So I’m at my real job on Sunday, on the sports copy desk at USA Today, sitting not far from a Wisconsin native. Another editor stops by his desk. The Wisconsin native asks the other if he saw that UW-Whitewater won and would be headed back to the Stagg Bowl.
Some people here know me as a Division III football geek/guru (you make the call), but in this case, I was like a fly on the wall, listening to two casual fans’ honest opinions about Division III football.
“You see who won?”
“No, who?”
“Wisconsin-Whitewater. They’re going back to the championship to play Mount Union.”
“Oh. Now they’ll get killed.”
Normally, I’d butt in there, as most of us expect a pretty tight rematch between the Warhawks and Purple Raiders. But for some reason I kept listening.
“You’ll never guess who scored three touchdowns?”
“Who?”
“Derek Stanley. The guy who used to be a running back at Wisconsin (Madison), and beat up his girl and got kicked off the team. He must’ve ended up at Whitewater.”
‘Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?’ I thought to myself. ‘I didn’t know that. I’m supposed to know stuff like that about D3. I’ve never heard anyone say a negative word about Derek Stanley. And Whitewater doesn’t really seem like it would need to build with transfers with questionable pasts. And he’s a receiver, not a running back. I’m so confused.”
So eventually I spoke up. And we determined that it was BOOKER Stanley who was convicted in July of beating and choking a woman in his off-campus apartment. The running back was kicked off the team this offseason by new UW coach Bret Bielema, and according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in April, inquired about enrolling and playing for Whitewater.
The Warhawks already had a Stanley, thank you very much (not to mention some running back that appears to be holding down the starting job). As far as I know, DEREK is a model citizen.
A journalist always gets his facts straight … eventually.
The moral of the story, kids, is: You might learn a lot more about Mount Union and UW-Whitewater this week than you ever thought you would. But don’t believe everything you hear, and always consider your source.
Definitely keep this in mind as you read fans’ chit-chat about Saturday’s national championship game. 🙂
Have at it everybody:
D3Keith and any one else that was following the wings blog.
My Bad. I said the name was the Sports Page. My Alzheimers is taking over. The joint is called the “All Sports Cafe”. the address is is 2326 Grandin Rd, Roanoke, Va. One of those neighborhood places you go to without thinking. Sorry for the confusion.
“ALL SPORTS CAFE”
If you have time, it’s worth the stop.
It be interesting to see how MU reacts while being blown out this Saturday. UWW offense will roll. UWW 49-10 Nate Kmic meet the UWW D Line. It will be quite the victory party. We are Capital but like a 4 times better offense. Jacobs will probably be playing Sundays next year. Stanley too. Do people on this board really give MU a chance???? They have not beaten anyone all year.
Ok flush…I’ll bite. I’d like to see UWW win Sat. but 49 to 10…come on!! I tell ya what…I’ll take MU and 39 points for say a million bucks!! 🙂 🙂
johnnies….
stanley may have a shot at the next level, but jacobs??? im a huuuuge fan, but their are a thousand qb’s around just like him. i really think u need to tone it down a bit. as a uww fan i hope they win, but ur getting a little overboard. dont make us look bad by being so darn cocky.
I can’t say who will have the “best” chicken in the parkinglot but I do know who will have the most. 120 lbs of fresh chicken will be grilled up at our little tailgate. Stop by if you get a chance, we might have something purple for you!
Please don’t think that all of us are like Johnnies or GOP, these are not true fans. As far as we know this is going to be one of the most evenly matched and well played Stagg Bowl’s in histpry. Both teams are great at this point in the season. MU comes in with so much respect, any team that has won 8 championships in 12 years has created a dynasty.
As far as chicken goes, real football fans like U-Dub-Dub aren’t that worried about the chicken and really care about the brats. Don’t fill yourself up save room for the Wisconsin tradition.
