Keith McMillan here in Dover, Del. getting a look at preseason USA South favorite N.C. Wesleyan visiting two-time semifinalist Wesley, which returns a large chunk of its past two top-10 teams.
The move to watch for them is the adjustment to new quarterback Jason Schatz, who played receiver last year while longtime QB Chris Warrick was running things. The Wolverines are wearing mismatched road whites, despite being at home, apparently because the new dark blue jerseys haven’t come in yet (file that in the Only In D3 files). N.C. Wesleyan’s got the Notre Dame look, and came out with a ritual I hadn’t seen before, with a player swinging a sledgehammer to the field turf as the team runs in from the end zone to their sideline.
I had previously thought I’d rather be at Rowan-Christopher Newport today, assuming that would be a better game, but seeing how jacked up both teams are here, I’m not regretting being here at all.
Feel free, dear readers, to kick in your thoughts from whatever action you’re watching or listening to today.
here’s what might be the shock of the century , but one for a small school
App. st. 28 Mich. 14,2 mins too half.
Sounds like Schatz is not quite in cue with his receivers
Here at Wesley, both teams are taking their shots deep but also struggling to get their quarterbacks on track. Definitely a lot of speed on the field on both sides. NCW spent a lot of the first quarter backed up in their own half, and the Wolverines scored after a punt put them at midfield. Schatz hit a nice TD pass to Beavers coming across from the backside, about 23 yards, but the Battling Bishops have mounted a six-minute, field-length drive that took them inside the 10, then fizzled out on a penalty, sack and interception on 4th down. But Wesley’s INT came on the 6-yard line, and Alpha Koroma fumbled on the ensuing drive, giving NC Wesleyan great field position. They scored quickly on a 1-yard run in which QB Cedric Townsend went in untouched.
The Bishops have shown a varied offense — an option, a shovel pass, screens and draws, not to mention Townsend’s improvisation, which has been both good and bad so far (early INT). Definitely some Week 1 shakiness here, but this one’s shaping up to be a fight.
7-7 end of 1.
Around the nation, Carnegie Mellon was all over another preseason trendy pick, Rochester, 20-3, early. Mount Union up 31-0 over Averett, with Nate Kmic already scoring twice, including on a 65-yard run on the first play. Greg Micheli is 8-for-8 passing. And for those of you who care about other divisions, I-AA/FCS defending champ Appalachian State is up 28-14 against Michigan at The Big House.
Keith has gone down to watch from the field for a while.
My observations so far — a fair amount of poor decisions being made so far. Freshman receiver Teron Murray might’ve gotten himself into Wesley’s doghouse, getting called for a personal foul on a PAT and dropping a swing pass that hit him in the numbers when he was wide open. Wesley also intercepted a pass on fourth-and-21 instead of knocking it down, putting them on the 5-yard line.
Mount Union, btw, already putting backups in the game with 19 seconds left in the first quarter up 52-0.
North Carolina Wesleyan finally hits on a long pass, as sophomore Orlando Webb outran the defense and Cedric Townsend hit him for a 47-yard touchdown pass.
Jason Schatz hits Michael Clarke in stride as Wesley connected on a 59-yard touchdown pass with 1:10 left in the half. 17-13 NCWC.
Both touchdowns for Wesley on similar plays.
How quickly things change!!!
Well it didn’t take Wesley long to get back into the lead, as Larry Beavers bobbled the opening kickoff of the second half, started to his right, got a few blocks and darted up the middle of the field for an 82-yard kick return touchdown.
The Battling Bishops had seized the momentum in the second quarter, holding the ball, making the key plays and casting some doubt into the minds of Wesley onlookers, if not players.
In fact, they took the kick after Wesley’s return and Townsend just hooked up with sophomore Orlando Webb (apparently his favorite target) to get the ball close to midfield.
The guy makes some risky throws, but he’s slippery and throws a good ball. Against weaker competition, he’ll light it up. Wesley corner Chet Turner just dropped a one-handed leaping INT along the sideline that would have been one of the great plays of this young season.
Townsend just had a 20-something-yard scramble on 3rd-and-14, but the receiver blocking for him got caught holding, resetting it at 3rd-and-eight on the NCW 43. Gabe Tranchetti tracked Townsend down before he could pass on the replayed down, and the Bishops will punt.
When scores were announced here, Mount Union’s 72-0 halftime lead over Averett drew some oohs, the Rowan-CNU score drew silence and the Wesley field hockey score drew raucous cheers.
Clarke just had his man beat down the sideline by 5-7 yards and dropped it. Interesting route though, maybe a B route, Beavers was up the seam about 5 yards in front, which confused the coverage.
