D3football Daily Dose

There were surprise games and surprise teams in Week 2, from Delaware Valley to the Mississippi and points west. Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman attempt to cover them all in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

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I’m in Eau Claire,Wis., where there’s no wireless (or at least not consistent enough to get on) and we are all standing around waiting for the national anthem. Or for UWW to come out of the locker room, not sure.

One of many big games today, especially in the afternoon, but before we get to your updates kudos to UMHB, which struck a blow for D-III pride by beating Southern Nazarene last night, a ranked NAIA team. It was UMHB’s first game and SNC’s third.

On with the games!

Pat and Keith are back to help start off your weekend right, and chiming in this week is D3sports.com Deputy Managing Editor Gordon Mann. I won’t keep you with a long introduction. There are key clashes between ranked teams and 19 games against non-Division III opponents. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the Week 2 slate:

Game of the Week
Gordon’s take: No. 5 Bethel at No. 17 Wheaton (Ill.). Royals quarterback Reid Velo put up good numbers (241 yards, four touchdowns) on relatively few attempts (17) against Concordia (Wis.). The learning curve gets pretty steep in Week 2.
Keith’s take: No. 16 Ohio Northern at No. 15 North Central. Both the OAC and CCIW have the depth to send multiple teams to the postseason, so don’t think a guy like me isn’t arranging brackets in his head just because it’s only Week 2. I especially want to see what the Polar Bears are bringing to the table because there are going to be more OAC teams chasing playoff bids than available slots. You have to chalk Mount Union up for one, so between ONU, Capital, Otterbein, John Carroll and perhaps Baldwin-Wallace or Heidelberg, one or two Pool C teams should arise. On the flip side, I haven’t heard a bad word about North Central.
Pat’s take: No. 2 UW-Whitewater at No. 12 UW-Eau Claire. This one counts — in the WIAC standings, that is. Both teams have plenty of questions to answer and each started the season with tough wins against ranked NAIA teams.

Surprisingly close
Gordon’s take: Wilkes at Montclair State. Montclair State was picked second in the NJAC coaches poll while Wilkes is replacing a four-year starter at quarterback and three-time defensive MVP. But the Colonels gave No. 8 Muhlenberg all they could handle on last week, even leading the game in the fourth quarter.
Keith’s take: No. 3 Wesley at Delaware Valley. I like the Wolverines this year as much as anyone, but I wouldn’t bank on a blowout here. Wesley might actually be extra jacked up to play since last week’s game was cancelled, but the homestanding Aggies have a game under their belts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a very competitive first half before Wesley makes it a two-score game in the third quarter.
Pat’s take: Dubuque at No. 25 Redlands. The one thing Redlands has going for it is the long trip Dubuque will be taking to Southern California. Well, and the fact that Dubuque might be ripe for a letdown after an uplifting home opener in which the Spartans opened their redone stadium in front of a big crowd. But Dubuque has a game and more than a week of extra practice under its belt and should make it exciting.

Most likely top 25 team to get upset
Gordon’s take: No. 11 Salisbury. Last week Geneva hung with Division II Seton Hill, which had an extra game under its belt. In a week without a lot of good candidates to upset Top 25 opponents, the Golden Tornadoes have a puncher’s chance against Salisbury.
Keith’s take: No. 5 Bethel. These guys are right, there isn’t much to choose from, so I sort of cheated. No. 17 Wheaton winning would technically be an upset, but with the game in Illinois, it’s closer to being a toss-up than the rankings would make it seem. The Thunder not having played would seem to be a weakness, but it also gave the coaching staff extra time to focus on the Royals. Wheaton has the talent to knock No. 5 from its perch.
Pat’s take: No. 21 Ithaca. Not that anyone will take King’s lightly after the Monarchs beat Randolph-Macon last week, but because it’s hard to pick many others. Mary Hardin-Baylor plays a ranked NAIA team that will be playing its third game, for example. Would that be an upset?

Team most likely to bounce back from a poor opener
Gordon’s take: No. 13 St. John Fisher. A lot of good teams have “poor” games against Mount Union. But last week’s 33-3 loss was a little disheartening for those Cardinal fans who were optimistic that their team could keep it close against a relatively young Purple Raider team. They’ll feel a lot better after St. John Fisher beats Buffalo State by double digits at home.
Keith’s take: Concordia-Moorhead. Given the loss at Willamette in the opener and St. John’s and Bethel looming before the end of September, a home date with NAIA Dickinson State is the Cobbers’ season flashing before its eyes. Here’s guessing they handle business and avoid the potential 0-4 start.
Pat’s take: Waynesburg. Even without Robert Heller, the Yellowjackets should handle Hanover. And if they don’t, it could be a long season.

