Hello everyone and welcome to Salem Stadium. This is John McGraw for D3football.com and I’ll be blogging throughout today’s game between Mount Union and UW-Whitewater. Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan are broadcasting live on NCAASports.com and Pat Cummings is down on the sidelines. Gordon Mann and I will be handling the half time show and already hosted the opening part of the pre-game show.
Kick-off is officially scheduled for 4:13 PM EST. The stands are just about completely full on the home side of the field, full of purple and black clad Mount Union fans. UW-Whitewater will be the visitor and their fans take up about 2/3 of the bleachers on the other side of the field. Fans are still making their way into the stadium from the tailgate. There was a great turn-out at the Stone Station tailgate and we thank the Bridgewater folks for their great hospitality.
It’s a gorgeous afternoon for football. Temperatures right now are in the 60s and there’s not a cloud in the sky. You couldn’t pick out better weather for a football game in mid-December.
For Mount Union, Pierre Garcon was warming up without any type of protective cast on his hand. He looked good in warm-ups catching passes, so we’ll see how he does once the game begins.
Don’t forget, later on tonight, the D3football.com All-America team will be posted on D3football.com. We made the official announcement during the pre-game show. Congratulations to all of those selected.
More from Salem to come. We’ll have scoreboard updates on the front page of the web site.
tough choice for player of the game between michaeli and garcon. i go with micheli.
You probably can’t hear this at home either on TV or on the Internet broadcast. Whitewater fans are chanting “Thank You Bob.”
I’m proud of you guys. Thanks for the memories Bobby! Derek, Justin and the gang, see you when you get back! I like that! “Still Unfinished Business” Another great season men! Hold your heads high!
Great final game. WW…you guys are class. Hope we can do it again next year. Raiders….Number 9, Number 9, Number 9. Wasn’t that a Beatles tune.
LK proves once again that he can get a team ready.
Flush…or D3knowitall, or whatever you’re going to call yourself next year, great prediction. you are truely the god of DIII football. hahahha
As much as Garcon was the shining star, I give the MVP to Micheli. He made every play he needed to when he had to.
Congrats MUC… Classy Coach, Classy Team, Classy Program. Good Luck next year, see you in Salem in December, 2007
T Unit how can you not be impressed by MUC they made on the rare mistake and were very methodical. WW was very good but a couple more mistakes and it could have been a blowout.
Great football game, Mount Union. You dominated the second half of the game and only gave up one touchdown … on a 4-yard scoring drive. No one can argue that the best college football in the country is played in Ohio and Michigan. Repeat championships from Mount Union and Grand Valley State, Ohio State in another title game and a couple of other Fiesta Bowl victories recently, the University of Michigan, Youngstown State has always been a great team, and don’t forget Dayton in the 90’s as well.
For that fool who banked on a 43-9 win, looks like he just filed for Chapter 11. In case you are unfamiliar with that, perhaps you have heard the word “bankruptcy”.
Congratulations, Mount Union!
Pierre seemed just fine to me folks! What a great first half of football…Trading punches back and forth…That was just the boxing match we expected, and then MUC got rolling…Micheli played great, and Garcon was spectacular as well…hey, and J Wray wasnt bad at all..LK and the coaching staff got it done…I love LK because he is so symbolic of that whole football region of Northeast Ohio…UWW played Kimc real tough…
but the Raiders found their passing game again…NINE IS DIVINE!!!
MUC overall was very impressive – they managed to minimize the impact of their mistakes better than UWW. Still, they caught some breaks as well (going back to my earlier point).
Regarless, I think the better team won the championship, but it’s hard to overlook the fact that UWW had an additional 18 pts on the table but just missed.
Congrats to both teams for a great season and effort tonight. Special congratulations to Coach Berewitz (sp?) from UWW. What a class act.
All the best to him in his retirement. He will be a tough act to follow.
I agree labart…..congrats to Coach B. College football needs more people like him.
Congrats MUC & UW-W, two great football teams. So much for the 31 point blowout though. I must say, UW-W fans are a class act, as is coach Bob. I must admit though, I was a little disappointed that the UW-W team walked to the locker room before Mount was presented with the trophy…Other than that though, some great football!!!! Go Raiders…..Next year’s motto: “One for the other thumb!!!”
Congrats MUC & UW-W, two great football teams. So much for the 31 point blowout though. I must say, UW-W fans are a class act, as is coach Bob. I must admit though, I was a little disappointed that the UW-W team walked to the locker room before Mount was presented with the trophy…Other than that though, some great football!!!! Go Raiders…..Next year’s motto: “One for the other thumb!!!”