Wesley has missed a few opportunities (a sure Pick 6 went in and out of a DBs hands in the first half) and will certainly regret them if they don’t hang on here. But those kinds of missed plays are the hallmark of Week 1 games. You can get a free pass now, but if you’re still missing chances midseason, you either aren’t very good or you’re a good team whose mistakes are eventually going to catch up.
Lots of Wesley players getting dinged up?
Well, speaking of mistakes …
Was thinking of sharing some general thoughts about the QBs. It’s pretty clear that Schatz is not yet completely comfortable at QB. Some low throws, some that seemed predetermined instead of following the progression. He pointed at Beavers on a fourth-and-4 at the NCW 43, which looked like an obvious dummy call to me, and then he threw to Beavers. Davon Collins’ coverage was perfect.
Townsend’s mistakes are more like just part of his package. He’s got the gunslinger thing going on, some of his improvisations will pay great divendends, some are bound to be plays you later call boneheaded. One way or another, he’s a game changer.
Wesley muffed a punt around the 25, giving the Bishops great field postion. Pat, shooting on the sideline, reported that Townsend looked hurt, that he was getting some treatment when he had to rush back onto the field after the turnover. Not long after, he threw a pick (Chet Turner again) on the 4.
Larry Beavers is now quarterbacking for Wesley, not just one play either. I guess it’s a designed package, as Schatz came back in a few plays later. Lest you think we’re giving away secrets, I’m fairly certain Widener (who plays both these teams) is here.
Time to stop typing and start paying attention again 🙂
Keith notice the difference in game length so far…. I guess you have to figure with all the misses passes
Schatz just got Clarke matched up on a linebacker and hit him over the middle. The 5-8, 164 receiver slipped the LB, and leapt over the goal line for the score and 27-17 lead, with PAT.
Wesley may not be big, but they’re darn fast. Leaves everyone impressed, unless you’re big and fast cough*UW-Whitewater*cough
Easy big fella
Need some frozen turf ehem water
New QB for N.C. Wesleyan, #19 Bo Jordan. He wasn’t listed as the No. 2 on the two-deep, and it appears Pat’s phone call from the sideline about Townsend being hurt was spot-on.
John McGraw, who’s listening to several games and keeping me personally udpated, says he’ll do the same for everyone else as soon as he gets a break in the action. Stay with us all day! 🙂
appears Drass woke up the D at half
Coming to you from the D3football.com studios, we’re live elsewhere around the country.
What’s in the water in Ohio? Two teams from the Buckeye state have reached the 70-point plateau. You’ve obviously heard about Mount Union. The Purple Raiders lead Averett, 75-7, in the fourth quarter. Mount had 72 points at the half. The other 70-point scorer, Kenyon. That’s right. Kenyon set all kinds of school offensive records with a 70-35 beatdown of Grinnell.
We have an upset watch in northeastern Pennsylvania. William Paterson leads Wilkes, 17-16, with about four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. It’s been back and fourth between these two teams all day. Unfortunately for Wilkes, it’s the same old story with a strong defense and an offense that hasn’t done much.
Carnegie Mellon started the day with a 33-10 whitewash of Rochester at Fauver Stadium in Rochester. Did the loss of Jay Jay Vanderstyne and Matt Bieliecki hurt the Yellow Jackets? Probably, but the defense still gave up 33 points.
N.C. Wesleyan’s new QB appears jittery, or at least not sharp, in his first few throws. But he just hit Webb on a slant that got the Bishops inside the 25. And just when things started to look up, Jordan fumbled on a designed QB run and Wesley recovers.
For fans of football regardless of division, I’m told Appalachian State just kicked a field goal with 26 seconds left to take the lead back at Michigan, 34-32.
Dare I preach about taking anyone lightly, etc.?
We’ve only got one live line here, and Pat needs the computer … so that’s it for me for a while kids. (I know you were all eagerly following along)
Breaking news from POMOCO Stadium,
Christopher Newport has just scored to go ahead of Rowan, 22-17. Tunde Ogun has two touchdowns today for the Captains.
Rowan has a couple turnovers in the second half and now the pressure is placed squarely on the shoulders of Joe Rankin.
CNU has never defeated Rowan. 2:04 left in the game, you can listen on WGLS
Townsend came back in for this series and threw a 76-yard TD pass to Webb — Webb was so wide open he still had time to slow down and wait for the ball but still caught it and took it to the end zone.
Wesley had a long TD pass to Gene Knight taken away as Schatz was beyond the line of scrimmage.
27-24 10:34 4th.
mount was kicking field goals on 1st down. at the end of the game, first and goal at averett 10, ran for 3 and then took a knee twice. kmic carried the ball 7 times for 151 and 4 TDs. QBs were 17-18. could have scored 100 if they really wanted to.
