Semifinal Saturday

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So let’s open the floor up for questions and comments on Bethel at Mount Union and Mary Hardin-Baylor at UW-Whitewater.

A lot of people are expecting a third consecutive all-purple Stagg Bowl. Since the first round of the playoffs, close games have not been the norm. Will we see a great finish on Saturday at either location, or both? What do the Crusaders and Royals have to do to pull the upsets? Why will the Warhawks and Purple Raiders dominate?

Give us your specific thoughts on the matchups, the weather or whatever crosses your mind. And feel free if you’re watching or listening to us to kick in your in-game updates here as well. And as always, enjoy!

185 thoughts on “Semifinal Saturday”

  1. Before the comments start, just a word about the videocasts. Your article says that “Macs need not apply”. This is only partially true. Any Mac users out there who have installed Parallels (a program that allows Mac users to run any operating system and its associated software) should be able to get the videocast on their Macs by activating Parallels and using Microsoft Internet Explorer. Most of the people with Macs that I know use Parallels to run software that is made only for Windows and can do this. I submit this just to clarify if there is any confusion for Mac users.

  2. With the tremendous challenge facing Bethel today, I was reminded of a couple favorite quotes. The first is from Friday Night Lights, but could just as easily have been from one of Coach Johnson’s pre-game talks.

    “You all have known me for a while, and for a long time now you’ve been hearing me talk about being perfect. Well, I want you to understand something. To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship to your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye, and know that you didn’t let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn’t one more thing that you could have done. Can you live in that moment as best you can with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart! If you can do that, gentlemen, then you’re perfect. I want you to take a moment, and I want you to look each other in the eyes. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever. Boys, my heart is full. My heart is full!”

    And one more, from Teddy Roosevelt.

    “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

    Coach Johnson put it best, “We’re coming home either happy, or ecstatic.” All the best to everybody at both games, and hopefully all four teams walk off the field today healthy. GO ROYALS!
    GO ROYALS!

  3. saturday and i am not getting ready for a game, hard to get used to. wesley is done, but i am still excited about today’s games. i remember last year flying into milwaukee, driving to whitewater, arriving early and tailgating with some of the other wesley parents. i am envious of the folks who are getting ready or who are already doing that same thing this year, enjoy it because it was fun. i think the game between uww and umhb should be close, if mistake free. last time i checked the weather, there is no snow in the forecast so it looks like it will just be cold and the field frozen. can umhb run the ball on the frozen field since they run the option type plays or will they go between the tackles. uww runs a straight ahead o so they are more suited for the field condition. will umhb be able to pass when needed like they did last week or will they remember the results from game 1 and limit attempts. uww will throw if they need to. in the end i think uww is better and will win, 27 – 14. good luck to both teams, stay healthy, play hard.

  7. I think UMHB has the heart to pull out an upset over Whitewater. I think it is going to be the hardest game they have ever played, and they are going to have to play relatively mistake free football, but I can see it with being similar to the 2004 upset of Mount Union in the semifinals.

    If they hadn’t played Whitewater a month ago, I don’t know that they would have a chance, but I think that game, while ugly and disappointing, gave them exactly what they needed to beat the WarHawks the second time around.

  8. Just wanted to thank Pat and Keith for allowing me to contribute to the site this year with Kickoff, Triple Take and writing a feature. (I was the one who said the Millsaps/Trinity game would be the least interesting Top 20 matchup that week. Boy was I wrong about that. 🙂 )

    At any rate, the Cru wasn’t very successful with their option last week against Wesley. Must of their big runs were straight ahead or fullback bellies. They were patient and Welch made a few plays in the pass game. If they can hold on to the ball, this week, I think they have a chance.

  12. Not much for score predictions, but I’ll go for UWW by a moderate margin (10-20 pts) over UMHB and MUC by a moderate-bordering-on-significant margin (20-30) over Bethel. If nothing else, good luck to everyone involved and stay healthy!

    Now, time to go bundle up and head out to Whitewater. Let’s go Hawks!

  13. Just for the record,
    Pat hates Macs. I don’t know why and I wouldn’t take his word for it on most things concerning their use. 🙂

    I have a Macbook in my hands as we speak. Flip4Mac should work perfectly for video intended for Windows Media.

    Pat’s at the stadium in Alliance, Ryan and I are headed over there. Enjoy … and remember your favorite website’s audio feed of today’s games while you have that video up. Hate to undermine the local broadcasters whose audio will be with the NCAASports.com video … ah, who am I kidding? 🙂

  14. D3Keith,

    Do you know if there will be any time delay between your audio and the NCAA video? I would prefer to hear you guys or our local radio announcer with their obvious bias opinions. However, I hate to hear something happen before I see it. 🙂

  15. vhwon — no idea but check it out. Plus, you could pause us or the video for a second to let one catch up.

