Back to Pittsburgh

Well I guess Moon Township to be more exact but in the area of Pittsburgh which was the site of last week's 44-17 win for Monmouth over Duquesne. It was the first win of the season for the Hawks and maybe just maybe got their season turned around. No one wants to start 0-3 but in the grand scheme of things it won't mean a whole lot if MU can get on a roll in the conference. To say it was a big win would be a large understatement as Monmouth is now just one of three teams with no losses in the NEC.

The matchup this weekend gets even bigger as one of those other two teams is the opposition for the Hawks, the Colonials of Robert Morris. RMU comes in at 4-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference. It is strange in the ways that both of these schools have mirrored each other the years. Take for example the overall matchup (16th time the schools have met) in which Robert Morris leads 8-7. RMU is in their 17th year as a football school and like Monmouth last year got the 100th win in program history. MU is one year ahead in its 18th year playing. Each school has five NEC titles and both schools have at least one Mid Major National Championship (MU 1, RMU 2). Both school have extremely classy men running their programs and each one is the only head coach that the school has ever had, Kevin Callahan and Joe Walton.



The defense for MU stepped up big time last week with a team record 6 INTs against the Dukes and because the offense got off to such a good start, it really took DU out of their game plan. I would say the same holds true for this week, if the offense can manage the game and ask the defense to do too much then the Hawks might have another good bus ride home. The confidence level which had to have been down after dropping three straight this season should be sky high going into this one. The winner of this game really puts themselves as an early season favorite for that coveted automatic big into the FCS playoffs.


Kyle Frazier seems to have found his rythmn and is becoming a more complete player with each start. The QB matchup is always big but in this case where both teams like to throw the ball it gets even bigger. Sophomore Jeff Sinclair is second in the NEC averaging 214 per game throwing and has tossed 13 TDs on the season. RMU also a dynamic tailback in Senior Myles Russ who averages 115 per game thru the first four weeks. The MU defense played its best game of the season last week and for a win this week might have to top that.


So much of the season is still left but this one looms large for both squads. Should be fun and you can join us on 1160/1310 AM Saturday afternoon at 12:45 for the pregame show/1pm for the kickoff.