We could have nine automatic bids handed out this week and there are two head-to-head winner-take-all games, between Otterbein and Mount Union in the Ohio Athletic Conference and between Trine and Adrian in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

There aren’t any live stats for the Otterbein/Mount Union game, but we’ll have updates here on the blog filling in some of the blanks. There’s live audio for that game and others on the Scoreboard.

I’ll be in Eau Claire, Wis., to see if UW-Stevens Point can keep up its run of nail-biters. In fact, I should be getting on the road pretty soon.

There are a couple of key Pool C (at-large bid) games — one of them between Rowan and Montclair State in the NJAC. I just stumbled on a Rowan football blog with some extra information worth checking out. Huntingdon and Hampden-Sydney play in Alabama in a game that affects both at-large pools. And we talked more about these games in the Triple Take yesterday, of course.

Plenty of other games, as always, and thanks to those who drop by with regular updates each week!

Having trouble logging in? When you get back to this page after putting in your password, hit refresh.

Adrian · Mount Union · Otterbein · Trine · UW-Eau Claire · UW-Stevens Point

Keith took the car out for a trip to upstate New York and came back with a pretty good game. What did Cortland State show Saturday in its win against Montclair State? Keith (and Cortland coach Dan MacNeill) give their thoughts in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Also, Keith and Pat talk about the many other big games of the day, including the gutty performance by Salisbury at St. John Fisher. By the way, there’s also some pretty interesting news for Salisbury, Wesley, Case Western Reserve and Huntingdon in the podcast.

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

Or you can click the play button below to listen.

Around the Nation Podcast [ 29:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Around the Nation · ATN · Cortland State · iTunes · Montclair State · podcast · Pool B · Salisbury · St. John Fisher

A couple of transactions passed across my screen in the past few days. Last night we learned that Coe running back Fred Jackson, a second team D3football.com All-America running back in 2002, has signed with the Buffalo Bills. Jackson follows in the footsteps of Carey Bender, who played for the Bills in the mid-1990s.

Bender also played in NFL Europe, and Jackson might have a chance to do the same. Jackson reportedly has been allocated to NFL Europe. The NFL Europe training camp begins in mid-February.

Jackson played in the United Indoor Football League this past season and was the league’s MVP.

Jermaine Taylor re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and will be allocated to NFL Europe as well. Taylor, a two-time D3football.com All-American (third team in 2002, first team in 2003), was in the Bucs training camp last season.

(Minneapolis) Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman wrote this week that former Gustavus Adolphus wide receiver Ryan Hoag is working out in Florida with hopes of landing a spot in NFL Europe as a free agent.

No tags

There are three open head coaching jobs that we’re aware of, and here’s what we know about them:

Kings Point (3-7, 3-4 Liberty League in 2004)
Tim McNulty resigned at the end of March and the school intends to introduce his replacement tomorrow afternoon. All indications from the rumor mill point to Mike Toop, head coach at Division I-AA non-scholarship Davidson. Toop is an alumnus of the institution, also known as the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He’s 17-22 at Davidson, which has moved recently to playing almost exclusively I-AA schools instead of mostly I-AA and a handful of D-IIIs.

Pomona-Pitzer (4-5, 3-3 SCIAC)
Roger Caron left the school in early April to coach at Cheshire Academy in Cheshire, Conn. The school still has his name on the Web site and his voice and name are still on the voice mail. That’s because Pomona-Pitzer believes Caron is taking a one-year leave of absence, according to athletic director Charles Katsiaficas, who expects Caron to return next spring. Scott Rynne will coach the team in 2005.

Waynesburg (7-4, 3-2 PAC)
Jeff Hand left for conference rival Westminster (Pa.). The school says it intends to go through a search and hire a “permanent” replacement but time is awful short for that.

Also, Brent Becker was named interim head coach at Lake Forest in February, but will be coaching there in 2005. A search will begin at the end of the season.

No tags

The Observer-Reporter in Washington, Pa., sure thinks so. After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Jeff Hand (and no other names) as a finalist for the open Westminster (Pa.) job on Wednesday, the O-R is reporting Hand is the man.

Westminster has a news conference scheduled for 2:30 ET this afternoon.

No tags