That’s where Keith McMillan and I are this weekend — we’re here and you’re there … somewhere. Good week to be playing — if you’re in the tournament, you still have a chance.
Cold and a tad windy here for the Muhlenberg/Salisbury game. Great day for running the football and defense, which is what these teams are already known for.
We’ve previewed this weekend to death, so we’ll just throw it open for you guys. I’d have said y’all, but we’re north of the Mason-Dixon.
Well the ODAC cleaned up against the lower teams in the conference. Though no team in the conference would have beaten NCWC or CNU.
NCW also didn’t have to play Wesley. It was there still a choice, even if to not play. The fact that they chose to play on short notice gives more credence to my argument and less to the scheduling in advance. Also how does CNU consistently schedule ranked teams (The barriers seem not to affect them), yet the ODAC can’t? Bridgewater use to play ranked opponents.
My problem is with how the ODAC went about scheduling. The OWP and OOWP.are not foolproof as you pointed out and was clearly abused. I already listed the stats in another blog – it was blatantly obvious most schools perferred to stay away from predicted top opponents. (Unless you believe HSC really believed Huntingdon (??) College was a top notch team).
Now NCW – a quality team- has to go on the road when they should be at home. Maybe if NCW played HSC schedule they would’ve had first round home game.
Now I don’t want to sound biased, I do think the ODAC is a better conference from top to bottom than the USA South, but the top teams in the USA S are much better than the top teams in the ODAC.
Mainjack — fairly certain Keith was being sarcastic since that was mentioned multiple times above.
RF: “My problem is with how the ODAC went about scheduling. … (Unless you believe HSC really believed Huntingdon (??) College was a top notch team).”
Huntingdon was 7-2 in 2005. Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they weren’t worth scheduling.
Pat,
Been a long day. I didn’t pick up on the sarcasm….sorry.
To RunFerum I say “thank you for standing up for the USA South Conference”.
NC Wesleyan is on an amazing run right now. How long will it last? Beats the @##$%% out of me! Being realistic, the Battling Bishops will have to play way over their heads next week against Mary Hardin-Baylor. Jack Ginn is proving himself to be a football guru. Can he get these guys up for another tough game? We’ll see.
!
Your right Pat. Just because I haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they are not worth scheduling. Yet I am guessing they haven’t made the playoffs anytime soon and they do not carry the reputation of a MHB or a Wesley. Bridgewater proved that the ODAC can schedule top notch opponents. The coaches in the ODAC have just refused to. Make excuses but CNU and NCWC scheduled top tier opponents, played competitively and were disregarded for teams like HSC.
It’s boarder line absurd that a team like NCWC is position at the 8th seed (b/c the committee did not have enough information) goes on the road in a rough environment, goes into double overtime with the top regional seed, and pulls out a win, then next week has to pack it up and go on the road again. NCWC has been put in a no win situation. Drive to Penn this week then down to Texas next week. Possibly Delaware the following week? Just very unfair b/c the statistics while usually reliable can be seriously flawed.
NCWGary –
Great win for the Bishops. I think the USA South is one of the fastest growing conferences in terms of talent – having already surpassed the ODAC for that area. I really thought they had the talent to upset the #1 seed- first time since the 32 team expansion (though I thought the committee made a blundering mistake – always embarrassing that you mess up this bad). However I think the committee messed up with MHB’s positioning as well- they may very well be the strongest team out of this region. I think NCW can play with them and make one hell of a game out of it but I see no upsets this week.
This is why I am upset about the regional positions. If NCW was up just one spot (HSC’s spot), I think they make it at least to the quarter-finals winning against Wesley and Muhlenburg. Either way it is nice to see a USA S team other than CNU do well in the postseason
RunFerrum said: “Well the ODAC cleaned up against the lower teams in the conference. Though no team in the conference would have beaten NCWC or CNU.”
This is a tough call to make, considering that the ODAC’s worst team (E&H) lost by just four points to NCW. What’s not to say that one of the ODAC’s better teams would’ve had the right mix to win against the Bishops? I think it’s one of those “never say never” instances.
And, mind you, if you’ve read anything I’ve written in the past 12 months, you’ll know that I’ve rah-rahed NCW for a long time — and I’m happy that they’re in stride. I’m just trying to be fair to some of the play I’ve seen across both conferences this year.
Bombers looked good. No other team led on MUC all year. I think that MUC won, which is to be expected, but IC gave them a game, which very few people expected.
As for Hartwick, what do you expect? You give up 70 points to Utica and you’re not a great team. Yes, they won’t the E8 and they get credit for it. But this team looks like a team whose opening week game a bald loss to West. N.E. was more indicative of their ability than two close wins over IC and SJF. It looks like they were a middle-of-the-road team who got some breaks and took advantage. In a sad way, this is the downfall of the AQ. Did Hartwick deserve to be in the playoffs? I guess. But they weren’t a very good team, and it showed. When you allow 48, 30, 27, 28, 46, 32, 14, 13, 34 and 70 points in your games, what do you expect?
