SIU finishes the regular season at home with a must-win game against the Penguins of Youngstown State.
The Penguins are 2-7 this season with wins against Incarnate Word and Missouri State.
The Penguins are coached by 2nd year head coach Doug Phillips who came over from Cincinnati. The Penguins are 3-13 under Phillips since he took over.
Meet the Penguins:
The Penguins have used 3 different quarterbacks so far this season and last week against North Dakota State, all 3 quarterbacks threw at least one pass. The quarterback who threw the most passes last week was 6'4 Redshirt Sophomore Mitch Davidson. Davidson went 10-22 last week for 166 passing yards and 2 passing touchdowns with an interception. The Penguins also have 6'1 Freshman Demeatric Crenshaw, who has been very impressive this season but left last week's game with an injury. Crenshaw has 700 passing yards and 4 touchdowns with 5 interceptions but he's been unstoppable running the football rushing for 569 yards and 7 rushing touchdowns. Crenshaw was a 3 star recruit out of high school so he could give SIU a hard time if he's healthy enough to play.
Youngstown State's best overall offensive player this season has been 5'9 Junior running back Jaleel McLaughlin. McLaughlin started his college career at Division 2 Notre Dame College where he was a two-time finalist for the Harlon Hill trophy, which honors the top player in Division 2. McLaughlin rushed for more than 2,400 yards in each of his two seasons at Notre Dame College and led D2 in all-purpose yards with 2,699 in 2019. This season, McLaughlin has rushed for 954 yards and 9 rushing touchdowns while adding 158 receiving yards. McLaughlin is 2nd in the MVFC to Pierre Strong of South Dakota State in rushing yards and total touchdowns.
The Penguins' leading receiver this season has been 6'1 Junior Bryce Oliver. Oliver was a 3 star recruit out of high school and started his college career in the SEC at Kentucky where he caught 8 total passes in his career for 125 yards and a touchdown before transferring to Youngstown State this offseason. This season, Oliver is 2nd on the team in receiving yards with 249 and has 6 receiving touchdowns. Last week against North Dakota State, Oliver caught 2 touchdown passes.
On the offensive side, Youngstown State is 9th in the MVFC in yards per game (339.1 per game) and 9th in the MVFC in points per game (23.6 per game). On the defensive side, Youngstown State is the worst defense in the MVFC in yards allowed per game (478.7 per game) and the 2nd worst defense in the MVFC in points allowed per game (37.3 per game).
Massey Ratings:
Massey Ratings predicts a 37-24 SIU victory and gives SIU a 78% chance of winning.
Weather:
As of 11/15, the weather for Carbondale, IL on Saturday looks like this:
A slight chance of rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 52. South wind 5 to 9 mph.
This is a very winnable game...can't take it as a gimme game though. Need to come out and put it on them like we did to the Sycamores...especially if we want a shot at hosting a playoff game.
Nick Hill was on In The Dawghouse on ESPN 103.5 today:
https://www.1035espn.com/episode/in-the-dawghouse-11-15-21-nick-hill/
Hero Sports still has SIU in and playing UT Martin in the first round with the winner getting Missouri State. We'd be in Sam Houston's bracket though:
https://herosports.com/fcs-football-2021-playoff-predictions-11-bzbz/
Let's make sure the Pusillanimous Penguins don't get their 1st conference road win since 2017! (dumbest mascot name ever, other than Redturd)
Play like last week and we'll torch them. They have a very good running game - hope the D is ready.
Awful start!
I'm so tired of watching Baker bail out of clean pockets
And now a fumble and YSU back in the red zone
He could give the play a little more time to develop for sure.
Well we were down two TDs to the Redturds! Gotta kick it in the buns if we are to make the playoffs.
A team should never get worse as the season goes on but we have
A team should never get worse as the season goes on but we have
Absolutely true! This team acts a bit burnt out.
Maybe next spring Hill will make it a QB competition for all QBs instead of a two man competition.
Penguins D is really bad so plenty of time to get back in it
