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ATN Podcast 364: Sorting out the chaos

No, we didn’t get a four-way tie for first in the MAC after this weekend, but we still have plenty of chaos across Division III football after seven weeks. Part of this is because eight more playoff bids means more teams are in contention for the playoffs, but mostly, we’re just talking about teams chasing conference automatic bids.

So in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, that’s five teams in contention. In the WIAC, it’s really six. It’s four in the MAC and at least three in the ODAC. We’ll run those down and talk about which big games are left in each conference.

Our Fast Five guest is Western Connecticut (WestConn) coach Joe Loth, whose Wolves are laying waste to MASCAC teams in their final year in the league before they and Castleton get kicked to the curb.

Plus, should we let Greg throw in a bonus conference just to make sure he can play his random card? Does Patrick stick with his prepared material or abandon it to make sure he doesn’t get stuck holding a card? Which conference told its coaches that tiebreakers had changed after the season started? And we’ll get you a daily double of defense in game balls, give you more defensive prowess in Stat of the Week, run down the new NPI numbers — you know, the NCAA Power Index — and explain why they might be wrong, or at least, not the same as the numbers you see elsewhere. And we’ll tell you who’s having fun in the 1, who’s going for 2 in the 2, what’s the key to the 3, what’s the score in the 4, who’s looking alive in the 5 and who’s got a new bag of tricks in the 6. That plus the mailbag, games to watch, on the spot and more in this week’s podcast.

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.
d3photograpy.com photos by Doug Sasse, Mike Atherton, Wade Gardner; D. Scherbenco, King’s athletics; Chris Ryan, W&L athletics; Jason Kapusta, Westminster (Pa.) athletics

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ATN Podcast 311: Breaking through to the other side?

In a week where some of us didn’t really expect any upsets, instead we got a couple of big ones, where Loras got two shots at a last-second field goal to beat Central, and Case throttled Washington & Jefferson’s offense. Plus, two of this week’s No. 1 votes went to unlikely places. Why did Hardin-Simmons get a No. 1 vote, and why does it not really actually matter?

We talk with Albion coach Dustin Beurer after his team won handily at Rose-Hulman on Saturday to improve to 3-0. He tells us he had one big takeaway from last year’s playoff loss to UW-La Crosse, and what his players had to do to get better, and it may not be what you would expect. He talks about that, the backup who is now leading them for the near future, and how he keeps the tradition of the Britons’ 1994 national title alive for his players, in our Fast Five segment.

Albion broke through into the Top 25 this week, but can the Britons break through and win a playoff game this year?

Plus, are pass breakups the new assists? What actually happened at quarterback for Hobart in Week 2? Pat and Greg talk about key stories from each region. Look at the bottom of this page to see all the teams listed. That’s who we talk about in this podcast, and probably more.

Fan question in our mailbag from Brock Reisler @brockreisler: Is the ARC Wartburg’s league to lose now? Does yesterday’s Loras/Central say more about the Duhawks or Dutch? #d3fb

Is this a breakthrough game for Loras? Or does this talk more about Central?

Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation covering the wide range of Division III football.

Greg gave his game ball to Gallaudet’s Brandon Washington. Here’s what was said:

Greg: My game ball’s going to Brandon Washington, a sophomore slot at Gallaudet. Washington rushed 28 times for 160 yards and one touchdown. He also completed three of five passes for 80 more yards and two more touchdowns. And he caught two passes for 60 more yards. And one more touchdown. The receiving touchdown would be the go ahead score in the Bison’s 34 to 31 win over the University of New England, a phenomenal effort by Washington and for passing, running, and receiving touchdowns all in the same game, he gets my game ball.

Is there a name for that, Pat? Is that a hat trick? A triple crown? What do they call that?

Pat: I don’t have a good name for it. We’ll have to find that out. If you have a good name for it. Hey, tweet it at us using the #d3fb hashtag. Great performance for Gallaudet going all the way up to Biddeford, Maine also, and coming away with that 34-31 win.

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

Full episode: [display_podcast]

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.
Photo by Owen Funke for Loras athletics; Savannah Waddick for Albion athletics

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ATN Podcast 309: Off to a fun start

Yeah, this was a fun first week of the Division III football season, as we were treated to a Top Five showdown right out of the gate, another matchup of national semifinal teams and much more.

We suppose it may not be so fun to be a UW-Whitewater fan or a Muhlenberg fan this week, but we’ll hear from Warhawks coach Kevin Bullis about the team’s commitment to tough scheduling, the mistakes they need to fix, and more in our Fast Five segment. Plus SJU quarterback Aaron Syverson returned and talked about what it was like to get that test early in the season, in front of a huge crowd.

Fan question in our mailbag from @CL1974MN: “If sju wins its next two games is that enough to slot in at number one, or do they first have to cure cancer?”

Plus, game balls returns, as does Stat of the Week and On the Spot. We talk about which teams are underrated and overrated, plus talk about the most interesting things region by region, including the person who gave Rowan a vote on their Top 25 ballot. And who had the worse weekend, the Ohio Athletic Conference or the USA South Athletic Conference? Plus. we talk about every single team that is tagged at the bottom of this post. That’s right! The regular season is back!

Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation covering the wide range of Division III football.

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

Full episode: [display_podcast]

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.
Photo by Wade Gardner, d3photography.com