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ATN Podcast 387: 3-0 after three weeks

For some teams, a 3-0 start is precisely in the plan. For others, 3-0 is perhaps a pipe dream, or a first-time occurrence.

In this week’s edition of the podcast, we talk about a few of each as we wrap up Week 3 of the Division III football season.

Johns Hopkins was given just about a 50% chance of starting the season 3-0, with some top-flight competition on the docket. But they got the job done, and we learned a little bit about the Blue Jays in the process. We’ll tell you what we’ve seen and coach Dan Wodicka will do the same.

UW-Whitewater vaulted itself into the same top echelon as the rest of the WIAC contenders with a big win down at Mary Hardin-Baylor. What did we see that bodes well for the Warhawks and what does this do to the Cru’s playoff chances? We’ll discuss.

Plus, a number of teams are surprising at 3-0. How about Calvin? The Knights are in just their second season of varsity football and got to 3-0 in dramatic fashion on the road, against a team from a tough conference. How about Hampden-Sydney? The Tigers moved to 3-0 and did it in dominant fashion, and on the ground. And Lewis & Clark, you know, the school that hired away Linfield offensive coordinator Brett Elliott, the Gagliardi Trophy-winning quarterback, and made him head coach? The Pioneers got the job done with defense on Saturday, and Greg Thomas talks with Elliott in our Fast Five.

Plus, we’ll dive in and take four of your mailbag questions, about the SAA, how many teams we think are in the top tier of Division III, whether D-III’s wins against D-II schools and an FCS program mean that Division III is getting better, and what’s up with Coast Guard.

Patrick and Greg Thomas hand out game balls, Logan Hansen talks about which teams have a better than 50% chance of making the playoffs as an at-large team if needed, we go around each region for the happy and sad stories and much more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

All that and 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 David Morris, UMHB athletics; Ashley Sap, Calvin athletics; Johns Hopkins athletics

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ATN Podcast 357: Big games in Week 1

We had to wait an extra week longer than just about everyone else, but we are here to get you ready for Week 1 with our preview podcast. Patrick and Greg will talk about the big games nationally in this week’s pod, but also about the biggest games in Region 1 all the way through Region 6.

Plus, as you may know, tech is going to play a bigger role in the 2024 Division III football season, and not just in the ways we’ve already talked about. In addition, the Centennial Conference is instituting replay review for its football games, and regardless of how well you think that might work with a typical Division III broadcast, we’re here to tell you that yes, it’s a good thing. Peter Gallagher, the head coach at Ursinus, joins us to talk about that and the challenges of competing in a league dominated by Johns Hopkins and Muhlenberg, as well as getting to learn a whole new set of teams from the New Jersey Athletic Conference, and more.

We answer all the big questions, such as, why exactly did we not start with games this week? What’s the best Twitter/X handle for a Division III football head coach? Who really really needs a W in Region 1? Who is going to take snaps for Aurora this week? (Nobody really knows that answer yet, actually.) What low-key big game is under the radar a bit in Region 3? Is Calvin actually favored in its first-ever Division III varsity football game? And is anyone not in the mix for the SCIAC title?

Sometimes it’s hard to get hold of coaches at this time of year, but we are super grateful to get two of them to take time out of their busy jobs and chat with us about how camp is going in their first head coaching jobs.

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.
John Carroll athletics photo by John Reid III

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ATN Podcast 316: All eyes on Platteville, plus regional rankings

Some things we can’t seem to avoid talking about every week this season:

  • The Cortaca Jug game in Yankee Stadium
  • The University of Wisconsin-Platteville

This week, Platteville made headlines again, and for the second week in a row, extremely positive headlines as the Pioneers shook up the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 17-14 win against then-No. 3 UW-Whitewater. What in the name of Dan Arnold is going on with this program? How did the Pioneers go from losing back-to-back games by an average of 40 points, to these two consecutive wins against River Falls and Whitewater?

We’ve had these questions. We assume you’ve had these questions. So we ask these questions. We ask them of Ryan Munz, the Platteville head coach, who is our guest on Fast 5, plus maybe a couple of extra minutes at the top of the podcast.

Plus, it’s really time to dig into how the playoffs are set up in Division III football. If you’re new to Division III, this is a must-listen. Even if you’ve been following for a few years, a refresher might be helpful and yes, some things have changed, even if they are small things.

In all, 69 schools merit serious mention in this week’s podcast. That includes the way in which Cortland beat Utica, how North Central handled Washington U., Austin College and Beloit breaking long losing streaks, not to mention Bowdoin pulling off an unexpected victory as well.

In addition, Pat and Greg hand out game balls, spotlight the unexpected in Stat of the Week, make guesses about Week 9 games and more. There’s a list in small type at the bottom of this page of all the teams that are talked about.

Fan question in the mailbag from @mikey_shoultz: What team from the bottom 10 ranked conferences in your conference rankings has the best chance to win a playoff game?

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.
UW-Platteville athletics photo