Monthly Archives: December 2009

Gagliardi vote is wide open

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First off, just as a reminder: The Gagliardi Trophy is not the Division III equivalent of the Heisman.

The award doesn’t always go to the best player in Division III. The mission of the award is different than the Heisman’s, or, at least, the end results are. The instructions to voters say it all: “The winner of the award should exhibit excellence in three areas: football, academics and service/leadership on campus and/or in his community.”

It goes on to give the most salient point, one which I think should be emphasized. “First and foremost, however, it is a football award; you should consider the candidate’s scholastic and extra-curricular records to help you break a tie.”

With that reminder out of the way, I have to say, this is about as wide open a final four as I remember.

• Blaine Westemeyer, Sr., Tackle, Augustana
• Spud Dick, Sr., Quarterback, DePauw
• Alex Tanney, Jr., Quarterback, Monmouth
• John Peters, Sr., Linebacker, Union

No Mount Union players, no UW-Whitewater players. Two quarterbacks, a defensive player and an offensive lineman. Only one defensive player has ever won the award and no offensive linemen have.

Sometimes I look at the final four and I have a pretty good idea who is going to be on the podium in Salem. But I don’t this year.

This is going to be pretty interesting.

ATN Podcast: A fab Final Four

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Almost anyone could have come out of the “West” bracket.

But those other three brackets, well, that’s another story. When we did our playoff predictions in Around the Nation, Mount Union, Wesley and UW-Whitewater were unanimous picks to win their brackets.

So, it could be that we just played 28 games over three weeks for the privilege of identifying the four national semifinalists. But we sure had some interesting games along the way, right?

Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan take a look at the four quarterfinals and the teams that emerged in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

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Game Day: Heading for Final Four

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Four more teams get eliminated today, and while the Triple Take trio doesn’t expect too many close games, stranger things have happened.

I’ve mentioned on the site the past couple of days that it’s a good day to be surfing and watching or listening to games from home, and that’s partially because that’s where I am. Choices were that or drive six hours each way to UW-Whitewater, and I’ll save that drive for next week, if it turns out that way.

Our audio crews are on the upset watch at Wesley and UW-Whitewater. There are broadcasts of all four games, of course.

And I’ll be working to keep the blog open as long as possible today.