Johnnies, shut your mouth so one of us doesn’t have to do it for you…
It’s good to be confident, but you are just spewing straight bs…
get real, i would like to think that the UWW d-line is going to brick wall Kmic, but really i know its gonna be a battle in the trenches all day… good ol’ smashmouth football… the countdown clock is ticking… and I got enough room in my stomach for some good WI brats, and some chicken too!!!
See you all on Saturday!!!
May the best team win!!!!
Believe me, we have heard of Johnsonville in the South as well. I agree brats are a must and have already received orders for that Wisconsin tradition also. We will have a few of those swimming in a beer bath with scallions, onions, and peppers. Taste is key, nothing but the best man!
Go Purple!
That’s OK “johnnies is still spinning from the swirlly he got earlier. He has no idea what direction he is coming from. Pretty clear from his posts.
Flushie you never answered my question.
What time are you getting to Salem/Roanoke?
Well put BCLlamaguy….Go Purple….so politically correct! LOL.
Looking forward to your tailgate.
See ya Saturday.
UWW 31 MUC 24 BANK IT!!!
We’ll have some stellar wings in our area of the parking lot. Feel free to stop by, even if you are a Warhawk fan. I remeber reading a comment at the beginning of this whole forum thingy from a UW-W fan who asked other fans to tone down the smack talk, mostly due to the verbal assault they took last year after the Stagg Bowl. I guess some of them didn’t learn their lesson. I’m not saying Mount’s gonna roll UW-W or anything, but 49 to 10. Two days ago, I posted a stat that the last time Mount ever lost by even 21 points was November 4th, 1989 to John Carroll. That was 17 years ago!!!! I’ve been to 5 Stagg Bowls, counting this one on Saturday, and this may be the best match-up and the game I’m looking forward to the most. (Although it’ll be hard to beat the 2000 match-up against St. John’s when we won on the last second field goal from Rodney Chenos…even though he did do a summersault on Sportscenter)It’s going to be a shootout, both D’s will step it up, and the level of coaching in this one may be unparalleled, especially at the D-3 level. I said it before, both teams are deserving of a national championship, but 49-10; don’t waste my time!
I have to agree with warhawktrumpet on two levels there, that I don’t think johnnies represents us well and wish he would tone it down a bit. AND, I DO love my brats. We’ll be starting out there in Salem no later than noon and we’ll have our Johnsonville Brats ready to go, all 24 of them.
NOW, for my prediction, UWW-209 MUC-5, we’ll keep ’em close for a bit, let them think they have a chance and then put on the afterburners for the last 59 minutes.
HAHA, I had to put a shot out in for the superfans, but for real, like ya’ll are saying, it’s going to be close. But I think that if the ‘Hawks can open it up a bit and score a few early that will force the Raiders to turn to their passing game, which seems, from what I’ve read, to be a bit inconsistent, good, but inconsitent. I think that that is going to happen, so, I think the ‘Hawks will win by a bit more than a single score, maybe 35-24, somewhere in there.
Few stats for ya………MUC Qb’s completed 195 passes in 298 attempts for a 65% completion percentage for 2,760 yeards. Thats 197.1 yards per game with 31 TD passes….Garcon has 59 catches for 1096 yards and 15 TD’s……..Thats not exactly a model of inconsistency, and I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say thats a little better than good…….UW-W averages only 30 more yards per game passing, and has only 7 more TD passes…….Its OK though, because Kmic has almost as many yards by himself rushing as the entire UW-W team, and Mount as a whole has about 1700 more yards rushing…..You know what they say about the team that can run the ball and control the line of scrimmage……….Sounds like a balance of give and take! Cant wait to see it play out on the field!
ATO, I agree that it was tough to beat the 2000 SJU-MUC matchup, though most MUC fans weren’t expecting such a great game coming in. 🙂
I’m not sure I’d say that the caliber of this coaching matchup is unparalleled in D3. I’m always partial to the Gagliardi-Kehres matchups. The Gagliardi-Frosty Westering matchups were also fantastic; each time the two met, they set an NCAA record for most combined wins between opposing coaches.
