Look,
There isn’t a whole lot of intro needed here. We have four phenomenal teams left from a crop of 239. Two will punch tickets to Salem on Saturday, one in sunny Belton, Texas, the other in chilly Alliance, Ohio. And believe it or not, we have unanimity among the trio who’s been forecasting each playoff weekend for you: columnist Ryan Tipps, columnist/managing editor Keith McMillan and publisher Pat Coleman.
After the guys have at it, feel free to add your own picks below. Those brave enough win the opportunity to gloat later.
Wisconsin-Whitewater (12-1) at Mary Hardin-Baylor (12-1)
Ryan’s take: The phrase “bruised and battered†means something different to Mary Hardin-Baylor than it does to other teams. Several times this year, it has seemed the Crusaders were poised to stumble under excessive injuries. Yet instead of tip-toeing through the troubles, they ran past them at full speed, helped by the half-dozen guys who have been able to pick up an average of 5 yards or more per carry. Then again, UW-Whitewater, no slouches on offense, will also likely be the stingiest defense UMHB has lined up against this year. A difference of only 10 yards per game, statistically, separates these two offenses. Both teams have been here before — in terms of time, place and stakes. What could hinder Whitewater is an inability to stay at full throttle for the full 60 minutes, allowing UMHB to pull away after the break.
Mary Hardin-Baylor 38, UW-Whitewater 24
Keith’s take: Usually I’m the long-winded, overly analytical one, but I’ll keep my reasoning simple in this toss-up. I’m making the stretch from picking UMHB to be upset in the first round to picking them to get to Salem, basically based on how they’ve played the past two weeks against Wesley and W&J. They’ve been able to mix the pass in with the always-potent running game, and generate problems on defense. They demolished the Presidents, 63-7, and should be as confident as they have been all season; UW-Whitewater had to battle to get past Wartburg. Playing well, playing at home and playing to keep dreams of the school’s first championship alive, I go:
Mary Hardin-Baylor 28, UW-Whitewater 21
Pat’s take: My concern is that another potent running offense will cause the Warhawks to break rather than just bend. If UMHB is in field goal range it won’t hesitate to take the points, which may have been Willamette’s downfall two weeks ago. The Crusader defense will do a better job early in the game than Willamette did against UWW, plus, I’m still worried about quarterback Jeff Donovan, who is 12-for-29 passing since getting injured at halftime of the second-round game.
Mary Hardin-Baylor 31, UW-Whitewater 20
Wheaton (11-2) at Mount Union (13-0)
Ryan’s take: The Thunder struck hard against the trio of Indiana playoff teams, but Ohio will undoubtedly be a different beast for them. Wheaton is best through the middle of a game: The second and third quarters are their prime times for putting up points and keeping pressure on teams, both of which are critical if the men want any chance of beating the Mount Union machine. For the Thunder, slowing Nate Kmic and getting pressure on Greg Micheli are possible. But is shutting down the receiving corps? That will be the biggest key to Wheaton’s chances in Alliance, and I’m not entirely convinced the team will deliver. Wheaton gives up, on average, 228 yards per game against the pass, but to its credit the team has held its previous two (pass-heavy) playoff opponents to fewer than their averages. At this point in the season, Wheaton is accelerating down the stretch toward perfection — and perfection is exactly what will be needed from them Saturday.
Mount Union 41, Wheaton 17
Keith’s take: I love the run Wheaton is on, I love that they’ve been able to play great defense when needed and outscore teams when that’s been the recipe. Pete Ittersagen is a defensive stud, the offense is mixing the run and the pass well, and the Thunder is playing inspired. That said, we’ve seen hardly the chink in the armor necessary for me to believe Mount Union is going down on Saturday. There are flaws, but they remain few, and I don’t see the Purple Raiders playing a sloppy, turnover-plagued game with Greg Micheli at the controls. It might get dicey at times, it might not be easy, but it will lead to another Purple Saturday in Salem.
