Yesterday's game was about what I expected -- Washington U has an outstanding defense, does a lot of different things to disguise what they're doing. I really liked their LBs, especially Fade Oloukun. With the wind as strong as it was, it played into a defensive struggle. WashU played its game -- defend, play field position and try to get a turnover and be opportunistic. It nearly worked, but FC's offense began clicking late.

The West-to-Butler TD with :17 left was a thing of beauty, even if it wasn't caught by the intended receiver. Butler ran a post, went up & got it, splitting the safeties and getting to the goal line. I've been impressed with his play in the last few weeks of the year. With FC down a couple of receivers, it's opened up opportunities, and Kendal Butler especially has stepped up of late. I was expecting the Griz to try to get into FG range and have Wood put it through to end it.

Franklin defense was outstanding yesterday -- forced a lot of 3-and-outs, WashU really didn't get into much offensive rhythm, and Zach Corpe had one of the most impressive INTs I've seen, an athletic, lay-out, diving snare in one-on-one coverage that set up FC's first TD.

Going to be a tough one in Whitewater on Saturday, but I like this team a lot. It's a heck of an accomplishment to make the tourney four straight years, but a tremendous one to get to the Round of 16 three straight (and 4 times in 6 years).

Quote from: ExTartanPlayer on November 22, 2013, 04:43:43 PM
Re: WashU-Franklin, I agree, I was very surprised how many points they projected for WashU.  I do think this will be a competitive game but it will be low-scoring.  WashU has an excellent defense and, even against the stellar Franklin offense, might be able to keep this competitive.  I would expect something more like 17-13 either way.  If one team gets over 20, it will be Franklin, and WashU will lose.

Nice prediction. Very nice.

Quote from: SaintsFAN on November 17, 2012, 05:56:56 PM

Quote from: crimsonace on November 17, 2012, 05:42:31 PM
It's tough to play the "respect" card when the HCAC did not do very well OOC.

It's not tough, it's impossible. Let's face it guys: Franklin isn't like the rest of the HCAC and Conference wins will be taken with a grain of salt. For 10 weeks Franklin did what was expected of them. They got a chance to change perception today and get another one next week.

The reason Franklin is ranked and has the respect of the pollsters is because they've won playoff games. They have been able to step out of the HCAC shadows. No way does Pat, et all not respect them. They just didn't celebrate them for getting through the Heartland schedule.

That's the point I was making. Franklin, right now, isn't a typical HCAC team, but the perception of the conference gets them lumped in with them. It scheduled as such OOC and I think we in the HCAC all knew how good this team was (and, I'm a bit biased, but there are years you know a team is pretty special and has a chance to go deep ... and this one is it). It's still difficult to run the table without a slipup, and FC has done it three straight years.

Pregame, it's hard to get the "respect," but I've never cared much what prognosticators think. That's for discussion. Franklin has proven itself on the field week-in and week-out, and did so again today. Even the UMU & Butler losses weren't bad -- the Mt. Union game was significantly closer than the score might have indicated, and could easily have been a 28-14 game, and Butler would have gotten an AQ into the DI FCS tourney if next year's rules were in place.

It's tough to play the "respect" card when the HCAC did not do very well OOC.

It's somewhat like Butler or Gonzaga in basketball. It's difficult for them to get national respect because the conference is seen as below-caliber. Much like those schools, FC played top teams (Mt. Union, Butler) in the non-conference, giving it a good look. Those losses paid off today.

To say Franklin beating Adrian means Hanover or Manchester would've beaten/played with Adrian is a bit of a stretch, because this is a good matchup. But I hope this does bring a bit more respect regionally to the HCAC, as Hanover was an excellent offensive team this season and an up-and-comer, Manchester was solid, and I liked what I saw out of Defiance & Bluffton at the end of the year.

Quote from: panthersfan on November 17, 2012, 02:40:40 PM
Guess this a note for the d3football.com staff for a bit more love...  3 or 4 teams in the HCAC could play with MIAA champ.  One of them can crush them as it seems.

