So I first got a call around 2:15 or so that Ohio Northern was leading Mount Union 21-7 in the second quarter. Ehh, yeah, whatever — if I had a dime for every time someone called me or sent me an instant message that Mount Union was losing, we’d have enough money to stop running pop-up ads.
Oh wait, we stopped doing that a couple months ago.
So yeah, didn’t really think much of it. Got another call at halftime. One late in the third quarter and then another with three minutes or so left in the game. At that point it gets serious — you have to doubt even Mount Union’s chances of scoring twice in three minutes. I’m already on the way out the door from the game I was covering, so I’m heading to a wireless hotspot I know sits about two blocks from the stadium. Got cut off at a stop light. Missed the end of the game. Caught the Mount Union student station giving the final score.
So everyone voting, have fun with your Top 10. I’m thinking of starting with my ballot from like six weeks ago. You know, when Mary Hardin-Baylor was still ahead of HSU and Ohio Northern was in my top 10.
Deep down inside, too, I’ve had this nagging feeling about Hardin-Simmons without Jordan Neal at quarterback. Descriptions of the UMHB defense today reminds me of its performance at W&J in the national quarterfinals last year. Could be time for another roll.
We’re getting close to the time where we’ll start having teams clinch playoff bids. Some of these will involve our favorite 11-letter word: tiebreakers. However, Johns Hopkins is 4-0 with a two-game lead on Dickinson (have not played yet) and Muhlenberg (Hopkins beat them today). They have two games left to play. Lakeland plays Aurora next week and can clinch the Illini-Badger with a win.
Speaking of tiebreakers, we could be seeing them in several conferences. How odd is it for half the HCAC to be in first place and Hanover not be one of the teams?
I had to call the folks at Wesley to confirm that Brockport score. No injuries or suspensions to report. No excuses made for the long bus ride. Wonder what that means for the Salisbury/Wesley game next week.
Congrats to Brad Duesing, definitely back on pace now to get 1,000 receiving yards for the fourth straight year. Only one other receiver has done that, Susquehanna’s Mark Bartosic.
Interested in:
The NCAA’s appeals process. How does it work, really? Is Ohio Northern really off the hook until the appeal is heard? That sounds more like Major League Baseball than the NCAA.
Kalamazoo. Upset Alma. How did that happen?
Concerned about:
Union. For the second week in a row. If you were playing the comparative scores game (always dangerous — ask Mount Union) then look at Union’s results vs. Coast Guard and Kings Point (a seven-point game at home and an OT game), then look at RPI’s (a 17-point game on the road, 41-point win at home).
Wheaton. Looks like the team that played the second half against North Central went to Illinois Wesleyan.
Crazy e-mail of the week:
So, for three years every game that Mt. Union has played has been
significant, but when Linfield
is the #1 ranked team in the nation and defending National Champs their
games and players aren’t
worthy of a mention because??????????????????????
Love you dearly, Wake Up and report Division III football!!??!!??:)
Let’s ask the Mount Union fans what they feel about our coverage the past three years, k? Heck, we don’t even have to go back through three years. Just last week Linfield was on the front page and Mount Union was not. The week before Linfield was on the front page and Mount Union was not. There was a week Mount Union was on the front and Linfield was not (Oct. 1, when Mount Union needed 28 unanswered points to beat Capital). The week before that, neither team was on the front. But that was also Linfield’s bye week. The week before that, Linfield was on the front page and Mount Union was not. And both schools were on the front page for their respective season openers.
Get your facts straight before you complain. Thanks.
But we can’t talk about Week 8 without talking about the tragic death of Minnesota-Morris student and men’s basketball player Rick Rose, who died when the goalposts came down after Morris’ win against Crown, the final game in Morris’ current stadium. Perhaps it’s time to end this tradition. It isn’t worth it.
SeanGOp,
Monmouth is not ranked by D3 football.com because well, i dont know. MC is ranked very respectful in every other reputable D3 national poll.
It seems that most of the rankings on this site, and just about everywhere else in football rankings are INITIALLY given based on history alone. Look at OU and the whole big ten this year (division 1). None of those teams are ranked where they started. Generally votes for rankings are given based on what teams have done in past years, not what they are currently doing. MC has not been a good team in the past, but this year they are VERY GOOD.
SeanGOP you look down upon MC, and call the MWC weak, great, fantastic. You go to any D3 coach in the Midwest and ask them what they think of them boys from Monmouth. You go ask the Augies, the North Centrals, the Illinois Wesleyans about the recruits they have lost to MC in the last couple of years. You go ask those schools about the state of the art (23 mil) training facility that no other small school in the midwest can compare with. And then you ask them if they think this years MC team aint like no other they have ever seen…
And when you get that answer, you wait to see what we do in the first and second round, then you come back on here and apologize for your comments….
those who only talk about the past are doomed to stay there!!!
MC Football in 2005 whether you like it or not!!!
The great thing is this will all be decided on the field and your posts will be here no matter the results. We’ll see in November.
Those who don’t play Top 50 teams are doomed to not be in the Top 25.
H-SC actually travels to Dickinson this weekend. I believe a dangerous game for the Tigers. The JH game is next week. No, my father is not on the induction list this time around. He does have credentials worthy of consideration and hopefully will get his opportunity down the road. He was an outstanding player for the Tigers in the 50’s and early 60’s and coached during the “glory years” 70’s. He coached on the offensive side of the ball and most notably, the 1977 D3 playoff team. Still one of the most incredible games I have ever witnessed on any level. The Tigers trailed 35 to 8 at half and were able to tie the game 38 all before losing 52 to 45. He was also the last coach to lead the Tiger tennis team to an ODAC championship. (Not 100% sure but I believe that to be correct) W&L has ruled that roost for years.
allsky7 – thanks for the clarification on HS-C/Dickinson this week & H-SC/Johns Hopkins next week. I remember you said that, but it’s not the way it ended on the typed page. lol Sounds as though you – and your father – have some good memories from the HS-C days. I believe Guilford was still playing NAIA ball in the old Carolinas Conference (Elon, Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne, Mars Hill, Newberry, Presbyterian, Carson-Newman) in 1977, but I know we often played a lot of the schools now in the ODAC, including Hampden-Sydney.
You are right about the current ODAC tennis programs, they are dominated by W&L for men & women. Basketball was the sport at Guilford in my day. The Quakers won 101 games (I think) in my 4 years and were the NAIA national championship with future NBA players M.L Carr (Pistons, Celtics), Greg Jackson (Suns, Knicks), Lloyd “World B.” Free (Sixers, Cavs, Rockets) plus another talented assortment of 6’5″ to 6’10” players. What fun! We rocked the house every night. I remember W&L coming down one Saturday night (out of conference game) and they didn’t know what hit them. lol
BTW, who did H-SC play in that 52-45 playoff game?
I highly doubt that the CCIW and the WIAC have lost alot of recuits to Monmouth and the MWC. I agree with pcole. If you want to be the best, you need to play the best. Respect comes with building a tested, winning tradition. It can’t be demanded on a web site. If Monmouth is as good as you say it is, they will prove it on the field where it is the only place that counts! Good luck to the Scots on the rest of their season.
WIAC Watcher is a smart insightful individual who knows what the heck he’s talking about.
Monmouth may have a new training facility, they needed one – it still is behind other schools as far as facilities go, except maybe in the Midwest conference. I also agree with wiac watcher, I can’t see WIAC or CCIW missing out on good recruits to Monmouth.
I don’t dislike Monmouth or its football team. I do dislike the comparison between Monmouth and WIAC or CCIW teams. I honestly feel they are in different worlds. And I honestly think that Monmouth has a very, very weak schedule. They have a schedule that many teams would go undefeated with – unlike a CCIW or WIAC schedule.
I now hope Monmouth wins the conference and goes to the playoffs, then we will all know and understand.
I admire the loyalty the Monmouth fans. It is a good school (unfortunately in a very boring town) with an undefeated football team.
Talk to your athletic director, or whoever schedules your games, and have that person schedule a tough non-conference game. That way, if you win, then you may get the respect you want (and possibly deserve). But, until you start beating quality teams, you will get a bad seed in the playoffs (if you go), and you will not get the polling respect.
Congrats to UW-Whitewater. NCAA stats have just been updated and they are #1 in Total Offense again this week after their record setting 706 yards of offense against UW-Platteville broke UWW’s previous mark of 702 yards. Unfortunately for the defense, while occupying spots in some defensive categories, they are off the list of Total Defense. Don’t be decieved. Their defense is equally as competent. When you have an offense that is that prolific, your starting defence very rarely plays a full game and unlike the offense, after they leave the field, their numbers that measure their success are more likely to be negatively affected as the game is finished by the back-ups. Many times the back-ups are still playing against the opponents first string. The offensive numbers remain the same. They scored the points, gained the yards and completed the passes. Don’t get me wrong. I love it when clean shirts go into the game. That is how it should be and a necessary part of developing future players but the fact remains that it can adversely affect the stats by which a defense is measured. “Offense wins games but Defense wins Championships!”
At the risk of inciting the Midwest fans, please explain to me how UW-LaCrosse, a team that is 3-3, and tied for the 4th best team (by record) in its conference, is ranked 24th in the country in latest poll on this site while a bunch of undefeated teams, some undefeated for several seasons, are unable to break the top 25? Sure sounds like an anti-eastern bias to me. I don’t get it, because when I look at the WIAC schedules, all they do is play each other, and come tournament time, all of them are gone by the second round in recent years. So what makes people think this conference is so dominant that it deserves 2 teams in the top 25 and 2 more in the “knocking on the door” category? I’d suggest it’s time to recognize teams for what they’re doing in their conference and not anticipate what they might do in the tournament.
Oh how I love to argue.
First of all SeanGOP:
You were the one that started talking trash about Monmouth being the worst undefeated team in the nation. Even still, if you ranked the remaining undefeated teams as the top teams in the country, and Monmouth was last, you would still find them in the top 25 because there aren’t that many undefeateds left.
You also said that you lived in Monmouth and new many of the players on the football team. I’m not sure what year that was, but coaches change, players change, and then the program changes. Keep in mind, these guys are only in school for 4 years, it doesn’t take that long to turn a program around when a new coach arrives. The Scots actually had a 26 game regular season winning streak back in the late 80’s and early 90’s(when Coe and Cornell were still in the conference) but never made the playoffs because of the way the tournament was stuctured. After a stretch of 8-39 in the last five years of Coach Kane’s 18 year tenure, he was finally forced out. Enter Steve Bell, 41-17 in 6 years since taking over, 25-3 over the last 3+ seasons, and 15 straight wins. If you can’t see it coming, you simply haven’t been paying attention. Apparently, the folks in DePere, Wis. missed that memo too, so don’t feel bad.
Furthermore, I have to agree with Andy. What did the WIAC do to deserve so much respect? 3-7 in the playoffs since ’99, while the MWC is 1-6. So lets see, if St. Norbert hadn’t pissed in their wheaties up 23-10 with 8 minutes to go against LaX in last year’s playoffs, the MWC would be 2-6, and the WIAC 2-7! Whitewater is unbelievable, no doubt about it. But the rest of the conference is not nearly as good as advertised. This conference probably won’t even get two teams this year. Sure, Whitewater blasted St. Norbert, but they’ve killed everyone else as well. Maybe they are just that good. The fact is, this respect crap doesn’t make any sense. The CCIW teams have beaten which ranked opponents this year? Oh yeah, other CCIW teams. You know the difference between the CCIW’s 8-7 playoff record and the MWC? The CCIW has found a way to squeak by against lower seeds, while the MWC has found a way to give away close games against higher seeds. If Monmouth wins a playoff game this year, how much respect will the MWC gain? Very litte…St. Norbert did it two years ago. The CCIW has taken just as many playoff poundings by the Top 10 as everyone else, ask Wheaton.
The point is I’M RIGHT AND YOU’RE WRONG!
Just kidding…the point is that SeanGOP obviously loves Augie, wiac watcher loves his guys, I wanna see the Scots do something great (and be recognized), and none of us will determine who’s better on this website. I think this thing is the devil. I have just realized how mad I’ve gotten about this crap. Anyway, I’m done. Go Scotties!
“I don’t get it, because when I look at the WIAC schedules, all they do is play each other……”
Andy, if you look closely at the WIAC schedule this year, you will see that the 8 teams played 22 nonconference games against teams that came from atleast 9 different conferences. They won 14 and lost 8. Those 8 losses were to the defending national champs, (Linfield,) a Division 1A team,(Drake,) Two Division 2 team, (SDSU and Bemidji State) and other top teams such as St. Johns which Eau Claire lost to by only 7 points and Hardin-Simmons. And by the way, LaCrosse beat Howard Payne 34 to 6 on Sept. 10th. The respect the WIAC has earned from the polls is based on years of results of head to head competition against some of the most well respected conferences and teams in the country.
Not to be nit picky, but SDSU is currently a D1-AA, second full season I believe.
I apologize to SDSU and the Jackrabbits!! I am embarassed to have gotten that wrong.
I am wrong about Drake also. They are D1-AA as well.
GoScotties
The more I read you – the more I think I lilke you – even though I don’t agree with you on most things. You are right, the reason I like to torture Monmouth fans is that I had a personal dislike for many of they players (years ago). To be quite honest, after thinking about it, it is foolish for me to want them to lose since I was born in Monmouth and the town does better when the college does well.
I still think that they would have a .500 record or worse if they played in the WIAC or the CCIW.
Call your person who schedules your games and have them schedule a tough team for non-conference games – for once.
Agreed. A tough non-conference game would do wonders. But, I still think MC should just concentrate on winning the conference first. Look at what happened to St. Norbert. They got railed by Whitewater, and will likely miss the playoffs. 2 losses to teams that are a combined 15-0 and they don’t stand a chance at getting an at-large. Once Monmouth re-establishes themselves as the team to beat in the MWC, they should look elsewhere for non-conference games. Augie would be good, Wartburg, IWU, or even Wheaton wouldn’t be that far to travel. It all just depends on which teams aren’t already locked into contracts. Right now MC plays CUW, which is in a weak IBC conference, but they are a step up from a Macalester team that other MWC schools have been wearing out, and they were a playoff team in ’03. Nonetheless, they could find better. The other issue is that the MWC has 10 teams, which means 9 conference games (6 of which are against Jerry’s Kids), and only one non-conf. game. I believe MC could be a 7-3, maybe even 8-2 team in the CCIW. Augie and North Central would be tough, Carthage’s defense could cause problems, but everyone else would be a lot like St. Norbert or Ripon. Wheaton is certainly vulnerable, Elmhurst and Millikin would only beat MC on an off day, and IWU and North Park have just been garbage. At any rate, it would obviously be more difficult to make the playoffs in either of those two conferences, because you really wouldn’t get a “break” from playing teams that would at the very least compete.
Here’s a prediction for Saturday. 7-0 Ferrum College 34, 1-6 Greensboro College 28. Still….8-0 for the Panthers, right?
Christopher Newport will want to have their chinstraps buckled (both of them) versus North Carolina Wesleyan, as well!
Blackhatonthehill,
A win is a win, but I think Ferrum wins by roughly 3 TD’s. Ferrum College 49- Greensboro 28. Hopefully the Defense will step up, the offense should be hungry after this past off-week. Although I would take a win either way.
i know Ferrum’s D has been a little suspect the past couple weeks, but look for them to come out with that same intensity they did in week 1. they have alot to prove, but Ferrum’s offense has done what an offense’s number 1 job is, and that is to score more points than the opposition. they’ve done that. the D is going step up big this week for the Panthers, no doubt about it. Ferrum 55 Greensboro 10.
Go Scotties,
Good luck this Saturday. If Monmouth wins, then they are most likely playoff bound. If enough poeple call the athletic department, then I am sure Monmouth will schedule a tough pre-conference test.