Mount Union 35, Wheaton 17
Pat’s take: I just don’t see Wheaton having the firepower to stay with Mount Union, not if Rocky Gingg can’t go at running back. Even if Pete Ittersagen keeps Cecil Shorts in check, it’s a tough task for Wheaton to keep the Purple Raiders’ other offensive pieces contained if the offense doesn’t help by keeping them off the field. In the end, this game looks a lot like last week’s Mount Union game, close for a while with the Purple Raiders pulling away. And I think Nate Kmic gets the all-time NCAA rushing record in the process.
Mount Union 45, Wheaton 14
UWW played a great game today. Great coaching staff over there at UWW. First half was close and would give the advantage to UMHB even though the score was 12-10 Warhawks. Second half————-all UWW, nothing more. I thought UMHB coaching staff did a poor job on play calling and the team didn’t excute either. There was one terrible call————not blaming that or saying that cost UMHB the game but it was a big momentum shift. Pass intereference call on the 2 that was 8 yards out of bounds and uncatchable. Did that one call cost UMHB the game——NO, but it sure shifted the momentum and ended up putting the Warhawks up 25-10 at that point. Hold em to a field goal without th PI call and we still have a game. Congrats to UWW, they are the defending champs and deserved this game without a doubt. Hopefully they will meet again next year.
Hopper73—————-Moron comments———————-earlier games have nothing to do with what happened today. UWW played great and UMHB played flat. Do I think it would be the same result if they played again next week———NO but then again that’s not going to happen either————-UWW played good ball today and deserved the win. Congrats to UWW and their staff and congrats to UMHB on a great season.
UMHB played through a lot of adversity and as I mentioned in previous posts, this certainly wasn’t their most talented team by any means but they did more and went farther than anyone expected them to. Great season for UMHB.
AGAIN, congrats to UWW on a great game and wish them luck next week———-I have a feeling next week is going to be a whole lot tougher than this game.
HOOPER73—————think things through before you get on here again making stupid comments about games that happened 3-4 yrs ago.
UWW beat this team 3 yrs ago and UMHB lost to them this year and UWW beat this team by 3 and then by 30 the next time————-dude, you obviously know nothing about football. None of that obviously meant squat today did it????????????????? DIDN’T THINK SO
Hooper,
Like I said, I am a believer. They lost 17 starters from last year’s championship team- 17- what an ubelieveable job by the coaching staff and players.
Sarge,
Not to rub it in but…UMHB almost made it half way to 30.
Awesome game from the ‘hawks today and another trip to Salem. For those seniors…what a great four years. Wrap it up right!
It looks like my last comment got lost somewhere in cyberspace(or it’s taking the slow boat to the site), so in case it doesn’t show up, here’s the Reader’s Digest version…
I live 50 miles up the road from Salem, and thought I’d give the projected forecast for next Saturday, in case anyone is coming:
It’s supposed to be rainy, with highs in the low to mid-40s. With rain forecast for most of the week, even with temps in the 50s(supposedly), it could end up being a very muddy track. We’ll see…
Yeah, warhawk is was ugly…..mental error on the kick off….got caught on the 2 yard line…then tackled in the end zone for a safety!!!! hell of a way to start….then our running back was injured!!!! Whitewater just played a great game….not much more I can say…..my guess is, that they will handle Mount without too much trouble…..
Dear CaptianCru
I don’t know anything about football?
Now you didn’t understand my first comments. I was trying to compare the competition both teams played. UWW played against two teams that were in the conference with Southern Oragon. UWW Played Puget Sound and Willamette. UWW beat both of them – one a losing team and one a wining team – Willamette. MHB played a team in the same conference – Southern Or.
they were a 3 and 7 team. Realatively speaking they couldn’t be a good team.- UWW played a beat two Or teams in the same conference. They both beat So Or. Logic says – on paper – the team to beat was Whitewater – they played well and MHB didn’t Just to let you know I was a 3 year started on UWW – first team to play for a national championship at UWW. I also coached at the college level. You have to look at your competition levels. I have attended 100’s of games and have been on the sidelines – so I understand the game.
You need to re-read my comments – and the comments of others when they bosted on how good MHB was – how the beat up and can rush and pass and they distroy everyone they play – well it didn’t happen today. Facts are Facts.
