Alright, well, so much for that. St. John Fisher and Ithaca actually did live up to the hype, or the hyperbole.
Wow, it took 146 snaps until someone finally scored in the Fitchburg State/Westfield State game. The first 2½ overtime sessions ended on three missed field goals, a fumble and an interception. I’m not sure what’s more surprising — that fact or the fact that it only took 146 snaps to get through regulation and three overtimes. Catholic and Randolph-Macon, on the other hand, ran 154 plays from scrimmage, 95 of them passes (and 44 of those incomplete).
Was chatting with the Occidental broadcast crew earlier tonight, remarking about the Carleton/Concordia-Moorhead score (Concordia wins 39-31). They reminded me we know Concordia-Moorhead can give up points, which is true, but who knew Carleton could score that many? And a game-ending goal-line stand at that? Between that and the 45 points Hampden-Sydney allowed to Guilford, there’s some defenses that need work.
Muhlenberg’s lack of offense really hurts.
Anyone who knows what to make of RPI putting 48 on Hobart, let me know. It’s tempting to think Hobart’s defense isn’t that great. Sure, Hobart shut out F&M, but F&M only scored six points this week against Carnegie Mellon. I think the Liberty League race is far from over. Union, St. Lawrence and possibly even Rochester are going to have an impact on that title hunt.
Key injuries this week include St. John Fisher’s Mark Robinson (reportedly a separated shoulder) and Ohio Northern’s Jason Trusnik (possible broken bone in foot).
Keep an eye on Huntingdon as a Pool B sleeper.
Games that concern me
Already touched on Hampden-Sydney/Guilford
Same with Concordia-Moorhead/Carleton
Colorado College/Lewis and Clark (how long can a four-game season feel?)
Crazy e-mail of the day
You HAVE to go with the Albright Lions as the team of the week! The game against King’s Colege today was beyond belief! Every coach – no matter what sport they are in – dreams of a team like this Albright one who will play their hearts out until the final horn blows.
Alright, that’s cool and all, but if you bother to look at either the Team of the Week page or the nomination form you could probably figure out that this is not what you think it is.
Here are my two-cents worth (plink, plink)…
Where is the love: As a Division III football fan, this week was not our finest moment. First the bad news off the field at ONU and Linfield. Then several more-than-feisty exchanges on Post Patterns, particularly in the East Region. Then yesterday’s Delaware Valley/Lyco game felt more like a WWE match than a football game with all the personal fouls and “extracurricular activity.” I was waiting for one team’s coaches to distract the ref so the players could don sequence masks and crack the other guys over the head with a conveniently placed steel chair.
I know people are passionate about their teams and that’s great. But it’s not great if we forget the guys on the other side are just like us, our kids and our alma mater – Division III athletes playing for the love of the game. We don’t need to unite hands and sing Kumbaya, but let’s try to remember to respect players, their families and fans at games and on the message boards.
Division III is great because the kids play their hearts out every week while getting good educations, wherever they go to school. If we lose sight of that, we’re just a scaled down version of Division I with tiny stadiums and funny mascot names.
I’ll get off my soapbox now…
New York’s Other Running Back: Mark Robinson at SJF is very good and we hope he gets better soon after leaving the Ithaca contest with an injury. But how about Tom Arcidiacono at Union? He’s got 577 yards and 6 TDs on 92 carries after rambling all over Rochester this weekend.
The times, they are a changin’: Just two years ago, Maine Maritime, Wesley, St. Olaf and Rockford were a combined 4-10 through September. This year they are 14-0 combined. I know some wins here are against weak opponents, but that won’t make the turn around any less pleasant for these players.
On the flip side, Lycoming, Springfield, Wartburg and Wittenberg were a combined 12-0 through September 2003. This year they are 3-10 combined.
Perhaps these are encouraging signs for fans with struggling teams…or humbling ones for fans of teams enjoying success now.
Three cheers: Congrats to Catholic and their kids – long losing streaks are frustrating and it’s good to see the Cards on the right side of the win column. Montclair State turned in quite a performance by beating #10 Salisbury after MSU lost to Frostburg in what is FSU’s sole victory so far. And Colby beat Williams handily to start NESCAC play. Given all the other quirks of NESCAC football, it’s a shame the White Mules and Trinity (Conn.) won’t at least play each other this year.
