FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[emma17]

Well, I'm not going to solicit the advice of any relatives on this. I can only see this UWW-UWRF game going one way. Warhawk Dominance.

Cant figure out why WW offense, except for obvious difference in QB play, was so ineffective vs RF D, ranked low in conference stats. Improvement I guess.

I'm not saying this is the sole reason- but here's the halftime stat that bothers the ever lovin *^it out of me: 3 rushing attempts by UWW running backs.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say Every Single Person on the Planet (except one, maybe two) understood it was important to keep the UWRF offense off the field.
THREE RUSHING ATTEMPTS by actual running backs.
Like the song says:
Who The F*#* Are You?

['95 Blugold]

Blugolds have their only remaining winnable game on the road this weekend as they travel to take on Stevens Point. A loss this weekend and the Blugolds likely go winless in the WIAC.

What do you make of this? With the facilities that UWEC has, it has been a decade of bad football. I expected this to be a turn around year for them. Not sure what else they have to do to get out of the basement of the WIAC.

From my non expert analysis opinion it comes down to 3 things.

1. Coaching and their ability to get talent at Eau Claire. Had hopes with Wesley Beschorner a few years back, but looking back now and seeing his coaching path it's pretty clear Eau Claire was just a stepping stone job for him, so kind of wonder how vested he was in building for the long term success of the program.

Erickson does have previous WIAC history so he is familiar with and knows what it takes to win in the WIAC. The key is hopefully for him to stay and keep building on what he's started and not leave. The Sonnentag facility was new last year, so hopefully that can help pull in better talent. There has been talk on getting home games on campus. As nice as Carson Park having home games on campus would be pretty awesome. I know this example gets thrown around sometimes when you have a really bad NFL team and you compare them to top college teams, and it may be a bit hyperbole, but you could probably put the Minnesota State AAAAAA champ against Eau Claire in a game and it would be fairly competitive.

2. QB Play. Looking at other teams in the WIAC, the successful ones have difference maker at the QB position. This has been huge liability in recent years for Eau Claire. Malueg was completely inept and Roubideax who followed him and wrapped up his career last season was a turnover machine. Our current QB (Soph.) Ayden Helder is a first year starter and has looked rather promising. He's a 2X state champ in Minnesota at the AAA level from my area over here so I've followed him prior to him even becoming a Blugold. Barring injury, he'll be rewriting record books for the Blugolds at QB by time he wraps up his career. Just hope that translates into wins.

3. No Defense. Apart from Stevens Point, the last time Eau Claire held a WIAC opponent under 30 points in a game before the Oshkosh game this season was 2019 against River Falls. Pretty much any team other than Point could call their score before the game and hit it. Going back through the 2021 we've given up 50+ in 11 games with a few in the 60 and 70+ range. Heck we could barely keep those teams under 40. Apart from River Falls dropping 73 on us a couple weeks back we haven't given up more than 50 in the other games so I guess there's that. I'm sure some is scheme/coaching, but the defensive side of the ball is lacking in talent, especially against the pass.

That all said this year's squad is very young. Looking at the starters from today's game against Point 16 of our 22 starters are listed as freshman or sophomores, with many of the sophomores I'm sure as first year starters that red shirted last season. If they can develop and we can bring in some better talent to upgrade hopefully we see a little more progress next season and then 2 years from now really take a meaningful step forward. Until then, I'm afraid we are the Badgers of the WIAC:

- Bad Football Team
- Awesome Band
- Really good Volleyball Program    (not that I'm complaining about the band or VB program, cause they are fun to watch.)

[fredfalcon]

Emma, almost every attempted run up the middle was stopped by the Falcon D. Their Dline outplayed the WW Oline decisively. As it was, time of possession was slightly in favor of WW. Had they kept the ball on the ground, they might have given it up sooner and given UWRF more opportunities. I'm going with improved Falcon D.

[bleedpurple]

Dang. They good!

[palum]

Platteville takes care of Oshkosh 21-14. The game was not as close as the final score. Oshkosh scored on a 60 plus yard pass and had one sustained drive. Platteville controlled the line going on long time consuming drives led by its running attack. A turnover on downs inside the 10 and missed field goal kept the score closer than it really was. Platteville has Stout and EC left. If they win out it would take some help for them to get a playoff bid.

[badgerwarhawk]

We couldn't run the ball to save our souls.  RF simply dominated up front on both sides of the ball.  If we were going to win this game we needed a lot better play by the O'line and QB.  Unfortunately we got neither.  Now we have to focus on winning the last two and hope for the best.

[cubs]

I'll be curious to see the NPI rankings this week. I don't think it's out of the question to see the WIAC put four teams in the NCAA Playoffs this year.

1. La Crosse vs River Falls winner also wins final game to finish 8-1 or 9-1.

2. La Crosse vs River Falls loser wins final game to finish 7-2 or 8-2.

3 & 4. Whitewater and Platteville both win out to finish 8-2.

That 21-2 (losses to North Central and Wartburg) non-conference record definitely helping out everyone's NPI numbers.

Now do I think the WIAC "deferves" four teams in the Playoffs? That's a topic for another day...