Game Day from the semifinals

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Well, it’s a fairly warm and really windy day here in Belton, Texas. Mount Union is already out to a 10-0 lead in Alliance.

Last night I was here for the UMHB pep rally, and I was amused to hear the … let’s call him the MC of the event, though he came off more like a preacher in tone and really fired people up. But I was intrigued by the claim of lack of respect by D3football.com. Guess they didn’t see our Triple Take this week.

Throwing the floor open. I’m dialing up here so I’m not going to be commenting much.

188 thoughts on “Game Day from the semifinals”

  1. GoScotties…

    You may have seen the post by warhawk as an “excuse” and maybe that is what he meant…but by no means was he wrong in his statement…Donovan is a huge step down from 2 years ago…and even a little more of a step down from last year…although he doesn’t have the offensive weapons around him like a Derek Stanley or a Justin Beaver…but he also is not Justin Jacobs and even to a slight extent…Danny Jones…what is suprsing to me is that Donovan is talented as all heck…I’ll be honest…I’ve seen him play back in HS and in college…*side note…TD WW*…but his play is very very inconsistent and that is why WW has had so many close games this year…at least IMHO…but none the less…WW is extremely talented yet and they are very young…I think Donovan could be great…but I’ll take good for now…it seems to be working

  2. For fans following the “wind”, UWW drove 1 yd on two plays in the early 4th quarter to score that TD.

  3. Really strange punt for UMHB, only 20 yds with the wind. There was not the usual field position advantage that we see with winds like this in Texas.

    UWW’s running game is strong enough to run the ball against UMHB.

  4. completely off topic…but Northwest Missouri State has reached the natl championship in D2 4 straight times…and it looks right now like they will fall 4 straight times as well…also Minnesota-Duluth roster is more then 50% Wisconsin kids…good showing for Wisconsin football today

  5. Really strange punt for UMHB, only 20 yds with the wind. There was not the usual field position advantage that we see with winds like this in Texas.

    UWW’s running game is strong enough to run the ball against UMHB.

    Ralph…

    Did you see WW’s 7 yard punt with the wind at their back earlier today? WW’s punting game may be their downfall in the national championship game as they have struggled the past two games

  6. The young Warhawks have not made a mistake…every mistake of any kind has been made by the Cru…real disappointing performance considering all the hot air put out by Cru faithful in the past week…

  9. today’s game is really proving that UMHB is simply not on the level of MUC and UWW in division 3 football

  10. I keep hoping those guys will learn to keep their mouth shut, it’s just karma when stuff like this happens.

    Congratulations to the Warhawks (I’ve also appreciated their on-field sportsmanship today) and good luck next week.

  12. To be completely honest…Whitewater has a huge advantage playing in the WIAC each year…I know a few of the CRU fans said WW has played no one real good…in reality…WW plays real good opponents on a weekly basis…each week in the WIAC is a playoff type game really…look at some of the non-conference games WIAC teams have played…if you want to better yourself as a team/conference you have to play talented teams outside of your conference…I remember back in 04 and 05 (not positive) but Whitewater played Mount Union for non-conference games…now teams won’t even play the WIAC in non-conference games because of the talent level…I think other teams should embrace playing the WIAC and better themselves…

  15. PURPLE PARTY 4?

    For anyone outside of WW and MU…what do you think of 4 straight appearances for these two teams? I would think there have to be some negative views/comments about it…or is it just the respect you have to give these two great teams?

  16. Give credit where it is due…Donovan may not be Jacobs or Danny Jones, but he played a very efficient game…MADE NO MISTAKES…and lead his team back to Salem for the 4th consecutive time…great game Jeff!! Great game defense!!

  17. A great point made by the D3 guys…WW and MU really get an extra 4-5 weeks of practice for these young guys each year…4 straight years thats about 20 extra weeks of practice…thats quite a bit of extra learning and development for the young guys

  18. Exactly nathan…

    Donovan as I said is a great talent…he has as much if not more ability then the other two…he just hasn’t put it all together although today he came through for his team…if he can play consitently…he could be one of the best that came through the program…II just think he has heard enough it from the fans this year because of his inconsistency…not his lack of ability…congrats on a great year to UMHB…playing you guys the last few years before the Stagg Bowl has definietly helped us get ready for the monster known as Mount Union…

  20. Great. Now I have to modify my plans for next weekend to get to Salem.

    Believe me, that’s a hassle I’ll gladly deal with!

    Time for UWW vs. MUC, Round IV: The Chance to Get Even.

  21. WOW…the Warhawks looked awfully good on both sides of the ball today. Next week will be another epic battle for sure.

    Those young guys are going to carry this on well beyond this year…what a learning experience for the 1st and 2nd year players. UWW may be well on their way to dethroning the “monster” as D3’s most dominant program.

    I’m not selling MUC short, but these two teams will have their collective hands full with one another in the Stagg bowl. I think this win says a lot about the level of talent in the West Region as well.

  25. Yeah, me too.

    Well, I did so much family stuff and front-page updating later on that I didn’t get a chance to watch much of the games even though they were on my computer. Also didn’t get to hang out and blog with you guys much.

    Lost in the Kmic all-time shuffle (I have him at 7,986) is that today’s numbers helped him smash Beaver’s best season in history (2,455 last year). Kmic is at 2,702 and 42 TDs this year (think that beats Pugh) with a game to go.

    The best single season ever is 2,700 and change, I believe.

    If he went nuts against Whitewater, which is probably unlikely, he could hit 3,000.

    Also, no one has ever played four 15-game seasons before. Any MUC or UWW senior who appeared in every game of his career would be the first.

    FWIW.

  26. Just to clarify, 2,455 is the best D3 season. 2,756 maybe is the best ever. That’s Woodhead. I think. Maybe his soph year.

    The American International guy might have had a 2,800-yard year, or Germaine Race (D2), but I’m not sure. Those might be from-scrimmage totals. I have a list of all the 2,000-yard rushing seasons in NCAA history, and if Kmic gets to 2,800 next week, I’m fairly certain he’s be the first, but I have to consult the list 🙂

  27. Wow! I’m stunned. Just got back in from skiing. Congrats to Donovan and Whitewater for their dominating 2nd Half. Congrats also to UMHB. I’ve been impressed with the Cru since they scheduled us as a non-conference opponent, and hopefully they will continue to grow as much as a program as we have the past four years.

    The emergence of the UWW Athletic program continues, and I’m looking forward to yet another Stagg Bowl on ESPN. Good luck to MUC, congrats to Wheaton on a fine season, and I look forward to another battle of the titans in Salem.

  28. Keith: “Also, no one has ever played four 15-game seasons before. Any MUC or UWW senior who appeared in every game of his career would be the first.”

    That’s a great point. Unfortunately, I think that kind of invalidates all of those career and season records that have been set in the last few years. The records that they’re breaking were set when only regular season games were counted towards records. Granted, I know Woodhead’s mark was set when postseason stats counted, but you basically need two different categories of records: Regular Season Only and All Games.

    I don’t want to start a huge discussion and I’m not saying Kmic is any less of a runner, just a “pet peeve” of mine.

  29. I completely agree there. Kmic is a great player, but I wonder what Beaver’s #s had been like if he played an extra five games (no UWW playoffs his frosh year). But, in defense of the current rules- these kids, with their talent, chose to play and commit themselves to four years at a Division III school for love of the sport.

    Is it fair some of these records were set in 60 games instead of 40? I would say yes, they didn’t get those extra 20 games all on their own, but they did have to be good enough to be the feature back for programs that basically could have chosen anyone they wanted in the country to be in their backfield.

  30. Great game by UWW today. Close in the first half with neither team really doing much———-UMHB had a nice drive in first half, UWW scored just before half. Other than that score at end of half, UMHB held UWW to virtually nothing. Second half, UWW all the way——-UMHB stunk it up bad. Poor play calling and poor execution. Congrats to UWW and UMHB for a great season———–they went farther than a lot were expecting including myself.

  32. First off- congrats to the Mount and UW-W; nicely done.
    Second- I live an hour up the road from Salem(won’t be there, but I’ll watch it on TV), and just a weather report FYI; it looks like it’ll be a little rainy, with temps in the low-mid 40s. It’s supposed to be in the 50s most of the week, but rainy, so who knows what shape the field will be in. Luckily, for the NCAA, Salem H.S. was knocked out of the playoffs in the second round last month, so the field hasn’t been used in a while. We’ll see; it could come down to which team has the best mudders.

  33. Not a pretty day for UMHB !!! Starting running back injured and “knocked” out of the game on first play. Game was close for the first half….but, Whitewater dominated during the second half….they are just too big and too strong!! Good luck to them during the Stagg Bowl.

  35. Once again, fellow d3 fans, it’s –Live from Salem, VA, it’s the fourth annual Purple & Black Bowl (aka the Big Bruise)! Could this be the year that Prince does the halftime show? If this is anything like last year’s game this should be a good one. I’ll be at home watching this year, but I hope Warhawk Trombone gets to come to Salem with the rest of that great UWW pep band. On a slightly unrelated topic, ESPN noted that this year’s D2 champ improved from 4-6 to 14-0 in one year. My BC Eagles went 4-6 this year. Could it happen to us in 2009? Anyway, back to the topic at hand. MUC & UWW have once again proven to us all that d3 is their world;we just live in it. All the best to those two incredibly successful programs. To Bo and the guys at Stone Station, I’ll miss you but have a good time feeding the masses. Thanks to d3Keith and all the guys at the website for all your yeoman service to the fans. What y’all do is appreciated. Everyone be safe and have fun at the BIG BRUISE!!

