Here’s a look at what some of the local papers around the country are writing ahead of tomorrow’s games:
Wesley/Mary Hardin-Baylor
Wesley struggled with its transition from junior college to Division III football two decades ago, but is playing the biggest game of the program’s history Saturday, from the Sussex News.
One nitpick on this story: It says, “Drass brought a record 150 players to preseason camp this year.
Wesley President Dr. Scott Miller is quick to point out that while less than 100 players made the team, most of the other students are still in school. He said that’s usually not the case at other schools.”
In our experience, that isn’t particularly accurate. But that’s a nitpick.
Hobart/Delaware Valley
Feature on Delaware Valley receiver Don Marshall in The Intelligencer.
Bridgewater/Thiel
Adrian Herndon juggles football, classes, as well as a 2-year-old son and a part-time job in the Lynchburg News & Advance. Bridgewater coach Mike Clark deals with the logistics of a playoff road trip in The Daily News Record of Harrisonburg. Thiel finds the bandwagon is getting huge, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Union/Rowan
Union is thankful it’s still playing, says a feature in the Albany Times Union.
Augustana/Mount Union
The Repository in Canton, Ohio, discovers the Wing-T.
Linfield/Concordia-Moorhead
The Silverton Appeal catches up with local product Josh Ort, Linfield defensive back. The Fargo (N.D.) Forum discovers there’s some guy named Brett Elliott quarterbacking Linfield. Meanwhile, the Linfield team lends a hand at Thanksgiving.
St. John’s/UW-Whitewater
The St. Cloud Times writes on the backs splitting time for the Johnnies. Plus, Times beat writer Frank Rajkowski has started a blog on St. John’s playoff football. (We link to it from our list of blogs on the front page of the Daily Dose.) The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel focuses on the Whitewater offensive line.
Capital/Wabash
The Crawfordsville Journal Review previews Capital and earlier in the week took a brief look ahead at Wabash.
Union played Ithaca three times in the NCAA’s before beating them last week. Their only game with Rowan was also an NCAA tournament event. They were walloped! Will Saturday’s game provide the Dutchmen with a victory? We only know that this team has evolved from a very lucky team, whose execution was desultory in the early going, to a very formidable opponent, worthy of respect from the division’s finest. Rowan is looking for its first championship, having been thwarted more often than any other team in the nation. If the stars are aligned perfectly for Union, The Dutchmen just might do it. But The Beast from the East is going to be ravenous!
Since Keith put his score predictions in ATN this week I figure I better put mine somewhere so they’re on the record.
So here goes:
Linfield 58, Concordia-Moorhead 10
St. John’s 27, UW-Whitewater 21
Mary Hardin-Baylor 28, Wesley 10
Bridgewater (Va.) 45, Thiel 35
Capital 31, Wabash 30
Mount Union 38, Augustana 20
Delaware Valley 30, Hobart 27
Union 48, Rowan 31
The Gloucester County Times seems to be doing a bang-up job covering Rowan this year.
A couple of papers were in the box at Del Val, including the Intelligencer.
Akron and Cleveland usually acknowledge Mount Union around this time of year, as does the Alliance Review, of course.
The Harrisonburg Daily News Record is really good with Bridgewater too.
Google Linfield … McMinnville, Portland et. al.
Don’t know much about how Wesley or Capital is covered, but then again, this isn’t meant to be a complete list.
Hmm … I know this is last week’s thread, but I thought I’d toss that out there for anyone checking in on this week’s teams.
Wesley has a whole page devoted to this, FYI.
http://athletics.wesley.edu/football/football-press.html