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ATN Podcast 386: Too early surprises, disappointments

It’s sad to think that we are already phasing out of Great Non-Conference Game Season, but at least it is leaving us with some quality memories. Yes, Mary Hardin-Baylor and UW-Whitewater still get to grace us with their presence, and so do Springfield and UW-Platteville, and Johns Hopkins and Susquehanna, but … well, OK, we’ll hold on for one more week.

Meanwhile, the rest of the ranked teams got on the field this week in Week 2, as did the NESCAC, and Case Western Reserve managed to get through and finish a game. We’ll talk quite a bit about the new quarterback situation at North Central, and how the answer was not really what people thought it would be, or thought they had discovered. We’ll do the same with the quarterback situation at St. John’s, and we dive into UW-La Crosse’s first game as well as the opener for Bethel.

Plus, with a number of non-conference games over and done, we’ll take a suggestion from the mailbag and look at which conferences have surprised and which have disappointed so far through two weeks. The answers … well, they might surprise you a little, some of them.

We talk with Mount Union quarterback Mikey Maloney — Patrick Coleman went out to Grove City to see that game with Mount Union in person, and has a glowing report and an interesting Fast Five subject. Plus, Grove City coach Andrew DiDonato reflects on what his team went through in the 49-14 loss and what he sees his team needs to do to take that next step up the Division III ladder.

Patrick and Greg Thomas hand out game balls, Logan Hansen talks about which games in Week 3 have the most leverage, plus we take mailbag questions about the season’s first PAC showdown and whether it’s necessary to Fear the Moose, as well as whether Great Lakes states Indiana and Michigan can join Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin as producers of Division III championship teams.

All that and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

Bonus content links below:

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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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Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Ed Hall, Mount Union athletics; Braiden Foster, Wabash athletics; Colby athletics

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ATN Podcast 374: Two teams, one ring

We’re down to the best two teams in Division III football, both of whom are playing their best games at the right time. Mount Union is certainly firing on all cylinders now on offense after some struggles during the regular season, and you’d be hard-pressed to find more than one thing that went wrong for North Central as they absolutely demolished Susquehanna.

How did they get here? What do we do with the two weeks off? Who benefits more from that extra nine days? Soccer stadium for the Stagg Bowl — is that really OK? We talk about all the key moments of the semifinals, plus take your questions in this edition of the podcast. We talk about the depth of the North Central running backs. We discuss the two-quarterback system for Mount Union and how it worked in key spots. And more.

Plus, we can’t forget that Cortland coach Curt Fitzpatrick is leaving D-III, and we talk about that move plus another, possibly bigger move, with one of the top defensive players in Division III this season going into the portal and coming out as a scholarship player with the University of Wisconsin. You know, UW-Madison. The one in the Big 10. And what has been our favorite semifinal games to cover/attend/watch?

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which 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 Matt Durisko/Magnolia Media PA for D3sports.com; Doug Sasse, d3photography.com

 

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ATN Podcast 373: Down to four

Touchdown or no touchdown? Hold or no hold? Should the game have been over?

So many questions, and not the ones we would prefer to be asking about a game in the Division III football national quarterfinals. And yes, there were many questions about the final moments of the Bethel-Susquehanna game, and whether they should have been the final moments, so to break it all down, we talk to someone who was there on the sidelines taking it all in. Frank Rossi will have opinions, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, but they may not be the opinions that others share. He’ll talk us through the questions from the closing plays of Susquehanna’s 24-21 win, one which sent the program back to the national semifinals for the first time since 1991.

Plus, how hard-hitting was that North Central-Springfield game? Not just who got thrown out, but who got knocked out? How quickly can one adjust to seeing the spread option or triple option offenses up close and person like that, compared to in practice, and how did Mount Union practice and prepare for seeing it in Salisbury? And we welcome Keith McMillan back into the podcast as he went to Johns Hopkins and chatted with coach Dan Wodicka and some of the key players afterward.

Plus, we hand out game balls as we go through all four games and give our thoughts on three questions from listeners. three reader questions. Including the NESCAC, team GPAs, and more.

The D3football.com podcast is a weekly in-season podcast by Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas, which 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 Mike Atherton, Doug Sasse and Tom Nettleton, d3photography.com; for Mount Union by Katie Miller