  36. Congrats to UWW, yall played like a defending National Champion and kicked my Cru out of the playoffs again. Good luck next week, I will be watching on ESPN.

  37. nathanshin,

    No, Slaughter in Salem is more like it, GO MUC RAIDERS….. Let me stop being a HATER. Good luck UWW, you played great today and we did not. When RB Tucker got hurt in the first quarter I knew things would not go our way.

    I was on the UWW sideline and I was impressed with the UWW coaching staff. They had the right calls made at the right time.

    Oh! the kickoff call by the officials to begin the second half that had our fans screaming foul play; well the officials got it RIGHT. I’m a football official and we covered that during training this year and it was a test question on our annual exams. Stop crying, we got out played bottom line.

    UWW I am pulling for you next week but you better BRING it because the Raiders are tough, then again you guys are the Champs until proven otherwise.

  38. Cru crushed, can you give us a detailed explanation and some theory on the ruling of what happened on the second half kickoff? How far did the ball travel? Did it break the plane of the 40? Was it an attempted on-side kick? Thanks.

  39. Ralph,
    Pat and Todd on the broadcast said it was not intentional or an onside kick, though I forget if they said it was a mis-hit or the wind caught it.

    Here’s the AP story’s description:

    Munoz’s second-half kickoff got caught in a stiff wind and didn’t travel the necessary 10 yards, hitting instead at the Mary Hardin-Baylor 39 and bouncing backward toward the Crusaders’ goal line. Munoz fell on the ball at the 24, but the Warhawks were awarded possession on an illegal touching penalty.
    On the first play after that strange sequence, Donovan hit Benson for an 18-10 lead.

  40. This is also great stuff from the Associated Press story on Mount Union and Wheaton:

    “I said coming in that I didn’t care if they passed for 500 yards against us, I didn’t want (Kmic) running,” Wheaton coach Mike Swider said. “So what did he do? He’s that good.”
    Kmic also scored on runs of 49 and 17 yards in his 14th career game of at least 200 yards on the ground. It was his third game of 300-plus-yards rushing, all in the postseason. His 129 touchdowns and 774 career points are also more than any player at any level of college football.
    “I can’t say anything that matches his numbers,” Mount Union coach Larry Kehres said. “I guess what’s even more impressive is there’s never been a better practice player than Nate. The young guys can just watch him and learn.”

    …

    Wheaton dropped to 9-6 in postseason play.
    “We’re 0-and-6 against these guys and 9-0 against everybody else,” Swider said. “We could have made it a little closer, but the best team won. Larry has an incredible program.”

    According to some posters around here, that would make Mike Swider a butt-kisser. Bowing at the altar. Too close to his subject 😆

  41. How many blocks away from the Stadium in Alliance was Swider born anyway!?You seem a little touchy about the “bowing at the altar” thing, Keith. I’ve never gone there with any of my posts because I haven’t really felt that way from everything I’ve read or heard on the podcasts. I do think it’s funny, though.

    And you can dispense of all of the butt-kissing allegations by taking off your patch and pirate hat long enough to pick UWW in the Stagg this week. As an added bonus, you will have the satisfaction after the game of actually being right!

  42. Ralph Turner: The kick in question was a regular kick-off ….wind was reported to be a 30 MPH….Munoz normally kicks the ball ‘high” and in this case it took off in the normal “path” but after traveling about 10-15 yards it hit the wind and “took off like a kite”….must have gone 50 feet in the air and actually “reversed” it’s direction…landing I believe on about the 35 yard line…then was carried by the wind to about the 25 yard line. I’ve been watching football for a long, long time, in all kinds of weather and I’ve never seen anything like it! I THINK the ruling on the field was that because it was not touched or did not touch the ground after traveling the required 10 yards that it was an illegal “touch” by UMHB and the ball was given to Whitewater.

  43. Yeah the ball traveled the required 10 yards, not only that i thought i saw one of the guys diving for it with Munoz touched it, not for sure on that… 3rd and 6 the refs gave the game to WW on a pass interference that was an uncatchable ball, which put them on the goal line. 14 points given to them on a silver platter. Refs not exactly up to par, but that happens. Starting runningback goes down, their qb out for a few series because of a hurt shoulder, seemed like they couldn’t catch a break. The wind just threw off the timing of their passing game. One of those freak days, not impressed to much with WW, i feel like if UMHB and WW played 10 times UMHB would have won 8 times, but one of those days.

  44. I’d say the backwards kickoff is something that the NCAA/referees should look at and clarify the rule. Does the ball just have to travel the 10 yards (in the air) or does it have to touch the ground or someone beyond the 10 yards?

