Once upon a time in Indiana there was a man named Steward Faught. Steward preferred to be called Red and Red played quarterback for the Indiana State Sycamores. About ten years after he graduated, Red joined the faculty at Franklin College where he became the face of Grizzlies football. Red served as Franklin’s Head Coach for 29 years, instituting an aggressive passing attack during his tenure.

Though Red passed away, two parts of the Franklin football program bear his legacy. One is the field’s name — Steward “Red” Faught Stadium. The other is the tradition of a strong passing offense now overseen by Head Coach Mike Leonard.

This year Franklin leads the HCAC in passing yards per game and Grizzlies Quarterback Chad Rupp leads the conference in total offense. Rupp has put up 1,182 yards and 12 TDs to only 2 interceptions for the Grizzlies (5-0, 3-0 HCAC). On Saturday Franklin faces their most important test as two-time defending conference champion Mt. St. Joseph (5-0, 3-0) comes to Red Faught Stadium. Powered by senior running back Mike Lovell (124.4 ypg, 9 TDs), the Lions are close to breaking into the Top 25. A win over Franklin might put them into the Top 25 for the first time since 2004. It definitely would put them in the driver’s seat in the HCAC.

D3football’s Wes Anderson and Steve Powell will be at Franklin to bring you the action live starting at 1:15 PM for our first broadcast of an HCAC football game.

Elsewhere…

Wish you were here:We’ll have lots of people at Saturday’s battle between No. 2 UW-Whitewater and No. 6 UW-La Crosse. K-Mack is kicking off his Run to the Playoffs Tour with this WIAC showdown while Ryan Coleman and his photography phriends do their thing.

Just to be different, if I could go anywhere this weekend, I’d head to Ada, Ohio where No. 17 Ohio Northern hosts No. 4 Capital. In most years the game between the OAC’s second and third best teams has been a de facto playoff game with Mount Union providing the crippling second loss to whichever team loses this game, effectively quashing their postseason hopes. Since the OAC put a second team in the playoffs at 8-2 last year, the situation may not be quite as dire now. But ONU needs to bounce back off the 49-7 thrashing they took in Alliance last weekend. I’d love to be on hand to see if they could do it.

Don’t sleep on this one: Sticking with the North Region, the NCAC also has a big game as Wittenberg (3-2, 2-0 NCAC) hosts Wabash (4-1, 3-0 NCAC). After losing their first two games, the Tigers will try to knock off NCAC contenders Wooster and Wabash in consecutive weeks. But Wabash knows they need a win here, particularly after dropping their opener to Franklin.

Super Ridiculous Pick of the Week: Two weeks ago I made the following predictions for the Major League Baseball Playoffs.

Dodgers over Mets in 5
Padres over Cards in 4
Twins over As in 4
Yankees over Tigers in 3

Um, not so much. I hereby place myself on a one week suspension from making any more predictions.

Most likely Top 25 team to lose: Since I’m suspended, you can play this game without me. Remember, you can’t pick a team who is playing another Top 25 team. That still leaves some intriguing prospects — No. 16 Cortland State at Western Connecticut, No. 19 Wheaton (Ill.) at Augustana, Brockport at No. 22 Springfield.

And finally…

It’s not Browns-Steelers, but it should still be fun Undefeated Carnegie Mellon plays 3-2 Case Western Reserve as the UAA opens conference play.

We’re back! Well, not completely. I have some photos and will point you elsewhere for more.

Last week we debuted two new photographers, David Rich (at Mount Union/Ohio Northern) and Jonathan Larsen (Catholic/Washington & Lee), had covered two blow-out MIAC games (St. John’s/St. Olaf and Concordia-Moorhead/Hamline) Ashlee Carmody covered a double-header in Wisconsin, starting off in Appleton for St. Norbert/Monmouth and catching up with Larry Radloff for the Lawrence/Lake Forest nightcap. And we were deep in the heart of Texas for the Mary Hardin-Baylor/Hardin-Simmons which Josh Bowerman was in attendance for.

