Agreeing with you is obvious...but it won't happen anytime soon and the reasons suck.  The MWC presidents want to hold this conference out as a educationally elite conference like the Ivy league.  And even bigger than that is the additional manpower (COSTS) it would take to have off campus recruiting.  I believe Ripon only has 2 full time coaches.  When are they going to go off campus?  You would have to hire someone to teach there classes and hire someone to make the phone calls necessary to set up the off campus visits; not to mention the travel expenses.
Believe me I think off campus recruiting would be awesome in the MWC but it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Spring ball is a different story.  Baseball has fall ball, Basketball goes year round because it isn't that difficult to get together and work the skills.  Football could use the practice in the spring just to see who has worked hard over the winter and to experiment with new schemes without taking fall practice time when time is an issue.   

The costs involved are minimal if there are costs, the only issue is possibly taking away from academics; and as I mentioned earlier, the presidents see the MWC as an educationally elite conference and they will do nothing to dispel that view.

Without question, St. Norbert's is the team to beat.  Monmouth is second, and from there on the pot is mixed; I would think that Ripon, Carroll, and IC would be the next 3 who could compete.  Ripon has beaten 1 of those 2 soundly, but IC is a good team that I believe could still beat any of the other 4 teams mentioned.  Carroll at Ripon this week is the game to watch, is Ripon for real or is Carroll's defense that good?

I think Ripon will win a very close game
the other four games are not very interesting in my mind.
IC, Lake Forsest, Monmouth and St. Norbert's all win easily.

Picks of the week

Beloit at Knox. Knox fairly easily

Lawrence at Grinnell.  It can't be a tie, so let's say Lawrence

Monmouth at Carroll.  Good game, but I'll go with Monmouth in a very close game.

St. Norberts at Lake Forest.  St. Norberts by 14

Ripon at Illinois College.  Ripon by 3, if their pass defense improves.  IC by 20 if it doesn't.

Any major injuries around the league this week?   I haven't heard anything out of the Red Hawk camp...people coming back, but nobody hurt.

2 Carroll players as POW is a great accomplishment.  True it was Beloit, but they still had to get the job done.  It is often easy to play down to an opponents level.  One question about the new team center...Does it have locker rooms for the visiting teams also, or will they still be across the street?  Just curious.  As you probably know from being a former player, there are way, way worse places to dress than at Carroll as a visitor.

Picks for this week.

After all of the road teams won last week...All of the home teams will win this week.  The only one that has a chance to be close is Lake Forest @ IC.  Lake Forest played the hawks tough although Lake Forest recovering 2 onside kicks made it a little closer than it was.  All of the other home teams roll.  I don't see any visitor getting within 2 TD's.

Knox @ Ripon  Ripon by 21 if they have an off day

Beloit @ Monmouth  Monmouth by more than 21

Grinnell @ Carroll  Carroll by 14

Lawrence @ St Norberts  The Norbs only beat  Grinnell by 22, but chalk that up to one long bus ride.  Norberts by 30 if they call off the dogs early.

Lake Forest @ Illinois College IC by 10.

I have too much time on my hands...Thank God for WI-FI hot spots.  Illinois College is the only scholl in the conference that has not posted a roster for 2007 so I can't include their numbers in this post, but, with a little counting and figuring we can discuss the success (or lack thereof) of the schools in the conference as far as recruiting goes.  Before anyone goes off on me, I know that numbers don't tell the whole story about the value of a recruiting class, but I do believe that more recruits is better for the all around health of a program.  the more athletes that you have to choose from, the better your chances of finding and developing some players who can help you.

I will list the schools by roster size with the second number being the number of freshman that were brought in.

Monmouth     113     56 frosh   50%
Carroll           112     48 frosh   43%
St. Norberts  106     45 frosh   42%
Ripon              78     35 frosh   45%
Lake Forest    63     23 frosh   37%
Knox               59     13 frosh   22%
Beloit              51     20 frosh   39%
Lawrence       49     16 frosh   33%
Grinnell           46     15 frosh   33%

I don't know if the percentage of freshmen on the team matters at all, but since I am a statitician...

To me it looks as if the top of the conference is recruiting better and getting more athletes on campus.  Monmouth has more freshmen than Beloit, Lawrence or Grinnell has players.  I do believe that the disparity is part of the difference between winning and losing.  I know that Grinnell will have a tough time recruiting because of the academic standards that they have there.  But what is up with Lawrence and Knox,  Ripon only has 2 full time coaches/recruiters and they manage to get 35 freshman on campus.  Lawrence has to have at least 4 full time people on staff and they can only get 16 freshman.  What is the story there?  I know that winning makes a difference and makes recruiting a little easier, but, I wonder if they are going about it the right way.

This message board doesn't have a lot of posts compared to other boards.  Is anyone interested? Does anyone want to discuss this stuff?  I am trying to get something going here.  Maybe most of it doesn't matter...OK...What does matter?