    No matter how thorough you think the rules are, there will always be a loophole that will be discovered in a critical situation. Good on the refs for making the call and not second-guessing themselves.

  45. This is old, but it might help in sequence:

    Pat in the intro:

    Last night I was here for the UMHB pep rally, and I was amused to hear the … let’s call him the MC of the event, though he came off more like a preacher in tone and really fired people up. But I was intrigued by the claim of lack of respect by D3football.com. Guess they didn’t see our Triple Take this week.

    D3Keith Says:
    December 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pm e

    if people are complaining about a lack of respect from you, rightful or not, it means they crave your respect. At least that’s how I choose to look at it.

    CortlandFootball Says:
    December 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

    Who are you directing the respect post at Keith? I didn’t understand the comment.

  46. Another Texas fan running their mouth…come on texanfan…8 times out of 10 and you lost by how many points? 14 points on a silver platter? now who’s making “excuses”…you got beat yet again by WW…so those 10 times you would play them and beat them 8 times…well you have played WW now what 4 times…lost to them 4 times…don’t even give me that crap…all teams deal with adversity…your qb went out with a “sore” shoulder when the game was over…the good teams create breaks they don’t catch them…ww made adjustments in the second half that the cru didn’t…I wasn’t impressed at all with MHB either…I truthfully think 3 teams in the WIAC would have beat them for sure…even on their home field…

    8 times out of 10…sheesh

  47. bleedpurple Says:
    December 13th, 2008 at 9:20 pm e

    How many blocks away from the Stadium in Alliance was Swider born anyway!?You seem a little touchy about the “bowing at the altar” thing, Keith. I’ve never gone there with any of my posts because I haven’t really felt that way from everything I’ve read or heard on the podcasts. I do think it’s funny, though.

    And you can dispense of all of the butt-kissing allegations by taking off your patch and pirate hat long enough to pick UWW in the Stagg this week. As an added bonus, you will have the satisfaction after the game of actually being right!

    Ha. You think I get satisfaction from being right. How would I even know? 🙂

    I think it’s funny too. If I seem touchy, it’s because I’m not very good at expressing myself in writing. I should try another line of work.

  49. To all the UMHB fans (except texanfan), hats off to you for your loyal, yet fair comments on this site. You had every reason to be confident that UMHB would be successful today. You backed up your opinions with reason.
    No doubt that UMHB had some bad breaks today, and no doubt that UWW played in the same conditions. I wish you didn’t lose your running back today for every good reason, but mostly because he worked so hard and did so much for your team.
    Texanfan, don’t forget that your defense was healthy and supposed to be strong enough to keep UWW under control. UWW did a great job on offense, especially showing the ability to pass-both with the wind and against it. UWW put 39 points on the board (37 by the O) and even missed three long passes today, with receivers very open down field. To top it off, much was said about UMHB’s 60 minutes of football. To the credit of the UWW players and coaches, it was UWW that played 60 hard minutes of football. Not saying that UMHB laid down, just that UWW was full throttle in the fourth as much as the first quarter.

    So here we go again, UWW has to take on a MUC team that has weapons everywhere on the field, and a defense that continues to dominate. I had one of the best experiences of my life in Salem last year, and will do all I can to get there again.

    Thanks DIII and go Warhawks.

  50. Ralph Turner Says:

    December 13th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
    Cru crushed, can you give us a detailed explanation and some theory on the ruling of what happened on the second half kickoff? How far did the ball travel? Did it break the plane of the 40? Was it an attempted on-side kick? Thanks.

    Here is the ruling on kickoffs. In football official terms it’s called touching and recovery of a free kick.

    No team A player (kicking team UMHB) may touch a free kicked ball until after:

    1. It touches a team B player (receiving team UWW)
    2. It breaks the plane of and REMAINS BEYOND (10 yards) team B’s (receiving team UWW) restraining line or
    3. It touches any player, the ground an official or anything BEYOND (10 yards team B’s (receiving team UWW) restraining line.

    Simply put, the ball traveled beyond 10 yards through the AIR, but did not remain, or touch the ground, official or player BEYOND 10 yards.

    So the rule is in place WarhawkTrombone.

    I go to a lot of football games as a fan and just shake my head when some rule dumb fans (who think they know everything about football and I used to be one by the way) are screaming at the officials on a call they got correct. It takes more than commen sense to be an official.

    One war story; I was a referee at a high school game last year. The kicker missed the ball when kicking off, the other 10 players on the kicking team went five yards down field and turned around when they seen the ball was not kicked, and lined up again, the kicker out of frustration kicked the ball backwards off the tee in which the ball traveled less than 10 yards, can anyone guess what I did or does anyone here know the correct ruling.

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