Boy oh Boy gotta protect the ballllllllll
Wesley looked to have salted this one away with a long scoring drive to go up 34-24, and then a defensive stop on a decent Bishops drive. Then came an unnecessary block in the back on the punt return and a fumble inside the 10, with 1:30 left, scooped up by N.C. Wesleyan and run in for a score.
Wesley now leads 34-31 with the Battling Bishops still battling, this time for an onside kick. Tight end Jon Lanouette grabbed it and broke for the end zone.
Wesley still got some work to do to put it away, but much better field position. And with Townsend back in, if N.C. Wesleyan gets the ball back … (only 1 NCW timeout left though)
Wesley was able to run out the clock, down to the exact second.
34-31 final.
Good test for Wesley but they need to take care of the ball better… Especially the veterans……. NCW should make a run at CNU. But now teams can game papln against both these teams
good win for wesley and the ACFC
Lots of interesting scores to wrap our heads from week 1.
None bigger than App State over Michigan of course, but I digress. Wesley 34 NCW 31 tells me Wesleyan has arrived as predicted. And that Wesley needs to shore things up if they want to win the South Region.
William Paterson 17-16 over Wilkes caught my eye. As did Kean 48-7 over Merchant Marine. The former bottom of the NJAC is real interesting. Kean looks like a national contender. Paterson is clearly competitive…we’ll see how much so in the coming weeks.
CNU finally beat Rowan. Fisher humiliated a quality Kings team. It may only be week 1, but we just found proof that Fisher has eclipsed Rowan as the team to beat in Eastern Region for the second straight season.
Mt Union takes on a competitive Averett team and gets 3/4 of the way to the century mark. Obviously the Purple Raiders continue to play on a plane above the rest of D3.
“Wesley 34 NCW 31 tells me Wesleyan has arrived as predicted. ”
Did you mean to use the sarcasm font here? It was a 3-point win at home over a nondescript team from a middle of the pack conference.
Read the post. Wesleyan, not Wesley. Yes NCW has arrived as a competitive team. They went on the road and nearly beat a team which has 2 years running gone deep into the NCAA playoffs.
Can I explain it to you any more clearly?
OK, my mistake. Too late for an old brain.
But, nonetheless, a loss is a loss — it might be premature to pronounce some team as “arrived” until they actually beat someone.
And yes — Wesley did beat UMHB last year — but once they “went deep” in the South regionals, they were deep-sixed in the semis (102-13 ….)
No they beat UMHB two years running!!!!!!And compiled a 25-3 record over those two years!!!
But with the same result when got out of the South …
Still, we won’t solve this argument. It went round and round last season.
I MADE A MISTAKE reading Cortland’s post (weak alibi — too tired, too much Barolo over a long, late dinner) but my point isn’t to rehash. I will stand by previous remarks that at least three West teams would have handled Wesley last season. And with the win over H-S tonight, a couple of wins against D2 teams (by UWEC and Concordia) this week and the domination of a middle of the pack OAC team, the West is off to a strong start.
But I digress: I just don’t think playing a team close means an arrival.
Yes you go round and round with just about everyone just to start a fight .Made my mistake last year bantering with you and thats all I’ll not REPETE it again
Oh, c’mon. Let’s banter. We won’t agree on the past and I’ll leave it (unless provoked 🙂 ).
Hey, I’m the one with egg on his face for reading Cortland’s post wrong. I just hope that’s that’s my one big mistake of the posting year — kind of like fumbling the opening kickoff of the season.
If I wasn’t coaching on Saturdays, I’d probably try to get up to Dover for a few games. It’s the best d3 ball near me. If I ever do, please let me buy you a beer.
repete
you remind me of the knight in monty pythons , the life of brian, gets his arms cut off and keeps goading , gets his legs cut off ,keeps goading…. finally threatens to knaw the other combatant to death…..
i may just have to keep you on the radar.. never know when a beer will come in handy 🙂
OK, whatever. I have all my limbs. And I’m sincere about the beer.
I’m going to keep pushing the West but will try not to do so by trashing the a couple of semifinals. I got caught up a couple of arguments last year — that Cortland not SJU should get the final spot or that Wesley really was looking forward to playing SJU …. — and some of the banter turned to trash. Shouldn’t have got caught up in it as much as I did.
But here’s the deal: I hope that in defending the West this year I don’t do it by cheapshotting other regions and that any jabs are good-spirited. And if I forget and screw up, I’m sure Pat or KMack will note this post. Wouldn’t be the first time that they’ve called me on an error of fact or judgment.
