I was at the Lake Forest-Knox game. I felt absolutely embarrassed for the Lake Forest Seniors. 12 of the 14 were on defense playing hard the hole game. The offense was terrible. They threw 5 interceptions. The offensive coaches finally got it together and ran the ball. Knox held a 40-20 time of possession advantage. The play of the Lake Forest quarterbacks (they used two) was abysmal.

the box score doesn't tell the whole tail, but for an offense to give up a safety and an int for a TD on the 10 yard line, and the defense only gave up 3 pts-- on the first drive. The Forester's played way below their abilities, the young offense had better have a great offseason.

Kudo's to knox for making sure that nobody in the conference went o-for the season.

Caught two games on the MWCTV---

Ripon- SNC shows that SNC was the better team yesterday, because they didn't make mistakes-- yesterday. Game was really over at the half 24-7 (then SNC scored early in the 3rd to go up 31-7)
Ripon has had two games in a row, big ones, where they started slow. Most option teams start strong, so that is suprising, because it takes the defense time to catch up to the speed of the offensive mesh.


Only watched the second half of the Forester-Fighting Scot game. Based on that, I thought it was a close game... then I saw what happened in the first half. Monmouth had starters in the whole game on offense, which was a surprising note. Announcers mentioned that one of the Scot's players had to go to the hospital, hope he is alright.

Alex Tanney is THAT good-- as if there was any question. But the really impressive player was Bricker- their running back. There are few backs in D3 that run with the conviction and power that he showed yesterday. He made a lot of those yards on his own. The offensive line for Monmouth didn't play like their accolades suggest they should. I question some of those "all-americans."

CONGRATULATIONS TO BELOIT AS THEY SECURED THEIR FIRST WINNING CONFERENCE SEASON IN WHO KNOWS HOW LONG... great job by their coaches to stick with it, and get that program back to respectability. Also-- should we be mentioning Julian Ross as one of the top WR in the conference now?
O

Two predictions:

Ripon over SNC by 14 or more.

Monmouth 173 Opponents: 18 (16 by IC's offense they go for 2 both times, and LFC's special teams gets a safety on a snap over the punters head that bounces off the ref, and goes into the endzone.)


As a point of reference they outscored their remaining schedule 180-29 a year ago. Including that 78-17 whooping over IC.

By the way-- how does Maughan get named Offensive POTW over Niekamp or Sobey== they won (niekamp head to head) and he lost??

Niekamp  40-28-0   299  6   37    1
Maughan 37-27-1   423  3   66    4
Sobey      45-24-1   256  4   55    3     + a 42 yard TD run

That just doesn't seem right. I know he has gaudy yards, but 1. He lost. 2 he has threw fewer touchdown passes on the day than those qb's and Tanney.

If there is an age requirement, than the crew at the GC-LFC game should be in the officiating retirement home.
The referee (age guessed at 80ish) called a measurable first down from 20 yards behind the play.. which he couldn't keep up with. Despite his mates asking him to wait and measure.

Furthermore, it is very VERY difficult to understand that there were five lining up in the neutral zone calls... none of which really looked like it was, and none appeared to have any impact on the play.

The final was the sideline penalites on both teams--- of course, there wasn't a single incident of holding during the game though (even when a player's jersey was litterally pulled off BOTH sides of his shoulder pads.)  

Grinnell converted a 3rd and 22-- I mean the officials converted a 3rd and 22 which gave led to their second touchdown  and the biggest momentum change in the game.

Lfc showed some life on offense the last few weeks.. not sure if it is the kids are used to the new staff, or if they are playing such weaker opponents-- I guess we'll find out this week with the Scots.

Notes from games not known as St. Norbert vs. Monmouth

LFC-LU
First two touchdowns of the game were defensive returns... LFC defense forced 6 turnovers (and there were three more fumbles they didn't recover)
LU only had 159 yards offense until their final drive against the Forester's backups (based on who made tackles). The Foresters weren't much better with 178 yards total offense. Defense and Special teams won this game for them.

Knox-Grinnell-
GC scores two touchdowns on 7 yards of offense (fumble return for a TD and a 2play 7 yard drive) though Bogard didn't play much in the second half-- (he is usually their kicker and didn't kick either in the second half). Not sure if this was an injury or precautionary.

Carroll-IC

Carroll and IC both get special teams touchdowns---CC with a 55 yard punt return, and 90 yard blocked punt return for IC-- if this is true, what was  CC doing punting inside their 20 yard line????Anyone see that play? Casper from Carroll has his career game 15 of 20 for 250yards.. including 3
Tocuhdown passes.. Niekamp has his season worrst game14 of 41 for under 240 yards.



Question for discussion--- who is THE best WR in the conference... this is the position that I think the conference is most talented at.


Jennings at IC, Carter at LFC, Gezella at SNC, Blodgett and Shephard at Monmouth, Ross at Beloit? any thoughts?

Basil-- that appeared to be a biased dagger aimed at the coaching staff about talent being on the sidelines.. I have always warned "family" and "fans" of a particular player that these coaches will never make decisions that will cause them to lose..

As for opening up the playbook-- the Ripon Staff only has seven pages in theirs and they are often at the top of the league..

I saw LF vs. Beloit last week, and it looks like they are starting to play better offensively, not sure what happened to their DB's-- one of their starters in their game report wasn't on the field, nor did it appear he was on the sideline.