I’d like to be in the locker room on Saturday when LK addresses the team before the game…I dont know much…okay probably nothing, about coaching football…but from a motivational standpoint, I would think that LK would want to emphasize this team’s chance to become part of the storied history of MUC football teams by bringing home the W…sure, they haven’t blown out their opponents in the playoffs like in year’s past…and it’s been a while since the team has even come close to being considered any kind of underdog….but if they go out there and play with heart, and play the kind of smash mouth football they’ve come to be known for…I think they will be hard to beat…not saying it can’t be done…but, it will be tough to do…what’s that line…”show me a boxer who’s all heart and I’ll show you a boxer waiting for a beating…” yeah, that’s not us…MUC has the muscle to back up the heart…and LK will have them ready…
Ok, another question for any informed person:
Are replay reviews going to be used again this year?
I think it was a good addition last year to the game, even though it hurt us a bit. I really haven’t seen anything on that issue yet.
I think they’re doing replays in all the championship games, D-1 AA, D-2, & D-3. It’s great for the game, and it takes the referee-blowing-a-call element out of the game. As long as there’s no Oklahoma-Oregon type of drama on Saturday, because it may come down to an onside kick for someone.
Gosh, that would have been great to have in 2003. Likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome but they were horrible — bad mistakes for both sides. Worst crew I’ve ever seen work a big game.
The Eastern Ref Hall of Shame, truly deserving of scoffing:
Officials: Referee: John Marshall; Umpire: Richard De Mayo;
Linesman: Brian Hydier; Line judge: Thomas Meehan; Field judge: Bob Finnecy; Side judge: P. Di Domenico
Complete pack of bozos.
Here’s the scary part — Finnecy who was out of position most of the game and should have seen either of Elliott’s feet come down inbounds … is now leading crews in the Ivy.
Here’s hoping for better on Saturday.
Anyone catch the top 32 teams of all time last night on ESPN2 and ESPN Classic? The 95′ Nebraska team, with Frazier, Phillips, & Co. won it all. Do you think we can get enough nominations for Division 3 teams of the past 25 years or so, and bracket them off. Let the nominations fly!!! I nominate MUC’s 1997 & their 1993 N.C. teams….anyone else? Maybe St Johns 2003 team? I know them Albion teams of the late 80’s and early 90’s are deserving as well…And the 1978(?) Baldwin-wallace team led by Lee Tressel, and lastly the 1999 Pac-Lutheran team….Whats else ya got?
warhawktrumpet,
Thank you for questioning my pride in your schools football program. You obviously haven’t been around this site all season. I have supported and defended UWW for years, as well as the whole WIAC conference, which I have called the best conference in D3.
You said, “As far as we know this is going to be one of the most evenly matched and well played Stagg Bowl’s in histpry”. No kidding!! I was the one who said flipping a coin on this game would be useless, since the coin would land on it’s edge.
The next time you blow your horn,trumpet or kazoo, at least know what your writing about. I can’t speak for Johnnies.
I’ll root for UWW in spite of you.
I called a UWW blowout over Wesley. I was ripped on for doing that and it came in. I am calling a UWW blowout over MU. Sat night I will be gloating over that call. UWW just has too much talent and speed at the skilled positions. I got nothing against MU they had a good year. They just don’t have the horses. Kmic will not get to second level against these linebackers. Jorris looked awesome in Stagg bowl last year, he has been very bad lately. So seriously how can MU win this game? Barring some turnover explosion like St Johns had against UWW last year. Look for something like 38-7. Bob B out of respect for MU would never run up a big number.
I can’t believe some of the score predictions. I’ve been to every mu game, and I just can’t believe how good defensively they are this year. I’ve watched every single oppenents qb running for his life. Just ask Penetello. They are in the backfield it seems like every single play. Out of all 8 titles, this by far is the best defense they’ve had. MU-21 UWW-10
Flushed:
Thanks for the Comments! I’m sure they’ll be hanging on a locker somewhere this weekend.
