D3football Daily Dose

Hey folks, Pat Coleman from the press box in Danbury, Conn., where Cortland State leads Western Connecticut 28-14 at the half. I came here with the hopes of finding out exactly how good Cortland is, because I think we might have them a touch underrated at 16 in our poll.

Big news here on Cortland’s second drive of the game, as Red Dragons quarterback Alex Smith took what appeared to be a relatively minor hit which became a serious injury. Clutching his left knee as he went to the turf, Smith was eventually carried off the field and was being fitted for crutches on the far sideline. No official word but it doesn’t look good.

Good news for Cortland is that backup Ray Miles has looked decent in his stead, completing seven of 10 passes for 82 yards and a score.

McMurry is holding a news conference at this hour to announce its decision regarding its Indians nickname. The NCAA has told the university it must change its name or face sanctions regarding hosting postseason play.

Previous coverage of this issue below. When we know more, we’ll pass it along.

Once upon a time in Indiana there was a man named Steward Faught. Steward preferred to be called Red and Red played quarterback for the Indiana State Sycamores. About ten years after he graduated, Red joined the faculty at Franklin College where he became the face of Grizzlies football. Red served as Franklin’s Head Coach for 29 years, instituting an aggressive passing attack during his tenure.

Though Red passed away, two parts of the Franklin football program bear his legacy. One is the field’s name — Steward “Red” Faught Stadium. The other is the tradition of a strong passing offense now overseen by Head Coach Mike Leonard.

This year Franklin leads the HCAC in passing yards per game and Grizzlies Quarterback Chad Rupp leads the conference in total offense. Rupp has put up 1,182 yards and 12 TDs to only 2 interceptions for the Grizzlies (5-0, 3-0 HCAC). On Saturday Franklin faces their most important test as two-time defending conference champion Mt. St. Joseph (5-0, 3-0) comes to Red Faught Stadium. Powered by senior running back Mike Lovell (124.4 ypg, 9 TDs), the Lions are close to breaking into the Top 25. A win over Franklin might put them into the Top 25 for the first time since 2004. It definitely would put them in the driver’s seat in the HCAC.

D3football’s Wes Anderson and Steve Powell will be at Franklin to bring you the action live starting at 1:15 PM for our first broadcast of an HCAC football game.

Elsewhere…

Wish you were here:We’ll have lots of people at Saturday’s battle between No. 2 UW-Whitewater and No. 6 UW-La Crosse. K-Mack is kicking off his Run to the Playoffs Tour with this WIAC showdown while Ryan Coleman and his photography phriends do their thing.

Just to be different, if I could go anywhere this weekend, I’d head to Ada, Ohio where No. 17 Ohio Northern hosts No. 4 Capital. In most years the game between the OAC’s second and third best teams has been a de facto playoff game with Mount Union providing the crippling second loss to whichever team loses this game, effectively quashing their postseason hopes. Since the OAC put a second team in the playoffs at 8-2 last year, the situation may not be quite as dire now. But ONU needs to bounce back off the 49-7 thrashing they took in Alliance last weekend. I’d love to be on hand to see if they could do it.

Don’t sleep on this one: Sticking with the North Region, the NCAC also has a big game as Wittenberg (3-2, 2-0 NCAC) hosts Wabash (4-1, 3-0 NCAC). After losing their first two games, the Tigers will try to knock off NCAC contenders Wooster and Wabash in consecutive weeks. But Wabash knows they need a win here, particularly after dropping their opener to Franklin.

Super Ridiculous Pick of the Week: Two weeks ago I made the following predictions for the Major League Baseball Playoffs.

Dodgers over Mets in 5
Padres over Cards in 4
Twins over As in 4
Yankees over Tigers in 3

Um, not so much. I hereby place myself on a one week suspension from making any more predictions.

Most likely Top 25 team to lose: Since I’m suspended, you can play this game without me. Remember, you can’t pick a team who is playing another Top 25 team. That still leaves some intriguing prospects – No. 16 Cortland State at Western Connecticut, No. 19 Wheaton (Ill.) at Augustana, Brockport at No. 22 Springfield.

