Around the Nation podcast: Welcome to 2013


Christopher Newport seems particularly happy here.
CNU athletics photo by Joey Gardner

Subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes.

Maybe you went 9-1 and missed the playoffs in 2012, or maybe you went 0-10 and … well, missed everything. Maybe you had a fantastic season last year and hoisted some kind of trophy, perhaps made of walnut and bronze. Regardless of what you did in 2012, though, that’s over, and the new season is underway. Christopher Newport can celebrate, St. John’s can breathe a sigh of relief and Mount Union can take it back to the drawing board and try again.

Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman break down the first week’s action and analyze it all for you. The Around the Nation podcast is our weekly discussion of what went down and what’s about to happen.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your phone or portable device.[display_podcast]

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. 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

By the way, the tags below include the schools we talked about.

Around the Nation Year in Review: What’d we miss?

A week before Bethel hit on a two-point conversion as part of an infamous ending to its game against Concordia-Moorhead, it denied Augsburg’s go-ahead two-point try and held on to win.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

Earlier in the week, before we published the annual Around the Nation Year in Review column, we provided a sneak peek to some of our avid Twitter followers. They of course, enjoyed the peek, but pointed out things we missed.

The ATN YIR can’t be completely comprehensive, what with 1,200 games per season, but since we all have different perspectives, perhaps there were some moments that didn’t make our cut that still deserve discussing.

Augsburg SID Don Stoner pointed out a pretty relevant oversight:
Keith:
An addendum to your end-of-year story, regarding Bethel’s living and dying by the two-point conversion:

The week prior to Bethel’s last-second win over Concordia-Moorhead, the Royals claimed a 21-20 win at Augsburg. With 1:46 left to play, Augsburg scored on a fourth-down touchdown pass to cut the Royals’ lead to 21-20, but a Bethel defender knocked away a pass by the Auggies on a two-point conversion attempt. Augsburg did have another chance to win the game with 32 seconds remaining, but a Bethel interception ended the threat.

One other possible note for you:

Augsburg claimed last-second, “Hail Mary” victories on the road two seasons in a row. In 2011, the Auggies claimed a 32-31 win in the “Miracle in Collegeville” at St. John’s; this year (Sept. 15), the Auggies scored a 26-24 win at Gustavus in the “Miracle in St. Peter,” as first-year quarterback Ayrton Scott threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Bourne-McFarlane on the final offensive play of the game. Augsburg drove 80 yards on seven plays in the final 34 seconds of the game to claim the win. Bourne-McFarlane pulled double-duty for the Auggies this year, as both a safety on defense and wide receiver on offense.
I’d be glad to consider your oversights, especially if you point them out as kindly as Don did. Not everything we missed is because we didn’t want to include it. Sometimes we just forget.

And in case you missed them in the column, here are our Plays of the Week, compiled into a Plays of the Year video:

Around the Nation podcast: Season wrapup


Matt O’Connell got knocked around just a little.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

Subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes.

The season is over, sadly. But we had plenty of things to talk about after the game, nonetheless. We had to decide who our Players of the Year and Coach of the Year would be, and Pat and Keith weighed in — who should be No. 2?

We also gave our take on the game, and Keith asked one particular Mount Union player who the best team was he faced. The answer might surprise you. And who will be the best teams for 2013? The elite level might not change.

Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your phone or portable device.[display_podcast]

You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in iTunes. 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