D3football Daily Dose

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

D3football.com values all of its patrons, so those of you who want to beef with each other can continue it here.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping the Well-thought-out, respectful discussion on the semifinals free of smack talk, whining, bickering, beefing and any other kind of knuckleheadedness that doesn’t pertain to the title in the thread.

Believe it or not, some people just want to come on to the Daily Dose and talk football without being called names, having their motives questioned, etc.

That stuff will be acceptable on this thread, since it’s clearly labeled for such discussion.

As for the other clearly labeled thread, please save me the trouble of moving/removing any of your posts.

If you don’t understand why I moved your post, it might just be because it didn’t add anything constructive to the discussion over there, which was clearly part of the stated goal.

The offending posts (I was kind enough to find them a new home, as opposed to deleting them entirely) follow:

rigg0123 Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 11:49 am

I’d like to give a shout-out to the Mt Union Purple Raiders. The greatest sports dynasty of all time.

GIT R DONE boys GIT R DONE!!

I can’t wait for Saturday. MU 56 — SJFC 3

DOC SWAMI Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 12:21 pm

ST JOHN’S FISHER WILL GET WHAT ROWAN DID OUT WEST AT LINFIELD IN 2004. MT UNION IS FAVORED BY 17 AND SHOULD WIN BY AT LEAST 28. UW WHITEWATER IS FAVORED BY 13′. I REALIZE THAT WESLEY IS BETTER, BUT WHITEWATER I BELIEVE IS READY FOR THE SHOWDOWN WITH MT UNION AGAIN. WHITEWATER WILL WIN 31-7.

Purple Crush Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 2:50 pm

You are dreaming if you think the score will be that bad. Stop being a HOMER and get real, clone!

rigg0123 Says:
The 5th of December, 2006 at 3:01 pm

Hey-
Aren’t you the one claiming UMHB was going to cruise through the south region and crush Wesley?
You all still crying about your first round match-up down there in Texas? Maybe the selection commitee knew what they were doing after all.

OK, so I’ve had the idea for this thread all day today. I was hoping to give us, as D3 fans and alumni in general, the benefit of the doubt, that we were all highly-evolved enough not to need it. But we do.

So here’s the deal. This is the new home for discussion about Wesley at UW-Whitewater and St. John Fisher at Mount Union, with a caveat: Your posts have to have some sort of value to them: perspective, insight, well-thought-out reasoning or a question you need answered.

What you’ll get in return is a respectful environment where personal attacks and smack are limited, if not entirely absent. I’ll personally make sure of it.

For those who want to carry on with the immature stuff, the whining about not being respected, the jabs at other posters … we’ll still have other threads for that on the Daily Dose and Post Patterns (I’ll probably be on those threads too). But this isn’t the place for that.

If you’re a fanatical fan of one team and you honestly don’t know anything about the other, save your score predictions. You can be helpful here with the amount of insight you must have from watching the same team each week.

In a way, this thread is an experiment. People seem like they really value, and want, a respectful, intelligent atmosphere. But we’ll find out how much that is really wanted by how much you post here. Perhaps we all like to mix it up a little more than we want to admit.

In any case, here are a few questions to start off the mature, thoughtful discussion about these games:
1. Does the past matter? (Mount Union’s titles, last year’s Wesley-UWW result, Saturday’s games)
2. What’s each team’s biggest on-field strength, or on-field weakness? What will they need to do that they normally don’t do to win Saturday?
3. Which “unsung heroes” will be key to their team’s chances Saturday?
4. These are four cold-weather teams. Will weather matter? Whose style would be most affected by precipitation. Whitewater is a grass field, but the other three teams are turf. The Stagg Bowl is on grass. Factor or non-factor?
5. Kmic, Robinson, Beaver … who’s the best back left? Kleppe, Robinson, Stickley … best D-Lineman left?
6. Who has the most to prove?
7. D3 fans help out your fellow D3 fans … where to eat/stay and things not to miss on game day (besides the game) in Alliance and Whitewater.
8. How do the teams match up, in specific areas? Who is healthy and/or banged-up?

So here I am for the annual trip to Alliance where the weather is about 30-something degrees and there’s a good wind blowing across the field.

I feel a little silly wearing a Linfield sweatshirt, which I brought to have some fun with the SJU and Whitewater fans before the flight got cancelled. I need to buy some OAC wardrobe for these trips since we make enough of them.

Ric Brienza and “HS Coach” gave me a very pleasant surprise, printing me copies of their game charts which we have named “Brienzas” in honor of Ric. They combine all the players’ vital information in a shell that’s easy to complete for a new team and even easier to update for a team you’ve seen before. Bless their hearts for the help since this was a late change in travel plans.

A few Capital players were milling around at about 10 AM and seemed in good spirits. If nothing else, they won’t be intimidated playing in this Stadium. QB Rocky Pentello and the other four-year seniors are playing their sixth game against Mount Union.

As for the Purple Raiders, they are always good for some stunning stats.

- Nate Kmic averages 7.43 yards per carry and is within striking distance of Chuck Moore’s school record (7.46).
- The Purple Raiders are holding teams to 0.9 yards per carry. That’s about what you should get if your quarterback takes the snap and collapses forward.

The two guys I most look forward to seeing are Pentello to see how he stacks up against other OAC playoff quarterbacks in the past few years (Arth, Adamson) and Matt Kostelnik. A junior safety for the Purple Raiders, Kostelnik has amazing numbers — 44 tackles (fourth on the team), 11.5 TFL (2nd), 7.0 sacks (1st), 4 INTs (1st) including two for TDs. Hello, All-American team.

I’ll post some thoughts at the half and after the game, but the floor is certainly open for other thoughts from Wisconsin, Delaware, New York or wherever else you may be.