And finally…

It’s not Browns-Steelers, but it should still be fun Undefeated Carnegie Mellon plays 3-2 Case Western Reserve as the UAA opens conference play.

We’re back! Well, not completely. I have some photos and will point you elsewhere for more.

Last week we debuted two new photographers, David Rich (at Mount Union/Ohio Northern) and Jonathan Larsen (Catholic/Washington & Lee), had covered two blow-out MIAC games (St. John’s/St. Olaf and Concordia-Moorhead/Hamline) Ashlee Carmody covered a double-header in Wisconsin, starting off in Appleton for St. Norbert/Monmouth and catching up with Larry Radloff for the Lawrence/Lake Forest nightcap. And we were deep in the heart of Texas for the Mary Hardin-Baylor/Hardin-Simmons which Josh Bowerman was in attendance for.

It was a busy weekend. I was up until 6am Sunday morning getting caught up on all the work from the five photographers plus the photos from Dave Sanders and myself at the St. John’s/St. Olaf game.

Before I show the photos, I have a request to make of the fans at the games: If you are on the sidelines, please move out of our way. We’re there to cover a game and we have permission to be on the sidelines. It’s all about safety and enjoying the game.

Thank you. Now on to the fun!

Mary Hardin-Baylor vs Hardin-Simmons, Josh Bowerman

Hamline vs Concordia-Moorhead, Scott Pierson

Lawrence vs Lake Forest, Larry Radloff

St. Norbert vs Monmouth, Ashlee Carmody

This week: Dave Sanders, Larry Radloff and I will be joining Keith McMillan in Whitewater for the UWW/UW-La Crosse game Saturday afternoon. Dave, Larry and I will be sandwiching the football game with Division I men’s hockey in Madison (we might have a few photos from that for you, too).

Next week I will be on the road with Keith in central Iowa; Also look for our new phlog page next weekend with working photo submissions and comments.

I’ve received many emails over the past year, a few asking the same thing: What do you make per game? or I want to shoot for D3sports, how much do you pay per game? I’d hate to disappoint those of you pondering the same thing but we are actually not paid for our time. It’s the love of the sport and the atmosphere that bring us out to the games. However, I am sure you have seen the photo galleries with prices underneath the photos. For each photo sold from a game the photographer recieves a commission. In addition each sale helps keep D3football, D3hoops and D3sports operational.

We get letters over the course of a week, some of which are worth sharing. This recent sampling is pretty indicative of the usual e-mail.

Submitted by Xxxxxxxxx (xxxxxxxxxx@adephia.net) on Saturday, October 07, 2006 at 08:18:45 PM

I could not believe what I saw at Hampton-Sydney Va.today.I and 75 other Emory & Henery parents and fans witnessed the home officials throw the game for
HSC. I have witnessed this happening at the high school level but never in my wildest thoughts would this happen at the college level.

All be it we are only talking about the D-3 level, If this would of happened D-1 on national TV. with 30 million watching and fifty camaras on the game there would of been White House investigation. It’s a sad day when our sons find out that college football is corrupt. Book score HSC 24 Emory 21, real score Emory at least 21 HSC 10!!! Thanks for allowing me to vent.

I’ve heard lots of negative things and witnessed some by officials in this conference, but to suggest that they were corrupt is pretty silly. But venting is healthy, I’m sure.

Submitted by xxxxxx (xxxxxx@hotmail.com) on Monday, October 09, 2006 at 10:57:24 AM

Why is Rowan ranked so high? They just barely beat New Jersey and play nobody in the NJAC that is worth anything. Union came very close to beating them in the playoffs last year, and play a tougher schedule than Rowan, but are not in the top 25. I think D3 football.com is the best thing to happen to small college football, but you guys seem to be so in love with certain leagues, while ignoring others.