As for Fisher, good on ya boys. Keep going all the way to Alliance and take care of them.
Bomber 798891
I would disagree with you a bit. I think IC gave Mount the game almost everyone expected. They went to Alliance hungry, they hit hard, they moved the ball offensively through the air, and showed they weren’t intimidated. They lost rather convincingly, because they couldn’t stop the run or the pass, and were only able to generate 13 yards of rushing offense. You can’t be one dimensional in the playoffs, and you most certainly can’t give up 540 yards on defense. Mount’s trio of Kmic, Micheli & Garcon all came up big yesterday, and that was the difference in the game. But offensively, IC has a very good team.
Just my humble opinion.
On to round 2, which is all that matters to me. Bring on New Jersey. Can some folks who know the team comment a little on their success/season? Raiders did well..gotta love Nate Kmic..this is his time of year….The weather has been known to get downright nasty this particular weekend upcoming in Alliance…wonder what it will be like….I can remember two turkey day weekends where it was a blizzard….keep it up Raiders….great first round…
Mainjack–
Yeah, MUC can stope the run. Donovan is the school’s career leader in everything, and he didn’t do anything. But it’s simply a talent discrepency more than anything like poor play calling, etc. Same with the allowing 540 yards. But most predictions had Ithaca losing by 35-40 points. None of the triple take guys had IC putting in more than 1 TD. But a team like Ithaca just doesn’t have the horses. The 2005 team would have been in better shape.
I guess it’s time to root for SJF. Good luck in the playoffs. Nice to see a non-biased OAC fan here
Bleedpurple- thanks for the props.
I posted in the other board as well – that we had held with you guys until the 4th quarter, when it just kind of fell apart (how about that strip from behind our QB? He never even saw it…). Yeah, that was our 3rd string QB, lots of injuries. I was proud of Cap, and we’ll be back next year… just didn’t match up to UWW this year. That Beaver guy is a machine.
Anyway, the UWW crowd and players were totally classy. Just a good football game, with players helping the rivals up after the play. The way DIII football should be (and often is). Cheers and goodluck UWW. Thanks for hosting Cap.
Pat and Keith,
I want to thank you , as a fan and parent of a D3 player, for the honor of
covering our game in Allentown and hope that Mule hospitality was all that could be expected.
Your coverage of the game, and the other playoff games, has been fair and
accurate, all one can ask of good sports journalism.
I look forward to following you, as I have all season, for a while longer, as the Mules stubbornly trudge the road of happy destiny.
I’m a little late in posting this but regarding the game yesterday in Alliance, I was told before the game this would be the best offense Mount Union faced this year to date and that turned out to be accurate. I thought Juvan was very good and Ithaca had a really nice trio of receivers, including the tight end.
Commenting on the officials, and this is just a remark about them as a whole, because when it was all said and done, thankfully they had no bearing on the outcome. But frankly, year in and year out, the worst officials we see in the playoffs are the NCAC crews. You guys watching NCAC football must pull your hair out each week.
I was able to see replays to determine after the fact, so when you see holds from the pressbox that are not called and you then watch the replay and see it again, you just have to shake your head.
Maybe the two worst almost calls (situations), and I say almost because they did get these right, one was interference on Mount Union where the receiver was knocked off his feet well before the ball got there and it took the side judge throwing his flag well after the play to get it right. No one else wearing strips saw it? Well then what are they looking at?
The other one was a ball that bounced into a Ithaca receiver that we could clearly see bounced in from the pressbox and replays showed it wasn’t even close. The two closest officials wanted to call it a catch and it took the same guy that got the interference right to get that one right and he was 50 feet away. Amazing. I just hope as the playoffs go on we do not see another crew from that conference with so much on the line. It’s not fair to everyone that spends so much time preparing that its left into hands such as those.
Concerning Mount Union, Micheli is so good. His first pass is intercepted then he completes 19 of 23 the rest of the way. He just makes good decisions. Kmic is amazing. Neither of his long touchdown runs should have happened. He has the mixture of vision, balance, power and speed. In all fairness to greats like Chuck Moore and Dan Pugh I’m going to officially say it. Kmic is the best back the Raiders have ever had. And Garcon is Garcon, he really should be playing in a higher division.
Capital35,
I thought both teams treated each other with respect. Neither team was in awe of the other, but both respected the other. Capital looked well coached and fundamentally sound. UWW took control in the 4th quarter and the QB strip you mentioned was the start of it. That was a great defensive play. UWW has been a strong 4th quarter team this year. Hopefully that will serve them well the rest of the playoffs.
