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ATN Podcast 198: Trying to break through

This is really the end of the offseason, right here. Kickoff is out in a week-plus and training camps open at the same time. Coaches are taking the last days off until November, and we’re talking with them about their plans for this season.

Our guests this month are from programs trying to break through into the upper echelons of really tough conferences. Matt Walker, coach of UW-River Falls, has seen the Falcons’ reboot take seven years so far, and he shares some pretty honest thoughts about how long it’s taken. He also talks about his sudden and unexplained departure from DePauw all those years ago.

We’re also joined by Joe Austin, the coach at Southwestern, whose program is entering its sixth season. The Pirates have moved from the SCAC to the American Southwest Conference, and hardly missed a beat last year. What’s it like recruiting in the shadow of Mary Hardin-Baylor? The answer isn’t what you’d expect.

That and more on the July 2018 podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football. 

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.
Full episode:

d3photography.com, Southwestern file photos
You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. 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

Mentioned in the podcast: New turf going in at Marietta, below.

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ATN Podcast: Moving to the next level

One of the questions we’ve focused on in our slate of offseason podcasts is to ask coaches what it would take for their school to get to the next level. And we don’t mean Division II. Earlier this offseason we asked what the distance is like between Wabash and the elite teams in Division III. Or this time, what separates Stevenson from reaching the level of Wesley, the power in Division III in the Mid-Atlantic? What would it take for St. Thomas to join the Mount Union/Whitewater tier?

Guests this month include St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso, Stevenson coach Ed Hottle and Howard Payne coach and athletic director Hunter Sims.

The Around the Nation Podcast is a weekly conversation (monthly in the offseason) between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan covering the wide range of Division III football. It drops on Monday morning weekly throughout the season.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device. 
Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com
You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. 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

ATN Podcast: Welcome to October

Hobart football
Hobart has run out to a 5-0 start. And it’s too early to talk top seed, but we’ll do it anyway.
Hobart file photo by Kevin Colton
UW-Platteville slings
The sight of two gunslingers in slings is not a good one for UW-Platteville
Photo by J. Jensen, D3sports.com

With Mount Union firing on all cylinders on offense, crushing it on defense and by the way, also doing so on special teams, it seems like a foregone conclusion that the Purple Raiders are going back to the Stagg Bowl. And we’d have agreement on the Around the Nation Podcast … except that the Around the Nation guy does his best Lee Corso impression.

Is it too fast, my friend? Perhaps. But there are other teams that look like they could have the stuff to reach Salem, even if UW-Whitewater isn’t one of them at the moment.

Pat and Keith talk about that and more in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast. Plus the revolving door playing the role of “No. 2 team in the OAC,” the three key two-point conversion attempts that could have sunk Top 25 teams and the two that saved one of them. The thought of the top seed in the East makes its first appearances, as does that word “clarity.” And Pat, who has now seen UW-Whitewater play three times, gives us his most important takeaways from the three-time defending champs.

Plus we talk about the late comeback by Hanover, the surprise win by Catholic, Mississippi College’s choosing Division II and what that does to the American Southwest Conference and more.

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 and highlight packages.

And this week’s photo galleries from our friends at d3photography.com: