Have not posted in awhile, but I did catch some football in Elmhurst today.  A couple thing stood out.  First of all Millikin drove something like 93 yards on 3 plays with no timeouts to win the game, they did this with less than a minute remaining.

The other thing I noticed was that when Elmhurst scored to go up 17-16 their WR started dancing in the endzone, the refs decided not to flag him, but I did lose some respect for Elmhurst College today. 

Millikin played it tough today.  They were going into the half down 7-0 and Ohio Northern broke a long 80 yard touchdown while running the clock out to make it 14-0.  Seems like a back breaking type of play.

Quote from: usee on September 03, 2006, 07:27:52 AM
wallick had only 20 touches (note to niebhur--please only give him 20 carries if you want to be 5-5)

Millikin was 5-5 last year giving Wallick 30+ carries every week.  It is tough to hold up over a season when you are a big bruising type back who doesn't avoid hits, but rather delivers them, when you are getting so many carries.  Millikin's offense is a little different than what teams will be used to and I think more balanced, there are a deep group of recievers and a good QB in Decatur.

I think getting the ball to more players will help altough I'm sure he will still get a lot of touches, as many as any back in the CCIW.  Illinois College is not exactly a program like Concordia or Benedictine or Greenville that loses by 30 or 40 with regularity.  They also returned a lot of players including a 1000 yard rusher themselves.  I really never expected a blowout in this game. 

The next two games will be tougher, however, and the defense will have to shake any growing pains getting used to a new system to win those games.

Another thought, Carthage beat Carroll in a low scoring game by 4 points last season.  Not sure why people are so surprised by the same result this year??

Millikin beat Illinois College 24-21

Wallick had 117 yards and Joey Albin threw 2 TDs

Quote from: Gregory Sager on August 17, 2006, 03:42:36 AM
Word of advice: If you're going to call someone a "peabrain", it tends to defeat the purpose if you spell "peabrain" incorrectly. 

I didn't mean brains the size of peas.  I meant brains soaked in urine.  duhhh 

hey i got like -13 karma and all I did was visciously insult those pee brains from Wesleyan   8)  8)  8)

Tayeday, just curious, are you a current player on the North Park team.  I noticed #26 on North Park is named Donte.  Is that you?

I think every top team in the conference lost a lot of talent, I wouldn't say Augie lost any more than North Central or Carthage, for instance, and I wouldn't penalize them more than other schools. 

I think it is a little bit of a down year for the CCIW as a whole and it should be a wide open race. 

Quote from: 79jaybird on August 03, 2006, 10:33:38 AM

With Millikin,  there QB is strong their RB is phenomenal, but what about their defense and in particular the D-Line?  Their D-Line struck me as a little weak in the game I saw last year.

Chris Williams a defensive tackle was recently named a pre-season all-american (3rd team).  I think a lot of Millikin's defensive problems came from the system they ran.  They played with only 2 dlinemen for long stretches at times and it just didn't work.  With some new blood running the defense I think it should improve a lot.

I think Millikin's problem defensively will come trying to find replacements for Tony Dingle (S/OLB) and Dortanian Blount (ILB) who were both more or less 3 year starters.

I wonder if they might consider moving one of the returning corners, Robaer Williams, to safety full time.  I saw him play there against Augie (no need for corners against them) and he stood out as by far the best player in the field for Millikin in a game where not much else went right for the blue.  He is pound for pound as good of a hitter as any player I have ever seen (to be fair he doesn't have many pounds, he is maybe 5-7 and very skinny but he plays with reckless abandon.)

Quote from: usee on August 03, 2006, 01:00:56 AM
I doubt it.

more likely one of the top three voted for millikin because they cant stand the other two. I don't see how millikin can be in the top of the conference this year but what do i know. IWU has 18 starters back. i would definately pick iwu ahead of millikin and carthage in the conference race. in fact i did pick them.

The problem I see with this IWU logic (oxymoron?) is that it is 18 starters returning from a 3 win team and they lost their offensive MVP who also happens to be their QB.  It is always hard to improve a lot when you lose a player who accounts for such a high percentage of your offense. 

