It's been 4yrs since I officially joined this board, and 4yrs since I posted. Although I check this board daily in season and weekly out of season.

Ain't **** changed but the location, and sometimes that don't change. Hiram is still in the basement of the NCAC and D3 as a whole. I got an interesting stat for you guys. During Mroz's tenure they have gone 4-29. But that's not my stat.

2023: Beat Oberlin 27-19. Yeomen on the verge of going 1-9 down in Gambier this weekend.
2022: Beat 0-10 Oberlin and Hilbert 59-27. Hilbert has yet to win a game in program history (still not my stat). In 15 games Hilbert has scored no more than 27pts in a game, doing so twice. Other game was against Lyon.
2021: Beat 1-9 Bethany 41-21.

In the past 3 seasons Hiram has put up 588pts, and given up 1209pts. That is my stat. This season alone, 154/432.

So yea, nothing has changed. I'll give Mroz one more year. Hiram always has great players, every team does. But as I've said before, if you do not have a good leader in a HC, you will not succeed. But how do you get a good HC? By having ppl higher up in the institution that actually care about the football program. I know there a plenty of alums that want Hiram football to succeed. I just don't know if the right ppl are in place at Hiram College for the football team to ever achieve a conference title in the NCAC.

Hiram played against three potential playoff teams this season. Lost to Depauw 49-0, Wabash 52-13, and Mt St Joes 62-21. Those three teams are good but put them up against NC, Mount, WIAC teams etc they probably wouldn't do too well. Point being, Hiram has a long ladder to climb. They just need to get to the first check point, a winning season.

Obviously the game I'm tuning into this weekend for the NCAC is between the Indy teams. Don't care who wins just wanna see a good game. I guess if you held a gun to my head and forced me to pick a winner, I would go with Wabash because I would like to see what Thompson can do in the playoffs (I think he played in 2019 against North Central but was a freshman). Never seen him play in person but his stats are good, and everyone on here talks highly of him. D3 football had a nice little spotlight on him earlier this season.

One last side note... I see Depauw has scheduled Berry next season. That's a solid non conference opponent. Would like to see Berry get an "at large" this weekend, but doesn't seen promising.

https://www.hiramterriers.com/sports/fball/2019-20/releases/20191212oui3ew

new era begins now... let's see what he can bring to the NCAC

Hey all. First time poster to this thread, long time reader and D3 podcast listener. Just to give you a background on me.. I've been reading from the likes of Wally, sigma one, HCAlum86 and the rest of the gang since my playing days for Hiram 2009-2014. I was a dual sport athlete playing football and baseball. I lived on campus during multiple summers, and lived off campus a few yrs after totaling 8yrs in Hiram. I know the College very well and felt this was a great time to finally come out of the shadows. 

I played one yr under Stanford and felt the man was a tremendous offensive minded coach and overall great guy. But production matters and it was def time for a change. I remember hearing on one of the recent D3 podcasts a bad stat... Hiram's last 5 wins, dating back to 2016, have all been against teams that were winless at the time (Kenyon 3x, Earlham, and OWU). That's just not good. So a change is in order.

I agree with HCAlum86 (".. very well...") that someone who knows NEO NEEDS to be the next HC at Hiram. Perhaps even a former player at Hiram, as they would know the program very well. We just need someone who really cares about the kids, the college, and the community. Someone that is ready to step into a very tough HC role and get to work.

I am tired of seeing Hiram recruit so many kids for the next freshman class. I played on teams of over 100 kids, and while I know that having more athletes helps the school to have more students and plenty of other D3 teams are successful with those kind of roster numbers, it just isn't going to cut it here at Hiram, at least for now. There were kids on the team that I barely ever spoke to because there was so many! I think my freshman class started at about 55 and dwindled down to just 6 or 7 my 4th yr. Having so many kids on the team is hard to create a strong "team" culture, especially at a school that has trouble winning games (4-46 record for my 5yrs). A couple yrs we had so many kids on the squad that about 10 of them had to be moved to a different locker room because there wasn't enough room in the football locker room. How do you think those kids felt? I think bringing in no more than 25 freshman would be ideal. It would allow for better team camaraderie and the kids would feel more accepted/important and want to stay.

As for recruiting far out of state, I think that needs to cut down significantly. There are plenty of great football players in NEO and the rest of the state and even PA, IN. Spending so much time, and money, on travelling to FL, CA, TX, NV etc. is, in my opinion, a waste. Maybe a few kids from far out of state because you will find good kids but you risk them not returning after their first yr. When you bring in so many kids from that far away it just does not work. I have seen it countless times. A kid from Fl is promised playing time, comes up to Hiram, doesn't play a snap all season, and then once winter break comes and he's sitting on the beach with his smoking hot girlfriend he realizes that he loves FL and doesn't even come back for the spring semester, especially when he doesn't get playing time (FL kids aren't used to the snow and often hate it). I had a buddy come in my sophomore yr and told he would start at TE. That yr we used a TE in our offensive package maybe like 5-10% of the season and he was not involved in that whatsoever. We can't keep lying to kids and leading them on. It is a waste of their time and the football programs time. Sorry to be so negative in that respect, but trust me I've seen it over and over again.

Side note: I will say that I befriended many FL kids on the team when I was there, and visit them every yr. So I am thankful for the friendships created via recruits from out of state.

We just need a guy that cares and wants to win. Wants to create a winning culture at Hiram and let that spread to the rest of the teams on campus that are struggling. A guy that wants to put Hiram on the D3 football map. Someone that played D3 football, was a winner, and knows NEO. Hiram can't stay below .500 forever, can they? I am excited about the possibility of a winning Hiram football team.

I also just want to say I am very grateful to now be a part of this thread. Thanks guys.