Beaver is the WIAC all time leading rusher. He was voted the conference’s Player of the Year award. He also won the Top Scholar-Athlete award in the WIAC. He’s an excellent student and a great person off the field. A great example of the D3 athlete.
Anyway, congratulations to Capital on their season and program. I (and I’m sure other UWW fans) will be following and rooting for Cap in the OAC in future years!
Keith,
I feel like the Curry victory gave their team and the NEFC the biggest boost of the weekend. If they come out against Fisher and lose by 50, they will be back to square one. But considering how badly they whipped Hartwick, I doubt it will go down that way. We can no longer consider Curry/NEFC an automatic out in the playoffs, and the East could use another power.
Good for them.
MUCNash –
Regarding TCNJ. This is a very well coached program with one of the premiere defenses in D3. You are probably familiar with the 2005 Rowan defense (7-19 vs. MUC in NCAA Semifinals). I put the TCNJ defense on par with 2005 and 2006 Rowan. They get a great push up the middle and have 4 very good DL across the front. Fast linebackers, lock down corners. And they play in a competitive conference.
Their offense is suspect. If they had Ithaca’s offense, we might really have something here. But they don’t, so I wonder how they will handle having to play from behind against MUC?
I foresee a score differential similar to the MUC-IC game. But if TCNJ can disrupt the MUC offense and cause turnovers, then anything can happen. They will have to play the perfect game to win, but either way I think they make this game competitive.
Ric Says… Kmic is just amazing… To me there are some other adjetives too… Like awesome and unbelievable… And then throw in that Offensive Line… OMG, it’s a credit to Ithaca, to have held him to just over 200 yards… Believe me… I saw him in action against us last year, and he quite honestly, had the best single game performance I have ever seen…
mainjack Says:
November 18th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Bomber 798891
I would disagree with you a bit. I think IC gave Mount the game almost everyone expected.
I love how people tend to change their views to avoid saying that they were just flat out wrong.
Mainjack – you, D3keith, Pat C. and everyone else were touting MUC and how they play the hardest conference and that they are going to walk through the East Region with no problem. . . Fast forward after week 1 when MUC trailed in a game and did not win 51-1, you are now putting in some humility to our comments as if it were there all along.
SJF Fan,
Could you show me a post that I made that said MUC would win 51-1? If I did, I’d like to see it to be reminded. The only thing I remember saying was that MUC has only gone undefeated once in the past four year, that they can be beat, but it takes a great game to do it.
SJF Fan,
I just went back and looked at the Triple-pick scores and comments. I didn’t post “any” comment at all. As far as the scores, Pat C. had it 42-10, Mann had it 42-7, and keith had it 52-7. You can’t get much better at the predicting game than that. What is it about those predictions that you think are so far off?
SJF Fan: Indeed, I was a whole eight points off for the game. I feel pretty good about that. 🙂
Thanks for setting us all straight there SJF Fan….Because you have been the empitome of humility over the past week or so….truly, we should all strive to reach your level of perfection…. the funny thing is I dont think you have as much over confidence in any team, which is easy to do ths time of year and in the heat of the playoffs, as much as you have over confidence in your own assertion that you are smarter than everyone….okay then….give us a score for this week….almighty D3 God….and then while you’re at it, should Fisher and MUC meet up in the next round a score for that one too…I just want to learn from the best, you know…
Every year there is some nut whole successfully riles up the entire board. It is SJF Fan this year (last year belonged to some crazy called D3KNOWITALL…..his handle was the ultimate oxymoron!!).
To those in the know I pose two questions……….if Stanley made an NFL roster this year, does/can Garcon make one in 2008? Watching Kyle Eckel (Naval Academy) last night for the Pats, will Kmic get a look see and what are his chances of making a 53 man roster or a practice squad?
should read, “some nut WHO successfully riles up the entire board”. My Swarthmore profs would hang me!!
Concerning Garcon I was told prior to the season that a NFL scouting service rated Garcon as a 5th round pick. Since he is in D3 he’ll probably drop further just do to teams that may be interested thinking he will still be around later.
I can’t imagine, Kmic, that did’t have the size to play D1, has the size to play in the NFL. If heart determined NFL playing status, there’d be a million guys on rosters that can’t make it today and probably half the current NFL players working at Burger King.
I think it’s a toss up as to whether Garcon gets drafted. Obviously he has the speed and the stats, but as you get deeper into the draft it really becomes a crap shoot. If he doesn’t get drafted, I would suspect he will get a free agent tryout somewhere.
I believe Ric is right about Kmic. He will go down as one of the all-time great D-III running backs, but his career will end there.
I love watching Kmic run the ball, but there is ZERO chance of him playing in the NFL. He’s a great D3 running back because of his vision and balance. Not because of his physical attributes. Jamal Robertson from ONU has bounced around the NFL as a back-up RB, but he was a freak of physical nature in college.