OU #25 – I think flush’s name says it all, great rebuttle on your part!
Hey, I respect Flush’s right to post his opinion. I’m not so sure he really believes it though because I already said I would take MU and 31 for a million bucks. You know …just for fun…to make the game a little more interesting. 🙂 OK…ok, if you aren’t a million dollars sure about your prediction….how about a half mil? :):)
Did everyone just feel that???
That was big old Mr. Momentum sliding across the football field from WW’s side to Mount’s. It’s kind of funny how players and/or fans who publicly disrepect their opponent tend to have it blow up in their face. WW may win Saturday but any emotional edge that they had just got “FLUSHED” away.
GOP –
I realize that you have defended the Warhawks all year and can understand the feeling you have about the WIAC. It’s not the concept of the WIAC being the best conference and the Warhawks beating MU this weekend but the way you state it. Flush does the same thing, I watched this message board get filled up by posters like you last year and then you ran away when MU came home with a championship. I think the Warhawks have a good chance to win this Saturday but post it with some respect and own up to the posters when you are wrong.
OU#25, Aren’t you being a little dramatic. Don’t think that anything an over-aggressive poster has to say on this blog will help Mr Momentum find a home on either side of the field. (Flush is an idiot IMHO) More important to players usually is what other players say about them and UWW has handled themselves with nothing but respect and admiration for the Raiders program. Besides, having come up short last year is probably all the emotional edge the Hawks need. Nice try though! LOL
Come Saturday night I expect a lot of apologies on here about outcome. I will be waiting. I mean seriously this is biggest football game of these kids lives you really think they get additional motivation from a message board??? All you guys were wrong about Wesley game, I would have made fortune with 30 point spread in that game. This UWW is way to talented. Alliance wll be humbled the next nine months
Don’t try to stop the slide…it’s too late. If you don’t think players/coaches read this board you’re out of touch.
You would be suprised what motivates players past the X’s & O’s. Unless you’re a fomer collegiate player you might not understand the effects of feeling disrespected.
The emotional edge HAS SWUNG. Nice try to stop it on your part though.
Perhaps it speaks to Flush’s state of mind that he defines himself (or at least his handle) by a regional opponent …
Still … about the bulletin board material: please, if the MUC program is getting its motivation from a bunch of yahoos on a board, then they are in trouble.
Just somehow, I think their motivation might be a wee bit deeper and more sophicated …
Alright flush, I will take Mount Union +31 for $100……..If you truly believe the fecal matter that is spewing from your mouth, then I’ll call your bluff! Don’t ever confuse Mount Union for Wesley…I’m happy you called that one, really I am, but dont confuse Mount Union with Wesley!
I think Flush is a little too excited. I think a UWW win might just do him in. They have medications for that.
Flush, I love the enthusiasm, but you have to be realistic, and show a little respect to this Mount Union team. I admit, I was one of the many that thought that UWW/Wesley would be a close game. I was wrong along with the majority of the d3 football world, but just because a game expected to be close turns into a blowout doesn’t make an overzealous fan that predicted that blowout a genius.
Flush,
The difference between your prediction for the Wesley game and this one is that UWW in the recent past had in fact smoked Wesley badly. So I don’t think anyone would have felt it was so out of place except maybe Weslay fans.
As for this game in regulation the last time anyone scored 49 on MUC was in the 70’s I think. In fact MUC has given up more than 14 points 1 time this year. UWW has given up more than 14 4 times this year.
Also your prediciton would hold more water if the history of the two schools didn’t read MUC 3 UWW 0 with average scores of 40 something to about 20.
That said I think this is alow scoring game maybe 21-17 or 17-14 MUC either way.