The advantage Millikin has in this repect is that Joey Albin is returning for his 2nd full season as a starter so there is stability at the most important position. 

In the head to head matchup one thing that really works in Millikins favor (besides the big guy upstairs being on their side) is that Wallick, who did stuggle at times against a few conference teams last season, absolutely dominated and physically abused Wesleyan.  On the other hand, Kudyba single handidly kept Wesleyan in a game where they were outplayed and beat up on their home turf.  He had 4 touchdown passes and rushed for over 100 yards. 

Overall he accounted for like 350 yards of offense and 4 TDs.  IWU had 380 yards and 4 TDs that game as a team!  One of the more impressive individual performances of the year in the conference that no one talked a lot about if you ask me.

So anyway, returning 18 starters from a 3 win team isn't always a great thing, you want young players and incoming players to challenge and win starting positions because that always shows a team is improving its talent level.  And if the returning starters are a real solid group you just have some bad luck losing having your QB and team MVP the year everyone else returns.

But you never know, someone could step up and be real solid in that spot.  This isnt the Big Ten and first year starters have early impacts a lot more often at this level.


Can't ever sleep on Carthage either, Brandon Fox is a "man among boys" type of player in my opinion and they are a program on the rise more than one who just had some fluke seasons.   

Quote from: Mr. Ypsi on August 01, 2006, 12:55:03 AM

You must not be a TRUE Millikin homer if you're gonna predict two wins for the Titans!

Or doesn't the Blue-Green rivalry burn as bright as it did in my day?  Back then it ranked right up there with Calvin-Hope or Wabash-DePauw .

The rivalry still holds up on the field.  But when not putting it on them on the gridiron the classy Millikin program would not like people to know they are in any way associated with that group of hoodlums who I have heard on good authority all hate their mothers and never say their prayers or eat their vitamins.

Looks like the preseason coaches poll is out, Millikin picked up a first place vote while the weenies are down there hanging out with North Park where they belong. 

seeing this is my first time making predictions I hope I get leeway to be a homer.  Next season, no homerism permitted.  Plus this year I do have some newfound optimism

1.  Millikin  8-2 (6-1)
2.  North Central 8-2 (5-2)
3.  Augustana 8-2 (5-2)
4.  Carthage 7-3 (4-3)
5.  Wheaton 6-4 (3-4)
6.  Elmhust 6-4 (3-4)
7.  Illinois Wesleyan 5-5 (2-5)
8.  North Park 2-8 (0-7)

Well the Kehe experiment in Decatur has ended.  He has left the program and the new defensive coordinator will actually be the new defensive coordinators. 

Patrick Etherton who is a returning linebackers coach and Chris Krich who is coming in from Lakeland College will be co-coordinators. 

It is interesting, Lakeland's head coach Jim Zebrowski came from Millikin as the offensive coordinator and in his first few years the coaches up there seem to be funneling into Decatur.  Richard Worsell was new to the Big Blue staff last year after working at Lakeland (played and in England before Lakeland, dont see that too often) and this year Coach Krich.

Here is a link to the Millikin coaching staff page.  It has a short bio of each coach.

http://www.millikin.edu/athletics/football/asst.asp

I can only expect the Big Blue to get better defensively, as Coach K would run out some very interesting sets. 

I remember watching a couple games with long stetches of only two linemen with two inside linebackers  two standup OLBs who really just looked like safeties walked up pretty much where the DEs would traditionally be, and then five DBs behind that.  Needless to say the Big Blue have traditionally had much better defenses and a change was probably needed after two seasons with a lot of points being put up by Millikin foes.

I remember seeing someone post before last season that there were rumors that there was some tension between the players and Coach K.  I don't know if that kind of thing played into Coach K's departure, so I will not comment on it. 

Hello everyone

I have read this board for a few years on and off and have decided to start posting a little.  As someone who lived in Decatur for years I am a little disappointed that not many Big Blue posters seem to ever be around.

With that said I hope none of you have thoughts of successful Saturday's for you respective teams when Nate Wallick, Joey Albin, and Chris Katzmark roll into town this fall.