Rowan is presenting a bit of a problem for us right now, to be sure. I keep sliding them down on my own ballot and others are doing the same — as you can see, they keep falling even though they are winning. But is Bridgewater better than Rowan? Is Occidental? Who have either of those teams played? Is Central better? They haven’t put anyone away and keep getting taken to overtime.

Curious to know who he thinks we’re ignoring.

Submitted by xxxxx (xxxxxxxxxxxxx@sbcglobal.net) on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 01:15:09 AM

Subject: Who’s That Guy
Notes: YES I HAVE HEARD ABOUT A DOMINIQUE TAYLOR WHO PLAYS FOR LA. COLLEGE WHO IS THIS GUY ANF WHERE HE COME FROM. HE’S REALLY GOOD.

I see he has a pair of interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, but my gut tells me you know a lot more about this kid than I do and are just fishing for a compliment.

Submitted by Xxxxx Xxxxxxx (Xxxx_Xxxxxxx_23@yahoo.com) on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at 05:45:20 PM

I was just wondering if you could send me a listing of all the top colleges that are heavenly recruiting

Many religious schools in Division III but I think most are recruiting living players. No, seriously, spelling aside, we get this question a lot and we are not a recruiting service.

OK,
So someone will post later with a fancier, more well-thought-out writeup, but until then, here are some reactions to the games in progress and early scores coming in.

St. Olaf’s not yet in St. John’s class. Period.

Same could be said of Mount Union and ONU this year, although I imagine that’s mostly a function of the Polar Bears having not much of the same team that won 21-14 in Alliance last year. Only five starters returned this fall. Still, 49-7 is a big swing. Wonder if the Purple Raiders were looking to make a statement, and I wonder if any of the three voters with UWW No. 1 will swing their vote this week.

Juniata up 27-3 over Susque in the 4th. Tri-State almost joining them on the long-losing-streak broken bandwagon, but they can’t catch a break. They fell in 2 OTs.

We got 10-7 Hardin-Simmons at the half in Texas … sounds about right.

In the Liberty, Union over WPI in a one-point squeaker, while RPI falls to St. Lawrence. Someone on the blog earlier in the week (Cortland?) said the LL didn’t look “down” so much this year as it looked more even across the board. Early results from today support that.

I’m sure there’s more to take note of, and there will be as the day rolls along, My babies just woke up from naps simultaneously, so I gotta roll anyway.

Discuss.

Clearly, peeps can’t wait to start being chatterboxes about this Saturday’s games, and rightfully so.

Therefore, in the absence of a well-thought-out Gordon Mann blog post to kick things off (although one is probably coming), here’s the ATN five games to watch and others to peek at with your peripheral vision:

Five games to watch
Skimming the schedule, I got about halfway down, seeing a few that intrigued me and the best game looking like Lycoming at Wilkes. And then we hit the mother lode. This is the week. Enough with the tune-ups against creampuffs and out-of-conference/out-of-division games. Some conference races are about to get ugly.

No. 10 Ohio Northern at No. 1 Mount Union
The Polar Bears are looking crazy-good right now, averaging a 29-10 win in four games, having given up single digits in the past three and coming off a 26-0 shutout of Otterbein. They’re giving up fewer than 150 yards per game as the nation’s No. 2 defense. And the Purple Raiders dwarf all of that. Their average win is 66-7, they’ve got two consecutive shutouts and the nation’s No. 4 defense, along with the No. 1 offense. And the game is in Alliance for the second consecutive season. The Polar Bears’ trump card, despite having fewer players back from last season, is that they won there last year 21-14.

No. 5 Hardin-Simmons at No. 12 Mary Hardin-Baylor
Here’s defacto title game No. 1 this week, and it’s never an easy one to predict. The Cowboys can come in riding high, like last season, and get chumped 38-7. Two seasons ago Hardin-Simmons won the midseason matchup 49-22, only to lose 42-28 to UMHB in the playoffs. The American Southwest title is likely on the line in a game that could have a ripple effect throughout Division III. If the Crusaders and Cowboys each make the postseason and Trinity (Texas) wins the SCAC, a Texas team will play an out-of-state team in the first round (there are no more byes to help avoid this) for the first time since HSU played Wittenberg in 2001.

