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ATN Podcast 388: Upon further review …

You’ve gotten the stop, pounced on a fumble, you’re celebrating a key win to open up your conference slate. Only then do the officials huddle up, and without the benefit of replay, overturn the call originally made on the field and give the team which by all rights lost the game another chance.

You’d be forgiven, perhaps, if it took you more than the customary 24 hours to get that emotion out of your system, to turn the page.

If you were Hope, which had defeat snatched from the jaws of victory on Saturday afternoon, in a turn of events so unexpected that it has garnered 211,000 views as of this writing on our X account, you could be excused. But the Flying Dutchmen will show up for the 6:30 team meeting with head coach Peter Stuursma today and be asked to turn the page.

No, the MIAA can’t overturn the result — they tried to with a basketball game back in 2001. Will the conference issue a statement about the officiating at the end of the game? They should. The answer to our question to the conference office came while we were recording, and you’ll hear our reaction as the response came in, live.

Coach Stuursma joins us to talk about the play and the aftermath on this edition of the podcast in Fast Five.

Haven’t seen the play? It’s this one below.

Not the only big game, don’t get us wrong. Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas dive into the Christopher Newport-Susquehanna game, the interesting ways in which quarterback Josh Ehrlich and running back Rahshan La Mons were used, and the body language of the two teams down the stretch. And it seemed super likely that the Washington & Jefferson Presidents weren’t going to start the season 0-3, and we look deeply at their game with Grove City from Saturday night.

Plus, we’ll take four your mailbag questions about the Top 25. Why do teams on bye move? What do voters do with Alma and Hope?

Patrick and Greg Thomas hand out game balls, Logan Hansen talks about which conferences have a better than 70% chance of getting an at-large team into the playoffs, we go around each region for even more stories and much more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

Mentioned link below:

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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Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos.
Photos by Kai Foote – NPU media; W&J athletics file; Lynne Powe, Hope athletics

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ATN Podcast 372: Flipping the script

Yep, we all thought we knew exactly what to expect from the round of 16 of the Division III football playoffs.

What did we get instead? Something way, way more interesting. That’s the national champion being ousted. That’s St. John’s falling at home on the final play of the game. And that’s a bracket with four quarterfinal games, three of which are being hosted by teams in Region 2 and none in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Ohio. (Shout out to Illinois as the fourth host!) Besides, Division III football isn’t scripted. It’s not the NBA.

Instead, we have Springfield, having beaten the No. 2 team in the nation and the defending national champion, then getting into a plane to play at No. 1 North Central. Did you have “getting on a plane” on your Springfield football bingo card? You know they’re looking forward to this, and the memories that form from such an event, and Pride coach Mike Cerasuolo joins us on the podcast for the first time since so long ago we hadn’t started numbering yet. (But it was Podcast 146, from May 2016, when Cerasuolo was first hired.) He talks about what the triple option actually is, how his team got past Cortland, and the challenge the Pride have ahead of them.

Plus, we hand out game balls, including one to a star running back who, actually, has really become a much better blocker this season. We run down all eight games and give our thoughts on the upcoming quarterfinal matchups. Plus we take three reader questions, one about those Road Dogs from Belton, Texas, one asking which team’s phase of the game or position group surprised us most and one about the Gagliardi Trophy. Plus, be the first people to learn when we will release the 2024 D3football.com All-America team!

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 Mark Evrard, d3photography.com

 

 

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ATN Podcast 371: Measuring the fallout

Now everyone in the playoffs has played at least one postseason game, or if you look at it another way, more than 60% of the playoff games are already over. And people are in a hurry to dismiss the WIAC, and they’re in a hurry to crown NPI, because higher seeds have won 21 of the 24 games. (Of course, higher seeds have been at home in 23 out of 24 games, which might be a factor.)

What did we learn from these games? Of the remaining high seeds, which ones improved their standing, improved their chances of going deep into this bracket, and which ones’ chances are diminished? Patrick and Greg go through it all in this edition of the podcast. And most importantly, if the Texas Lutheran-Linfield game was dessert, what kind of dessert was it?

We hear from coaches and players involved in second-round games on Saturday, and we sit down with Johns Hopkins coach Dan Wodicka to talk about his team’s heart-stopping finish against Grove City, their defensive prowess and their offensive adjustments as the season has progressed. Wodicka, who played for and coached under the late Jim Margraff, talks about how playing at JHU made him want to coach there, and reminds us how the program is carrying on Margraff’s memory.

Plus, who is leading the staff pick-em contest that is better known as Quick Hits? Stay tuned to hear about whose picks are doing the best, and to hear a tribute to his performance so far. 

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. This podcast was re-published on Monday evening to try to get the feed on Spotify to recognize it.

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 Johns Hopkins athletics; Cortland athletics; Linfield athletics; Hope athletics