Tag Archives: Washington U.

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ATN Podcast 392: Consistency comes through

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We’re getting ever closer to Selection Sunday, and closer to automatic bids being clinched. We’ve already discussed how few unbeaten teams there are this time of year compared to previous years, and of course, we had one more go down on Saturday when Wartburg defeated Central.

Wartburg has been really consistent at the top of the American Rivers Conference, or near the top of it. Head coach Chris Winter isn’t the only head coach who has been part of this run, but the Knights coaching staff has been really consistent over the years. We talk with Winter about how the program achieves this consistency while turning players over year after year, we hear about the key offensive guys who are healthy and the defensive starter who could be on the Owen Grover upward trajectory.

Plus, we look at the Whitewater offense, with its moments of brilliance, and try to decipher what they need. We take four mailbag questions, everything from deciphering which conferences have benefited the most from the NPI system and playoff expansion, to which play in the North Central game was most impressive, to whether there should be a cutoff for record for at-large teams, to which game — of a limited set of choices — we would choose to go see in Week 11 if we have to book travel now.

(Spoilers: The travel was already booked, and we’ll tell you where Patrick Coleman will be in Week 11.)

Plus, Patrick and Greg hand out game balls, one for one of the craziest endings to a game you could describe from Saturday’s games. We talk about how long it’s been since New England College had won a game before the Pilgrims beat Maine Maritime on Saturday — it’s longer than you think! We dive into the double SCIAC double overtime games, and the controversial ending between DePauw and Denison, and whether River Falls needs Kaleb Blaha on Saturday (it wouldn’t hurt!).

We spotlight the unusual stats of the week, Logan Hansen talks about which teams have the best chance of getting a top-eight seed and protected home field in the playoffs, we go around each region for even more stories and much more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

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

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You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

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Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photo by Wartburg athletics

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ATN Podcast 365: Hope is not lost

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This past week, a number of teams had their shot. They had the opponent they wanted to play on the field in front of them. They generally even had that game at home, in front of their home fans.

But in Week 8 of the 2024 Division III football season, it didn’t really break as these teams hoped. Not for Ursinus, not for Coe, not for Case Western Reserve, not for Washington U. Not even for St. Olaf, if you want to dig down that far.

In the past, that would generally be it. A chance at reaching the Division III playoffs was going to be a stretch. But not anymore, not with 12 at-large teams, a 40-team bracket, and an NCAA Power Index rating system that just might save some of these teams.

Who has hope? Patrick and Greg break it down with analysis, rather than overreaction.

Marietta made the Top 25 this week for the first time in program history, and Pioneers coach Andy Waddle sits down with us for Fast Five. This is a program that has come a long way, but still has its two biggest games of the regular season yet to come, and both are on the road.

Plus, Patrick and Greg hand out game balls. Patrick pulls out a highlight clip from 21 years ago, and yes, a number of clips from this past weekend. Plus we go through more highlights from Region 1 through Region 6, we answer a couple of reader questions in the mailbag, and not only does Greg wax poetic in On the Spot, we Axe poetic as well. Plus, it’s our 365th podcast — we now have a podcast for every day of the year. So that’s a thing.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007. New episodes are published weekly during the season.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Jason Kapusta, Westminster (Pa.) athletics; Wheaton athletics photo by Michael Hudson photography; Marietta athletics photo by Rebecca Wheeler Photography

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ATN Podcast 361: Big wins from new faces

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With so many teams taking the week off, there was a big opportunity to step up and grab the spotlight, and boy did schools such as LaGrange and Bates do exactly that. Nothing like getting a double-digit game losing streak off your back.

Plus, a game of the week that absolutely looked like one, as we break down Carnegie Mellon at Washington & Jefferson. In addition, Patrick got eyes on Bethel for the first time this season as the Royals hosted St. John’s and we get his take on how the Johnnies look and how the new-look Bethel offense is shaking out.

And then Patrick has some words for the D3football.com Top 25 voter panel — some of them, at least.

Plus, Hope keeps running and running and ran its way into our Top 25 this week. Like we said in Podcast 360, they could run enough to keep the Alma offense off the field and they did just that. Flying Dutch coach Peter Stuursma joins us to talk about it in Fast Five.

We’ll whip you through the big games in Division III from this past weekend, catch up with a brand-new running back with an interesting background, see who had an overflow crowd and who will have to wait a long time to see if they are truly playoff material. Plus, who’s having fun in the 1? Who’s pulling through in the 2? What do we see in the 3? Who’s looking for more in the 4? Who’s looking alive in the 5? And, who’s got a new bag of trick in the 6? To see a list of all the teams talked about in this podcast, look at the list at the bottom of the post.

Math Correspondent Logan Hansen talks about the three biggest playoff leverage games for Week 5, plus gives his usual snapshot for how those top eight seeds are looking. How did that change after this past week’s games? Remember, my goodness, people, this is based on projection of how the season will play out and of course, teams with harder schedules might have a harder time making the top eight because they might not actually win all their games.

We also hand out game balls to the top performers, pick out the stats of the week, and run through region by region to get some of the other stories you might have missed, such as all the great finishes for various schools on Homecoming this past weekend. And since that never seems to be enough, Greg and Patrick have to pick one more region to tell one more story about on the fly. There’s that and so much more in this week’s podcast, so give it a listen!

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007. New episodes are published weekly during the season.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photo by Steve McLaughlin for Wesleyan athletics