No. 4 St. John’s at St. Olaf
A pair of 5-0s meet in a possible defacto title game, although there are MIAC challenges a plenty the rest of the way for the Oles. St. Olaf brought a 7-0 record into the game last year, lost 63-9 and let its playoff chances go the following week in a 49-35 loss to Concordia-Moorhead. They do get the Johnnies in Northfield this time, and St. John’s hasn’t overwhelmed in either of its MIAC games.

Washington & Jefferson at Thiel
This is the third game on the list that will likely decide a conference title, and because of the PAC’s Pool B status and each team’s early-season loss, the playoff implications are grand. Conference-title-wise, Thiel is 2-0 in PAC games already while it’s the Presidents’ opener, but since these are the only two conference teams with winning records, it’s safe to say the winner is in good shape.

Monmouth at St. Norbert
The fourth defacto title game, and I promise it’s the last time I’ll use that word this week. This one is more like an elimination game than any of the others, however, because the NCAA committee has never taken two Midwest Conference teams in the same season. Monmouth’s loss to Wartburg hurts its Pool C chances with a loss, and hurts the league’s profile (and therefore, St. Norbert’s chances) if the Scots win. The Green Knights haven’t lost since a 28-20 defeat in this game last year, and have only played one close game since, two weeks ago against Lake Forest. Oddly, like the ONU-MUC game, this one is at St. Norbert for the second year in a row.

Also keep an eye on — No. 3 Capital at John Carroll, UW-Platteville at No. 7 UW-La Crosse, No. 11 Occidental at Redlands, No. 13 Central at Luther, No. 15 St. John Fisher at Brockport State, Lycoming at No. 16 Wilkes, North Central at No. 20 Wheaton, Augustana at Elmhurst, Texas Lutheran at Howard Payne, Trinity (Texas) at Huntingdon, UW-Oshkosh at UW-Stout.

We’re unable to provide a weekly phlogging due to circumstances outside of our control with our photo host, Pictureprints.net. Their IT department is working diligently on correcting the issue and we may be able to post our Phlog just prior to this weekend’s games.

Please post links to your own favorite photos from the week. For entry guidelines, please check last week’s phlog Weekly Phlogging.

Thank you!

Note to self: Three and a half hours up and three and a half hours back is about as far as one should go in a day. Go up the night before next time.

People are going to stop letting me come to games if they’re on long win streaks, I’m guessing. I’ve been in the house as the three longest winning streaks of the D3football.com era have ended — the two Mount Union streaks and now Trinity (Conn.)’s 31-game win streak.

Not that it was rocket science to see this game coming — as a loss, anyway, not as a monkey stomp. Trinity is breaking in a new offensive line and starting quarterback Eric McGrath threw one pass last year. New coach and coordinator. On the road. Etc.

Williams is good enough to get talked about in the 22-30 range in the poll, along with the top teams in the Liberty League right now.

Elsewhere, the jarring double-take on early leads by Mississippi College over Hardin-Simmons, McMurry over Mary Hardin-Baylor, Willamette over Linfield and North Park over North Central didn’t exactly last.

Oddities: Wilmington doesn’t score a single point in its first three games, then comes out today and shuts out Muskingum 20-0. … People who took in the Western Wisconsin doubleheader of UW-Whitewater at UW-Eau Claire and UW-Oshkosh at UW-River Falls only got to see two teams score. … Yeah, two games tomorrow, both starting at 2:30. Won’t be able to follow these much, working at NBC starting at 3. … Four wins for Hobart by a total of 19 points, not very inspiring. … Sul Ross State was 6-for-15 from three-point range in its 60-55 win against Howard. OK, maybe not — when those teams met in basketball last year, the lowest score for either team in two meetings was 74. … Ohio Wesleyan, ouch. … There were just six games with a 19-18 score from 1999-2005, but three more today.

Your thoughts, deep or otherwise: