Hula Bowl, NFC title game

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Saturday night’s Hula Bowl and Sunday’s NFC title game are two places you can see Division III in action this weekend, and newspapers are all over it. Here’s a sampling of some of the coverage from local papers on the Hula Bowlers and D3football.com All-America running back Jamal Robertson, who should get some carries as the Carolina Panthers’ No. 2 back this weekend and has become the team’s top kick returner.

The Shelby Star in North Carolina writes about Robertson’s Division III beginnings and his long road to the NFC Championship Game.

And although Tom Sorensen’s Charlotte Observer column doesn’t mention Division III (hello, Tom, you missed a great angle), it’s still a good read.

The Honolulu Advertiser writes about Division III players in this year’s Hula Bowl, focusing on local boy Derek Turbin, the Occidental safety who got a lucky break, as well as Linfield quarterback Brett Elliott.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin writes about the Division III presence, focusing on North Central linebacker Lenny Radtke.

The Allentown Morning Call talks to Moravian head coach Scot Dapp, who is an assistant coach at the Hula Bowl this weekend.

Hula Bowl: Airs Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2
NFC Championship Game: Airs Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET on Fox

21 thoughts on “Hula Bowl, NFC title game”

  2. West coast users report the info button on their Comcast cable remote says, “The all-seniors event includes several players from Division III schools.” Hilarious!

  3. Nice drive to start it off for Elliot… I’m loving it.. D3 QB on one side, QB from Mizzou on the other.

  4. Despite promises from the new owner of the Hula Bowl Ithink the announcers were right at the beginning of the broadcast when they all but called it the Free Agent Bowl. DIII players should have felt at home as they were only a handful of people in the stands

    On the bright side some of our boys got a moment in the sun and thats all that matters to me.

  5. The Elliott interception did look like a timing issue. Perhaps Elliott had forgotten how much quicker D1 players are than D3’s.

    That is easily corrected. Elliott will re-adjust to the speed of the game in the tryout camps and combines.

  6. It’s Robertson’s game for now. Goings is out, injured.

    Robertson had a couple good returns to start the game but won’t be returning kicks … ahh yeah, like Chris Myers just said.

  9. Attended the Hula Bowl on Saturday and thought Elliott looked very good, but was suprised he didn’t get more reps. The starter for the East (Elliotts team) was missing wide open receivers and under throwing them all day. BTW: Derek Turbin is a very nice young man.

  10. Why no stickers on Elliott’s helmet? You would think he would want to show off his Linfield Roots.

  11. kirasdad,

    He gave his out to teammates during the L-V all american game and flew stright out to Hawaii for the Hula Bowl. Don’t think he had extra declas. Would have been nice to see the decal but not the end of the world. He played well and that’s what counts the most!

  12. Did everyone miss the D-III alum in the AFC title game? That was UW-Stevens Point standout Clint Kriewaldt, #57 for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

    Does Pittsburgh’s win make him the first D-III to play in a Super Bowl since Sam Mills?

  14. wildcat –

    About the decal-less helmet for Elliott – we thought he could have had them sent next day mail, Fed Ex, or UPS. He was in Hawaii for a whole week. The message we got, right or wrong, was that maybe he had friction with the school or coaches. Personally, I think he should have been proud to wear Linfields helmet decal.

    Forgot to mention that D3’s Wes Hostetler was fearless and played well. We sat near his family who were the loudest (in a good way) supporters of any player on the East squad.

  16. Yes, I saw that, but could not immediately confirm that he actually played in the game. His question was about playing in the Super Bowl and I had to go with what I could confirm. 🙂

  17. BlueJay Fan,

    No friction at all. In fact this quote was from Elliott in the Honolulu Advertiser from this past Saturday:

    “Alex Smith came in and played great,” said Elliott, who is participating in his second all-star game, having gone to the to the Las Vegas All-American Classic last Saturday. “I knew I would sit behind Alex, so I decided to go home to a school near me that has a storied program and history of winning and throwing the rock around a lot. I decided to go home and go to Linfield and had the best two years of my life.”

    …….I don’t know if someone who just came off the best two years of the life would go out of their way to diss the place that provided that to him.

  18. As a Packer fan – Billy Schroeder was an big part of the Packers Super Bowl run in 97 and 98. Though he was playing behind Antonio Freeman, Don Beebe, and Andre Rison.

  19. I focused on two players in the Hula Bowl: Elliott and Hostetler, mainly because they were easy to spot QB’ing and returning punts/kicks. Elliott looked real good (TD) and kinda bad (fumbled handoff and INT) but all in all, he held his own against the competition. The same could be said for Hostetler. He didn’t give up a completion in his limited time at CB, had a nice kick return to start things off, no miscues on punts, drew a kick catch interference call and had a good tackle on kickoff coverage.

  20. It was brought to my attention by my esteemed collegue (my roomate) that in fact Billy Schroeder did not play for the Super Bowl winning Packers in 96-97, however, he did play on the Packers team that lost Super Bowl 32 to the Broncos. Sorry about the wrong info.

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