2009 Preview
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . Defending league champion Wartburg College, which has five titles and four runner-up finishes in the past ten seasons, is the coaches’ pick to with the 2009 IIAC football title. The Knights received five of nine first-place votes, totaling 69 points and edging perennial IIAC contender Central College by five markers.
Central, which looks to rebound from a .500 record in league play in 2008, received three first-place votes, along with two second-place votes and three third-place votes for a total of 64 points. Simpson College collected the final first-place vote and is third in the preseason poll with 58 points followed by Buena Vista University with 48 points. The complete 2009 IIAC football coaches’ poll follows:
Rank School (1st place votes) Points 2008 Record
1 Wartburg (5) 69 10-3, 7-1 IIAC
2 Central (3) 64 6-4, 4-4 IIAC
3 Simpson (1) 58 7-3, 5-3 IIAC
4 Buena Vista 48 7-3, 6-2 IIAC
5 Loras 40 6-4, 5-3 IIAC
Luther 40 5-5, 4-4 IIAC
7 Coe 33 4-6, 4-4 IIAC
8 Dubuque 28 2-8, 1-7 IIAC
9 Cornell 16 0-10, 0-8 IIAC
Preseason All-Americans/Watch Lists: Four Iowa Conference football players were named to preseason All-America Teams. Simpson senior offensive lineman Bill Carroll was named to the First Team Offense by Consensus Draft Services (CDS), while Coe senior linebackers Calvin Thomas and Tate Harrison were named to Second Teams by CDS and D3football.com, respectively. Dubuque junior wide receiver Michael Zweifel was named to the D3football.com Second Team Offense. Also, Coe junior kicker Elliot Rausa was named to the Preseason Watch List for the Fred Mitchell Award, given annually to the best kicker in NCAA Divisions II and III.
Preseason National Polls: Defending Conference Champion Wartburg and perennial contender Central are included in multiple preseason national polls. Wartburg was ranked sixth in USA Today Sports Weekly, ninth by The Sporting News, 14th by Lindy’s, and 17th by D3football.com. Central ranked 13th in the Lindy’s poll and received votes in the D3football.com poll. Buena Vista also received votes in the D3football.com preseason ranking.
New Coaches: Stan Zweifel is the new head coach at Dubuque, taking over for Vince Brautigam. Zweifel spent last season as Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he helped lead the Mavericks to a 9-3 record, a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference-South Division title and a berth in the NCAA Division II Football Championship. Prior to that, he spent 16 seasons at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where we was the Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator. He was also the Head Football Coach at Yankton College (1983-84) and Minnesota-Morris (1987-90).
Season Openers: The season begins Sept. 5 with all nine schools in non-conference action. The 2009 Iowa Conference season begins Sept. 19 with four games – Central at Dubuque, Luther at Coe, Simpson at Loras, and Wartburg at Cornell. Buena Vista has the opening weekend of league play off.
Team-By-Team Preview: A brief preview for each Iowa Conference team can be found at: http://www.iowaconference.com/news/2009-10/Previews/football2009preview.pdf