Anticipation of Stagg Bowl XXXIV

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So I’m at my real job on Sunday, on the sports copy desk at USA Today, sitting not far from a Wisconsin native. Another editor stops by his desk. The Wisconsin native asks the other if he saw that UW-Whitewater won and would be headed back to the Stagg Bowl.

Some people here know me as a Division III football geek/guru (you make the call), but in this case, I was like a fly on the wall, listening to two casual fans’ honest opinions about Division III football.

“You see who won?”
“No, who?”
“Wisconsin-Whitewater. They’re going back to the championship to play Mount Union.”
“Oh. Now they’ll get killed.”

Normally, I’d butt in there, as most of us expect a pretty tight rematch between the Warhawks and Purple Raiders. But for some reason I kept listening.

“You’ll never guess who scored three touchdowns?”
“Who?”
“Derek Stanley. The guy who used to be a running back at Wisconsin (Madison), and beat up his girl and got kicked off the team. He must’ve ended up at Whitewater.”

‘Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?’ I thought to myself. ‘I didn’t know that. I’m supposed to know stuff like that about D3. I’ve never heard anyone say a negative word about Derek Stanley. And Whitewater doesn’t really seem like it would need to build with transfers with questionable pasts. And he’s a receiver, not a running back. I’m so confused.”

So eventually I spoke up. And we determined that it was BOOKER Stanley who was convicted in July of beating and choking a woman in his off-campus apartment. The running back was kicked off the team this offseason by new UW coach Bret Bielema, and according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in April, inquired about enrolling and playing for Whitewater.

The Warhawks already had a Stanley, thank you very much (not to mention some running back that appears to be holding down the starting job). As far as I know, DEREK is a model citizen.

A journalist always gets his facts straight … eventually.

The moral of the story, kids, is: You might learn a lot more about Mount Union and UW-Whitewater this week than you ever thought you would. But don’t believe everything you hear, and always consider your source.

Definitely keep this in mind as you read fans’ chit-chat about Saturday’s national championship game. 🙂

Have at it everybody:

A different trip to Alliance

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This was about the strangest trip to Alliance I’ve ever been on. It was my seventh time at Mount Union, my sixth time at the national semifinals, and this one was decidedly different than the others.

First of all, usually Keith McMillan and I drive together, leaving D.C. far too late on Friday night, not getting much sleep, calling the game and driving back listening to (and singing) the ’80s songs that permeate the airwaves on a Saturday night.

But, of course, this trip did not go down that way. Keith and I don’t live in the same state anymore, so we traveled separately. It was a painfully long drive back to Connecticut. I’ll have to get a second driver or fly the next time I do that.

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand.
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land.

Usually this trip results in us seeing a blowout. I made the trip solo in 1999, spending the night at the home of Mount Union broadcaster Ric Brienza. Mount Union lost to Rowan in overtime the next day and, for some reason, I have not been offered a bed for the night since. 🙂

Ray Martel and Pat Cummings and I made the trip in 2000: Mount Union 70, Widener 30.
Keith and I went in 2001: Mount Union 35, St. John’s 14
Ray and Keith and I went for a regular season game in 2002: Mount Union 35, John Carroll 16. I did not partake of the semifinal rematch, won by Mount Union 57-19.
Keith and I went in 2003: Mount Union 66, Bridgewater 0
Keith and I went in 2004 as well, for the loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor.

But this trip was none of that. It was a Mount Union win, in a close game.

We’re headed for Venus, and still we stand tall.
Cause maybe they’ve seen us, and welcome us all.

Sometimes I felt like I was witnessing my own final countdown on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in December on the way to and from Alliance. (Best thing about I-80 — it’s not the Turnpike!) My favorite combination — wind, snow, darkness, a twisty road and an old car. No thanks. One year I got directions that took me across the tip of West Virginia just to get off the turnpike sooner, but it wasn’t worth it.

Oh, we’re halfway there. Oh, living on a prayer.

