Dear readers:

Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t, but we’re no longer running pop-up ads on our sites.

For a few years, pop-up ads were what kept this site alive. We know that they are not popular with visitors, but for a long time, allowing one pop-up ad per visitor was all we needed to stay out of the red. Now, with the success of the Kickoff, we no longer need to bother you this way.

Who knows, perhaps someday our operating costs will go back up again and we’ll need to return to some more intrusive advertising method. But as long as you guys let the banner ads continue to be shown, we should be fine.

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).

Live from The College of New Jersey, Pat Coleman along with Gordon Mann from the Lions Stadium press box.

We’re a little less than an hour from air time and we think we have all the kinks worked out on my new laptop. I hated to let the old one go, but since it wouldn’t stay running for more than 20 minutes at a time I had no choice.

Drove past my usual exits to go to Division III schools Catholic and Johns Hopkins. Felt lucky to get gas for $3.05 a gallon in Maryland. Drove right past former Rowan coach K.C. Keeler’s new place of employment at University of Delaware. Got here without issue.

Nice evening, little breeze. Both teams warming up below. Ready for kickoff. We’ll try to check back in at halftime if the dial-up connection is stable.