    I only know what I see when I load the video screen on my machine, guys, that it requires IE and windows. 🙂

  19. Actually, want to announce that Division III football national chair Dick Kaiser will be our halftime guest, so you’ll want to stick around for that.

  20. It’s cold, crisp and overcast here in Whitewater, WI. In terms of temperature, it’s not too much colder than it was in Dover, DE last week. Perkins Stadium is perched on a hill which creates more of a wind affect than you get at the Wolverines’ place.

    The field is frozen, but not slick. Traction looks like it’ll be okay at the start, though that may change as the soft mud underneath gets churned to the surface. I’m sure field preparation is a challenge in this climate at this time of year this deep into the season. The Perkins Stadium crew has done a solid job, at least in the view of this turf management neophyte.

    There’s a nice contingent of tailgators in the Perkins parking lot with purple garments a plenty. Looking forward to the game.

  21. Wow ….! The weather station says it is 16 DEGREES in Whitewater….having spent many winters in places like Europe and Korea I’m not a stranger to cold weather…I just can’t imagine playing football in weather that cold (-10 to -12 windchill!!!) I wasn’t too worried when it looked like it would be in the high 20’s low 30’s….now I don’t know

  31. bethel in a world of hurt. they don’t pass all that well and it’s hard to run against mount. and when you’re down almost 4 touchdowns, doesn’t leave you many options.

  36. Last mention of this, I promise.

    I can see the UWW-UMHB video on my Mac as we speak. Used Flip4Mac. Had already had it downloaded, and opened it first before clicking on the video link (it might try to open in a different program if you don’t try it in that order)

    Anyway, 0-0 out there, not looking too eventful so far.

    Here, 41-0, all Mount Union. Bethel’s shown flashes, but made mistakes to give Mount Union short fields to work with. They got behind early and really haven’t been able to make a game of it in any way, despite a few nice efforts defensively.

    Anyone who’s seen or heard the half, your thoughts?

  38. Mount has scored every time they have had the ball. Kmic started to get rolling but not sure how much we will see him in the second half. Bethel just hoping to score at this point. There fans can officially start drinking heavily know.

  40. mount’s got too much offense, too much defense for bethel. and just when you think you might stop mount, they bust off a 30-yarder. micheli can kill you on designed runs, broken plays and throwing the ball. he’s deadly accurate, and his ability helps open things for kmic. and just when you think you have something going, the defense makes a play.

    said it before and it bears repeating. this is the best mount team ever, i think. if they finish today and can win next week, i think that proves it.

  41. I think it’s kind of sad when someone posts “Bethel playing well defensively” and they’re down 41-0 at the half (I think it was 27-0 at the time though) Short, fields, bad situations, tough breaks, godd effort. I’m sure it’s all true and it’s all well and good except we get another MUC game that’s over by halftime. With the exception of the Ithaca game, they haven’t trailed by less than 21 points at the break all year.

    Do we even need to play next week?

  42. TDD,
    But that’s not what you said.

    Yeah, Bethel’s looking like Marietta today but most of use knew this woulds be a bad matchup. You can’t play Mount and be one-dimensional. They were good enough to beat some North region team, an inconsistent SJU (which BTW has outscored MUC 31-16 in their past two meetings) and outslog Central in the slush.

    They won the region and deserve to be here, but they weren’t the best matchup for MUC out of that group. Plus they’ve got a deer-in-the-headlights look. Those some decent efforts on defense don’t mean much if you can’t make the big stop.

  45. UMHB 7 UWW 6

    Outstanding drive by UMHB and they ran the ball right at UWW that drive. The outside wasn’t working early but they ran right between the tackles.

  47. Here’s a question. If you put together a team consisting of the best players in
    D-3 this year, and threw them against MUC, would they win? Keep it close?

  48. UMHB pinned UWW deep..got a punt for great field position….
    UMHB “O” throws a nice pass over the middle to get to the goal line…
    short run for the TD…..7-6 UMHB….

  49. Love that UWW announcer. Very crisp “Justin Beaver the ballcarrier”. Sounds like a drill sergeant.

  50. Looks like Bethel’s game plan was to stop Kmic but forgot about defending everything else. Michelli doing a great job of directing the offense. He’s definitely a Keheres type quarterback, takes what he’s given and makes no mistakes. Mount ‘D’ looking great as usual. I think Mount got a liitle crossed up whren the seond string quarterback came in. He is a better passer and Mount I think was playing more towards the run to start. I’m sure that there will be an adjustment for the second half.

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