I was at the Del Val/Lyco game and I believe that the Mac conference will be a better place when Coach Mangus moves on to Division II. Ursinus made the right move when they shipped him and his crew out after they turned that program into a small version of 1-A with football wins at any cost regardless of good sportsmanship and acceptable graduation rates.
Neglected one point about the Catholic/Randolph-Macon game that I wanted to include (and Randolph-Macon grad Keith McMillan says I should use it).
Catholic had just scored its second touchdown in a row to cut Macon’s lead to 24-21 and in an attempt to fire up his teammates on the sidelines, one of the player said, “Come on! We can still win this game!”
Uhm, yeah, you’re leading! Of course you can still win … use that for when you’re trailing.
I just do not know why we are talking about RMC and Catholic? To sorry teams which should recieve no credit. But I guess that half of the problem with the people on this site. No one likes to look at teams with winning records. I mean Ferrum College is off to a 4-0 start, pounding teams like Guilford, which HSC barely beat, yet we talk about J.D. Ricca as amazing(which he is very good) but HSC has no Defense. November 12th is going to be a good game(in which if you are smart you you place on Ferrum) between CNU and Ferrum. Ferrum had a young team with Injuries last year(which lost 6 games) but 4 of those by the way of overtime and another to CNU by 7. Ferrum is the REAL deal. Watch out.
I guess we’ll see. I thought it was germane to talk about the game I actually saw, and any time a team ends a long losing streak it’s worthwhile.
I talked about Ferrum on the front page of the site, for goodness sakes. It’s not like they are going unnoticed.
EVERYONE in D-3 should receive credit? My gosh, that’s what D-3 is all about! And don’t say that ‘no one likes to look at teams with winning records’. You haven’t read this site, much…
“pounding teams like [0-4] Guilford [which hasn’t played .500 ball this century]” … yeah, that’s a mark of greatness, for sure.
If you’re going to talk about the NESCAC, you have to give props to the Bowdoin College Polar Bears. Bowdoin beat Middlebury 22-21 for their first opening day win since 1991. I remember seeing Bowdoin lose to Hamilton only a few short years ago. Nice to see Coach Caputi turning the program in the right direction. I wonder what Williams thinks now after declining to scrimmage them in favor of Amherst then losing to Colby 35-9.
Can’t post without mentioning the upset of the day either in Montclair beating Salisbury down in Maryland. This is a substantially different offensive team from years past that lost Eugene Vick and Steve Armstrong to graduation and moved their top returning receiver Eric Ferriol to quarterback. After seeing the Red Hawks lose to Frostburg State, I figured it’d be a long season for Coach Giancola. You look at the stat sheet and Salisbury out gained Montclair and rushed for 440 yards. Yet the Red Hawks still managed to pull out the victory doing the NJAC proud.
Wow, this is the bitterman board. If you’re gonna slam G.A. Mangus and DelVal, you’ve got to provide some details and/or context.
As for Ferrum, they have caught my eye, and I know at least one voter who put them in the poll this week. But you can’t blame people for not bowing at the altar of greatness for a team that has beaten two winless teams and Chowan. The big win over Shenandoah was the eye-opener.
I too admit, I thought last week’s loss meant a down week for Montclair, but they got it right back. I guess the Around the Nation curse got Salisbury.
The Bowdoin win caught my eye, as did Colby pounding Williams. Other scores that were eye openers:
Mt. Ida 65, Becker 49 (just because)
JCU 48, Marietta 17
LaVerne 38, Puget Sound 14
Rockford 82, Prinicipia 12 (worst team in d3?)
River Falls 45, PLU 14 (they had been saying it would be a down year for PLU)
HSC 47, Guilford 45 (for obvious reasons)
North Central 25, Wash U. 0
Augie 45, UW-P 14
Grove City 16, Muhlenberg 6
and a few others that will probably show up somewhere else on the site later in the week. I gotta keep some stuff to myself until Weds., but still … a verrrry interesting week.
