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ATN Podcast 365: Hope is not lost

This past week, a number of teams had their shot. They had the opponent they wanted to play on the field in front of them. They generally even had that game at home, in front of their home fans.

But in Week 8 of the 2024 Division III football season, it didn’t really break as these teams hoped. Not for Ursinus, not for Coe, not for Case Western Reserve, not for Washington U. Not even for St. Olaf, if you want to dig down that far.

In the past, that would generally be it. A chance at reaching the Division III playoffs was going to be a stretch. But not anymore, not with 12 at-large teams, a 40-team bracket, and an NCAA Power Index rating system that just might save some of these teams.

Who has hope? Patrick and Greg break it down with analysis, rather than overreaction.

Marietta made the Top 25 this week for the first time in program history, and Pioneers coach Andy Waddle sits down with us for Fast Five. This is a program that has come a long way, but still has its two biggest games of the regular season yet to come, and both are on the road.

Plus, Patrick and Greg hand out game balls. Patrick pulls out a highlight clip from 21 years ago, and yes, a number of clips from this past weekend. Plus we go through more highlights from Region 1 through Region 6, we answer a couple of reader questions in the mailbag, and not only does Greg wax poetic in On the Spot, we Axe poetic as well. Plus, it’s our 365th podcast — we now have a podcast for every day of the year. So that’s a thing.

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.
Jason Kapusta, Westminster (Pa.) athletics; Wheaton athletics photo by Michael Hudson photography; Marietta athletics photo by Rebecca Wheeler Photography

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ATN Podcast 363: Round one to the Cowboys

Hardin-Simmons came out of Saturday with another big, signature win, its second in as many weeks. The Cowboys keep exorcising those demons, this time coming up with their first win in Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Crusader Stadium.

What’s it like to have beaten Mary Hardin-Baylor pretty impressively but also know that that’s a good team on the other sideline that you have to play again this season? Do you hold anything back in your playbook for a second meeting? HSU coach Jesse Burleson joins us to talk about that and a few other things on Fast Five.

Plus, of course, another week of wackiness in the WIAC, and we’ll talk through all of that mess, as well as the big showdown between Grove City and Carnegie Mellon. GCC coach Andrew DiDonato talks about that key win for his Wolverines.

We’ll whip you through the big games in Division III from this past weekend. Plus, who’s having fun in the 1? Who’s looking for something new in the 2? Who’s running free in the 3? Who’s looking for to restore the roar in the 4? Who’s looking alive in the 5? And, who’s got something to fix 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 7, plus gives his usual snapshot for how those top eight seeds are looking. Has Mount Union crept into the Top 8 yet? Remember, 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. 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 Andrew Zavoina for Hardin-Simmons athletics

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ATN Podcast 314: Another classic week in D-III football

Spoiled. We are just spoiled this season by the great games in Division III football. There’s not much more we can say. The span on Saturday afternoon in which all three games pictured here: Birmingham-Southern at Trinity (Texas), UW-Oshkosh at UW-River Falls and Wartburg at Central each came down to its finish is something that should be remembered long into the cold and chill of the offseason.

We are far from that, though, just a little of the way into October. Trinity survived with a great drive in the closing minute, and we talk with Tucker Horn, the Tigers quarterback, about his team’s performance, the great play of receiver Carter Self, the new life around football at Trinity and more.

In all, 49 schools merit serious mention in this week’s podcast. Who’s on the run in Region 1? Who’s blue in the 2? Who’s feeling sore in the 4? Seriously, what rivalry in the 4 is so intense that one school wouldn’t even say the other’s name … and what happened when that team went up 21-6 on Saturday? Who’s alive in the 5? And are they really alive, or just lookin’ alive? Plus, who’s getting their kicks in the 6, and what does it have to do with a goat?

In addition, Pat and Greg hand out game balls, spotlight the unexpected in Stat of the Week, make guesses about Week 7 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 our mailbag from James Baker @d3fbhuddleI’ll bite and direct this to the Minnesotan of the group. What’s going on over at Carleton? They are NESCACian academics-wise, and they are 1 of 23 #d3fb (unbeaten) playoff eligible teams left in the nation. How’d they get here (and will they just get creamed in Weeks 9&10?)

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.
Photos by Sam Demmon, Trinity (Texas) athletics; Central athletics photo by Dan L. Vander Beek Photography; UW-River Falls athletics