Team playing its opener you’re most curious about
Gordon’s take: Linfield. I took a good, long look at the Wildcats in casting my preseason ballot before deciding to take a “wait and see” approach. The waiting is over, so let’s see what they do on the road against Hardin-Simmons.
Keith’s take: No. 4 Mary Hardin-Baylor. I loved the Crusaders last season, but I don’t have them ranked this high yet this year. They’ll be without their anointed starting quarterback (suspension) in the opener, but handing off to a platoon of backs is work a reserve can do. It’s really the quality of first opponent (NAIA No. 22 Southern Nazarene) and lack of returning starters (three) on offense that concern me. I’ll be checking to see if a defense with seven starters back can carry the load.
Pat’s take: Ohio Northern. They are often highly ranked in the preseason but over the past four years have lost a combined 11 games. That’s not a postseason resume. They’ll have to show better.

Most significant game against a non-Division III opponent
Gordon’s take: Mississippi College at Cumberland (Ky.). After being crushed by No. 24 Millsaps last week, the Choctaws need a bounce back performance to build momentum going into ASC play. Cumberland went to the NAIA playoffs last season.
Keith’s take: UW-La Crosse at North Dakota. Playing against a non-scholarship I-AA is one thing, the Fighting Sioux and their 59 free rides are quite another. When La Crosse beat South Dakota State two years ago as the Jackrabbits were making a similar transition, it was an indication that the WIAC was still Division III’s strongest conference and a reminder that football is football, scholarships or not. The Eagles will rotate sophomores Alex Seguin and Nick Anker at quarterback; What a way to get your young guys some experience.
Pat’s take: No. 19 Franklin at Butler. Butler has had its way with weak D-III teams in recent years and lost to better teams. This game should serve as a reminder that “non-scholarship Division I” is just D-III football with a better weight room.

They’ll be on your radar
Gordon’s take: King’s. The Monarchs raised eyebrows by beating Randolph-Macon last week, 34-13. If they follow that up by upsetting No. 21 Ithaca on the road, they will put last year’s 1-9 season firmly in the rearview mirror.
Keith’s take: UW-Eau Claire. Nineteen returning starters and an opening week win are encouraging; two games against Whitewater are not so much. The first will tell us a lot about the Blugolds.
Pat’s take: Augsburg. And this isn’t to say they’ll beat Wartburg, but that they’ll keep it close. Augsburg beat Wartburg on the road last year, likely keeping the Knights out of the NCAA playoffs, so there is zero chance of Wartburg taking this game lightly.

Robert Heller’s pursuit of the all-time rushing record, D-III or otherwise, got off to a great start in 2007 when he ran for 2,176 yards as a freshman at Waynesburg.

It got off to a much less impressive start this past week at Wooster, when he was held to a career-low 104 yards.

And, as it turns out, his pursuit will be slowed even further this week, when the high ankle sprain he suffered will keep him on the sidelines against Hanover.

“I got my ankle rolled on,” Heller told me this afternoon. “I had a high ankle sprain (in prep school) and tweaked it again on the second play of the game. I played the rest of the game on one foot and I shouldn’t have.”

Heller, who certainly has the potential to catch R.J. Bowers’ record of 7,353 yards (or, as it may become this year, Nate Kmic’s record), has 5,073 yards and a lot of games to go before he can challenge that record, or the 7,871 that Chadron State’s Danny Woodhead compiled over the past four years to set the all-divisions record. If Heller plays the minimum 28 games between now and graduation, he’d have to average 181.2 yards per game to pass Bowers, more if the bar gets set higher, but fewer if he plays in a playoff game.

Heller, who wears No. 3, the same as Woodhead, watched a Woodhead highlight video before every game last season.

Billy Becker will get the start for Waynesburg in the Yellowjackets’ game against Hanover. As for Heller, he said he’s “probably going to get a cast for the short term” to help the ankle heal in hopes of playing in the conference opener against Thomas More.

As you may know from reading our site, Mass-Dartmouth and WPI played to five overtimes last Friday night. Unfortunately, it’s not yet known if this is an NCAA record, because the NCAA does not track such a record at the Division III level.

What we know for sure is that there have been no five-overtime games in the 10-year history of D3football.com — there have been 18 games recorded as going to four overtimes but none longer. That leaves only the 1996, 1997 and 1998 seasons as possible years in which games could have gone to five overtimes. (Overtime was instituted for college football after the 1995 season.)

Anyone knowing of a five-overtime game involving a Division III school in those seasons, let us know, and we’ll check it out.

The Around the Nation podcast is back for a second season and this year, with Keith McMillan and I on opposite ends of the Division III landscape, it’s presented us some new challenges. Before, Keith and I always recorded together, in the same place, but now he’s in Washington, D.C., and I’m in Minneapolis.

