Valparaiso Crusaders

[JBB]

Valparaiso Crusaders.

Our first game is against Valparaiso, Defending Champions of the Patriot League. *

The Crusaders *avgd 33 pts per game. *David Macchi, their QB last season averaged 330 yds/game and threw 38 TDs. *He would have easily been the top QB in the NCC with an efficiency rating of 160. *He would have led Brian Nelson from SDSU, lhe NCC leader, in every category.

The good news here is Macchi doesnt appear on the 2004 roster. *The QBs that do are completely untested. *If they cant get their QB producing early it could be tough.

His top receiver was Rob Giancola. *He caught 54 passes. *Only Kevin Knutson caught more with 74. *Otherwise Giancola dominated the stats with 133 yds/game and about half of his catches for TDs! *Both of these receivers will be back as seniors in 2004. *

There were a lot of receivers in the NCC that had more receptions than either of them, but nobody even came close to Giancolas stats. *These guys are very dangerous.

By the looks of things the BISON could hold them to almost nothing on the ground, but they could get their game through the air. *That would mean 3-5 TDs passing. *

If they can get their QB on track, chances are NDSU will have to score 7 times to win this game.

[Bisonfan1234]

With that in mind, I'll predict a 14-0 victory for NDSU.

[JBB]

How about 6-0 with Valpo driving late?

[NDSU_grad]

Pioneer League, not Patriot League. Pretty big difference. There will be a lot of points put up, with most of them being by NDSU. I think we'll have around 40 by halftime.

[roadwarrior]

The crusaders will be so busy checking out the packed Fargodome, they will quickly find themselves in a hole.

[JBB]

Sorry about misquoting the league name.

[Bison7925]

The crusaders will be so busy checking out the packed Fargodome, they will quickly find themselves in a hole.

And checking out the DI atmosphere ;D

[KTF]

Is this game going to be like the Tusculum game, all these great recievers and a good QB that the Bison D shut down? I feel with the WR pool and Stauss, the Bison could potentially get into a shooting match with the Crusaders and still win the game. However I see a game plan of run-pass conflict by the Bison!

[Ricky1]

Don't expect much out of Valpo. I think NDSU will roll by about 40 or so. Will run all over them, they are not good. A buddy coaches out around there and said they are pretty bad. Not enough guys cause of that whole non-scholarship thing. It will be a good tuneup but other than that don't expect a shootout or some great game--it will be an ass-kicking, similar to Concordia St Paul. They lost to Wisconsin Eau-Claire (see D3 football) at home a couple years ago 31-9! : Not that that is the great indicator but it kind of tells a bit of the story.

[Bisonfan1234]

What offensive formation do they run?