Quote from: NCC2010 on February 13, 2025, 12:37:04 PMOk finally had some time to put together the commit list for NCC.

Up to 35 commitments from what I have found, mainly from players posting on X.

5 QBs have committed, 2 transfers and 3 coming out of high school

For the accolades column, tried my best to just go off what each player had in their X profile, not sure how accurate it is.

NCC 2025 Commits

NERD (thank you!)

Quote from: NCC2010 on January 24, 2025, 03:57:41 PMNo idea if true or not but I saw on X that NCC will be playing Oshkosh for their out of conference game next season.

https://x.com/dshot1992/status/1880390257717440675?s=46&t=2LpDHlmLWW7A7c0oIFbv5Q

https://x.com/dshot1992/status/1880680732122911047?s=46&t=2LpDHlmLWW7A7c0oIFbv5Q

I'd be willing to bet that it is next season and the season following, considering they played Wheaton in a home and away series the last 2 seasons.

Rumor from the CCIW board that Oshkosh and NCC will play each other in non-conference next season. Considering they did a home at home with Wheaton in 23/24 it makes me think the same will be done with NCC for 25/26.

Quote from: NCC2010 on January 09, 2025, 10:10:51 AMRewatched the last scoring drive for NCC last night and two things popped out. 

On the first 3rd down and 1 from the 17, Sam Pryor drove an All-American DT 7 yards off the line of scrimmage and almost to the sideline before the play ended.

And then on the crucial 4th and 1 from the 32, I noticed they moved Pryor from RG to LG so he was next to Maples, and they ran right behind both of them. 

Them moving Pryor for whatever reason reminded me how both Pryor and Maples played defensive line on the big stop against Wartburg last year in the semis, when Wartburg brought in Owen Grover to be a blocker on offense.

Not sure if either has the measurables to get a look from NFL but hope they get a chance, both Sam and Jeske were dominant all 4 years here.

I had considered whether either of them would get a look, but they both seem far too light in the seat for it. Maples was the one I really wondered about, figuring he could move inside, but he's listed at only 263 (Pryor is 270). They've got to put on 30-40 lbs each. Thornton was listed at 298 and played a position that is tough to find good players at and he didn't get a sniff. Hard to see either of those guys getting one.

Quote from: GusD on January 07, 2025, 02:12:54 PMEligibility may not be a question as the NCAA is considering adding a fifth year of eligibility for all athletes.

That means I have 4 yrs left. Time to figure out how to get that sweet sweet NIL.

Quote from: Thunderdome21 on January 07, 2025, 01:22:18 PMHe only played one game with Ferris this past fall, with no statistics. 5 of the other QBs on Ferris played at least 2 games and logged passing statistics including 3 other redshirt freshmen, so it appears he was 6th string on its depth chart. Interestingly, Ferris St.(this year's D-2 champion) defeated Roosevelt 55-13, whereas NCC beat them 41-7 the year before. 

Ferris's website appears to be....let's call it "unreliable". The website shows him with no stats for 2023 or 2024 but if you find the box score from Northern Michigan (their X account has a post from Sep 2023 saying he scored a TD in a route) it says he went 2-4 for 17 yds, 3 rushes for 2 yds, no TDs. I don't have it in me to look at other games. All this to say let's hope he's the next Lehnen!

Quote from: NCC2010 on January 07, 2025, 09:56:33 AMExcited for Demir. I've seen him play a few times live, he is a local kid. Played high school 15 minutes down the road at Plainfield North. His younger brother is a currently a sophomore at North so I'm sure that played a role in the transfer. Former NCC DL Anthony Imbordino ('05-'07) is also the head coach at Plainfield North and I'm sure he nudged him towards NCC as well. 

Demir was first team All State in Class 8A (the largest class size in Illinois) his senior year at North during the '22-23 season while leading them to their only 9-0 regular season in school history. 

He redshirted at Ferris in '23-24 and then this past year was listed on the roster, although his post on X says he has 4 years of eligibility of left, which I thought would only be 3 as I assume next year he would be considered a redshirt sophomore.  Never really know with the eligibility these days

I didn't know anything about him I was just trying to wind USee up but looks like they may have actually gotten a good one!

Quote from: USee on January 06, 2025, 10:37:47 PM2019 NCC won their first Stagg and Gagliardi QB Broc Rutter was done and Cardinal fans were crying about the next year, which was Luke Lehnens freshman year. Boo hoo.....

NCC just got a commit from Ferris St QB Demir Ashiru. Maybe he can continue the run I'm sure you'd love that USee 😂

Quote from: D3fanboy on January 06, 2025, 02:03:58 PM

Quote from: USee on January 06, 2025, 01:33:55 PMI don't think attendance factors much into location/date for the Stagg. Most college bowl games are sparsely attended and are in neutral sites.

the NCAA could not care less about the attendance of the Stagg Bowl, nor do they really care about the TV ratings.  The D3 championship is just part of an overall NCAA package.  However, the attendance matters a bit more to the host city.  Salem just does a much, much, much better job of attracting locals than Texas, Annapolis or Canton (I live there and never heard a peep marketing the Stagg Bowl here) and marketing the game/weekend.  Canton is the near perfect location for D3FB, but Salem is the much better spot for a Stagg Bowl experience imo.

Actually found myself wondering last night how many locals go to these things..or how much the NCAA markets it.

At the same time, if you're NCC or Mt Union (or hell the NCAA) wouldn't it be worth your time/$ to reach out to some local high school football teams and get them group discounts or comps to come to the game? you'd think you could gain an enrollment or two doing something like that.

Quote from: CarollFan on January 06, 2025, 01:53:50 PMFrank and J.B. discuss having the game Sunday night, at the very beginning of their preview show. One thing they call out is from a viewership standpoint your competing with a NFL game.

https://www.facebook.com/D3Huddle/

Pulled a Pat post in the MIAC board:

Sure -- on Dec. 30 (or anytime between Christmas and New Year's) the committee found that its hosts would not be able to staff the games because of the number of volunteers required to actually put this game on. To have the game on Jan. 2, they would have had to travel teams here on Dec. 30 and have them here over the holidays, and the same with Jan. 3. In fact, if Jan. 3 fell on a Saturday, they would instead host the game the following weekend because the committee does not want to travel teams over the New Year's holiday.

Quote from: USee on January 06, 2025, 01:33:55 PMI don't think attendance factors much into location/date for the Stagg. Most college bowl games are sparsely attended and are in neutral sites.

yep. If you have a couple of schools with home stadiums of 100K each go somewhere "nice" and pull in 40-50K, it stands to reason that if you send 2 schools with 4-5K attendance each somewhere not nice they're only going to pull 2-3K.

As I mentioned earlier, I liked the optics the soccer specific stadium provided as a viewer. It LOOKED less empty just because the hard camera side lower bowl area appeared to only be 10-15 rows deep before you get to the club level. You only really noticed how empty it was when it was an endzone shot.

He was just trying to get it to the RB in the quickest possible way. Live and learn!

Quote from: cciwman on January 06, 2025, 09:46:28 AMThere is a lot of talk that losing the QB and OL will be huge challenges to continuing this amazing run, BUT what happens if a coach leaves?  The last time when Thorne left, Spencer was in the pipeline and ready to take over having been a major player in the rise of the program.  A seldom mentioned "key" figure in this program has been Defensive Coordinator Shane Dierking.  He has been the DC through the 7 year of rising to dominance. 

Last night Mount had a dominant rushing advantage early, but by halftime adjustments had been made and the Cards began to force longer third down yardage.  While the secondary still struggled a bit, the defense is what made this victory happen as they held down Mount.

If Dierking were to leave for a new gig, that is not Spencer's expertise and from what I heard Dierking is a heck of a recruiter too...  At somepoint you would think he would want to be in charge of his own program.

An interesting question, as looking forward to next year the Defense appears to be primed to be VERY good (better than this year), and based on what the offense is losing (Lehnen, majority of O-line) it will need to be VERY good to try and repeat.

Quote from: crufootball on January 06, 2025, 09:09:33 AM

Quote from: Purple13 on January 05, 2025, 11:52:49 PMTonight's attendance in the soccer stadium was 1,938 another failure by the NCAA I guess they'll never figure it out oh wait I almost forgot it's all about the MONEY it belongs back in Salem VA or Canton Ohio PERIOD!!!!

As a Texan I can't fight to keep it here but attendance in Canton was worse at 1,830. Perhaps next year it will be better especially if Mount Union gets back to it, of course attendance was better in Texas when UMHB was there too.

Certainly seems like the attendance issue comes largely down to whether (and weather) one of the "close" powers makes it. Even then what can you expect? You're not going to fill (or even half fill) these stadiums.

Lehnen looked every bit the Gagliardi winner tonight but boy did that O Line give him ALL day to throw. I don't remember hearing Rossy Moore's name mentioned after the 1st possession. Just a heck of a job.