So it takes some technological stitching together and timing and such we haven’t completely gotten down yet. But we’ll work on that more next week.

Hopefully the analysis of Week 1 is the important thing, since that’s what we do with our weekly podcast discussion on Monday mornign. Such as, what do you do if you’re a good team and you lost to a better team this week? Or lost to a bad team? Where does a team go from here after its first game?

What did we learn about St. John Fisher? What can we expect from UW-Whitewater? What’s it like getting a long losing streak off your back? All that and more in this week’s Around the Nation podcast.

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Let’s get it started, indeed.

A lot intriguing games including a rare match-up of Top 10 teams in Alliance where No. 1 Mount Union hosts No. 10 St. John Fisher. How will No. 21 Franklin fare with its Top 25 ranking and a tough Baldwin-Wallace team? Does East Texas Baptist have what it takes to surprise No. 6 St. John’s? Who will score more - Albright’s passing attack or No. 12 Salisbury’s running attack? Does UW-Lax or Hardin-Simmons bounce back from a disappointing 2007? How will Tropical Storm Hanna impact the East coast games?

We’ll soon find out.

WHITEWATER, Wis. — This isn’t the only game going on, and it doesn’t even have an impact on the NCAA playoff selections, but it’s certainly where the most interesting game in Division III football is taking place tonight.

That’s why we’re here at UW-Whitewater tonight, to see exactly what the defending national champions are going to put on the field. We’re already well-versed in what the Warhawks graduated off last year’s team, and no, it wasn’t just Justin Beaver or A.J. Raebel. And tonight expected starting running back Jake Andersen, who ran for 233 yards and two touchdowns last season, is not dressed against St. Xavier, which is No. 8 in the NAIA’s preseason coaches poll.

But it’s still a festive night here at Perkins Stadium. The school will honor last year’s senior class at halftime and raise a national championship banner in the near end zone. The marching band is on the field and fans are packing in from the tailgating in the parking lot. Those who helped make the stadium renovations happen were recognized a few minutes ago, and the team is running out on the field as we speak.

I’ll keep you updated from here occasionally, but also follow along with the live audio, stats and/or UWW’s pay-per-view video from the links on our front page.

Welcome back to Triple Take, where Keith McMillan and I lead a virtual roundtable discussion of the top upcoming games in each of a handful of categories. Sometimes a third member of our “staff” of part-time D-III football journalists gives the third take and sometimes we invite a guest analyst to join us. This week the third chair is occupied by our newly minted Senior Editor, Ryan Tipps.

To comment on the Daily Dose you’ll need to register. There’s a link for that on the bottom of the right-hand rail on this page.

Game of the Week
Ryan’s take: Olivet at Wittenberg. Though Wittenberg nabbed a few Top 25 votes, neither team typically registers as one to watch. In fact, even in their recent playoff years, these teams haven’t finish the season ranked. Why do we care? Because these teams have more riding on Week 1 than most other teams, and it should prove to be one of the most evenly matched games of the week. Each team is the other’s own worst nonconference enemy. Coming from relatively weak conferences, losing here means it’s the AQ or nothing.
Pat’s take: Mississippi College at Millsaps. Let’s see, we’ve got the rivalry, two teams that are both in the top three of their conferences … oh, and the way last year’s game came out. If you’re new to Division III, remember that Millsaps somehow treated it like an NFL exhibition game, pulling the starters with a second-half lead. Except, of course, that exhibition games don’t count. And on Selection Sunday, Millsaps, at 8-2 with a 27-26 loss to Mississippi College, was left out. So yeah, let’s not let that happen again.
Keith’s take: Hardin-Simmons at UW-La Crosse. There are (according to my preseason ballot) three clashes between top 25 teams plus UW-Whitewater facing off against NAIA quarterfinalist St. Xavier, but I like this game because it’s got the most riding on it. Think about it. St. John Fisher can recover from a loss at Mount Union to win the Empire 8, Christopher Newport could do the same in the USAC if it loses to Wesley. But the Cowboys and Eagles, each at least second fiddle in its own conference, could really use the non-conference victory to boost a potential Pool C resume – that’s if they get that far. Both teams have tons of talent but struggled to disappoint four-loss seasons last year. One is going to build confidence tomorrow, the other is going to have doubt creep back into its mind.

