Game Day from Alliance, Whitewater

It’s nine and a half hours to kickoff as I write this. And as the painful memory of nearly seven hours’ drive time on I-80 alone melts from my eyes, it’s time to throw out my predictions. I have Keith’s predictions in my inbox and have tried not to read them so far.

What will we see tomorrow? I hope we’ll see two good games. I fear we’ll see two blowouts. So maybe we’ll get something in between.

Mount Union 35, St. John Fisher 17
There’s been some question as to which players will be available and play for Mount Union tomorrow. In the end, it’s not going to matter. As long as Nate Kmic can play, this is going to be a quick game and a Purple Raider win.

UW-Whitewater 35, Wesley 17
Is Justin Beaver 100%? Can Mario Harris, et al, shut down Derek Stanley and Neil Mrkvicka? Will receiver Michael Clarke be able to get open and pull away for his yardage after the catch? Can either team stop Ryan Kleppe or Bryan Robinson?

Hmm, that’s a lot of questions.

Here’s Keith’s take.

Mount Union 28, St. John Fisher 14: If the Cardinals score more than 17 against the Purple Raiders, they’d be the first to do so this season.

UW-Whitewater 28, Wesley 21: The Wolverines keep it much closer this year, but the Warhawks find a way to win again, preserving a chance to send coach Bob Berezowitz off into retirement with a championship.

Check for updates on the Scoreboard, not to mention our live broadcasts.

OK, so I only picked one score for both games. So sue me. 🙂

All-Region time

Ahh, the flood has already begun. People like to complain about All-Region selections but usually they don’t stop to consider the process.

For example:

I am infuriated on your all region picks on the running backs Xxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx from xxxxx has an average of 5.5 per carry 12 touchdowns a total of 1,285 yards. How can your pick Xxxxxx and these other running backs over Xxxxxxxxxxxx this is disgusting and so unfair is this done for political reasons. This is my son I’m his mother … I’m disgusted and upset you people are horrible and to top it off he’s a senior. He helped xxxxxx get to the playoffs I didn’t see Xxxxxx do that or the others. This is obviously fixed. I will make an issue of this you people are awful and phonies

Her son wasn’t actually nominated. Hard to get on the team that way. He also wasn’t first team All-Conference and often that weighs into the decision whether to nominate a player.

I also had a situation this year where a player that had gotten accolades in the past was not nominated. I went back to the school and they said the coaching staff felt he had not played at an All-Region level this season.

I had to respect that — but also in looking at the other players nominated in that region at that spot, I had to put that person on the ballot.

The process starts shortly after the season ends. In this instance, schools had an eight-day window in which to nominate their players. On that eighth day, I looked through the nominees and specifically targeted 30 schools that hadn’t nominated players. Anyone who responded to the e-mail and needed an extension got an extra 24 hours.

In the end, sure, there are even worthy players who were nominated and just didn’t get enough votes. I understand that. We try to be perfect but I doubt we ever will be.

For that I apologize. We’ll continue to try to get better.

Knuckleheaded semifinal discussion

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

D3football.com values all of its patrons, so those of you who want to beef with each other can continue it here.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping the Well-thought-out, respectful discussion on the semifinals free of smack talk, whining, bickering, beefing and any other kind of knuckleheadedness that doesn’t pertain to the title in the thread.

Believe it or not, some people just want to come on to the Daily Dose and talk football without being called names, having their motives questioned, etc.

That stuff will be acceptable on this thread, since it’s clearly labeled for such discussion.

As for the other clearly labeled thread, please save me the trouble of moving/removing any of your posts.

If you don’t understand why I moved your post, it might just be because it didn’t add anything constructive to the discussion over there, which was clearly part of the stated goal.

The offending posts (I was kind enough to find them a new home, as opposed to deleting them entirely) follow:

rigg0123 Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 11:49 am

I’d like to give a shout-out to the Mt Union Purple Raiders. The greatest sports dynasty of all time.

GIT R DONE boys GIT R DONE!!

I can’t wait for Saturday. MU 56 — SJFC 3

DOC SWAMI Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 12:21 pm

ST JOHN’S FISHER WILL GET WHAT ROWAN DID OUT WEST AT LINFIELD IN 2004. MT UNION IS FAVORED BY 17 AND SHOULD WIN BY AT LEAST 28. UW WHITEWATER IS FAVORED BY 13′. I REALIZE THAT WESLEY IS BETTER, BUT WHITEWATER I BELIEVE IS READY FOR THE SHOWDOWN WITH MT UNION AGAIN. WHITEWATER WILL WIN 31-7.

Purple Crush Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 2:50 pm

You are dreaming if you think the score will be that bad. Stop being a HOMER and get real, clone!

rigg0123 Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 3:01 pm

Hey-
Aren’t you the one claiming UMHB was going to cruise through the south region and crush Wesley?
You all still crying about your first round match-up down there in Texas? Maybe the selection commitee knew what they were doing after all.