If I had to summarize what I learned in Week 3 in one sentence it would be, “Life after Superman as your quarterback isn’t nearly as much fun.”

The three best quarterbacks I’ve seen in person the past three seasons are Brett Elliott (Linfield), Adam Knoblauch (Delaware Valley) and Mike Orihel (Rowan). The first two graduated, leaving Linfield and Del Val trying to find replacements and ways to score. Through four games the Wildcats and Aggies have combined for 46 points. Yes, they’ve played some very good defenses in (HSU, Wilkes, non-Division III Western Oregon). But there are lots of growing pains when you try to replace quarterbacks like those two.

On the flip side, the sign of a great defense is that they have different guys who impress you on any given weekend. For Wilkes, I’ve been a big fan of All American LB Kyle Follweiler for a couple years now. But it was DT Anthony Serafin who impressed in Week 1, causing havoc in WPUNJ’s backfield. This week it was Wilkes’ defensive ends Keith Cavallotti and Erik VanGilst who used their speed on the outside to cause pass protection problems in the Colonels 14-7 win over Delaware Valley.

Elsewhere…

Back up and running: Springfield College certainly knows how to bounce back from losing seasons. They went from 4-6 in 1999 to 11-2 in 2000…4-5 in 2001 to 8-2 in 2002…4-6 in 2005 to, well, we don’t know yet. But they’ve already registered two impressive wins over Union and Montclair State.

Maybe it’s coincidental that Springfield has this sort of cyclical success. Or maybe it just takes Coach DeLong a little while (about a year) to find some players who can thrive in that triple option set. Once they get that system down, the Pride offense takes off.

Looking at quarterback Chris Sharpe’s numbers over the past four games going back to 2005 — 795 yards and 13 TDs — I think he’s got the system down pretty well now.

Close games are overrated: Five of the top six teams were in action today and won by an average margin of 43.2 points. Mount Union scored 71 and didn’t even have the largest margin of victory — SJU won 60-0.

Magic Carpet Ride Watch: There is usually at least one team a year that has a surprising undefeated run through the regular season. Last year there were at least three in Monmouth, Thiel and Wesley. The year before it was Wooster, to some extent.

There’s still A LOT of football to play, but maybe this year’s magic carpet rider are Concordia (Wis.). At a glance they are the first IBFC team to get through non-conference play unscathed since MacMurray did it back in 2002.

Three cheers for: Wheaton (Ill.) receiver Noah “says if we get in the ark it’ll be” Dreyer, who had 3 TDs in the Thunder’s 45-7 win over Washington University of St. Louis…Mount Union quarterback Mike Jorris who has thrown 10 TDs and just on INT through two games…Bethany Head Coach Tim Weaver whose Bison need just one more win this season to equal their total wins from 2003-2005.