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Quick Hits for Week 3

Sure, we’d all love to be in Hawaii, where Pacific is playing Occidental, but the D3football.com budget is really tight. We’re lucky to be able to send one person to Texas, but we really wouldn’t miss Linfield playing Mary Hardin-Baylor if at all possible. Our guest for this round of Quick Hits is Logan Hansen, a Wartburg grad who has a computer ratings system he uses to rank D-III teams and predict games. You can follow him at @LogHanRatings on Twitter. Photo by B. Scott Presley, d3photography.com

— Pat Coleman

Belton, Hawaii, or somewhere else?

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Keith’s take: Hawaii, if D3football.com is paying. Otherwise, somewhere else. Like W&J/Thomas More.
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Ryan’s take: Belton. I picked it as my game of the year in Kickoff.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Belton. I leave for Austin on Friday morning. See you at the Mary Hardin-Baylor/Linfield game!
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Somewhere else. There’s a Top 25 matchup that is also a conference rivalry 25 minutes from my house. See you in Crestview Hills.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Belton. I haven’t had an authentic breakfast burrito since the 2008 playoffs, and I’ve yet to get to see the new UMHB stadium.
Guest
Logan’s take: Des Moines. I have a friend’s wedding, otherwise Hawaii, because it’s Hawaii.

Which Top 25 team is most likely to get upset?

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Keith’s take: No. 15 Cortland. No. 9 North Central if you want someone not facing a Top 25 opponent.
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Ryan’s take: No. 19 Huntingdon. Belhaven is proving to be tougher than I expected.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: No. 14 Delaware Valley. Of course, King’s is a lot less likely to sneak up on anyone now.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Wesley. I’m not yet sold on the Wolverines, but I’m buying CNU, especially at home.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: No. 9 North Central vs. Illinois Wesleyan. Being on the road against a conference rival for the first D3 game is a challenge.
Guest
Logan’s take: No. 7 Wheaton at 25%. Because it’s too easy to pick Top 25 vs. Top 25 games.

St. Lawrence and Northwestern have allowed no points through two games. Who allows more on Saturday?

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Keith’s take: Northwestern.
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Ryan’s take: Northwestern, though both will get scored on at least a little.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: St. Lawrence. Endicott is 0-2, sure, but they’re the better opponent than who Northwestern is facing.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Northwestern.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Northwestern. St. Lawrence faces 0-2 Endicott, while Northwestern faces 1-0 Minnesota-Morris. It’s science.
Guest
Logan’s take: St. Lawrence. My model has St. Lawrence giving up a touchdown more.

If you were a bird, what kind of bird would you be?

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Keith’s take: Isn’t that a Nelly Furtado song? I’d be a Seahawk. From Salve Regina.
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Ryan’s take: A Sea Gull. Salisbury is riding a high, and that’ll carry over into NJAC play.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: An Owl. Well, a Prof, actually. It’s just that the Rowan Profs use an owl as their mascot. Home to William Paterson.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: A Blue Jay. Johns Hopkins can make a statement at home against a Moravian team that has been very impressive since the beginning of 2015.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: A purple macaw. I mean, that bird hasn’t had its feathers in a ruffle during many regular season games in 11 years…
Guest
Logan’s take: Anything but a Kohawk. Literally means “like the hawk,” as if that clears it up.

Who bounces back best from a noteworthy loss?

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Keith’s take: St. Norbert.
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Ryan’s take: Ohio Northern. No fourth-quarter collapses this time around.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Hampden-Sydney. Although I must admit some trepidation because Ferrum is playing well.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Albright gets into the win column and keeps its MAC hopes alive.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Ohio Northern. It’s a survival game at Heidelberg, and the Utica loss taught the Polar Bears a lot about closing games out after starting strong.
Guest
Logan’s take: John Carroll. 19-point favorites vs. Baldwin Wallace after Week 1 loss to UW-Oshkosh.

Which future conference matchup will be most interesting this week?

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Keith’s take: Catholic-Coast Guard.
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Ryan’s take: Texas Lutheran at Louisiana College. Neither has beaten a D-III team yet this year and each needs a win — bad.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Catholic-Coast Guard. Listeners to the last podcast know why. You should listen to the podcast!
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Ithaca at Hobart. Future Liberty League rivals (for now).
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Ithaca at Hobart. It’s under the lights, has some recent playoff history attached, and matches up teams that haven’t played to potential in 2016 — that part changes Saturday.
Guest
Logan’s take: Ithaca at Hobart. Ithaca’s D should keep this close, but they need to score somehow.