It was a busy weekend. I was up until 6am Sunday morning getting caught up on all the work from the five photographers plus the photos from Dave Sanders and myself at the St. John’s/St. Olaf game.

Before I show the photos, I have a request to make of the fans at the games: If you are on the sidelines, please move out of our way. We’re there to cover a game and we have permission to be on the sidelines. It’s all about safety and enjoying the game.

Thank you. Now on to the fun!

Mary Hardin-Baylor vs Hardin-Simmons, Josh Bowerman

Hamline vs Concordia-Moorhead, Scott Pierson

Lawrence vs Lake Forest, Larry Radloff

St. Norbert vs Monmouth, Ashlee Carmody

This week: Dave Sanders, Larry Radloff and I will be joining Keith McMillan in Whitewater for the UWW/UW-La Crosse game Saturday afternoon. Dave, Larry and I will be sandwiching the football game with Division I men’s hockey in Madison (we might have a few photos from that for you, too).

Next week I will be on the road with Keith in central Iowa; Also look for our new phlog page next weekend with working photo submissions and comments.

I’ve received many emails over the past year, a few asking the same thing: What do you make per game? or I want to shoot for D3sports, how much do you pay per game? I’d hate to disappoint those of you pondering the same thing but we are actually not paid for our time. It’s the love of the sport and the atmosphere that bring us out to the games. However, I am sure you have seen the photo galleries with prices underneath the photos. For each photo sold from a game the photographer recieves a commission. In addition each sale helps keep D3football, D3hoops and D3sports operational.

We get letters over the course of a week, some of which are worth sharing. This recent sampling is pretty indicative of the usual e-mail.

Submitted by Xxxxxxxxx (xxxxxxxxxx@adephia.net) on Saturday, October 07, 2006 at 08:18:45 PM

I could not believe what I saw at Hampton-Sydney Va.today.I and 75 other Emory & Henery parents and fans witnessed the home officials throw the game for
HSC. I have witnessed this happening at the high school level but never in my wildest thoughts would this happen at the college level.

All be it we are only talking about the D-3 level, If this would of happened D-1 on national TV. with 30 million watching and fifty camaras on the game there would of been White House investigation. It’s a sad day when our sons find out that college football is corrupt. Book score HSC 24 Emory 21, real score Emory at least 21 HSC 10!!! Thanks for allowing me to vent.

I’ve heard lots of negative things and witnessed some by officials in this conference, but to suggest that they were corrupt is pretty silly. But venting is healthy, I’m sure.

Submitted by xxxxxx (xxxxxx@hotmail.com) on Monday, October 09, 2006 at 10:57:24 AM

Why is Rowan ranked so high? They just barely beat New Jersey and play nobody in the NJAC that is worth anything. Union came very close to beating them in the playoffs last year, and play a tougher schedule than Rowan, but are not in the top 25. I think D3 football.com is the best thing to happen to small college football, but you guys seem to be so in love with certain leagues, while ignoring others.

Rowan is presenting a bit of a problem for us right now, to be sure. I keep sliding them down on my own ballot and others are doing the same — as you can see, they keep falling even though they are winning. But is Bridgewater better than Rowan? Is Occidental? Who have either of those teams played? Is Central better? They haven’t put anyone away and keep getting taken to overtime.

Curious to know who he thinks we’re ignoring.

Submitted by xxxxx (xxxxxxxxxxxxx@sbcglobal.net) on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 01:15:09 AM

Subject: Who’s That Guy
Notes: YES I HAVE HEARD ABOUT A DOMINIQUE TAYLOR WHO PLAYS FOR LA. COLLEGE WHO IS THIS GUY ANF WHERE HE COME FROM. HE’S REALLY GOOD.

I see he has a pair of interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, but my gut tells me you know a lot more about this kid than I do and are just fishing for a compliment.

Submitted by Xxxxx Xxxxxxx (Xxxx_Xxxxxxx_23@yahoo.com) on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at 05:45:20 PM

I was just wondering if you could send me a listing of all the top colleges that are heavenly recruiting

Many religious schools in Division III but I think most are recruiting living players. No, seriously, spelling aside, we get this question a lot and we are not a recruiting service.