Prediction: A WIAC team wins it all this year. (I wish it was a CCIW team – namely Augustana).
I’ve seen Ferrum and Greensboro as well as some of their common opponents. I think FC will win at home by about 2 TDs in a relatively high scoring affair. Greensboro has some “big play” potential but they make too many mistakes and their kicking game has hurt them lately. Let’s say 45-31 FC … I hope the Ferrum folks turn out for this game – they should – how often do you have a chance to go this deep in the season undefeated? I hope both teams put on a good show with no injuries.
I love the prediction, SeanGOP! I think you are also, “a smart and insightful individual who know what the heck he is talking about!” lol
If MC wins Saturday, they ARE in the playoffs.
I wouldn’t doubt that a WIAC team wins it all this year, but the WIAC team is Whitewater. LaX might still get in with 3 losses, especially considering the playoffs expanded this year, but this conference will only get 2 teams in at the most.
I just noticed that MC is ranked 7th in the West. Which means if the playoffs started today they would play #2…………Whitewater! That’s just wonderful. Well, maybe St. Olaf and Coe will get knocked off and the Scots will have a shot at a home game. The Oles have to play St. John’s, so there’s a good chance we can get at least a 6 seed. Of course, that means we play St. John’s in the opener. No rest for the weary. Augie is 5th in the North, but also has loseable games with Wheaton and North Central. Where is the rest of the WIAC? Right now, the CCIW would get 3 teams based on the rankings. How in the heck is Ferrum ranked ahead of Mary Hardin Baylor and Hardin Simmons in the South? I think they are probably a lot like Monmouth talent wise, and the Scots are not better than the defending National Championship runners-up, that’s for sure.
“How in the heck is Ferrum ranked ahead of Mary Hardin Baylor and Hardin Simmons in the South?” That’s simple…..it’s called being 7-0.
Tell that to Johns Hopkins and Thiel, which are both undefeated, and have higher QOW components. Hardin-Simmons only loss is to National Runners Up UMHB. When did Ferrum ever play and beat someone like that. Ferrum should be 6th in this region. Look at the national rankings in nearly every D3 poll, and you will find Ferrum squarely behind UMHB and HS. That undefeated stuff doesn’t mean anything. Monmouth is 7-0, has a higher QOW component than Ferrum, and they are 7th in the West (by far the toughest region) behind one loss teams. There must be a Ferrum grad on the South committee.
Allsky7 – You have to be Bobby Saylor’s son. I agree that your dad belongs in the HSC HOF. I was a member of the 1970 team that gave up 28 points in 10 games. I was on the scout team and your dad was the offensive scout team coach and his work during the week made it easier for everyone on Saturday. He was a big part of the zeroes that went up on the other side of the board each week.
Give him my best.
Joe Crockett
GoScotties, QOW is a nice measure, but as discussed earlier in these posts, QOW cannot be relied on. If we based all of our judgments solely on this, then Ferrum would be ranked over Linfield. Some people out here think Ferrum deserves their placement. I personally think Ferrum can play with and beat the top teams in their region.
Sorry, I just thought it was odd that an unranked team would be placed so high in the regional rankings ahead of top 10 teams. Also, I’ve been trying to compare the Panthers to the Scots (Monmouth College). MC is ranked ahead of Ferrum in every poll, they have a higher QOW’s component, their margin of victory is 28 ppg, and they just beat a 3-3 team 45-0 last week. So why all of the sudden did Ferrum get so much national respect and Monmouth gets stuck playing a Whitewater team that would be #1 in any other region? It’s just a little annoying, that’s all. This MC team was expected to be 1 or 2 in their conference after a 9-1 campaign in ’04, Ferrum apparently had some work to do. They won’t surprise everyone! I don’t want to disrespect a team that I have never seen play, but if you read enough of these blog’s you get the idea that Ferrum scores alot, but they are just getting by with a mediocre defense. It also sounds like a lot of the teams in the conference are down this year. Just the impression I’ve got. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, good luck the rest of the season to both the Panthers and Scots. Hopefully, one (or both) of us can make some noise in late November.