieces and/or head coaches this past off-season. Montana last season barely made the playoffs and lost to UND, a team we beat. We usually play EIU, Murray St, YSU, and SIU tough no matter the location. ILST plays in TH again this season and they're almost always overrated.
 
Sycamorefan96 said:
I honestly think we should be able to be compete with everyone on our schedule besides probably IU. The Dakotas, particularly the DSU's, always reload, but all 4 of them have lost key pieces and/or head coaches this past off-season. Montana last season barely made the playoffs and lost to UND, a team we beat. We usually play EIU, Murray St, YSU, and SIU tough no matter the location. ILST plays in TH again this season and they're almost always overrated.
Click to expand...
I sure hope IU doesn’t drill us like they did Purdue. We all know why they did that to The Boilers.
 
sycamore tuff said:
Pretty sure we are getting a W at Montana. That's a long road trip to not come home victorious.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure? Love the optimism and hope you're right. If you're inclined to invest in the outcome it will most likely return a healthy profit.
Sycamorefan96 said:
I honestly think we should be able to be compete with everyone on our schedule besides probably IU. The Dakotas, particularly the DSU's, always reload, but all 4 of them have lost key pieces and/or head coaches this past off-season. Montana last season barely made the playoffs and lost to UND, a team we beat. We usually play EIU, Murray St, YSU, and SIU tough no matter the location. ILST plays in TH again this season and they're almost always overrated.
Click to expand...

And Montana hosts UND the week before hosting the Trees. That'll be a good barometer of where the Grizz are at.
 
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