Adrian was a perfect matchup for Franklin. A team that relies on the run against a team that has been very good against it. Adrian moved the ball in spurts, but once it got to midfield, it didn't get much. Only scores were off a late 1st half INT return that led to a FG, and a disputed PI call on 3rd-and-long that drew another 15-yard flag apparently because the dispute was too vociferous.

Franklin rolled up 500 yards of offense against a team that hangs its hat on defense. I know the D3FB staff has harangued FC's strength of schedule all year, but this is not a normal HCAC team. It's possibly the most complete team Franklin has had, and there have been quite a few pretty good ones.

Once it got to 21-0, I expected things to go exactly as they did -- FC was just too strong and West-to-Linville was clicking today.

Nice win, it'll be interesting to see how things go against UMHB. I still contend the Mt. Union game was significantly closer than the score and they've been improving every week since, and have played very well offensively. The UMHB broadcasters were saying they've not played anyone from Indiana before and they're looking forward to seeing someone different.

Shameless plug; Watch Franklin-Hanover live at GrizzlyBall.com on Saturday. Just don't beat up the play-by-play guy too much .

Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on November 03, 2012, 08:27:48 PM
Big upset with Manchester holding on to beat Hanover. With a win next week over Anderson they would finish above .500 for the first time this millennium. Add in a Franklin win over Hanover and they would finish 2nd in the conference. Not bad for a team picked 7th by the coaches.

Manchester has very quietly had a very nice season, but today was a big eye-opener. Hanover has had some huge comebacks this year -- the RHIT game so far has kept them in contention -- and nearly pulled it off today. MC led 35-14 midway through the third, then I looked back at the score and it was 35-34 in about 5 minutes of clock time. Next Saturday's Franklin-Hanover tussle is going to be fun, especially with the quality of the two offenses.

Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on November 02, 2012, 06:47:54 AM
What I'd like to see is Franklin schedule some of the semi-elite teams of the region. It's nice to play a team like Mount Union to see a top team, but I think it would be much more beneficial to play teams like Wabash, North Central, Wittenberg, etc which are still solid programs but are games that would be competitive and Franklin might actually win.

I do like FC's willingness to schedule both of the purples in back-to-back years (and playing Butler/Valpo actually gives you the ability to play a quality foe with no penalty in the rankings since it's a non-D3 foe). But the Griz have played some of those teams in the past -- home-and-homes with Wabash, Trine in the Watt years, playing Baldwin-Wallace, for example. The HCAC rarely gets a Pool C bid (although MSJ did a few years back), so scheduling "up" is a pretty solid strategy. Although both Butler & Mt. Union in the same year is pretty brutal, FC was much more competitive in the UMU game than the score might have indicated. 

Quote from: FCGrizzliesGrad on October 21, 2012, 10:31:05 AM

Quote from: GRIZ_BACKER on October 21, 2012, 10:15:45 AM
Interesting statistic maybe only I care about:   The Griz have beaten their last 3 opponents 163-0.

Great to see the defense stepping up, but it's not quite as good as Mount Union outscoring opponents 342-0 in their last 6 games. That 45-7 loss continues to look better and better for Franklin though... still the fewest points Mount has scored and the only team to score on them.

And that game was a lot closer than the score might indicate. That effort looks better & better for the Grizzlies, given nobody has scored on Mt. Union or held their offense under 50 since.

Sure, Earlham and Anderson have been struggling, but I'm really impressed with what the Griz have done the last 3 weeks. To shut out MSJ with the nation's leading rusher is a pretty good effort. Yesterday was a 56-0 win over a Rose-Hulman team that had Hanover beat three weeks ago (and was two OT losses away from being 4-0 in the conference). Rose didn't have Kovach available save 1 play, but they still have looked like an upper-division HCAC team in their results so far this season.

The other impressive thing yesterday was the number of freshmen and underclassmen who were contributing for Franklin yesterday.