Category Archives: Around the Nation

Our Around the Nation column takes on the world of podcasting.

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ATN Podcast 277: The teams left standing

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This eternal offseason is destined to continue, but even into mid-August, things move so quickly that conferences, and individual schools which had been sure they were going to play football games this fall, have turned out to be headed back to the sidelines.

That leaves very few teams still in a position to play ball this fall, but we’ll talk to two schools who just had their season dashed this week and one which is still on course.

Adrian has 150 players on campus already and is looking to play up to its maximum five games, the number of games a team can play without using a year of its student-athletes’ eligibility. And they might want to go beyond that. Bulldogs coach Jim Deere talks about who they’ll play, who they are talking to, how they’ll keep the players safe and how important sports is to the college.

Simpson was among the schools that had its fall hopes dashed when the American Rivers Conference reversed course and changed its mind after previously saying their schools would play football in the fall. Storm coach Matt Jeter talked to us mere hours after the decision was announced and discusses the quick change, what happens to the student-athletes left in travel limbo, and how he might use his team’s 114 permitted days of football over the next academic year.

And we talk with Northwestern (Minn.), which had a five-game schedule lined up until every American Rivers Conference team slated to play had to drop off the schedule. The Eagles have to go back to watching from the sidelines as well, and coach Matt Moore talks to us about that process and more.

We discuss that and more in Podcast 277.

Pat and Keith talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

Full episode:

D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast [ 1:09:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Related content: ATN Podcast 192, also with Northwestern coach Matt Moore

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: DJmentos. Photos by Simpson athletics, Adrian athletics, Northwestern (Minn.) athletics

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ATN Podcast 276: Running toward the spring?

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With the fall championship all but called off, schools that haven’t called off their fall sports already will probably be doing so soon, and those who are looking to potentially play football in the spring may be starting to make plans.

We talked to all three of our interview subjects on the day that the Division III Management Council said it was recommending the 2020 fall championships in Division III be canceled, and although that hasn’t formally happened yet, it almost certainly will. So we talked to three people who are all in different stages of the 2020 season:

First, we talk with TCNJ coach Casey Goff. His school was one of the first to say they would not be fielding fall sports teams, so he has known for more than a month that there wouldn’t be a 2020 fall season for his program. With that perspective, Goff talks about whether it was good to know early in the process, what he thinks of his school’s plans. And, is spring football possible? We’ll get his take on that.

We also talk with Centre wide receiver Jordan Gunter. He would have been playing his senior season for the Colonels this fall, and his school is in a conference which is pushing publicly to get football moved to the spring. Is he looking forward to playing football in the spring? No — because he also is a starting outfielder for the Colonels, and he’s already lost a baseball season to COVID-19. He’ll explain why he would play baseball in the spring, given the choice.

And we have a conversation with Illinois Wesleyan coach Norm Eash. IWU and the CCIW have yet to make any announcement on their plans for the fall, so we get the perspective of a coach with a program that still has hopes of playing football. In the fall.

We discuss that and more in Podcast 276.

Pat and Keith talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

Full episode:

D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast [ 1:19:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

Theme music: DJmentos. Jordan Gunter photo by Kyle Piercy, Centre athletics; TCNJ athletics photo; d3photography.com

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ATN Podcast 275: A time to listen

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In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, we held off on our May podcast episode.

Whatever we had planned would not stand up to what the country was going through, and as many podcasts and content creators turned to amplify Black voices, we knew we needed to do the same.

This upcoming season, if there is one, 17 Black men will be head coaches of Division III football programs. One of them, Chip Taylor of Hamline, was on Lake Street in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, just hours before and blocks away from where Floyd was killed. We talk with Taylor about his reaction, the immediate aftermath, plus his Hamline program and how they wrapped up recruiting during COVID-19, not to mention changes coming to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

That’s just one of the voices you’ll hear on this podcast, though. We also invited three Black Division III football student-athletes, from a variety of backgrounds, to talk about when they realized that this was the killing of a Black man that would bring about a change in perception, as well as their experiences on campus as young Black men, and how they work as leaders on their campuses. Please take the time to listen to Nik Hayes of Millsaps, Malcolm Lang of Wabash and Devin Smith of Cortland as they and Keith McMillan tell their of their stories and experiences.

And then, there is some news to tackle right now, even in the uncertainty surrounding the fall season, as Wesley College appears to be on the verge of either going under or getting acquired by/merged into Delaware State University. What would happen to their football program? We chat with Sean Greene, the Wolverines’ longtime play-by-play voice on WDEL Radio.

We discuss that and more in Podcast 275.

Pat and Keith talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device.

Full episode:

D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast [ 1:41:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. 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

Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps:

New track from Analog Suspects (including DJmentos): Savage

Theme music: DJmentos.