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ATN Podcast 420: No consensus, plenty of contenders

UW-Whitewater found a freshman-sized answer to a championship-sized challenge, while St. John’s turned shovel passes into an avalanche against Bethel and WashU broke through with the first top 10 victory in program history. Across Division III, defenses joined the scoring spree, long field goals delivered big wins and the playoff picture got a whole lot more interesting.

Which two defenses each produced three pick-sixes on the same Saturday? Which quarterback ran for three fourth-quarter touchdowns on just four carries? Which offense somehow scored 335 points on 336 plays? Oh yes, we did the math.

Who came up with the key defensive plays to get a game ball in Trinity’s revenge win against Berry? Who became a one-man Falcon wrecking machine in Whitewater? Who hit from 54 yards to give Luther a win, and who earned the nickname “Patty Ice” while kicking St. Olaf to a win?

Plus, WashU coach Aaron Keen joins us for Fast Five, the analytics say what they’re going to say, and Dickinson produces a third quarter unlike just about anything we’ve seen. Who survived an even longer delay than the one at St. John’s? Who scored three touchdowns before the opponent even recorded a first down? And who finally got to see the St. John’s tailgate?

And looking ahead: Can Whitewater follow its biggest win of the season by winning at UW-La Crosse? Will Rowan’s defensive prowess continue at Salisbury? Might Howard Payne make a statement at Mary Hardin-Baylor? Can Ohio Northern throw a great big … bear paw … into the OAC race? And most importantly, what happens when No. 1 North Central and No. 2 Wheaton meet for the Little Brass Bell?

Patrick and Greg tackle all this, plus your mailbag questions, in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

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

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: Semanco Media for WashU athletics; Evan Laserstein for UW-Whitewater athletics, Ella Carlson for St. John’s athletics

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ATN Podcast 380: Goin’ on a trip

For the first time, we whipped out our passport to go abroad to cover a Division III football story. Twenty-six years into running the website and in the 19th year of the podcast and yes, there can still be new things. A number of Division III schools left the country to give their student-athletes an educational experience and to also play a spring football game, and we followed along with one of those teams and you can follow along with three of them in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast.

Plus …

This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more.

St. John’s went up to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to play the Winnipeg Rifles of the Canadian Junior Football League, and the Johnnies were hoping to learn a little bit more about what they have at quarterback. Since Aaron Syverson has graduated, the Johnnies were looking at five quarterback candidates, one of whom noped out before the trip even started. So four players got snaps up north on Saturday, May 17, and two are in the mix to get the start in Week 1 against Minnesota-Morris. You’ll meet them and hear what their receivers, offensive coordinator, and head coach Gary Fasching think of their performance, plus you’ll hear about the most Canadian thing ever that happened before the game and meet a few SJU transfers whose names you could be hearing this fall.

Carnegie Mellon went to Spain, and we’ll find out from coach Ryan Larsen what the Tartans were hoping to get out of their trip, since they lost so many starters and key contributors from a team which had Mount Union on the ropes in the fourth quarter of last year’s playoff game. And Hampden-Sydney took its team to Italy, where coach Vince Luvara had a quite different take on what was important for his program and his student-athletes.

Plus, you’ll be hungry after you hear about the great eating both teams did in Europe! Also, Patrick and Greg will give their take on the top five quarterbacks in D-III football since 1999, and will present two teams which could contend for conference titles after not making the playoffs last year, thanks to two great questions from our mailbag segment.

Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

The D3football.com podcast is a podcast that is weekly during the season and monthly in the offseason, by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas. The podcast was started in 2007. 

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

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.
Photos by Pat Coleman, Damara O’Malley, D3sports.com

 

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ATN Podcast 365: Hope is not lost

This past week, a number of teams had their shot. They had the opponent they wanted to play on the field in front of them. They generally even had that game at home, in front of their home fans.

But in Week 8 of the 2024 Division III football season, it didn’t really break as these teams hoped. Not for Ursinus, not for Coe, not for Case Western Reserve, not for Washington U. Not even for St. Olaf, if you want to dig down that far.

In the past, that would generally be it. A chance at reaching the Division III playoffs was going to be a stretch. But not anymore, not with 12 at-large teams, a 40-team bracket, and an NCAA Power Index rating system that just might save some of these teams.

Who has hope? Patrick and Greg break it down with analysis, rather than overreaction.

Marietta made the Top 25 this week for the first time in program history, and Pioneers coach Andy Waddle sits down with us for Fast Five. This is a program that has come a long way, but still has its two biggest games of the regular season yet to come, and both are on the road.

Plus, Patrick and Greg hand out game balls. Patrick pulls out a highlight clip from 21 years ago, and yes, a number of clips from this past weekend. Plus we go through more highlights from Region 1 through Region 6, we answer a couple of reader questions in the mailbag, and not only does Greg wax poetic in On the Spot, we Axe poetic as well. Plus, it’s our 365th podcast — we now have a podcast for every day of the year. So that’s a thing.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which was started in 2007. New episodes are published weekly during the season.

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

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.
Jason Kapusta, Westminster (Pa.) athletics; Wheaton athletics photo by Michael Hudson photography; Marietta athletics photo by Rebecca Wheeler Photography