My suggestion, Gentlemen is just to stop engaging him. It usually works eventually.
wow ou…
get serious about the momentum stuff. u actually think a lot of these players and coaches have time to look at the message board??? when they do, i highly doubt it fires them up one way or another. get real.
wow ou…
get serious about the momentum stuff. u actually think a lot of these players and coaches have time to look at the message board??? when they do, i highly doubt it fires them up one way or another. get real.
warhawktrumpet,
You can stop trying to sound Holy now. I personally think your hot air is depleating your brain of much needed oxygen.
You obviously have not been reading my posts.
I know, you would probably stand in the snow for a month with only shorts and a t-shirt on in order to get tickets for your team (since you are not a poser), and I would only dis your honest credibilty and good standing.
So is how I say that disturbing the force? Don’t you have a “Trekie” convention to be going to?
I will admit to not seeing Mount Union this year but having seen them play in person and on TV 5 times in 6 years and given their reputation…I know enough…
MUC is very talented…very disciplined and a solid football team, the same can be said for WW…I think the edge has to go to WW based on what I saw against St. John’s…they have the fastest defense I have seen in quite some time…all 3 linebackers can go from sideline to sideline very well, they can stop the run with the front seven…
WW wins this one…28-17…Joining St. John’s as the only team to beat MUC in a Stagg Bowl…
GOP –
Are we seriously fighting as fans of the same team, calm down a little. Go to the game, have a good time and cheer on WW. Hopefully both of us will come home happy, relax and have a beer.
This should be a good one I can’t wait to leave.
The disrespect for the OAC is amazing. There is not a coach in DIII that can adjust during a game like LK. If Kmic isn’t getting his 200+, you will see Garcon getting a lot of touches, and if that isn’t working you will see Micheli working the option. Just too many weapons for anyone to handle. Once again for UWW, a good year, but wrong year to face Mount.
again with the disrespect???? i thought we got over all that a couple weeks ago
Any chance Larry K will run for President in ’08?
Neither of these teams has been disrespected come on now. How can a coach with eight championships ever be disrespected. The whole OAC WIAC thing was over weeks ago. Both teams came out of a tough conference undefeated, let it go.
As long as it means Mount won’t have him as a coach I’ll vote!
Why is is so hard to believe somebody can blow out MU. UWW moved the ball up and down the field against them but just failed in the red zone last year. There have been blowouts in this stagg game before, so I dont see why its a big deal that there is one this year. UWW is hungry, a storied coache’s last game, and all kinds of talent equals trouble for MU. MU is good but people on here fail to realize they are realing. Whole QB issue, Garcon is hurt, unimpressive wins late in the season. UWW playing lots of quality opponents this year will benefit them. I am looking forward to the next year each with one stagg bowl win against each other, playing one more game to decide who is top dog.
Apparently not…9’s got a point…
I’m not saying that I fault any warhawk fans, b/c if you want to beat a team like Mount, you’ve got to believe that you can…and the fans are just trying to back their team, and give them a confidence boost…But guys, you don’t win 8 championships and not have a little something up your sleeve…some comments make it sounds like LK is sitting in a corner somewhere, bawling his eyes out, saying..”what I do against those crazy warhawks”….he and the team will be ready to play…not everyone of the MUC title teams have been the same…game plans change…players change…LK has recruited and coached those teams to victory…warhawks, sentimental fav? sure….great players…definitely…but dont think for one moment that anybody on the MUC sideline is scared to play you guys…by the way, the same players that are being disrespected…YES, there’s the D word UWWF…Garcon, Kmic, Jorris…smoked you last year…come back on here and talk trash after you’ve beaten them…
disrespect???? again??? dont waste our time. no one has gone on a serious rant about the OAC for weeks!!!……How about the MUC fans talkin some smack?
“Garcon, Kmic, Jorris…smoked you last year…”
“Just too many weapons for anyone to handle. Once again for UWW, a good year, but wrong year to face Mount.”
You are throwing in your opinion just like the UWW fans. Please lose the disrespect talk.