Garcon? Maybe. But I seriously doubt he can stay healthy enough to make it out of training camp. In three years at Mount, he’s yet to play a single season without missing time due to injuries.
duke-
Just as there’s some nut on here this time of year riling everyone up- you are on here this time of year talking about d3 players getting drafted. We’ll see how Garcon does against players bigger and faster than he is.
I think hscoach nailed it. Plus, Garcon — who I thought showed more “next level” skills than Stanley at last year’s stagg — would be better be better off undrafted and getting a chance for weighing several camp offers, which he seems likely to receive. It’s a lot tough for d3 backs (unless you’re Owen Schmitt…)
Still, it seems strange rambling about this now.
I think one thing that will help garcon and I know the scouts see this too, is the fact he is an exellent blocker.I dont really ever see too many guys run down the field and keep throwing blocks like he does. Everytime Kmic breaks one he and Garcon usually end up side buy side running into the end zone.He just has great hussle..Well we will find out in april the we can talk bout this more.
yellow_ jacket98 and repete: My quick, non-rambling questions were succinctly answered by those in the know…..Ric, mainjack and hscoach…..without a wise comment from them about the what, how and why of my questions. If the questions don’t pertain to your particular area of interest or expertise, take a pass and/or add some brilliant commentary of your own that the discussion board can get interested about.
And repete, regarding your comment about having to translate what the Stagg means to people in the East (d3 championship game)……..since the overwhelming majority of these kids will not be playing at the next level……and academics are far, far, far more important than sports and any Stagg…….GPA and advanced degrees (I’ll translate what they are for you:) are far more important to a hiring manager who probably also knows squat about a Stagg!!
duke-
I’ve been reading your rambling posts on here for years- 99% of your posts are about how smart you are and how much money you make- and of course about how great the eagles are (well maybe not this year..)
how do you know i’m not in the know? i’d be willing to bet i know quite a bit more than you about evaluating football talent.
Yeah, but my Dad and beat up your Dad!
Oops. Replace the word “and” with “can”.
My fat fingers were faster than my brain……….
HScoach said, “My fat fingers were faster than my brain……….”
Yeah well a lot of things are faster than your brain.
duke,
Wow, skin’s a bit thin.
I thought my remark about late draft vs. free agent options for Garcon added a bit of context to the discussion.
And I was not calling out the “kids.” My post was specifically directed at “fans” — especially those of the hyperbolic variety, including some whose comments were stricken from the board.
But since you brought up advance degrees, if you really want to compare postgraduate credentials, just let me know … . Not that academic d— measuring means anything.
Now, take a deep breath.
repete – I took my deep breath (I need it these days managing a hedge fund in this market!!). My issue was your comment about the “rambling” about Garcon and his chances to make the NFL. I’ve got friends / clients at the next level (NFL…….not D2:) involved in scouting and personnel and a couple have him on their “watch list” and a couple don’t have him anywhere. I was just interested in getting an opinion (which I did) from people who have seen him play in person (I haven’t) and were interested enough in answering the question. If you don’t fall into either camp…….no harm in taking a pass on the question……without commentary about the “rambling” on the subject. And as far as advanced degrees go, let’s stay away from that completely. That has come up in the past when certain people start “East bashing” (I think you know one of them quite well:). At this level of football, that should never happen as you know. Since the emphasis is on “student”……not “athlete” at this level, it is correct to be defensive, when attacked, by talking about the sheer number of incredible institutions on the eastern corridor alone between New England and down through Virginia. I’ll also confess that my SAT score DID NOT HELP the 1467 SAT average of my graduating class at Swarthmore!! There, I feel better!!
yellow_jacket98……if that’s your graduating class (’98) then I have my answer……you’re still a kid!! Don’t let the facts get in the way. I took a look at my posts this year and they were (1) directed at Gordon Mann about the MAC conference (2) asking those in the know if Mount Union…..in an App State kind of way…..could beat a solid D2 program on their best day (3) Eagles commentary (and by the way, unless you’re from New England, it really doesn’t amtter this year does it?!) directed at Keith McMillan because he grew up in the Philly area and remains a fan (4) Garcon’s/Kmic’s chances at the next level (5) keeping D3 football in perspective and remembering our veterans and those in the military in our thoughts and prayers on Veterans Day…….and I had numerous people seconding my thoughts (not you though…….are you afraid because if we go to a draft, you’re young enough to get drafted?:).
There were no posts attributed to me about my intelligence or my money…..you’ve got the wrong guy. And as I stated above, when that’s come up in the past, it’s been strictly defensive (“East bashing”) and never offensive.
Enough out of you……but I do wish you a happy holiday season nonetheless!!
For all of us people of faith, please keep Siran Stacy in your thoughts and prayers. The former Alabama running back (and Eagles draft pick) lost his wife and four of his children in a car accident a couple of days ago. Reality check for all of us about the things that really matter in life!!