Not sure if I want to step on Pat and Gordon’s Sunday tradition of “immediate thoughts on Week 1” so the door is open for a separate blog tomorrow if this doesn’t cover the bases.
I was supposed to go to Salisbury at Washington & Jefferson today, before a confluence of events finally got me to admit at 4 a.m. last night that there was a 50% chance I wouldn’t/shouldn’t go.
I still wanted to see the game, a both teams. Perhaps I should have. Because although my first idea for ATN this week died right there on the field (how having 5 O-Lineman back precipitates early success), a new one seems to have been born.
The mid-Atlantic shakeup. It’s only 4:38, and already No. 15 W&J has gone down by double digits and two 2005 conference champions from the mid-Atlantic have taken losses (Ferrum, 49-35 at Guilford and Johns Hopkins, 20-10 at home vs. Rochester).
Salisbury, meanwhile, is a mid-Atlantic 2004 playoff team perhaps on track towards getting back, unlike Shenandoah, who did not impress in a 17-6 loss to Catholic on Thursday.
As for selfish pats on the back, I believe I used the word “smoked” in conjunction with Mount Union-Averett in ATN this week (64-7 final), but I, uh, also, may have, uh, indicated that possibly Waynesburg could hang with No. 8 Wesley. (41-14 final).
You win some, you lose some???
Open for other thoughts …
Huntingdon faired poorly against #24 Ithaca, losing 31-12. The Hawks’ running game netted -4 total yards.
I was going to wait on another update on the Blue Boys-Big Blue game before I made the “look at the IBFC and MWC” remark, but here goes:
Concordia (Wis.) 30-16 over Simpson, and Illinois College leads Millikin 14-10 at the half. Still. Knox up 20-0.
Wooster over JCU seems to be a mild upset.
Rowan, Capital, Oshkosh and Wilkes won as expected, but in big blowouts.
Kenyon hung 57 on Grinnell.
Central/St. T and BV/Bethel forged an IIAC/MIAC split, while Loras took another hard-luck loss (it appears) to St. Ambrose.
Again, this is just off watching the scoreboard.
With the Question involving the battleof The East vs. The South as the weakest region, the South looks to be taking the “lead”. Of the 3 inter-region games I have seen scores of thus far, the East has gone 3-0.
Rochester defeats Johns Hopkins 20-10.
Ithaca easily disposes of Huntingdon 31-12
Rowan also easily beats Christopher Newport 32-8.
I probably have missed some, but the east looks good in East-South Matchups thusfar (Although Rowan and Ithaca were favorites to win intheir games).
Good day for the East region so far
Actually make it 4-0 with Lebanon Valley defeating Gettysburg 13-12.
I wouldn’t throw too much dirt on the top of Huntingdon just yet. Certainly a win would have been preferable but we don’t know too much about the game. Sometimes openers aren’t necessarily indicative of future results.
With that in mind, what we saw today at William Paterson was good news for Wilkes fans. As a Catholic grad it was a nice touch to see alumnus Greg Sesny in his first game as offensive coordinator pull out some of the Marty Favret playbook in the 31-3 win.
Ithaca was in control from minute one. You can tell that Huntingdon has flashes of explosiveness (especially from WR #2), but they’re just not in Ithaca’s league yet.
What a day! I mean, as long as we’re getting our alma mater pennants and streamers out …
How about the Jackets opening up with a W vs. Denison AND Sewanee beating Hampden-Sydney?!?!
Whitewater 38-7 in first half against a team that might make the playoffs. I mean whats the point of all these teams making the playoffs if they dont even provide competitive first and second round games. Mount Union rolled too.. Maybe MU and UWW should just play a best of 15 game series to determine the national champ. Nice call on wanting to be at Point/Simmons game its a real barnburner, Point sucks just like I said. I didnt get the name knowitall without reason!!!!!
Keith didn’t say that he wanted to be at HSU/UW-SP. I did. And I bow to your knowledge.
If you don’t mind, I think we’ll play the rest of this season out. Even if we’re all flies smashed on the windshields of Mount Union and Whitewater.
As a former letterman at the “J” and the son of a former college and high school coach, I don’t consider myself a coach killer….but the tradition of nasty defense and hard nosed football seems to have left with Lucky (winning at Cal) ….a Mt. Union spinoff in WashPa hasn’t got the job done. The player alums are tired of our defense giving up more points and yards than a circa 1995 Thiel team! Our defense has been easier to score on than a DG Sister after 12 Beasts. ….grass basketball and prolific statistics don’t mean a thing without the “W” in front of them. My donations have stopped until we can stop someone, or at least put the Riddell stamp under someone’s chin. I’m glad I spent the day in Morgantown.
I think UW-La Crosse beating D-I “championship division” South Dakota State becomes the news of the day. Great win.
When we see Lacrosse stay within 4 touchdowns of UWW then we can praise them! Did UWW break 100 tonight?
Nice win for UWW, but really, it’s not like they beat Lakeland by any more than they did last year. Now the UW-La Crosse score… good 40+ point swing from last year and a nice W… impressive.
Keith’s already opened the party, which is just fine. Even finer if he lets me crash Around the Nation this week. : )
In any event, here are my thoughts on the weekend that was.
Chalk one up for the little guys: Division III was already having a pretty good week against NAIA and other levels of the NCAA before UW-Lax upset South Dakota State.
SDSU is a Division I-AA program, but the important distinction here is that they offer scholarships. Many of the other Division I-AA programs on Division III schedules don’t (Butler, Iona, etc).
Other noteworthy wins against non-Division III opponents include a 7-0 win for No. 25 Thiel at 2005 NAIA playoff team Geneva and a 7-0 win for Howard Payne over Southern Nazarene who apparently had votes in the NAIA preseason poll.
Turn back the clock: I’ve heard rumblings that Trinity (Texas) has been somewhat on the decline despite their continued string of SCAC titles. Similarly Wartburg started this season outside the Preseason Top 25 for the first time in a while.
Nevertheless Week 1 was a throw-back for both teams who registered big victories. Trinity pummeled East Texas Baptist 41-0 while Wartburg shut out MWC champ Monmouth 20-0.
Crow D’Jour: So much for that close game between Wilmington and Mt. St. Joseph that I predicted. The Lions came out and stomped the Quakers 24-0, holding them to 52 yards of total offense.
In retrospect I should have seen this coming. I mean, can a Quaker even fight back if he’s attacked by a lion? Isn’t that against his pacifist creed? How is this a fair fight?
Oh well. I’ll eat my crow this week with Cincinnati-style chili in honor of Mt. St. Joseph.
Offense is overrated: Carthage finishes with 87 yards and beats Carroll anyway 10-6.
So is starting slowly: Capital has outscored Wittenberg 119-9 in first half of their last three season openers.
A little worried about: No. 16 Concordia-Moorhead who fell to cross town rival Moorhead State 28-7. Last year the Cobbers beat the Division II Dragons 29-12.
Three cheers for: Hartwick running back Lindy Crea who had 328 yards of offense – 220 rushing, 108 receiving – in the Hawks 30-28 win over Endicott…Kenyon who scored 57 points against Grinnell for the Lords’ highest offensive output since 1909…and Menlo who broke its 15 game losing streak with a 14-0 win over McMurry.
As Mizzou says, that UWLX win looks even bigger when you compared it to last season. Plus, I believe SDSU has been gradually adding scholarships (they’re now at 50) as they build towas the division limit.
I’ve got it 7-2 vs. the NAIA and St. Olaf’s road romp was over a team ranked 24th in two NAIA polls.
What did I miss?
2:00 pm St. Ambrose 17 at Loras 15
2:00 pm Central Methodist 20 at Westminster (Mo.) 8
2:30 pm St. Norbert 31 at Olivet Nazarene 13
3:00 pm St. Olaf 31 at Valley City State 14
7:00 pm Thiel 7 at Geneva 0
7:00 pm Howard Payne 7 at Southern Nazarene 0
7:00 pm Taylor (Ind.) 10 at Anderson 17
Or are we including the Thursday games?
Hey,
I agree or was interested by everything posted on this thread today, even knowitall.
Ah, you know I gotta beef with the so-called knowitall. You act like Whitewater’s been dominant for years. You have to go all the way back to the last game of ’04 to find the last time LaCrosse stayed within four TDs of Whitewater … when they thumped the Warhawks 35-10. Last year Whitewater won 29-23.
Do you talk out of any place besides your backside?
Gordo, where did you hear rumblings of Trinity (Texas)’s demise? … You can crash ATN anytime, I need an official numbers cruncher/research assistant. It pays little and there’s no upward mobility though …
In response to the Ithaca/Huntingdon game… IC’s sophomore QB Dan Juvan looked impressive in his first career start. Juvan threw for 300+ yards and 3 scores on a rain drenched field and answered any questions about his ability to replace graduated QB Josh Fellicetti. The Bombers also answered another major question from last season… their defense. IC held Huntingdon to -4 yards rushing and 12 total points. It seemed like a great start to the year for the Bombers.
pat,
Wouldn’t you count Thursday’s two d3 wins as Week One? Or am I missing something … (admittedly, I don’t do well in the a.m.)?
7:00 pm William Penn 18 at UW-Stout 25
8:00 pm Mayville State 7 at Hamline 38
Trinity (TX) losing in the first round three straight years prolly has something to do with perceptions of their demise … but last night was one of their best starts to a season in quite a while.
It is just the first week of the season but Rochester’s win over Hopkins has to give the’jackets a big, big lift. Hopkins has been formidable of late and Rochester has been mediocre. Yesterday sends a message to Union, Hobart, and RPI, “LOOK OUT!”
Come on Keith, D3knowitall deals in the present not outcomes from 2 years ago with totally different players. Yes Lacrosse had UWW number in past but this team is different. Another team you mentioned as possibly knocking off MU or UWW was St Johns. They had impressive outing putting up 15 points against a bottom of the pack WIAC team Eau Claire yesterday, so they can officially be scratched off the contender list. That guy has a good analogy “bug on the windshield” cause thats what these other teams basically are. Seriously what team can beat them?
The year St. John’s won the national title they didn’t blow out UW-Eau Claire either. St. John’s made the national semifinals in 2002 and LOST to UW-Eau Claire. You can’t make sweeping generalizations on that — you don’t even know how good Eau Claire is in 2006.
Remember, dealing in the present.
Repete:
They definitely count. I just wasn’t 100% sure my 1 a.m. Sunday count was accurate.
I actually came into work on a Sunday so I could check out the website.
It looks like another good year for the CCIW and the WIAC – and a lot of other schools as well.
So much for Monmouth’s season. As soon as someone from that conference plays talent – they lose. Too bad, I like Monmouth.
In response to the Whitewater/Mount vs. everyone else debate. I don’t know enough about Whitewater, but I have good friends who go Mount and one who played there. It’s really a no-brainer concerning Mount, becuase of the talent they continually get to come to there school. I am sure most of you know about their WR Garcon, but do you know that they have another WR who is a D-I transfer from Kent who is even better than Garcon? It’s really not hard to be dominant in D-III when you are getting D-I and D-II recruits and transfers. Like I said, I don’t know about Whitewater, but Mount has a leg up on the majority of D-III schools when it comes to bringing in higher caliber players.
Kent State? That’s pretty funny…………….
That’s what I hear. Funny or not, Mount continues to get better players than the majority of other D-III schools. That goes a very long way in winning 8 Titles and running off and 4 and 5 straight years without a loss.
So I put my foot in my mouth about Ferrum having another great year. I expect the team to turn it around for USAC play but until the D steps up its going to be a long season. The offense still put up numbers on the ground. Pass-coverage continues to be an obvious weakness. 🙁
So much for the big game in Danville that I wrote about in an earlier post. Looks like the Cougars (and many more for that matter) still have some work to do before they get off the front porch. Hard to make a call after one week but looks like the USA South may be anyones to grab.
Am I losing my mind or was the score posted Sat. on d3f with Ferrum beating Guilford? Congrats to the Quakers. Of course the ODAC is still Bridgewater and everyone else until the Eagles get knocked off the mountain top, but keep an eye on the Quakers to make a little noise in the ODAC. H-SC…..my…my…my!!! IMO, the Tigers have not recovered from the roughing the passer call against BC three years ago.
Ok, Keith, careful now!!! I know it’s tough not to crow when the Jackets are 1-0 and the Tigers are 0-1. 🙂
I know it is a long way from here to Salem but I would not be surprised at all to see MU and UWW there again in Dec. Unless of course they beat up on each other in an earlier round.
in response to BDTartan…..i am a student at UWW, as well as friends with a good number of the players. we dont get players from DI or DII schools the way Mount Union seems to. Would i be against that???? obviously not!!! our players come to whitewater knowing that they are coming to a consistent and hardworking team. not to mention the fact that our coaching/facilities/and fans are almost second to none………also in response to the comment saying that UWW didnt beat Lakeland by any more last year. this is true, BUT, we also kept our starters in much longer last year. had we kept starters in at qb, rb, and wr, we could have made the game more of an embarrasment than it already was on the scoreboard. with so many returning starters, i cant imagine this season to be anything close to a disapointment.
Not sure about the D-II thing — UWW might not get transfer, but how many Division II football programs are there in Wisconsin again?
UWW gets its share of Division II quality players.
but they dont get a chance to play at a higher level first, as in a case with transfers…….we have plenty of schools who are just as good as other d2 schools. this was shown by this weeks win by uw-lax. they can beat quality teams in “higher divisions” without being the best team in our conference. players from wi/ill/mn have plenty of opportunity to chose a school that fits them. it doesnt matter that we lack d2 schools.
The Kleppe injury for UWW might hurt, as we (during our miracle run last year) had our 22 starters miss ZERO games due to injury. I’m not sure how long a broken arm will keep Kleppe out, but at the worst we should have him back for the playoffs.
