In the past few years, a handful of coaches have moved down to Division II and Division I-AA. (Yes, we know most people feel that is a move up, but we take a Division III-centric view on such things.) How are they doing?

One of the former Division III coaches who stays on the D-III radar quite a bit is former Rowan head man K.C. Keeler, now head coach at Division I-AA Delaware. It helps that he occasionally references Division III in quotes, like he did this week regarding Delaware potentially giving up its home game because of the condition of the field. Keeler was 88-21-1 at Rowan in nine seasons, including five trips to the Stagg Bowl, all losses.

He’s gone 33-13 at Delaware, including the 2003 national championship. The Blue Hens are 3-2 this year.

One of those wins came against Division II West Chester, home of another Division III coaching alumnus, Bill Zwaan. Keeler and Zwaan are both Delaware alumni and were both up for the Blue Hens job. Zwaan landed at West Chester, leading the Golden Rams to an 11-4 record and the first D-II playoff win in the program’s history. West Chester is 5-2 this season, giving Zwaan an 24-9 overall record.

Former UW-Stout coach Ed Meierkort took Division II South Dakota from five wins to nine his first year and the Coyotes have started his second season 7-0 for a career mark of 16-2. South Dakota is ranked No. 5 in Division II.

Chad Eisele went 31-20 in five seasons as coach at Lake Forest before moving to Division II Moorhead State, where he inherited a team on an 11-game losing streak. It’s been a struggle, but the Dragons did pick up their first win of the season this past weekend, dropping Southwest Minnesota State 37-16.

Jerry Schmitt moved from Westminster (Pa.) to Duquesne, though how much of a move up/down this is is debatable — Duquesne is Division I-AA, but is a non-scholarship program, so he has the same number of scholarships to award as he did last year. The Dukes are 2-3, with a 23-12 win against Robert Morris, the same team Rowan beat a few weeks back.

Hmm … one Top 10 team upset, one hangs on by the skin of its teeth. The legendary Wing-T team gets a passing touchdown for its only points, and wins, while the former NESCAC heavyweight needs its bullpen to close things out.

It’s almost disappointing that UW-Stevens Point and UW-Platteville couldn’t provide better competition for No. 8 UW-Whitewater and No. 12 UW-La Crosse. I mean, you almost go in assuming the upset in the WIAC these days, right? At least UW-Oshkosh restored our faith in WIAC-kiness. (Obvious alert: That’s sarcasm.)

After the Huntingdon/Trinity (Texas) game, the Huntingdon radio broadcaster didn’t realize his commercial break was over and we got to hear him chatting with the fans about how the program was in its second year and doesn’t offer scholarships. News flash — this is Division III, nobody else offers scholarships either. Oh, and it’s Huntingdon’s third year.

Bizarre outcome of the day: Chicago 27, Washington U. 0. Wash U hadn’t lost a UAA game (granted, there are only a few a year) since Oct. 28, 2000. Wash U had the home field, it was Homecoming, and the Bears were 2-3 including a loss to Mount Union. Chicago was 0-4, including a loss to North Park. I had to read the press release to make sure the score was reported correctly.

There’s a line about hope springing eternal, but it can’t be doing much for the Flying Dutchmen, who fell to 1-4 today after Olivet rolled up 604 yards of offense. Travis Sleight accounted for 198 on the ground and 67 through the air.

If I’m a Husson player, I’m pretty pissed off that I spent probably 15 hours in a bus to get down to Southern Virginia only to have them cancel the game Saturday morning because of rain. Yeah, it rained a lot … and? (And if Husson flew, then I’m pretty peeved if I’m the administration that had to pay for that trip.)

Congrats to Kenyon. I hope Wooster isn’t taking the lower half of its conference lightly — between the loss to Oberlin in 2003 and this week the Scots have accounted for two of the most unexpected results in that league in our history.

Then again, without it, the AFCA may well have kept ranking Wooster in the Top 15. Seems like every year the coaches’ poll goes full-bore behind someone in that league that falls flat. Don’t make me cite examples.

No, that wasn’t D3football.com’s Adam Johnson who threw the game-winning touchdown pass for Howard Payne today. Nor was it D3football.com’s Pat Cummings who kicked four PATs and a field goal for Union today (it wasn’t even Union’s Pat Cummings — Ben Rapple got the call for the Dutchmen today).

Martin Luther 16, Minnesota-Morris 8. You’ll never guess how Martin Luther got to 16 — touchdown with two-point conversion, field goal, field goal, safety. Morris’ points came on a touchdown and two-point conversion. Extra points optional, I guess.

Intrigued by:
Huntingdon, still.
Bowdoin, in a morbid curiosity sort of way.
Endicott. (Weren’t you going to do this last year?)

Concerned about:
Baldwin-Wallace. Not going to have a streak of winning seasons much longer.
Texas Lutheran. AFCA wasn’t the only non-D3football.com poll to have a Top 15 lose.
McDaniel. Even dating to the Week 2 win against Seton Hill (just 28-9) this has 4-6 finish potential, even though the Green Terror are 4-1 right now.

Crazy e-mail of the day:

Subject: wASHINGTON & JEFFERSON
Notes: Why would Washington and Jeffersonj be ranked in the top 25. They won’t play anybody that is really a football team???????

The national media is going to flock like … well, a flock of something … to this Northwestern (Minn.) doubleheader story. Northwestern is in the suburbs of St. Paul, a provisional Division III member in its first year, four years away from being a full member. We’ll cover it, of course, but we’ll keep in mind that there are games that affect playoffs and teams who are actually eligible for them.

To wit:

Under the radar key playoff game: Johns Hopkins hosts Franklin and Marshall. Although most games in the Centennial Conference this season matches up 2004 co-champions (there were five of them, after all) this one is likely to have an impact in the final analysis. Question is whether F&M can score — the Diplomats have scored just 42 points in four games while Johns Hopkins has allowed 27 in four games. The schools were picked 1-2 in the conference’s preseason poll, combining for nine of the 14 first-place votes and separated by one point.

Above the radar key playoff game: Bethel hosts No. 7 St. John’s. You might have heard of these two teams. It’s also by far the most important game taking place in the St. Paul suburbs this weekend. This is an elimination game for Bethel. Winner has to take down St. Olaf and Concordia-Moorhead later.

Long road to go key playoff game: Augustana at No. 13 Carthage. Just the second in a list of games between the top four contenders in the CCIW.

Long road to go key playoff game II: No. 8 UW-Whitewater at UW-Stevens Point. Stevens Point might be out of the running with a loss, leaving just La Crosse, Stout, Eau Claire and Whitewater as serious WIAC title candidates. If Stevens Point wins, it’s still a five-team race, even with River Falls, Oshkosh and Platteville as spoilers.

Who-are-these-guys key playoff game: This game almost didn’t get scheduled — it was on, then off, then on again this offseason. And if you don’t know who Huntingdon is, you should soon enough. Even if they can’t hang with No. 10 Trinity (Texas), this is a program in building mode in fertile football ground in Alabama. Hopefully they don’t bail on D-III like the last program in building mode in fertile football ground in Alabama — Stillman.

Letdown potential key playoff game: Look out, Thiel, Grove City takes the Mercer County rivalry seriously and looks to be better than last year. To borrow an overused phrase from Division I-A, this could be a trap game for the No. 22 Tomcats.

This is their playoff game: Lewis and Clark’s short season comes to an end Saturday night at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Irresistible force/immovable object key playoff game: Alma’s Scot-Gun offense (514.2 yards per game) against Adrian’s defense, led by standouts Mike Lewis and Taz Wallace