Here’s my take on upcoming Week 3 games:

Game that won’t live up to previous years: No. 3 Mount Union at John Carroll. JCU has given Mount Union fits at home at times in recent years, but not this time.

Game that will live up to previous years: Lycoming at Widener.

Top 25 team most likely to get upset: No. 11 Trinity (Texas). Hopefully they travel better than the last time they visited SCIAC country and lost to Pomona-Pitzer. Redlands is better than that P-P team.

Close but not quite: Texas Lutheran will give Mary Hardin-Baylor a game but won’t be able to push over the top.

Best key game: I think the game between No. 13 Salisbury and No. 20 Christopher Newport will be the best game of the day, at least among games featuring two playoff contenders.

Two and a half games: Keith McMillan mentioned in ATN the chance to see Hardin-Simmons and Mary Hardin-Baylor each at home on Saturday, but start a little earlier in the day and take in the first half of the McMurry/Austin College game, which starts two hours earlier on the other side of Abilene.

Wake-up call: Franklin and Marshall better have put its bye week to good use after losing at Bethany, because Hobart is not going to be as … err … diplomatic.

Culture shock: Springfield gets to see what a WIAC team is like. UW-Stout might not have faced the triple option before, but they see the wishbone year-in and year-out, so the learning curve won’t be great.

One-man show: There are doubts whether Earlham’s Justin Rummell will be healthy enough to go against Anderson, so we’ll pick Augsburg’s Marcus LeVesseur, put back in at quarterback last week at Wartburg. (That’s his picture above.) Augsburg went 2-8 last year yet still gave North Central a game on the road. What will they do at home?

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Thanks for your tolerance. Enjoy 2005 football.

We’ve got one week in the books. Some thoughts, a few random ones at that.

How did Rowan gain 609 yards and score just 21 points? Three turnovers and three missed field goals would be a start. Looks like Ulysses Encarnacion is going to fill in pretty well at running back with 143 yards on 24 carries.

The Centennial found a little offense: Muhlenberg 30, TCNJ 13; McDaniel 36, Bridgewater 35; Johns Hopkins … uhm, well, it’s not a perfect comparison. And then there’s F&M, 16-for-42 passing with five interceptions won’t cut it. Hardly a dominating passing performance.

Think Wittenberg is reconsidering the four-year contract with Capital? And to think they wanted to sign a deal for six.

Hard to tell who had the better year-to-year turnaround, Denison or Central. Sure, Denison turned a 64-0 loss at Waynesburg into a 21-17 win. But Central did it against a stronger opponent and got the win on the road. The Dutch lost at home to Augustana 38-7 and won 25-24 in overtime this year.

Nice job defensively by St. John Fisher today. Steven Stepnick broke up this pass in the end zone (pictured) to snuff a scoring threat.

Congrats to: Manchester and North Park. Nice start to the season for both. And where did today’s Millikin performance come from?

If Endicott can’t handle Hartwick at home they are going to struggled to compete in the NEFC.

We got a press release today from a school touting its Lindy’s preseason ranking. Guess that school didn’t look at what Lindy’s No. 10 did today (St. Norbert, lost 45-7 to a team Lindy’s apparently hadn’t heard of, UW-Whitewater).