All-Region team time

UMHB
It’s a lot easier to get nominated as a tackle or defensive end than a guard or defensive tackle.
UMHB athletics photo

It’s All-Region time again. Our voters will be looking at the nominations this week, but at the moment, there are 745 nominations for the 300 spots.

Typically schools’ nominations favor the glamorous positions, and tend to neglect some of the unsung. If you think it’s hard for an offensive lineman to get recognition, it’s even worse being a guard. For the moment, we only have 32 nominations for the four guard positions. We’ll name 24 kids to the All-Region team at guard.

The most competitive positions

Award Spots Nominees
All-South Quarterback 3 16
All-East Quarterback 3 14
All-West Quarterback 3 13
All-East Linebackers 9 37
All-East Kicker 3 12
All-South Center 3 12
All-South Running Back 6 23
All-South Safety 6 22
All-East Wide Receiver 6 21
All-East Center 3 10

Everyone wants to nominate a quarterback. It’s almost always the most competitive position. In the South, there were more than five nominees for every available slot.

Then, there’s the other end. We found in the past that taking nominations solely for “defensive linemen” meant we only got nominations for defensive ends. “Offensive linemen” only got us centers and tackles. And we couldn’t recognize positions that weren’t nominated.

The least competitive positions

Award Spots Nominees
All-North Safety 6 9
All-West Safety 6 9
All-North Guard 6 7
All-South Defensive Tackle 6 7
All-South Guard 6 7
All-West Guard 6 7
All-West Defensive Tackle 6 6

We’ll be sending a more detailed list on who has been nominated to each of the conferences for follow-up.

Game Day from the second round

Will Morris, McMurry
This could be McMurry’s last formal day as a Division III football team.
McMurry athletics photo by Gerald Ewing

Cutting down the field, from 16 teams to eight. You’ve already seen our picks, and thanks to those who have weighed in there as well.

We’ll be following along all day with our live chat below, and you can join in the chat window or by using the #d3fb hashtag on Twitter. Five noon games and three 1 p.m. games.

ATN Podcast: A week in the books

Kean
UW-Whitewater was opportunistic on defense, to say the least.
Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

Four backup quarterbacks, a wide receiver at corner, a triple-overtime game, an “upset” that all three Triple Take predictors got right and a lot more happened in the first round of the 2011 Division III NCAA playoffs.

Best game? Check. Biggest surprise? We cover that. Best performance by a quarterback off the bench? Best time to turn off the cameras? Most surprising stat? Best defensive effort? Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan cover that and more in the Around the Nation podcast.

Plus Pat gets on his soapbox for a minute or two. But it’s quick.

[display_podcast]

You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast

Plus, here’s this week’s D3football.com reports, with eight of them, seven of which are mostly understandable. Keep your camera’s back to the wind!