Usually Keith and I are about the last ones out the door from the stadium. In 1999, when I was basically doing the site solo, Ed Barmakian of the Newark Star-Ledger and I baked in the old press box until at least 6 p.m. (Old heat, too, though it sure worked.) Lately it had become a routine to stop for dinner at the Arby’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike just over the border from Ohio. And usually we pull into the Washington area about 1 a.m.

Everybody tell me have you heard? Pop goes the world.

This time I found out one of our Alliance staples was to be no longer. The Buffalo Wild Wings in town is giving up the franchise name and becoming a generic sports bar. A memorable experience there in 2000 made BW3/Buffalo Wild Wings a staple for D3football.com road trips. And a less than memorable morning after made the Mount Union/Widener game even less bearable.

But it was strange, but good. I enjoyed meeting some more Mount Union fans I hadn’t yet gotten to know. St. John Fisher fans either weren’t in the restaurant or didn’t want to say hi. I won’t hold it against you.

So you better go back to your bars, your temples …
your massage parlors.

Brainstorm for ATN’s year-in-review

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Well,
We’ve always enlisted readers’ help for the year in review, and last year you helped us produce the biggest year in review ever. Hopefully we can boil it down some, but with 234 teams and about 1,200 games, there’s just so much to cover.

That’s where you all come in. With the popularity of the Daily Dose, some of the more serious posters can be a big help in looking back at a great season. (Obviously we’ve one game left, but it can’t hurt to start looking back at the rest now)

Here are the ground rules:

Season in review
Around the Nation will begin accepting brief suggestions from readers (and players, coaches and school-affiliated professionals) for our 2006 Year-in-Review, due out in January 2007. Use last year’s review (linked at the top right-hand corner, posted Jan. 25, 26 and 27) as a guide for which categories we’re looking to fill, or make up your own. ATN cannot promise public credit for your suggestions this year, and we may or may not use them.

But if you think Kean was the surprise team of ‘06 or Luther was the biggest disappointment, let us know here. We’d like to hear your games of the year, plays of the year, players, coaches and things, but most importantly, your off-the-beaten path nominations and suggestions. Things we haven’t covered much or would have no way of knowing about are where you can help most.

I know better than to promise I will use everything you post here, but as we look toward this season’s grand finale — done the right way, on the field … I can’t mention that too many times — let’s look back at the season that was.

Try to refer to previous year in review columns (2005 Parts One, Two and Three) … but of course you can make up new categories for fitting issues.

Here are a few things off the top of my head … this is just a brainstorm, so feel free to contribute your thoughts, unrefined. As few or as many as you have. And certainly we can come up with a Best X and think of a better one, if we all put our heads together. Thanks in advance.

Best regular season rushing performance: Justin Beaver’s 286 vs. UW-Lax
Best playoff rushing performance: Nate Kmic’s 371 vs. St. John Fisher
Most confusing score triangle: UWW 7, UMHB 3; Wesley 34, UMHB 20; UWW 44, Wesley 7
Most impactful play: Jim Migliore’s OT TD catch for Rowan vs. Cortland in Week 10. The Profs eventually won the NJAC and played 3 playoff games, Cortland missed the playoffs at 9-1.
Best big-time acknowledgements: ESPNews’ Division III playoff selection show, featuring Pat Coleman on analysis, Colby-Bates photo in SI, NCAASports.com playoff videocasts, USA Today’s planned feature on Salem, Va.
Worst big-time acknowledgements: USA Today columnist Ian O’Connor writing that the “lower division” playoffs just test who has the fewest injuries in a column defending the BCS; ESPN’s TMQ calling Mount Union the home of bad sportsmanship for some of their margins of victory (will have to check the direct quotes, but you get the gist)
Best games: Whitworth at UW-Stout, Bethany had a couple of really interesting ones.
Worst playoff score comparison: Millsaps’s 21-0 loss to Carnegie Mellon, which lost 37-0 to Wesley, which beat UMHB but lost to UWW 44-7.

Again, these are tentative and just ideas at this point. Feel free to chip in … don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more come January. You won’t spoil yourself by following this thread/post.