We invite you to add your predictions in the comments below. Download the Around the Nation podcast on Mondays, where Pat and Keith review the picks that were prescient, and those that were terribly off base.

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Quick Hits: Don’t go 0-2

Some teams can’t go 0-2 because they won last week and some can’t because they didn’t play. But either way, you don’t want to be 0-2 after Week 2. Who will be? Our guest this week is Greg Thomas, a Wabash grad known as Wally Wabash on our message boards and who has been part of our bracketology team. Since we already have a Wabash grad on the panel (Ryan Tipps), we figured we’d better bring Greg in during Wabash’s bye week.

— Pat Coleman

Where in Division III would you prefer to be this weekend?

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Keith’s take: At Coast Guard, watching the Secretaries’ Cup game. It’ll be 78 in New London, Conn., on Saturday.
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Ryan’s take: The Stevenson/Albright game, two teams that may be going different directions in this pollster’s eyes.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Hotchkiss Field. That’s Gallaudet’s home field, to see Earlham and Gallaudet on a level playing field.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Shirk Stadium, for Stevenson at Albright #MACtion.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: At my computer. I can watch Stevenson/Albright in the AM, Alfred/RPI, and the Secretaries’ Cup with the A/C on.
Guest
Greg’s take: New London, Conn. Seeing a rivalry game between service academies is a bucket list item.

Which Top 25 team is most likely to get upset?

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Keith’s take: No. 18 Ohio Northern. I’d say they and every other Top 25 aren’t likely to lose but Utica has a shot at home.
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Ryan’s take: None, a pick I try to make only once a season.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: No. 17 Wesley. Pardon me if I’m piling on here a little but now I’m selling on Wesley for the moment.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: No. 21 Huntingdon, vs. Birmingham-Southern.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: No. 18 Ohio Northern. Utica has a game played, ONU does not, and I’m not sold on ONU’s poll strength.
Guest
Greg’s take: No. 16 Cortland. Framingham State is due to get a big win over an E8 contender.

Which team is going to wish it had played in Week 1?

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Keith’s take: Chapman. Playing Linfield is hard enough without it being a road season opener.
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Ryan’s take: Massachusetts Maritime, as its rival already has a game under its belt.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Merchant Marine. The Secretaries’ Cup is just the biggest game of the year. Coast Guard played last week.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Chapman. A chance to tune up before Linfield would probably have been helpful.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Rochester. With just a 75-man roster in camp, on-field experience is at a premium against a Catholic team that rallied for a Week 1 OT win.
Guest
Greg’s take: Wartburg. Monmouth can run away and hide if there is too much first-game rust on the Knights’ armor.

Which conference game will we be most likely to remember on Selection Sunday?

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Keith’s take: Stevenson at Albright, in the MAC.
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Ryan’s take: Frostburg State at Wesley, this one will get people’s blood pumping.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Stevenson at Albright. Who wrote this question? Not enough choices. Oh wait, I did …
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Franklin and Marshall at Muhlenberg. Recent history shows that this is a playoff elimination game, even this early.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Stevenson at Albright. The loser may be in the discussion for a Pool C bid in an interesting MAC race.
Guest
Greg’s take: Frostburg State at Wesley. With the Pool C safety net perhaps gone, every NJAC game is a big deal for Wesley.

Which game involving a non-Division III school should I care about?

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Keith’s take: I had to look this up, but NAIA No. 18 St. Francis — not No. 4 — at No. 10 UW-Platteville.
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Ryan’s take: Franklin at Butler, mostly because we care not to see any Griz players get hurt ahead of conference play.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Brevard at Emory & Henry. You can’t make me care about too many non-Division III teams but Brevard is moving to D-III starting next year.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: St. Francis (Ill.) at UW-Platteville.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Franklin at Butler. If Franklin loses the HCAC for some reason, this result could actually matter for Pool C purposes.
Guest
Greg’s take: Franklin at Butler. Interested to see how they back up the Thomas More win and after this the Grizzlies are in the weeds until November.

Which team starts a surprising 0-2?

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Keith’s take: Texas Lutheran, which follows up the ETBU defeat with a UMHB L.
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Ryan’s take: St. Norbert, but that means Benedictine will have to play tough to make this come true.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Pacific. With both Adrian and Dubuque coming to town the first two weeks, you’d have thought one win …
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Hampden-Sydney.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Probably none is a surprise. If forced, I’d say Thomas More may be flat after last week’s late loss.
Guest
Greg’s take: Texas Lutheran. Maybe less surprised at 0-2 than I am at the Bulldogs getting there via a pair of lopsided games.

