Phew!

Keith McMillan alludes to this in his introduction to Kickoff 2008, but for those out here in the public areas of the site, more planning and preparation went into this edition of Kickoff than any of the previous three, and we think it shows.

For those not aware, in the past we’ve done two or three feature stories, four player profiles and then the meat of Kickoff, the 239 team capsules, rankings, etc. This year we added quite a bit of content to that. Here’s our list of feature stories:

For the love, not records: Nate Kmic and Josh Vogelbach are within sight of the D-III all-time rushing and passing marks
Bethel joins the big leagues: The Royals are no longer solely a one-and-done playoff team. What’s next?
River Falls still running from its past: Record passing numbers didn’t bring the Falcons a better win total
At Averett, nowhere to go but back up: Cougars went from 7-3 to 0-10 and try to bounce back
A decade of pitch and catch: One quarterback/receiver combo has been at it a lot longer than most
Bottomed-out Cowboys plan to restore defense: Hardin-Simmons defense let it down last year, down to last in D-III. But there’s a plan
New coach’s story starts with Capital D: The Crusaders’ new coach has defense in mind
Presidents elect to bury the past: Last year’s season ended too soon for W&J, and they’re not looking back
Bluejays fly below radar on their own campus: With everything going on at Johns Hopkins, it’s hard to get people to focus on football
Change spreads to Augustana: The Wing-T powered Augustana to four consecutive national titles in the ’80s but now the Vikings are spreading it out
South Region rivals look to rise again: Wesley and Salisbury are not all that far apart, by any measurement
NJAC finding strength in numbers: As the conference gets larger, the talent level grows
For Wabash QB, a year makes all the difference: Matt Hudson was the third option a year ago; now he’s had a whole offseason as the No. 1
Whitworth’s Kemp destined to quarterback: Jack Kemp’s grandson and Jeff Kemp’s son seems like a natural at the position
In Iowa, floods fail to dampen spirits: The natural disasters over the summer struck campuses in different ways
Boltus still leads Hawks’ air show: Hartwick’s offense is still going strong

Plus, as always, we preview and rank all 239 teams, rank the conferences and predict the basic to the arcane for 2008.

Somehow this season we actually managed to get it done and get some real sleep the night before. Often I’ve pulled an all-nighter the night before it gets published, and we’re always tweaking content right up until it goes out the door. But Keith and I and our Hands Team (Ryan Tipps, Gordon Mann) spent a lot of time on it in recent days and we had great photo help from Josh Bowerman.

Use the comments function on Kickoff to discuss and banter at will — it’s new, based on readers recommendations and built by Ryan Coleman. He’s also an iPhone junkie, so you better be sure that Kickoff is iPhone-ready.

So enjoy.