Category Archives: General

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ATN Podcast 406: Looking ahead at Draft, Duhawks, Diplomats

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The NFL Draft is coming up this week, and Division III has had only three players drafted since 2012, all of them offensive linemen who were thought of quite highly and drafted quite highly: Ali Marpet of Hobart, Ben Bartch of St. John’s and Quinn Meinerz of UW-Whitewater. If Division III has a player drafted from any position other than O-line, it’s probably most likely to be Ty Montgomery of John Carroll, who we talked about back in Podcast 404.

Why has it been so hard for D-III guys to get drafted lately? We bring in a player agent to talk about what he’s seen in two decades of representing Division III football talent, what NFL teams are looking for and what the prerequisite is before one ever even gets to a Pro Day. John Perez, who played D-III ball at William Paterson, talks us through it.

It’s a new day at Loras, as the Duhawks have a new head coach in former St. John’s defensive coordinator Brandon Novak, are hoping to generate some buzz of their own in Dubuque, Iowa, and looking to take a step forward for a program which hasn’t won more than five games in a season since 2008. Novak has filled his key assistant coaching slots with some young guys, he inherits a non-conference schedule already laid out for him, and he has to adjust from wearing red for more than a quarter-century to purple.

We also talk with Mike Phelan, whose first year as head coach at Franklin & Marshall was incredibly successful, as the Diplomats won their rivalry game and won the Centennial Conference’s automatic bid. He talks about NFL hopeful Gary Lewis, a wide receiver for F&M last year, plus Phelan talks about who his mentors are as a coach and who he gets advice from when needed.

In addition, we take your questions on the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference managing to snag an automatic bid, and on Anna Maria College getting essentially a vote of no-confidence from the state of Massachusetts. Where might podcast co-host Patrick Coleman end up going for a game in Week 1 of this season? We discuss the story of Ithaca’s Derek Slywka and his pro football journey. And Patrick and fellow co-host Greg Thomas have some news about the immediate future of this podcast.

Our guests on this podcast: Loras coach Brandon Novak, Franklin & Marshall coach Mike Phelan, John Perez of Perez Sports Associates.

Links: A look at the old Loras Fieldhouse, from 2018 on D3hoops.com

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | 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

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Photos: Loras athletics; Franklin & Marshall athletics

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ATN Podcast 405: New faces, new places in D-III

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The Coaching Carousel took many spins since we dropped our previous podcast, and it’s time we caught up with those movements and get someone on the podcast! That honor goes to Michael Zweifel at UW-La Crosse, who replaces Matt Janus after Janus’s move to Division II. Zweifel was one of two finalists who were UW-L coordinators, but he says there was no feats of strength competition with fellow Eagles staffer Tarek Yaeggi, who is a La Crosse alumnus and remains offensive coordinator.

Key topics of conversation: Will Zweifel continue to call the defense? And how did the all-time record-holding wide receiver in NCAA Division III history make that transition from offense to defense in the first place? As a guy who grew up around the UW-Whitewater Warhawks program, where his dad was an assistant coach, who were his favorite Warhawks? What changes does Zweifel have in mind for the La Crosse program?

WashU didn’t change coaches, but the football program is changing conferences this season, and that means going from the CCIW, where North Central and Wheaton stood between the Bears and the playoffs, to the North Coast Athletic Conference, where the list of teams at the top is even longer: John Carroll, DePauw, Wabash, now WashU. Bears coach Aaron Keen talks about what kind of offseason preparation they are doing to get ready for nine new opponents this fall, the long career of former head coach Larry Kindbom, who coached Keen as a player and remained on as a full-time assistant coach up until retiring at the age of 72.

We also finish our mini-tour of Division III football programs in Southern California which are being revived as we chat with Azusa Pacific football coach AJ Parnell. Parnell is a former Bethel quarterback and assistant coach who returned to the west coast to bring this football program back, after it had been dormant since 2020, and to bring some Division III experience to an athletic department which could use it, as the school reclassifies from NCAA Division II to Division III.

Our guests on this podcast: UW-La Crosse coach Michael Zweifel, WashU coach Aaron Keen and Azusa Pacific coach AJ Parnell.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | 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:

Photos: UW-La Crosse athletics; Azusa Pacific University; WashU athletics photo by Micah H Manuel

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ATN Podcast 402: Welcome to Canton!

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Coming to you from Canton, Ohio, it’s our Stagg Bowl preview edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas are joined by Keith McMillan, as well as Seth Howard of the Left Hash Podcast and D1 Rejects, a former UW-River Falls quarterback and assistant coach who will be our sideline reporter for our audio broadcast of Stagg Bowl 52. (Watch on ESPN, then mute the sound and listen to us!)

Patrick, Greg and Keith talked with a number of players and both head coaches at Friday’s media day, and we bring a sampling of those conversations, of which you’ll hear or see more on our pregame coverage. Hear what UW-River Falls safety Andre Hall thinks about the pace of the game compared to the pace of practice. Cortez Jones and North Central coach Brad Spencer talk about what you’ll see when the offensive is playing well. Falcons Gagliardi winner and quarterback Kaleb Blaha talks about how it felt to get a few extra days off between games and our panel discusses both the mental and physical benefits of getting that time back.

North Central’s J.P. Sullivan talks about carrying on the tradition of great Cardinals defensive linemen. River Falls receiver Blake Rohrer discusses the Falcons wide receiver group. Cardinals receiver Thomas Skokna talks about the possibly unexpected way he and quarterback Garret Wilson built their chemistry. Falcons linebacker Gage Timm talks about how the UW-RF season has prepared them for this moment and coach Matt Walker talks about the important thing he had to do before he could commit to the Top Gun offense.

UW-Oshkosh coach Peter Jennings joins us to talk about coaching against each of these teams this season, and how you can’t play the comparative scores game when looking at his Titans’ games against North Central and UW-River Falls. Plus, we take your mailbag questions, talk about coaching changes and much more.

That and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a weekly conversation about NCAA Division III football, and has been running since 2007.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | 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: Power 2 by DJmentos.
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