Instead of a classic we got a clinic — and a great day for football.
The lesson is never count out MUC and LK. Plenty of talent and always well coached. They sent a message early that Garcon was going to be in the mix — and he was everything he was billed to be and more.
Congrats to them. Congrats, too, to UWW. Too many mistakes against a good team.
Sorry I missed Stone Station before the game, the way the locals were headed to game, I’d figured I’d better get my ticket and get in.
Big props for Salem again. I was standing in line with my son (this third Stagg) and his buddy (his second) and a local guy came up and gave us two tickets, our cost went from $29 to $7. Always a great trip.
labart 96 on the other hand you have to asdmire the MUC defense. Th4ey essentially kept the UWW out of the end zone all day. If the special teams did not give up the big return it would have been nothing but FG’s all day for UWW.
Congrats to both teams and especially to Mount Union. I must say however that nothing that has happened in the past 2 weeks has changed my view that Capital was the second best team in the country this year.
Congrats to Mt. Union as they are a hell of a seasoned team. They are beatable, but they have a lot of post season poise that gets them through tough situations. I think this was a great season for everyone in d3. Next year looks even better…
As for rankings (based totally off of scores to one another)
1. Mt. Union
2. UW-Whitewater
3. St. John Fisher
4. Capital
5. St. Johns
6. Wesley
let me know what you think i would like to see some alternate versions. With what Mt. Union did today i believe that it discredits the st. johns, and absolutely almost knocks off wesley for showing so bad. Thats why fisher and capital get the nod over the other two. they played the closest to Mt. Union out of all the playoff teams. Whitewater and Fisher would be and interesting game, I believe that Fisher would’ve had their number also, but that’s bias, but I thought whoever won that bracket (mt. union/fisher) was going to win it all. I think it shows a little more respect for that east bracket too. Just throwing some thoughts out.
Where is the “flaming flush”? Your comments have a strong resemblance to last years poster “know it all”. Are you his brother? sister? or one in the same. It was an excellent football game between two outstanding, class programs. I consider myself very fortunate to be a fan of Mount since 1967, (when LK played) and been able to see the truly amazing things that he and his supporting cast has accomplished. I don’t believe I will ever take it for granted. To the UWW Warhawks you have been a formidable opponent, and your program spearheaded by your retiring head coach exudes nothing but class. Best Wishes to Coach “B”. Thanks RAIDERS. Nine is Fine!
I have to agree with Capfan. Capital was an all-round better team (I stress team) than WW. You can say the QB had a bad day but so did the starting QB for MUC. Good teams make the adjustments needed. The talkin is over! Goliath is still GOLIATH!!!!!! Just think if they had an enrollment of over 10,000.
1. MUC
2. Capital
3. SJF
4. WW
5. SJU
6. LAX
Nothing against WW, but when it was time to show up and play, capital and SJF brought a lot more game than anyone else. I still believe Rocky Pentello is the best D-III QB out there.
Congrats to the Purple Raiders. They played extremely well, especially in the second half. Once again, Coach Kehres proves himself, along with John Gagliardi, the king of the halftime adjustment. 🙂
I didn’t understand why UWW went away from the run so much in the second half. It seemed like Beaver was having some success running between the tackles, but when they did run in the latter half of the game, it was to the outside, where the speed of the MUC defense carried the day.
It also seemed like the Warhawks called one long pass after another. Why not try to establish a short passing game with Jacobs struggling?
Brutal game from my standpoint. No excuses, MUC was the better team today. I feel terrible for Justin Jacobs. Ive seen him play for the last few years, and the 2 most important games, he just didnt show up. Normally, he is such a pleasure/joy to watch. A true field general. To go out in this way is a shame.
I’m not sure that one game can make anyone start thinking uww isnt #2. no chance capital can be ranked ahead of them. would be pretty cool if some of the OAC and WIAC teams started to schedule some non-conference games.
I’m all about being passionate about what u do. and i do want to stress that he is an amazing player! but, when i think of sportsmanship, i think the last name id think of is pierre garcon. whether it was complaining to the refs, talkin smack to uww players, or his general “look at me!” attitude. Micheli came in and had an amazing game. however, he gave the game, players, and fans the respect that should come with the territory.
Bright spot is how well the WW D played Nate Kmic. Wonderful defense in that regard. I have a feeling they spent a lot of the film and practice time worrying about the run and not the pass.
The ESPN crew was terrible btw. really wish i had a computer nearby so i didnt have to hear that.