Surprisingly close
Ryan’s take: Washington & Lee at Franklin & Marshall. Last year, the Generals dealt a shutout thumping to the Diplomats. Not this time. F&M is a sleeper team in the Centennial, still a little shaky in some areas, but poised to take advantage of W&L losing its best offensive and defensive weapons.
Pat’s take: Bridgewater (Va.) at Averett. That’s if the game gets played, since we don’t know what the weather will be like. But even without the rain I think Averett is better than last year and Bridgewater has a lot of work to do.
Keith’s take: Lakeland at No. 9 Central. With just nine starters back, including two on defense, the Dutch might struggle to hold on to their lofty ranking. The Muskies haven’t fared well in non-conference play – they were outscored 138-30 in three losses last year. But they have surviving in the AQ age figured out. Play tough teams that prepare you for your conference slate. Lakeland has eight defensive starters back in the fold, but Central rarely loses, let alone at home. Since this a more or less a new era for the Dutch, close games can qualify as surprises.

Most likely top 25 team to get upset
Ryan’s take: No. 6 St. John’s. The Johnnies could very well struggle right out of the gate as they try to find the right man to replace four-year starting quarterback Alex Kofoed. If East Texas Baptist gets its engines rolling early, St. John’s might not have the offense to bring the team back into the game. That sixth-place ranking could turn into a not-so-sweet 16 real fast.
Pat’s take: No. 12 Salisbury. The Sea Gulls are replacing a good portion of their running game and making the trip to face Albright. I’ll spare the usual ‘revenge on their minds’ cliche and just mention that Salisbury won at home 42-12 last year. But that was when Albright was young and expected to go 3-7, not maturing and on its way to a 7-4 season.
Keith’s take: No. 21 Franklin. There’s a lot to like about the Grizzlies, with 17 starters back, including eight on offense. But there’s also traditionally been a big gap in the quality of play in the OAC and HCAC, so even if Baldwin-Wallace ends up in the lower half of its conference this year, it isn’t an easy non-conference win. Kickoff ‘08 had Franklin pegged for 10-0, but Grizzlies players know they’d better worry about 1-0 first.

They’ll be on your radar
Ryan’s take: Albright. The Lions took a nose-dive at the end of last season, but not for a lack of talent. With 18 starters back, including stars Tanner Kelly and Matt Christ, the Albright coaching staff has to have a warm-fuzzy feeling in their stomachs – and opponents should have a pit in the bottom of theirs.
Pat’s take: Hardin-Simmons. At the very least, it should be an entertaining game between contenders from two of the strongest conferences in Division III. That is, I’m hoping it’s entertaining, because it will be my third game in 28 hours and staying awake is an issue.
Keith’s take: Augustana. It’s hard enough to debut a new offense, but with the switch as drastic as going from the Wing-T to the spread, and the opponent being Coe, which by having a new coach possibly means film from last year is halfway useless, I’m curious to see how both teams do in this opener.

Team that will get its only 2008 win
Ryan’s take: Hiram. This should be the week that the Terriers snap their 26-game losing streak, but even this won’t be a cake-walk at Gallaudet. Were this the end of ‘07 rather than the start of ‘08, I’d give the edge to the Bison.
Pat’s take: Lewis and Clark. And that’s a bad sign for Principia.
Keith’s take: Beloit.: With 20 starters back, the Buccaneers could have more than one win on tap, but a visit from No. 237 MacMurray is the best shot they’ll get. Also watch Eureka at Knox, Denison at Kalamazoo and Grinnell at Cornell.

Team with a long trip home
Ryan’s take: Concordia (Wis.). It’s tough to get blown out by the same team twice in a row. It’s even harder when it’s the last thing you remember from the past season and it becomes the first thing you know in the current season. Bethel is the Falcons’ first in a trio of tough nonconference games, and the trick for Concordia’s first-time coach will be to not get himself buried too deep.
Pat’s take: UW-Eau Claire. It’s a shame nobody will play UW-Eau Claire or UW-Whitewater and they not only have to play each other twice, but each have to play 2007 NAIA playoff teams this week as well.
Keith’s take: East Texas Baptist. I was pleasantly surprised to see a trip to St. John’s as the opener after hearing some of coach Mark Sartain’s ideas for non-conference opponents midway through last season. With 16 starters back from a 5-5 team, I wouldn’t rule out a Tigers upset completely, but it’s more likely this trip will function as an experience — first, to play a game in one of Division III’s best home atmospheres and most idyllic settings, and second, a lesson on how a national power handles business.

I’ve gotten another reason to be happy that we’re no longer living in Northern Virginia, as it seems Hanna is bearing down on that part of the country. Christopher Newport and Wesley have already canceled their game (CNU is closing up shop for the weekend) and Worcester Tech and Mass-Dartmouth have moved their game up a day to Friday night.

Anyone else changing their schedule? Let us know, while we will keep looking ourselves.

Meanwhile, be sure to buy all the bread and milk you can carry and batten down the hatches.