Game Day: Fall, for sure

I mean, in your part of the country anyway, I’m sure it’s fall. But here in Minneapolis I woke up to snow on the ground. Not enough to last the day or affect any games around here, probably, but just a reminder that Oct. 10 is … yeah, way, way too early for snow.

I’ll be watching Concordia-Moorhead (Division III team No. 120 on my list of whom I’ve seen) at No. 15 St. Thomas, basically as prep for next week’s Game of the Week broadcast of the St. Thomas-St. John’s game. Ryan Tipps is at the Emory & Henry/Hampden-Sydney game, while Gordon Mann is at FDU-Florham at Delaware Valley. The short trip is my deal with the folks at home. New rule in the Coleman house: If I take a plane one weekend, I stay home or stay in the Twin Cities the next weekend. Keeps the peace.

I still have a few Minnesota schools I haven’t seen yet and will get to those eventually. Hamline will be the only MIAC team I haven’t seen, then throw in a bunch of stadiums I’ve never seen a game at: Hamline, Carleton, Concordia, Crown … pretty much you name it.

Looking at this week’s schedule on paper has me thinking not at all about last week, where there weren’t a lot of games where we could foresee upsets. We have two games between Top 25 teams (No. 1 Mount Union at No. 21 Capital, No. 22 Redlands at No. 24 Occidental), and then UW-Whitewater, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Wheaton, Linfield, Central, Case Western Reserve, Monmouth, Otterbein, St. Thomas, Cortland State and Ithaca are each playing teams where you could conceivably pick them to lose.

Stick around, watch, listen, follow live stats. The wireless connection at St. Thomas wasn’t great the last time I was there but we’ll see. I’ll be on Twitter at least from my phone, hopefully blogging.

75 thoughts on “Game Day: Fall, for sure

  1. Tough loss for Capital. They played well for most the game. UWW looking good taking a 17-6 lead into the half. UWEC scored on a Paulson 37 yd TD pass with under a minute to go in the half. Extra point was blocked. Levell Coppage off to a strong start with 151 yds in the first half, but a costly fumble inside the EC five yd line kept this game close.

  2. He stops at 319 🙂

    Of the 324 UW-W rushed for today. Who says the one-back offense is a thing of the past.

  3. 319 yards? according to uw-whitewater’s website he had 383 yards today!

    Whitewater’s lead dwindled to 17-14, then they scored 3 times to put the game away. Mount was in a battle the whole game and held on for the win. Looks like we are headed to MUC-UWW V, however UWW should get more that 3 first place votes after this week.

    If Whitewater isn’t #1 on atleast 10 ballots, i’ll be disappointed

  4. Looks like there may be a chink in the MUC armor. Maybe that person who did’nt give MUC a number 1 vote may have been on to something.

  5. That voter changing the #1 vote was none other than our own Pat Coleman. He posted and said it was him in the podcast earlier in the week.

    Coppage’s line 41-382-3 in the Warhawk win. He had only 1 carry resulting in minus yardage on the day (-1 yard) & that was late in the 4th quarter. He did have 2 fumbles on the day – 1 inside the EC 5 as UWW was driving to make it 24-0. EC turned both into 14 points – both were the result of being gang tackled and stripped after sizeable runs. He was dominate otherwise.

    Other WIAC scores: at Stevens Point 7 Stout 6; at Oshkosh 31 River Falls 29; (and one to make you go huh?) at Platteville 26 La Crosse 13.

  6. 319 yards? according to uw-whitewater’s website he had 383 yards today!

    When I wrote that, they had just started giving Anderson carries in his place, and when I looked at the live stats, that’s what I got. Turns out it wasn’t the end of his day, which is what I was getting at the first time! 🙂

    That voter changing the #1 vote was none other than our own Pat Coleman. He posted and said it was him in the podcast earlier in the week.

    Remember also there are two voters who’ve had UW-W from the very beginning.

    Wooster was beating Case Western Reserve 32-31 in the 4th, but it’s 46-32 now and Case is getting the ball back on a punt. Looks like they survive a test.