Last thing, I really want to thank Coach B. for everything he’s meant to this program and school. A lot of people outside of Whitewater dont realize what kind of figure he is around here. The ideal picture of not only a football coach, but a man. Great family guy and im sure he will continue to give back to the program in the years to come. Thanks Coach!!!!!!!
Congrats to MUC! Please dont create a negative environment for UWW fans, but enjoy the victory.
UWW,
I agree with you on alot of that. I’m a MUC grad, and I hate seeing Pierre showboat the way he did. He’s a great talent, but nobody needs to see that crap.
My only reason for ranking Capital ahead was based on straight up performance. The last two years, they played MUC within 3 points, and nobody else has done that. WW came in with one of the top rated defenses in the country, and gave up 35 points. They came in with one of the top rated offenses, and only reached the end zone once, on a 5 yard possession. Capital put it into the endzone twice, and held MUC to 17 points. All of which probably means nothing. Different teams, different places in time. You guys had a great year, and I congratulate you.
the advantage that capital has…….they see them once, if not twice every year. i think you play a team much closer when that is the case…….we wouldnt know the outcome unless they actually played. wish they could.
wheres flush??? would like to see the true fans stay around after a loss. d3 football is a special thing, and i wont be a piece like him. i am a senior at uww, so this loss hits hard. hope all u at muc, especially students and alumni, understand what it means to win even one stagg bowl. i hope we get another shot.
Just sitting down now after the game here in Roanoke.
First of all congrats to MUC, you beat us and deserved to win. It’s unfortunate that we seemed to play our worst game of the year again today, but good teams will force you to do that. Stanley had a great game, besides the catches I constantly saw him blocking downfield, that was a great statement game for him to the NFL scouts. I’m not gonna get into it on here as to why we I think we lost cause it may tick some people off (including our own fans).
Once again Salem/Roanoke were great hosts for us this year, pretty much nothing but smiles and friendly people everywhere we went.
MUC fans, you guys were great, tailgaiting with you guys was a pleasure, you really represented your school well. Just a couple of things that kind of ticked me off from your sidelines though, on the field, actions by people representing your school almost more so than the fans; as the game was winding down MUC’s mascot came over to our sidelines and tackled our mascot from behind, I heard this from my little 12 yr old brother, not the type of action that you would come to expect from someone with that much attention on them. Second, after the teams were done shaking hands one of your players came towards our fans making an impolite gesture towards us (nothing wrong, but completely classless). I know we’re not perfect, but those acts of unsportsmanship are completely unneeded. Those two acts, however do not change my view of MUC as a standup college with standup people, the rest of you were great to us and I know that two stupid people do not make the majority stupid.
Sorry Cap fans Mount beat Capital and Fisher without even trying to throw the ball. Whitewater is the second best team in the country.
First, I’d like to congratulate both teams on great seasons and a fine championship game.
Mostly though, I’d like to thank the d3football.com crew for this site and their dedication to the game. This website has allowed me to reconnect to my college football days since where I am we get no coverage of Division III. I doubt the local daily will even have the score of the game in it tomorrow (today?).
I did as Pat? suggested and turned off the sound on my TV, paused the game about 20 seconds (I have satelite with pvr) and listened to the d3 crew on the internet webcast while I watched the game. This worked fantastically well. You guys did a great job on the webcast. Actually I listened to the webcast for the first quarter, the ESPN broadcast for the 2nd quater and then in the tradition of Mt. Union I made the halftime adjustment to what I liked best and stuck with the d3 webcast for the whole second half.
Pat, Keith, and Pat, you did a great job. My favorite line from the d3 broadcast, not sure which guy said which line, and I paraphrase:
broadcaster:”sunny and 65, wind light, a great day for football here in salem”
reply: “ANY day is a great day for football”
You got that right!!
I return to lurking.
speedy
Hey Flushed “God of Football Knowledge” D3knowitall……….mainjack exposed you as the fool from last year (D3knowitall). Your prediction prowess remains legendary…….in your own mind!! I should have pulled a George Costanza (everybody on this board should get that reference) and gone the complete opposite way than the way that you were headed but Vegas has no action at our beloved level of competition!!
Oh mighty swami……..can you tell me where the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P 500 (if you even know what they represent) will wind up at the end of 2007? When will the Fed next move on the Fed Funds Rate and in which direction? Who will be our next President of the United States of America?
Great game yesterday except for Garcon acting like a petulant D1 superstar awaiting his big NFL payday (it ain’t happening Pierre….there are dozens and dozens better than you in D1, D1-AA and D2!!)………now celebrate with class, shut up and hit the books you Rhodes Scholar. The Mount is too classy of a program for your self-admiration and I hope LK takes you out to the woodshed for your antics!!