Gordo, you were right on the margin of victory in Hobart-RPI.
And you rarely see the rational, objective fan post “Team X is the real deal. Watch out.”
Just being honest.
I meant down year, not down week regarding Montclair … and I am kidding about the ATN curse.
Where’s the comments about the Brown and Gold, Rowan Profs….I know they beat and very non-powerhouse like school in Robert Morris, but they are still a I-AA school. Rowan definately has the O and D to make some serious noise this year in the playoffs, and maybe they will not be shafted by officials, in the end as usual.
Smed, Keith:
Yeah, what you said. We can’t recognize everyone in every single place on the site.
Profjames:
Check out the front page of D3football.com and see if you find Rowan’s name there. Thanks.
Profjames,
Yeah, that was a nice comeback. I was stuck at home, but got to see it through the ESPN bottom line. I get a kick out of that whenver a d3 plays a 1-AA.
As far as the playoffs, I think you should worry less about the officials and more about getting placed in a bracket that doesn’t send you guys to Linfield, Mount Union or Texas if you get through. South Jersey back routes aside, wouldn’t Glassboro, Glassboro, Glassboro, Glassboro be the best way to get to Salem?
But any playoff talk is made up of big ifs at this point … it’s still early.
Although it would require an unlikely early exit for Linfield, I’d like to see how Oxy would perform if tested by Rowan. I have one ranked right next to the other every week.
Was at the Rowan Game on Saturday and left at halftime. Boy, did I make a mistake! The Profs were getting their butts kicked for a majority of the first half and the defense looked as though it had no answers for Robert Morris. The Profs, however, are the type of team that can comeback from a 2-3 touchdown deficet because of the offensive weapons they have. There is no doubt in my mind the Mike Orihel is one of the best quarterbacks in DIII. Although that win was a nice one and gives them some attention the game this week against TCNJ is bigger and more meaningful in scope of the entire NJAC picture as well as playoffs. Go Profs!!!!
Union’s defense was pitiful in the early going against Rochester. If they are going to challenge Hobart and RPI, they better find the right formula quickly to defend against those two.
Rochester’s coaching was questionable throughout the game. I don’t think they are a bona fide challenger for the LL title.
I dunno Pat. I wouldn’t make too much of 48 being scored on Hobart by a game RPI squad. 14 were in OT. I think you’re right that Union will play a big role in the LL title, but Rochester gave them a run, putting 28 on the board against the vaunted Union D.
And by the way, I’d take either RPI or Rochester to beat the Hampden-Sydney Tigers (#22), whose defense just had 40 put on them for the second week in a row. This past week by the mighty (0-4) Guilford team.
Can the LL get a little love from the pollsters?
You don’t think thirty-four points is a big deal?
I don’t know about RPI beating HSC — although I am definitely not high on HSC through their three games — and I definitely don’t think Rochester would. I continue to watch RPI, Hobart and Union for my ballot but they are not on it as of yet. Problem is, the only times I’ve seen Hobart play they have gotten crushed in second-round playoff games, and both times it was by teams that later got destroyed in the national semifinals.
Also, I’ll say this — continuing to schedule nine games and opponents from the more academically respected conferences may boost the school’s self-esteem and make it feel like it is associating with the so-called right kind of schools, but it is not a recipe to get into the Top 25. That goes for all three schools — although at least Union scheduled a tenth game and played it against Springfield, a team that did something in the playoffs in the past seven years.
Anyone with an above average defense and a ball control running game will beat H-SC handily. I understand the national hype for Ricca, but one man doesn’t make a team, especially since he can’t play defense.
No way they are a Top 25 team.
Mandfense is right on with the H-SC comment. But I am here to hype my Ferrum Boys. They are just rolling and very confident. With all the guys healthy, experienced, and with a few new coaches (Former NFL player Coach Robert Hunt) has really gotten these guys moving. This year is just an eye opener for what they are poised to do next year. The scary thing though is that Ferrum should handily win USA South Conference this year. Watch out for the Panthers this year. They just might surprise you. Oh and did I mention a Stellar Defense?