When you’re down to just 16 teams and eight games, we can take the time to go through each of them, and it was a week which made Keith very happy. There was a lot of defense to talk about for this former Division III safety. Defenses came up big in expected places, such as Whitewater, Wis., or University Heights, Ohio, but the other games featured some surprisingly stout defensive performances as well. Pat and Keith talk through it all, plus preview the quarterfinal games, in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast.
This week’s podcast is sponsored by the City of Salem, hosts of Stagg Bowl XLIV. For more information about the Stagg Bowl or any national championship Salem hosts, visit salemchampionships.com.
The Around the Nation Podcast is a weekly conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan covering the wide range of Division III football. It drops on Monday morning weekly throughout the season.
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No mention of Wittenberg losing their best offensive player early in the game after driving the ball some with him. UWW wins anyhow 99%, but surprised not to hear that discussed. Their offense was aided some by Wittenberg being unable to run their offense without their qb. The 2nd stringer was later hurt and the 3rd string threw 2 picks. That game could have been closer if Kennedy was healthy.
This is a fair point and we should have mentioned this. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks! I would not have mentioned it if I did not watch the game closely. UWW has a great front, but it does appear they have some give on the back end if you can get the ball out fast. UWW most likely wins the game, but I think we would have seen more points from Wittenberg and perhaps a ballgame into the late 3rd had Kennedy stayed up. The UWW announcers doing the game made a point of saying “this could be a “turning point” when Kennedy went down. The backup did not get many reps with the 1st unit and they did not move the ball even close to the same way when went out. You could see the body language on the Witt sideline went from some confidence and hope to not much cheering at all.
UWW is a great club and I certainly don’t mean to knock them. I would imagine John Carroll will take notes of that 1st quarter and note what Wittenberg was doing to get guys open so easily. Coach Fincham is a great coach, but I thought you go for it on the opening drive on 4th down inside the 1 as an underdog. They went up 3-0 instead of 7. THe UWW kicker hit some decent kicks to get them to 9-3 with Kennedy out. Those were not chip shots.
The other note on that game is UWW is a big football team. They had a huge size edge on Witt up front. The two tight ends that size is rare in DIII. John Carroll has some hope, but will need a monumental game. I felt like that may have been a 30-20 type score with Kennedy. You men know how it is when you lose your star player. The air goes out of the balloon! Great job here on the blog. You guys do a good job keeping DIII fans informed.