Great year for D3 football and it’s time to focus on D3 wrestling (where the top D3 programs have no fear of “playing up” and can and regularly do beat mid-tier D1 programs).
Keith…..I’m heading up to the Meadowlands in a few minutes to watch our beloved pro team. My fingers are crossed!!
The Mount Union defense was the story of the game. I believe they held UWW to well under 250 yards of offense for the game. Ric hasn’t posted the game stats here so I’m going by what I heard on TV at the end of the game.
The offense was efficient and did what it had to do. The interesting thing to me is that during the week there were UWW posters who were dreaming of a scenario where Micheli was throwing the ball. The feeling was that the game was over for Mt. Union if that occured. The dream turned into a nightmare as Micheli had an incredibly efficient day throwing the ball.
Meant to say that Ric hasn’t posted the game stats on the Mount Union site yet. I’m presuming he’s traveling today.
Sorry, forgetting to complete thoughts today.
To those criticizing Garcon from UW-W, take a look at Derek Stanley. He was doing as much head-bobbing. trash-talking as Garcon and even took a cheap shot at Garcon on the sidelines on a play where he went out of bounds on the Mount Union sideline. That stuff goes both ways and don’t think for a minute that players on UW-W don’t do the same things.
they might do the same things, but dont make it as overly obvious as garcon. he acted like a showboat and a jerk. anyone who watched the game saw his attitude.
UWWFootball5,
Watch much football? The actions you are describing are PREVALENT in college and professional athletics. I don’t like it anymore than you do but it is how sports are played today. The althete that scores and humbly hands the ball to the official after the score without calling attention to himself is a rare athlete. BTW, coaches LIKE players who play with attitude. They’re usually players who are ultra-competitive/
The thing that I find amusing is the athlete that makes a great play when his team is getting blown out and then parades around acting as if he just made a game changing play. That’s the player that needs to get over himself.
UWWFootball5…..one should remember these are young men playing in the games of their lives…..The attitude Garcon used in “showing off” is the same attitude that makes him a heck of a good player….Give him and the rest of us a break….keep the trash talking to yourself….speaking of Trash….talking that is…where are SeanGOP and Flush *S*
Prevalent? Yes, unfortunately. Wrong? Yes.
I didn’t see Stanley doing things similar to what Garcon did, but obviously, it’s entirely possible that he did. But that doesn’t excuse anyone. And BucksFan, not all coaches want players who play with “attitude,” as you put it (or at least who manifest their attitude in such manners).
But none of this takes a lot away from what MUC did. They once again out-coached and out-executed a very good Warhawk team. I hope the Johnnies can get another game against the MUC machine in next years Stagg.
trash talking??? their are plenty of players around who wont go overboard like him. and they arent competitive???? justin beaver, nate kmic, pete schmidt. 3 examples of great players who dont need all that in their game.
I want to congratulate both teams for their performance yesterday. It was a very intertaining & competive game by two well coached and deserving teams. As fans the best thing we can do is to spread the word about D3 football. For the most part they are kids local to the college and are pretty much ignored by the media all year long until the championship game and then they get a few bones. In our area there was no pre-game show as they cut from a non-competetive basketball game moments before kickoff. Next year I hope ESPN can come up with a better announcing crew. Pat & Keith, people who know D3 football, get my vote.
if the warhawks want to win a national championship…they need to get an offense…against st. johns and mt. union they looked terrible…hopefully sju can get another shot at mt.union next year
an excellent football game played by 2 very good teams. you have to give credit to MU because they dominated the 2nd half. too many UWW fans are taking away from that fact by whining about missed passes and other mistakes. if you are going to take credit for winning a game when the other team plays its worst game of the year, then you have to give credit to the team that causes your squad to play a bad game. i was watching the game with some people who are not familiar with d3 football and they came away impressed by the game. thanks to this website for promoting d3 football and giving us insight into all the squads around the country. looking forward to the final rankings. if wesley ends up 6th as some suggest, that would still be great. 2 trips to the final 4 in a row and an up and coming program. we will be back again next year, hopefully with a different result. congrats again to MU.