The biggest challenge for UWW this year will be finding a #2 option in the passing game when some of the better teams (like Mount Union in the NC game) find a way to shut Stanley down. Derek Stanley might be the best end in DIII this year, but that was our one weekness last season.
Our Jacobs/Beaven/Stanley combo is likely the best QB/RB/WR trifecta in D3, and we should consistently put up alot of points. If UWW can get past MHB, i see us running the table again and a rematch of the 2005 Stagg Bowl.
When you win as many championships as MUC you are sure to have the advantage of more quality talent knocking on your door whether it comes in the form of freshmen or tranfers. “Winning breeds winning.” UWW has had some great tranfers as well, several from UWMadison and I agree with Pat that UWW does get its share of DII quality talent. I know of several UWW starters that turned down D-2 money to play at UWW. However where I feel the playing field is far from level is in the fact that MUC and many DIII schools have an open number of roster spots. I read on post patterns a little while ago that MUC will have a 219 man roster this year with 119 freshman!! (don’t know if this is accurate.) The WIAC schools are limited to 100 which is a crazy disparity if you ask me. Much easier to “reload” with twice the number of players to develop.
Enough of the pity party for UWW and recruiting. Bottom line last year UWW had more talent but MU got it done in final. Whitewater players had the “deer in headlights” syndrome during that game. MU outcoached UWW also in the final game. No excuses!!!!!
D3,
I agree with you. I only saw MU & UWW once last year and that was in Salem. I thought UWW had more talent but as you mentioned, MU “got it done”.
And don’t worry, being a fan of the ODAC & USA South, I won’t be having a recruiting pity party any time soon for UWW. 🙂
There is no pity here, I was just pointing out that the “bugs on the windshield” have a seemingly undeniable advantage in certain areas of their programs that lead them to Titles and long winning streaks.
Good win by Thiel!
Football players don’t transfer from Kent State to Mount Union, maybe the other way around. I had the misfortune to witness the Kent State-Minnesota game last Thursday. I left as soon as the 50-50 drawing. It was just awful. BTW could someone point out all these DI transfers instead of “alluding” to them. Names please.
Actually, D3knowitall, I agree totally with your accessment of the Stagg Bowl outcome. I think you nailed it.
allsky7 – Good to see you online. I was at the Ferrum game and I think the Guilford Quakers will make some noise this year. You’re absolutely right, Bridgewater is still king, but I think the Eagles are looking around a bit this year – not just at Guilford – but the whole ODAC to see who’s rattling the throne.
UWWthsyr5 said: “not to mention the fact that our coaching/facilities/and fans are almost second to none”
well….many teams fans makes statements like that. I guess UWW facilities are really nice but fans support is not what I would call “almost second to none”.
If I’m not mistaken UWW could only draw around 1,500 fans for it’s first round game vs. Central last year. That is pretty damn sad considering UWW has a student body of 10K.
BC should be keeping an eye on Guilford and W&L. I had high hopes that maybe H-SC could knock off BC. Don’t see it happening unless one of the Tiger FR QB’s grows up quickly and/or BC turns the ball over 4 or 5 times.
Could the MC Fighting Scots be ready to make a move in the USA South? Thumping a first year program doesn’t mean much at this point of the season but the Scots do have a bunch of starters back and have picked up a stud FR RB. Perhaps with a number of experienced players, they can win the close ones that they lost last year.
Anyone know what the skinny is on D1-AA this year. I know it’s not D3 but since some D3’s play (and beat 🙂 ) D1-AA’s I thought it relevant. Are they no longer making a distinction between D1-A and AA?
In response to Mount getting transfers from D1 schools…. whenever anyone has transfered in (Cincinnati, Akron, Kent, ect….) these players have never even seen the field. Those players are usually walk-ons at bottom of the road MAC schools that don’t cut it at Mount Union as well. Mount gets D2 talent because of the lacking number of D2 and D1-AA schools in the state and region. As for Garcon, he is a transfer from another D3 school. Mount Union brings in talent. Like someone wrote earlier…winning breads winning – just as losing breads losing.
Never had breaded winning or breaded losing before. How does it taste?
Sorry VAraider…..I couldn’t resist. No offense. 🙂
I’m not familiar with the idiosyncrasies of animal husbandry in Ohio, but perhaps you mean “winning breeds winning – just as losing breeds losing.” Unless, of course, you play for “Wheat”on, then some bread might be just what’s “kneaded.” Only kidding with you! 🙂 Peace
Like the linebacker from Army who never saw the field? 🙂
Can’t speak in absolutes, VAraider.
8 times. still smiling.