We invite you to add your predictions in the comments below. Download the Around the Nation podcast on Mondays, where Pat and Keith review the picks that were prescient, and those that were terribly off base.

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Welcome to Quick Hits

Triple Take has had a nice long run — nine years of appearing in this space on Friday mornings with our predictions for the week. But it’s time for Version 2.0, and this is it: Quick Hits. We’ll give you a few more opinions, and they’ll be shorter and snappier. More entertaining? Sure. More timely? Yes, we’ll get them out a little earlier, hopefully. No noon Friday predictions. And we’ll have one guest each week. This week, former Thomas More quarterback Kevin Niehus, an occasional D3football.com contributor, joins us with his take. Oh shoot, I said take. I mean his hits. And we know he took some hits in his day!

— Pat Coleman

Which stadium would you rather be at this weekend?

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Keith’s take: Titan Stadium. Interested in seeing what No. 18 John Carroll brings to the table at No. 6 UW-Oshkosh.
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Ryan’s take: Sea Gull Stadium. Salisbury/ Albright will be a slugfest.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Homewood Field. Thankfully, I can make it. Thursday night game between ranked teams.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Faught Stadium, for Thomas More at Franklin (and the Griz Zone tailgate).
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Butterfield Stadium. Beginning of the Behrman era (Union), beginning of end of Welch era (Ithaca).
Guest
Kevin’s take: Faught Stadium. If I hadn’t just moved my family to Boston, I’d be there.

Which Top 25 team is most likely to get upset?

Keith McMillan
Keith’s take: No. 16 Albright. Facing No. 23 Salisbury’s triple option is a bit easier with all offseason to prepare.
Ryan Tipps
Ryan’s take: No. 21 Texas Lutheran. Games between Texas teams are often big “what-ifs.”
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: No. 16 Albright. Salisbury will have a big surge from opening its new stadium.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: No. 11 Thomas More. A lot of new Saints starters on the road against an experienced playoff team.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: No. 16 Albright, though tough to consider this an upset vs. Salisbury
Guest
Kevin’s take: No. 17 Cortland. Travels to Heidelberg in what could be a shootout.

Who is going to regret their long trip most?

Keith McMillan
Keith’s take: Central, to No. 19 Whitworth.
Ryan Tipps
Ryan’s take: Adrian. But kudos for scheduling Pacific.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Me. Because I’m pretty sure my daughter isn’t going to like the non-D3 colleges we visit.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Southern Virginia. Traveling 433 miles to break an 11-game losing skid could bring a long drive home.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: TCNJ. Just a tough draw to open with at UW-Whitewater.
Guest
Kevin’s take: John Carroll, starting a new quarterback at UW-Oshkosh with no margin for error in the OAC.

Which high-profile quarterback will prove the toughest to replace?

Keith McMillan
Keith’s take: Joe Callahan. Great programs usually have someone in the pipeline, though.
Ryan Tipps
Ryan’s take: Joe Callahan, in part because Wesley’s opener is so difficult
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Matt Pawlowski. Wesley has had a string of standout QBs over 15 years. Guilford has had just two.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Joe Callahan, who is showing that he didn’t even peak at Wesley.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: Mike Lefflbine. (67% of St. Lawrence’s offensive yards in 2015)
Guest
Kevin’s take: Joe Callahan. Hosting Delaware Valley. Big game.

Over-under on Illinois College vs. Rose-Hulman

Keith McMillan
Keith’s take: 70. They scored 84 last year and 142 two years ago, but a 38-31 game wouldn’t break 70.
Ryan Tipps
Ryan’s take: 61. Yup. Only that.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: 90. Tempted to do The Price is Right rules and just take one point over whatever the highest bid is.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: 92.5. I’ll lean under, slightly, due to improved Rose-Hulman defense
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: 117.
Guest
Kevin’s take: 85.

Who breaks a 10-plus game losing streak?

Keith McMillan
Keith’s take: Someone. It’s 23 for Earlham and 11 for Southern Virginia. They meet in Week 1, and can’t tie, so …
Ryan Tipps
Ryan’s take: Allegheny, under its new defensive-minded coach.
Pat Coleman
Pat’s take: Southern Virginia. Because if they don’t, not only is it a long ride home, but an even longer season.
Adam Turer
Adam’s take: Earlham. And it will be cathartic for reasons beyond football.
Frank Rossi
Frank’s take: McDaniel, vs. Catholic
Guest
Guest’s take: Allegheny. New coaching staff. Saturday night home game vs. Thiel.

We invite you to add your predictions in the comments below. Download the Around the Nation podcast on Mondays, where Pat and Keith review the picks that were prescient, and those that were terribly off base.