Around the Nation Podcast: The big shuffle

Beckwith"
Alfred’s Chuck Beckwith had another fantastic game on Saturday.
Alfred athletics file photo

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Let’s see, there’s only a ton of good games from Saturday to talk about, and Pat and Keith try to hit it all in an hour. First of all, four ranked teams lost on Saturday, but that was guaranteed since we had four games between ranked teams. Surprise was, though, that none of them was competitive. Why? That’s discussed.

What was it that made us call the St. John Fisher and Birmingham-Southern upsets? And what do we do with the many teams which are either undefeated or have just one loss and are sitting outside the Top 25? That includes teams such as Waynesburg, and teams that just got into the poll, such as Coe.

Keith started to look at the video of Mount Union destroying Capital and gives us his first impressions. Plus, what the heck has happened to Capital?

Exactly how long has it been since Illinois Wesleyan won at Wheaton? In fact, in order to run the table, IWU must still win at Wheaton, North Central and Elmhurst. Plus, if you are new to the playoff process in Division III, you’ll want to listen for the explanation of how the pools work (apologies to those who have heard it all before).

And then there’s the great shootout that ended the night, with Sul Ross State defeating Texas Lutheran. Keith was watching online and gives us more details. All that and more below. Hit play.

  • St. Thomas postgame interviews mentioned in podcast
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    Postgame show

    Here’s this week’s D3football.com reports and highlight packages, including the Coe-Dubuque highlights mentioned in the podcast.

    And this week’s photo galleries from our friends at d3photography.com:

    ATN Podcast: Welcome back!

    Chris Denton
    Chris Denton was the Purple Raiders’ top receiver and returned two punts for touchdowns.
    Photo by Dan Poel for d3photography.com

    It was a long, strange trip. But when you see four games, you are bound to see a good one, and that’s what happened when Pat Coleman (and his 10-year-old son) drove into Galesburg, Ill., where Eureka quarterback Sam Durley was about to have the game of his life.

    You see, you never know what you’re going to get when you roll into town for a game in Division III. There are so many schools and rivalries and storylines that you could end up seeing something truly memorable, like a last-second win, a surprise upset or a great individual performance.

    Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan discuss in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

    Plus, they talk about the teams who got their 2012 off to a good start by ending long losing streaks, look at UW-Whitewater’s opening game, as well as Mount Union’s, and the surprises put up by North Carolina Wesleyan, Buffalo State, Rowan, Norwich, Willamette … as was said, a very interesting week.

    Press play below to listen or follow the download links included.

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    You should also be able to 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

    Plus, here’s this week’s D3football.com reports.

    ATN Podcast: All about the defense

    Mount Union defense
    Mount Union might be struggling on offense but you can’t beat them if you can’t score.
    Mount Union athletics photo by JT Higgins

    Records could fall, bids could be clinched, but the key story of this past week was big defensive performances by the top teams. UW-Whitewater’s defense may well have won it the game at Oshkosh, Mount Union shut down and picked off Capital, St. Thomas did its job at Bethel and North Central more than did so at Illinois Wesleyan. But as we caution, don’t forget special teams.

    And there seems to be a bit of a pecking order emerging for those six at-large playoff bids. Who is in the drivers seat, as much as anyone can be for an at-large bid? Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan name six teams. They discuss that and more in this week’s Around the Nation Podcast. See the list of tags at the bottom of this post to see who else is discussed.

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    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

    Plus, here’s the first look at this week’s D3reports, as well as Division III football highlight reels. These will also appear on the front page on Monday afternoon.