SJU,…so are you saying that LK shouldnt want a player like Garcon…if he’s on your side and you just burned the MUC D for a 50 yard score and Garcon bobs his head a little, I don’t see you getting too worked up about it…And buck4you is right…its a huge game, its on national tv, which is something DIII players don’t get…He comes into a game in which a lot of people think he’s not even healthy enough to catch a cold, and he just scored the go ahead touchdown that pretty much iced the game…making you back to back champs…and I know how some of you love to talk about how Mount and the fans dont appreciate a stagg bowl win because there have been so many, but you’d be wrong…so yes UWW5, having been in school for three national champs, we do know how to appreciate it…So, hes a little flamboyant…wow, big deal…I didnt see him do anything TO or Chad Johnson like..I didnt see any crazy antics like sleeping on the field, or a little riverdance, or pulling out a cell phone or a sharpie marker to autograph the ball or anything…so you got beat….now, since we beat you it must mean that we now have to look bad doing it…c’mon…
ronamuc,
agreed, the ESPN announcers were horrible. Gottfried embaressed himself. At one point he started to make a point about something, realized he was totally wrong on it, and then just clammed up. There were only three NCAA championship games this weekend, you would have thought we could have at least had the third string…..instead of the 10th.
First of all, congrats to MUC. The better team obviously won yesterday. Garcon ran right past us for a good chunk of the game, Micheli ran an efficient offense and the UW-W D was hit-or-miss in stopping Kmic. Congrats again, enjoy the win (not too much, though!) and best of luck next season.
The one thing I’d been worried about since the second round vs. LaCrosse came true yesterday. I figured that if Whitewater’s running game was shut down and we were FORCED to throw the ball a lot, we’d be in trouble. Yes, Beaver wasn’t having a bad game but he got stuffed a few times and I think we got scared. We kept throwing passes and Jacobs started turning into Brett Favre (from 2004 on). He kept making risky throws and tried to make up 10 points on every throw. He (along with the entire offensive line) looked to get a bit rattled and lost their composure. Jacobs had a great career at UW-W and it’s a shame he had to go out this way. A big thanks goes out to coach Berezowitz and all of the seniors. You gave us all a great time and we appreciate it.
I’d also like to thank all of the Whitewater fans that were at the game. You never let the team forget that we were behind them. If we can’t have the walnut and bronze, I’ll settle for comments like this, from John McGraw (blogging through Pat Coleman):
“The Warhawk fans are still loud and proud – the UWW band helps.”
Glad to be a part of it, folks. Best of luck to everyone in the future!
P.S. If you happened to catch the ESPN broadcast, I was the UW-W band member who “missed” Graduation to be at the game. I wouldn’t really say I missed it, though… 😉
Also, anyone know if there is/will be an archive of the D3Football.com webcast of the Stagg Bowl? I recorded the ESPN broadcast to watch later, but I’d prefer not to have to listen to people who don’t know what they’re talking about. I’d rather listen to Pat and Kieth any day…
Congrats to MU, they beat UWW just like I called :). Jacobs played awful, happy feet all game, dropped footballs, bad exchanges, and missed guys wide open. Had tons of time back there unless MU blitzed.
Why does ESPN allow Pam Ward to broadcast the D3 Championship. Her comments are out of touch. Example ” Justin Beaver led all runners last year, but has had an off year this year with just 1300 yrds”. Duh, he missed 5 games due to injury, idiot.
Although I agree with the player of the game selection, this is the second year in a row that Garcon has been the one to break UWW’s back.
Did he play in the other playoff games? If so, did he get anywhere near the touches he did yesterday? When considering the final rankings, I think you have to keep in mind the difference he makes in the game. Watching his impact seems like watching the difference between a D1 player and D3 players.
Has Mike Gottfried suffered a stroke in the last few years? I’ve noticed his speech is so deliberate and slurred. It sounds like he’s been drinking but my guess would be the effects of a stroke in the past.
BucksFan,
I don’t know. Mike did a decent job, but Pam Ward is awful at best. The one thing I dislike about ESPN is the politial correct hiring of broadcasters. C’mon have you heard Michael Irvin? He does not speak the same English as I do.
ESPN should to hire the best people to broadcast games, broadcasters who actually know football, in this case Keith, Pat and the gang.
It now appears that LK purposely underused Garcon to hide Jorris’ injury, knowing full well that Kmic was all MUC really needed to beat the last few teams. He created the illusion that if Micheli was in, MUC was pretty much only going to run the ball. Then they come out passing like crazy and getting garcon fully engaged. Just great coaching. As Flush was quick to point out earlier this week, this two QB system just isn’t working…….hahaha. I think he forgot to ask LK about that before he posted.
ronamuc,
ESPN should give more respect to D3. C’mon the game was already in progress. We missed the first 3 min of the game in my area. No pregame, nothing. Pam don’t have a clue and Mike was ok at times. I was forced to watch Texas Tech basketball who won in double digits. I was #@!%&^ when I noticed I missed all of pregame and the first 3 min. ESPN you need to get it right and show respect to D3 Football instead of disrespect.