  7. If Whitewater isn’t #1 on atleast 10 ballots, i’ll be disappointed

    My guess is you’ll be disappointed. Because it’s Capital who gave Mount Union a test today, not Wilmington or whoever, so I would not be surprised if the voters who thought Mount was No. 1 take the view that Mount Union just beat a really good team, even though you could very well look at it as a negative, that they’re beatable/not No. 1 worthy.

    Interesting debate.

    What would be even more interesting is if someone didn’t have UWW/MUC 1 and 2, in either order …

  8. I thought it was taking me a few tries with the software for Oxy-Redlands, but maybe it was because the game JUST started 🙂

  9. I do have alot of respect for Capital, but UWEC has been very solid the past couple years as well. Last year, i believe, they played Whitewater pretty close.

    I’m actually glad Whitewater got a test today. If the team beat every team 40-3 all season they wouldn’t learn how to play under pressure when the game is close. Great teams turn it on when they need to to get the W.

    I firmly believe UWW was better than MUC, and in my opinion 3 of the matchups have resulted in upsets. Year 1, UWW should have won, year 2 MUC should have and did win, Year 3, MUC should have won, Year 4, UWW should have won.

    MUC has risen to the challenge and hopefully UWW continues to do so as well. I know this country is starting to get sick of UWW-MUC, but assuming Whitewater can win this year, this will have become one of the major rivalries in College Football. Then again, MUC is 5-1 in the six meetings versus Whitewater so they might still see us as the little step-brother who got lucky in 2007

  10. I firmly believe UWW was better than MUC, and in my opinion 3 of the matchups have resulted in upsets. Year 1, UWW should have won, year 2 MUC should have and did win, Year 3, MUC should have won, Year 4, UWW should have won.

    That’s not a bad theory.

  11. If you didn’t tune in, you’re missing a great finish.

    Redlands final drive starts at the 2 after Oxy punt, Selway to Putman several times to drive to 91 yards to the 7 with 21 seconds left I think. Timeout now.

  12. Selway runs in the game-winning TD, except that there were perhaps not enough men on the line? Illegal formation.

    Incomplete pass, then short Redlands FG att is blocked. Oxy falls on the blocked kick inside the 1 though, so they have to sneak it to get to OT. They could lose on a safety though!

  13. Wow, Oxy outright stole that game. No worse way to lose than to actually have scored the winning TD only to have it undone by a not lining up right penalty.

    That’s a “how did we lose that game?” game that Redlands will be thinking about for a while.

    OT Oxy goes first, kicks FG. Redlands ball, big sack on 3rd down pushes them out of FG range (52 … kicker hit crossbar from 47 earlier).

    Redlands has a lot to play for still. I like them as a Pool C team, although Whitworth, who Redlands beat, is looking at 6-4 at best. … ETBU is 2-4 as well against a tough schedule, they could finish 3-7.

  14. Interesting New Poll

    Mount Union, (19) 1st place votes, (3) 2nd place votes, (3) 3rd place votes
    Whitewater, (6) 1st place votes, (18) 2nd place votes, (1) 3rd place vote
    Mary Hardin Baylor, (4) 2nd place votes, (21) 3rd place votes

    Not the ten 1st place votes I was looking for, but i’ll take it. Props to whoever had the guts to put MUC 3rd

  15. Definitely interesting.

    Also interesting is the fact that only 39 points separate the 6 poll positions between 14th and 9th.

    I actually expected to see UWW get even closer to #1 than they did. Pollsters obviously have a lot of respect for Capital even though MUC teams of the past have obliterated them under the same circumstances. Is Capital that much better than in years past or is MUC just not as dominate? After all, they did pound them 49-7 last season. The truth is that as close as UWW and MUC have been in the past 4 Staggs, you would think UWW would take over the number 1 spot if MUC showed any signs of weakness. I suppose SJF thumping Ithaca helped the cause…

  16. I think the poll is right on target. MUC and UWW are the teams that deserve to be in the top spots. UMHB may be a year away from beating either team. However, we just may see another UWW-UMHB playoff game and that would be fun to watch.

    UMHB FINALLY has the QB that all of us fans have been waiting for. Yes, he is a freshman but he can run the power option and throw. Our passing game has improved greatly and we have some great receivers. Next week will be a big test as the Cru travels to Mississippi College.

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