Hawk Sighting,

I travel a lot and will be out of town for most of the month of September, I hope to keep up with the Hawks on MWCTV and through this forum.  I played at Ripon years before you or your father got there.  But, I was there during the Ernst era.  I will introduce myself when I get to a game and see you there.  Probably won't be until Monmouth although I may drive down to Beloit. 8)

I attended the Red and White this past weekend and the kids look pretty good.  I didn't have a roster and haven't looked up any numbers for the freshman online so some comments will be with numbers only.  If you want to know the kids name you will have to look it up yourself.

Offensively, 2 qb's stood out; Tygh Walters who is a junior and #15 who is a freshman, both ran the offense consistently and well.  Scott Perkins and John Larsen are both quality fullbacks, Scott is elusive, Larsen is a bull.  At running back I didn't recognize anyone; #20 and #30 started with #39 looking pretty good all the way around.  I didn't see McGuire or Burschbach suited up at all.  Receivers blocked well and caught what was thrown to them; but most importantly they blocked well.

Defensively, #63 and #77 are large guys who clog the middle.  Raselinger looked good at end.  Secondary played alot of people at corner and nobody caught my eye; good or bad.  Kellet and Kramer at the force safety position are both good and Spratty at the free safety position is solid also.  Linebackers looked solid, with #47(Krause I think) at Middle looking very comfortable, the weak and strong, not sure which is which since the offense is balanced, also looked good with #42 catching my eye with his speed.

Time will tell.

Hawk Sighting (mc)

I agree that Ripon has the talent, what they lack is any game experience.  I have been told that some of the freshman and sophomores that are being asked to step up are MORE talented than the players they are replacing the big question  is can they do it when it matters on Saturdays.  I would guess that after a few games, Ripon will be better than they were last year, will they still have a shot when that time comes.

The word is that QB is not a problem.  There is a freshman who looks pretty good, but I am not sure which of the 4 freshmen in camp it is.

McGuire is hurt but should be back for the red and white; Burshbach is out for the year, Fehley at CB is out for the year and Murphy the other corner did something to his arm and is out for 3 - 4 weeks.

Those are the starters from last year that are injured as of yesterday.

The Oshkosh game should be a better game than last year just because of the better depth that Ripon has.  The numbers that any state school can throw at a private liberal arts college are overwhelming.  100 players, sophomores - seniors, since they grayshirt most of  the good freshman, will be more than Ripon can handle in the second half.

I will finish your thought on state schools in D-III, it is a joke.  There is NO private school in Wisconsin that can compete facilities wise, with the state schools.  Their ability to "Grayshirt" their freshman is another issue. When parents are paying $30,000 dollars + to educate their kids per year; they are not paying another year just so their kid can play football.  Won't happen and shouldn't happen. 

I have heard that the Hawks have been hit by the injury bug; both starting corners from last year, 1 starting running back and more than their share of backups.  The red and white should be interesting to see who is going to step up into those spots.

I think that the injuries could hurt the defensive secondary the most;  in their system, an average back who is physical can excel and get the job done.

I had read your postings on individual players who were coming to the Midwest Conference; my question was more about how successfully the schools in the conference were recruiting, numbers wise.

Since my last post on August 4th, no other schools, other than the three that I listed originally have posted a 2007 roster or have mentioned recruiting numbers.

I always like to see 300- 500 new football players in the MWC; it helps increase the level of play and it keeps the MWC schools strong in a general sense.

St. Norberts is at the top of the coaches poll and Knox is eighth.  Other than that I missed them all.     Give me a little (very little) credit, I missed everybody else by one spot in the polls (I switched 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 9-10) so I really can't complain about the coaches poll.

In response to Rome's post about Coach Purtill...I can't believe that he is still at St. Norberts.  With his sucessful track record he has to have had offers.  If Jeff Voris can get a job with 1 winning season under his belt, you have to know the Coach Purtill has had some offers.  So that begs the question, "Is he jest comfortable being the big fish in a little pond (The MWC) or is he just not interested in taking on the challenges of running a larger program?"

Does anyone have any recruiting information from around the league?

Only 3 schools have anything on their websites...
Grinnell has 18 recruits this year.
Monmouth has 59 recruits this year.
Ripon has 40 recruits (had to count the freshmen on their roster)

No other schools have anything listed.

I believe that quality is definately better than quantity, but, if you get enough players to work through, you are bound to find a couple of players that will work out for you.

One philisophical question.  As a coaching staff, how do you evaluate 59 or even 40 freshmen, while also preparing for a conference season.  I would imagine that for a freshman to be an impact player he has to impress immediately, or else he has to bide his time and hope for his sophomore year.  That probably isn't a bad thing for the development of Freshman, but, I would think that it may be frustrating for kids who go from being studs in high school to kids who are standing on the sidelines a year later.

Quick rumdown of the MWC

St. Norbert...Always the favorite until somebody knocks them off.

Ripon...Alot returning, and gettiing better with the new schemes.  Continuity counts

Monmouth...Reload for another shot

Lake Forest...Coack Becker needs to have a good year

Illinois College...Should be at the top every year with the area they can recruit

Lawrence...Could be a surprise team here

Carroll...Needs to show consistency, it is possible but they need to step it up

Knox...Don't know what to think here

Grinnell...Good coaching, average players

Beloit...Too hard to recruit here to put a decent squad on the field.

There is the first shot.  Tell me (and I am sure people will) where I am wrong.