Best of luck to Wesley this year.
as they say “a win is a win”. cortland football is correct in that wesley will have to shore things up as the season goes on, which they should. too many dropped passes and misplays on defense kept this game closer than it should have been. if this game shows that wesleyen has arrived as a competitive team, than it certainly shows that wesley is a very good team, winning despite of the mistakes. ncw had an 11 minute advantage in time of possesion and still only had 24 before the fumble late in the game made it close. pa wesleyfan, you do not have to defend the 2 time south region champs. yes, they did get beat by whitewater handily both times, but i find it interesting in that the team they did beat both years to win the south, mary hardin baylor seems to still get the respect and wesley does not. if things go as planned, the 2 teams will likely meet again and we shall see what happens this year. wesley certainly does not have to apologize for the accomplishments the last 2 years. repete, since you coach on saturday, maybe you can make the widener game at widener on friday, sept. 14. this should be a good test for wesley as widener is expected to be pretty good, we will know quickly, since they play ncw this weekend. finally, 1 – 0 is much better than the 0 – 1 some of the other ranked teams are after yesterday.
Repete/PA W-fan:
Boy, it looks like Wesley has finally arrived. Good for them. I knew they had it in ’em. Been watchin them for years and now they recovered an onside kick and are on the D3 scene…keep your eye on them this year!!!
Register this one in the S-MAC down department…
The MAC goes 0-6 to start the season and is outscored by an average of 20.6 points per game. There’s actually a chance the conference could go something like 4-20 out of conference this year with Widener, Delaware Valley, Wilkes and King’s all starting the year 0-3.
Gordon – That can happen (the 0 – 3 starts) when you don’t schedule “dogs” to start the season. With the 3 departures from the MAC starting this season, most of the above mentioned schools “scheduled up” in quality for replacement opponents. I was moderately impressed with the DVC defense looking at the speed of Iona’s running backs and the quick 14 points they gave up. The online audio broadcast was not connecting so I went to Iona’s website and was able to watch the game live. I’m not a computer geek but it doesn’t look terribly complicted to do. How many DIII programs broadcast live audio and video feeds?
After watching what App State did to Michigan……I will never ask again why Mount Union will not step up and schedule a Youngstown or App State!! Watching that game with my own eyes…….it would truly be the men against the boys.
Last thing……..with the NFL cuts yesterday, how many of our DIII boys made final rosters and give me a few names of this year’s seniors who may make next year’s final NFL rosters?
Mount Union may have set a record also for the legnth of a quarter and/or a half. That first half took an eternity to play! The sun was making this game seem even longer than it was. For all of those who think MUC was being ungracious scoring so prolifically……the Raiders emptied practically the whole bench and kicked field goals inside the red zone in the second half, or else instructed their QB to kneel. And that goes against the instincts of every backup player on the team. Still, I have to give Averett respect for having the courage to do what few other teams would even consider……playing MUC at home during the regular seson when you dont have to. I hope they run the table from here on out in their conference.
Duke:
Yeah, we had problems with a new method of broadcasting yesterday. The first half was bumpy though the second half was fine. That said, I would’ve done the same thing — used the other team’s broadcast, particularly if it was video.
Video technology is still developing, though more Division III teams have added it this year. Part of the equation is how much infrastructure is already in place — servers to host the broadcast (or money to pay others to do so), video equipment (which could be modest), etc. It’s something I’m thinking about for Del Val but, with only four home games, probably not this year.
Fred Jackson (Coe-Buffalo Bills) and Michael Allan (Whitworth-Kansas City) are the only two new guys who appeared to have made NFL 53-man rosters. Congrats to both of them.
Godron,
Ryan Hoag got cut by Washington. He had a beautiful TD catch from Brunell in the final preseason game, but it wasn’t enough. With hometown Minny so short on decent WRs, maybe he’ll land there. Best of luck to all of ’em.
SJFF82,
Guess now, we’ll have to talk about whether SJF has arrived …. err, nevermind …:)
Just kidding, of course, there’s nothing like blowing into a discussion with a smart a** remark after getting the gist of the previous post wrong . . . at this piont, I’m feeling with the Michigan of the Daily Dose.
I will, however, offer a bit of trivia:
What to Jackson and Allan have in common?
(KMack and Pat know I’m sure …. or can figure it out given the source of the question ….)
Meanwhile … a hilarious column pulled from Post Patterns about Concordia’s win over d2 crosstown rival Moorhead St. Sometimes registration in an issue.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=177053
SJFF82
Maybe you should return to the post and you will READ if you can!!! that the poster was refering to Wesleyan arriving !!!!!
Wesleydad
I have been pretty much the only defender of Wesley since this site was conceived.. Been attending games since 95′ and will continue to back the Wolverines!!!!!
Boy after yesterdays quotes from Coach Drass I wouldn’t want to be in films this week… or at practice!