Sean McAndrew brought down two big fourth-quarter touchdowns against Linfield. Wesley athletics photo

Two big comebacks and another that nearly went all the way back. Two prolific passing games bounced. Three if you count Franklin. Some stout run defense. And a family connection coming up.

Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan talk about all eight second-round games and the four upcoming quarterfinals, but give special attention to Wabash-North Central, Wesley-Linfield and Kean-Salisbury in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Around the Nation Podcast [ 1:14:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Plus, here’s this week’s D3football.com reports.

Alex Tanney · Centre · Delaware Valley · Franklin · Jeremy Murray · Kean · Levell Coppage · Linfield · Mary Hardin-Baylor · McMurry · Monmouth · Mount Union · North Central (Ill.) · Salisbury · Shane McSweeny · St. John Fisher · St. Thomas · UW-Whitewater · Wabash · Wesley

It’s a lot easier to get nominated as a tackle or defensive end than a guard or defensive tackle. UMHB athletics photo

It’s All-Region time again. Our voters will be looking at the nominations this week, but at the moment, there are 745 nominations for the 300 spots.

Typically schools’ nominations favor the glamorous positions, and tend to neglect some of the unsung. If you think it’s hard for an offensive lineman to get recognition, it’s even worse being a guard. For the moment, we only have 32 nominations for the four guard positions. We’ll name 24 kids to the All-Region team at guard.

The most competitive positions

Everyone wants to nominate a quarterback. It’s almost always the most competitive position. In the South, there were more than five nominees for every available slot.

Then, there’s the other end. We found in the past that taking nominations solely for “defensive linemen” meant we only got nominations for defensive ends. “Offensive linemen” only got us centers and tackles. And we couldn’t recognize positions that weren’t nominated.

The least competitive positions

We’ll be sending a more detailed list on who has been nominated to each of the conferences for follow-up.

all-region · nomination

This could be McMurry’s last formal day as a Division III football team. McMurry athletics photo by Gerald Ewing

Cutting down the field, from 16 teams to eight. You’ve already seen our picks, and thanks to those who have weighed in there as well.

We’ll be following along all day with our live chat below, and you can join in the chat window or by using the #d3fb hashtag on Twitter. Five noon games and three 1 p.m. games.

No tags

Delaware Valley is one of this week’s toss-up games, where our picks don’t agree. Delaware Valley athletics photo

The field of 32 has become a more elite group of 16. Last week, several games were decided by 10 points or less. How many of those met your expectations?

The first week fell mostly according to form, and no three-game sweeps were wrong. And few games were outside of the general range of scores that we predicted: Projected blowouts were often just that, and narrow projections often came down to the wire.

So we’ll walk you through our predictions again for Round 2. We’re soon wrapping up the November games and moving closer to the Division III championship Stagg Bowl on Dec. 16.

Remember, these postseason Triple Take predictions are not intended to be lines on the games, but rather a broad test of expectations vs. outcome.

If you’re feeling prescient, leave your final score guesses for any or all games below, and be sure to come back afterward to see how you did. There’ll be a live blog running here on The Daily Dose during Saturday’s games, and all tweets with hashtag #d3fb are included.

For more info on the 32-team race to Salem, including the brackets, info on each team and feature stories, check our playoffs home page.

UW-Whitewater Bracket
Ryan’s take: UW-Whitewater 42, Franklin 7
Keith’s take: UW-Whitewater 35, Franklin 14
Pat’s take: UW-Whitewater 45, Franklin 10

Ryan’s take: Salisbury 38, Kean 24
Keith’s take: Salisbury 35, Kean 21
Pat’s take: Salisbury 35, Kean 17

Delaware Valley Bracket
Ryan’s take: St. Thomas 49, Monmouth 27
Keith’s take: St. Thomas 27, Monmouth 21
Pat’s take: St. Thomas 45, Monmouth 24

Ryan’s take: Delaware Valley 38, St. John Fisher 21
Keith’s take: Delaware Valley 20, St. John Fisher 10
Pat’s take: St. John Fisher 24, Delaware Valley 21

Mary Hardin-Baylor Bracket
Ryan’s take: Mary Hardin-Baylor 35, McMurry 24
Keith’s take: Mary Hardin-Baylor 38, McMurry 23
Pat’s take: Mary Hardin-Baylor 35, McMurry 24

Ryan’s take: Wesley 28, Linfield 27
Keith’s take: Linfield 24, Wesley 20
Pat’s take: Linfield 35, Wesley 34

Mount Union Bracket
Ryan’s take: Wabash 24,  North Central 21
Keith’s take: North Central 28, Wabash 20
Pat’s take: North Central 31, Wabash 20

Ryan’s take: Mount Union 41, Centre 14
Keith’s take: Mount Union 42, Centre 17
Pat’s take: Mount Union 50, Centre 13

Centre · Delaware Valley · Franklin · Kean · Linfield · Monmouth · Mount Union · North Central · Salisbury · St. John Fisher · St. Thomas · UW-Whitewater · Wabash · Wesley

UW-Whitewater was opportunistic on defense, to say the least. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

Four backup quarterbacks, a wide receiver at corner, a triple-overtime game, an “upset” that all three Triple Take predictors got right and a lot more happened in the first round of the 2011 Division III NCAA playoffs.

Best game? Check. Biggest surprise? We cover that. Best performance by a quarterback off the bench? Best time to turn off the cameras? Most surprising stat? Best defensive effort? Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan cover that and more in the Around the Nation podcast.

Plus Pat gets on his soapbox for a minute or two. But it’s quick.

Around the Nation Podcast [ 1:19:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Plus, here’s this week’s D3football.com reports, with eight of them, seven of which are mostly understandable. Keep your camera’s back to the wind!

Albion · Benedictine · Cal Lutheran · Centre · Christopher Newport · Delaware Valley · Dubuque · Franklin · Hampden-Sydney · Hobart · Illinois College · Illinois Wesleyan · Jake Mullin · John Gagliardi · Johns Hopkins · Kean · Linfield · Mary Hardin-Baylor · McMurry · Mike Zweifel · Monmouth · Mount Union · North Central (Ill.) · Norwich · Redlands · Salisbury · St. John Fisher · St. Scholastica · St. Thomas · Thomas More · Trinity (Texas) · UW-Whitewater · Wabash · Wesley · Western New England