I also said we had multiple running backs – and it didn’t matter who was in the backfield – our OL would “Pound the Rock” meaning we would run the ball. I also said – if you stop the run – UWW can pass the ball and had many receivers. Now go back and read what I said- also look at what actually happened. UW-W have one back that went over 100 yards – you didn’t stop him, and the other back went for 45+ yards. MHB had less than 100 yards rushing. FACTS are FACTS.
First half you stopped UWW running game so what did happen – you got passed on. Passed to multiple receivers. Tight end got two TDs, Wells made some great catches, and we got the ball around to several receivers – go back and re-read what I said would happen – it happened exactly as I said it would. MHB made more mistakes – I said that would be a key factor – UWW didn’t beat themselves. That is also what I said should be a factor. I think I predicted everything that happened. Next week – the score would have been the same.
Sorry to say – I have been to the last 3 games in person – not today – I do respect MHB- they play hard, there fast, and they have been a good team against all expect UWW. You need to visit Wisconsin and see all of the other teams that line up against UWW- the WIAC conference in Wisconsin has a number of good teams. Just so happens that the last 4 years UWW has been the best of all teams in the WAIC – fact – look up the records and look at the common teams MHB plays and what teams from the WAIC play – WAIC has a better record – La Crosse Beat Harden Simmons – La Crosse close game 24 to 23 but MHB beat Harden Simmons also — your second team lost to our bottom team – you also lost to So Or who was 3 and 7 – another bottom feader.
MHB is not there yet – facts are facts.
CaptainCru
If anyone doesn’t understand football it is you and you didn’t really read what I said in my comments. First – I have been on the sidelines of UWW for the past 5 years – I have been to most of their game home and away – I also played and started for UWW for 3 years and played on a National Championship Runner up team. So I think I am qualified.
Now go back and re-read what I said
UWW played two teams from the same conference as So Or. So Or beat MHB and then ended up 3 and 7 for the season. So you got beat by not a top team in the Or conference. Now we got beat by Stevens Point – by one point on a last second play – Flat day for UWW and a good day for Stevens Point. Stevens Point gets beat by Wartburg- Wartburg gets beat by Whitewater. Whitewater beat Willimette another top team.
I said our lines were big and fast and would be hard pressed by anyone to run against us and stop our running. If you could stop our running -= we have some very good receivers. So what happened to day – MHB didn’t run over UWW- our defense played well and didn’t beat themselves by making mistakes. We passed for over 220 years and 3 TDs with out an interception.
MHB has less than 100 yard rushing and less than 100 yards passing.
I knew what we had and how hard it would be to beat UWW- They did play well but I just wanted you to understand – UWW is not a one dementional team. There is a reason they are goinb back to the Stagg Bowl for the fourth year in a row. They have talent and they are coached well- If they don’t beat themselves they win. Now the past 4 years they have played almost every good team in the USA and have won most of the games. Right they should be one of two great teams in the USA- UWW and Mount Union. Both are very consistant team- year in and year out.
You need to visit some of the other teams in the WIAC conference. They are all good- Look up each team record and find common opponents – WIAC teams have a better winning record over the team MHB plays – look it up. Past preformance is an indicator of future preformances.
I felt a number of comments on this blog didn’t respect UWW- maybe now you have to. They showed up- they didn’t make mistakes- they ran the ball and the passed the ball and the had good special teams and they stopped your MHB- both in the run game and passing game. Now go back and read what I said and try to understand the meaning of what said. You got too emotional here and your the one who doesn’t know what your talking about. Now you know I am just having fun with you here- We off to Salem again I don’t have to say any more than that.
I also respect Mt Union – beat them once doesn’t mean anything- have to beat them several time to be in the same class. They are a good team and are well coached and I do respect them- But again UWW will show up and play a good game. It will be a battle no doubt about that. Go Warhawks Go I bleed Purple – Iam a Warhawk forever.
Remove my last note. I wasn’t sure it went though
Sorry for the two comments. use the first one.
Hooper73:
Sorry, but you’re not really helping your case. So. Oregon is an NAIA team and not in the same conference as Willamette and Puget Sound. If you’re trying to use comparative scores, that’s fine. (Not always advisable, since those score triangles can lie, but fine.) Just make sure you double-check some facts.