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ATN Podcast 361: Big wins from new faces

With so many teams taking the week off, there was a big opportunity to step up and grab the spotlight, and boy did schools such as LaGrange and Bates do exactly that. Nothing like getting a double-digit game losing streak off your back.

Plus, a game of the week that absolutely looked like one, as we break down Carnegie Mellon at Washington & Jefferson. In addition, Patrick got eyes on Bethel for the first time this season as the Royals hosted St. John’s and we get his take on how the Johnnies look and how the new-look Bethel offense is shaking out.

And then Patrick has some words for the D3football.com Top 25 voter panel — some of them, at least.

Plus, Hope keeps running and running and ran its way into our Top 25 this week. Like we said in Podcast 360, they could run enough to keep the Alma offense off the field and they did just that. Flying Dutch coach Peter Stuursma joins us to talk about it in Fast Five.

We’ll whip you through the big games in Division III from this past weekend, catch up with a brand-new running back with an interesting background, see who had an overflow crowd and who will have to wait a long time to see if they are truly playoff material. Plus, who’s having fun in the 1? Who’s pulling through in the 2? What do we see in the 3? Who’s looking for more in the 4? Who’s looking alive in the 5? And, who’s got a new bag of trick in the 6? To see a list of all the teams talked about in this podcast, look at the list at the bottom of the post.

Math Correspondent Logan Hansen talks about the three biggest playoff leverage games for Week 5, plus gives his usual snapshot for how those top eight seeds are looking. How did that change after this past week’s games? Remember, my goodness, people, this is based on projection of how the season will play out and of course, teams with harder schedules might have a harder time making the top eight because they might not actually win all their games.

We also hand out game balls to the top performers, pick out the stats of the week, and run through region by region to get some of the other stories you might have missed, such as all the great finishes for various schools on Homecoming this past weekend. And since that never seems to be enough, Greg and Patrick have to pick one more region to tell one more story about on the fly. There’s that and so much more in this week’s podcast, so give it a listen!

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.
Photo by Steve McLaughlin for Wesleyan athletics

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ATN Podcast 288: Close calls from Week 5

Week 5 was witness to a number of key battles, both inside and outside of the Top 25, and if you’re living life in the fast lane, your hopes for making the postseason may be already gone in the long run. One of these nights, you think, someone is going to upset the team you are chasing in the standings, or in the Top 25, and then there’s going to be a heartache tonight. That did not happen to Washington & Jefferson, which survived a close game at Geneva and will finally get another home game. Presidents coach Mike Sirianni talks about that and more with us in our Tight Five segment. There’s no wasted time when we get the interview down to five minutes.

Or perhaps you are exceeding everyone’s expectations and you’re the new kid in town. That could well be FDU-Florham, which took it to Widener this weekend. There’s implications here beyond the MAC standings, however, and if you can trust your lyin’ eyes, you can probably have a peaceful, easy feeling about your postseason chances.

Saturday night also saw a big game down in Georgia that we’ll talk about, and of course, you’d have to think hell freezes over if we don’t talk about that big win for Ithaca against Hobart. Meanwhile, it was business as usual for Central against Wartburg — 2021 style, anyway. Perhaps not 2019 style.

Plus, who really are the best dual-threat quarterbacks in Division III? You are not alone if you think it’s your quarterback, so we’ll give you a few more names because your program may not be the center of the universe.

What have been the most impactful plays of the season so far? Which two teams should play for the Twilight Trophy? That and much more in episode 288.

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: DJmentos.
Photo by Martin Santek photography for Washington & Jefferson athletics

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ATN Podcast 273: A silent spring

The fields will stand empty this spring, as college campuses across the country are devoid of student and athlete alike. The Division III football spring practice will be even more non-existent than usual.

Dozens of new coaches won’t get to see their teams in action, even if that action had been without helmets and pads. Hundreds of quarterback hopefuls won’t get to show off their skills in an organized setting.

And yet, all this pales to the threat each and every Division III coach, player and fan, across all sports, faces from the COVID-19 virus — a virus that even helped bring a school to close its doors permanently, with perhaps more to come. In this edition of the podcast, Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan talk with three coaches who are all helping their student-athletes face likely the most significant adversity of their lives.

That starts with MacMurray coach Chris Douglas, whose entire team and school was disbanded out from under him last week. He talked with us less than 24 hours after the news broke, to talk about how he and the school were helping his student-athletes and what plans they might have for continuing to play in 2020, for different programs.

We also talked with Jeff Thorne of national champion North Central. His spring practice would have been spent helping figure out who would take the quarterback reins from D3football.com Offensive Player of the Year Broc Rutter. Instead, it is spent sheltering at home, meeting with players online and looking for innovative ways to upgrade the Cardinals’ X’s and O’s. And we also talked with FDU-Florham coach Jimmy Robertson, who just took over the program six short weeks ago — or maybe it seems like longer than that. His vision for turning the Devils around starts with a plan, one which the team will have to start by working out at home.

Pat and Keith discuss that and more in Podcast 273.

Pat and Keith talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests 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: DJmentos. North Central athletics photo by Steve Woltmann.