FB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[Zeus51]

Congrats to two Benedictine seniors on being named to the  "D3 Senior Classic" preseason All-American team. Senior defensive end Ben Lockton was named to the "D3 Senior Classic" preseason All-American team as an honorable mention , while senior running back John Borsellino was named to the first team. Here is the full story from the Benedictine Athletics page: http://benueagles.com/news/2012/8/23/FB_0823123618.aspx

Exactly one week until BenU kickoff!!!

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

ANYONE INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF THE 2012 TOP 25 FAN POLL:
Please send me a PM with your ballot. I'd like to get a preseason poll up by Thursday night.

During the season ballots shall be due by Tuesdays so I can get them up Tuesday night.

Remember, this is just fun and we aren't part of the BCS Formula... yet

[d3fan1515]

LET THE FUN BEGIN!! Here are the NAC week 1 match-ups... Let the predictions begin!

Benedictine             Wheaton (Ill.)      
Lake Forest             Concordia Chicago      
Aurora                      Illinois Wesleyan      
Carroll (Wis.)              Lakeland      
Westminster (Mo.)      Rockford      
Wisconsin Lutheran      Ripon      
Concordia Wisconsin      Augsburg      
Martin Luther                     Maranatha      

I will predict later      

[Zeus51]

Here are my predictions, simply based off last years results and what teams have coming back.

Concordia Chicago Vs. Lake Forest..............CUC wins by 2 scores
Aurora Vs. Illinois Wesleyan......................Wesleyan Wins, but in a very tight game, AU gives them a run for their money!
Carroll (Wis) Vs. Lakeland........................ Not to sure here, So I say Lakeland in a tight one
Westminster (Mo) Vs. Rockford.................Westminster
Wisconsin Luthren Vs. Ripon.....................Ripon wins this one, but closer game than last years results
Concordia Wisconsin Vs. Augsburg.............Concordia bounces back from last years loss and wins in a tight game
Martin Luther Vs. Maranatha.....................The crusaders start the year off 1-0 for the 2nd straight season
*Benedictine Vs. Wheaton* (Game of the Week) BenU heads to play Wheaton on thursday night to kick off the season. This will be a very tough game for the Eagles. In a lot of ways this game is similar to the AU game, I expect BenU to play tough and hopefully Coach Copper has the team well prepared for the Thunder, cause they will be ready!

Again this is simply my opinion and truly means nothing. I wish every NAC team luck this week and hope we put up a better non-conference record than a year ago. Most importantly I hope each team stays healty and represent the NAC well!

[irisheagle]

Here are my predictions, simply based off last years results and what teams have coming back.

Concordia Chicago Vs. Lake Forest..............CUC wins by 2 scores
Aurora Vs. Illinois Wesleyan......................Wesleyan Wins, but in a very tight game, AU gives them a run for their money!
Carroll (Wis) Vs. Lakeland........................ Not to sure here, So I say Lakeland in a tight one
Westminster (Mo) Vs. Rockford.................Westminster
Wisconsin Luthren Vs. Ripon.....................Ripon wins this one, but closer game than last years results
Concordia Wisconsin Vs. Augsburg.............Concordia bounces back from last years loss and wins in a tight game
Martin Luther Vs. Maranatha.....................The crusaders start the year off 1-0 for the 2nd straight season
*Benedictine Vs. Wheaton* (Game of the Week) BenU heads to play Wheaton on thursday night to kick off the season. This will be a very tough game for the Eagles. In a lot of ways this game is similar to the AU game, I expect BenU to play tough and hopefully Coach Copper has the team well prepared for the Thunder, cause they will be ready!

Again this is simply my opinion and truly means nothing. I wish every NAC team luck this week and hope we put up a better non-conference record than a year ago. Most importantly I hope each team stays healty and represent the NAC well!

My picks for the week as are follows .. I don't know much about non cciw and nac conferences so some of these might be surprising.
CCU vs lake forest ... Chicago is ready to win a title they'll show it here they win by 2 scores
AU vs iwu ... Iwu wins by a mile
Carroll vs lakeland ... Carroll by a couple
Westminister vs rockford ... Rockford keeps struggling west. By a couple scores
Wisc. Luth. Vs ripon ... I think wisc. Luth. Will comtinue their success with a w this weekend
Con. Wisc. Vs augsburg ... Augsburg by 2 scores
Martin luther vs maranantha ... Maranantha start out 1-0 again
Benedictine vs wheaton ... The injurys scare me on defense I wonder who will be playing losing sevral starters in the scrimmage , but if they play error free football they have a chance. I must have faith in my fav team so I'm gonna say benedictine wins 42-38. I think johnny will have a hell of a day and bu defense will stop the run but struggle with pass a little.
God luck to all NAC teams this week

[d3fan1515]

Benedictine                 Wheaton (Ill.) - I don't predict any BU games!   
Lake Forest                 Concordia Chicago- Concordia beats a weak Lake Forest team!     
Aurora                        Illinois Wesleyan- I did do some thinking on this one, but i'm taking IWU.     
Carroll                        Lakeland- I think Carroll wins this in a CLOSE one.   
Westminster                Rockford- Westminister     
Wisconsin Lutheran       Ripon- Wisconsin Lutheran wins this one, They will be TOUGH this year!           
Martin Luther               Maranatha- Maranatha

Concordia Wisconsin     Augsburg-  I think this is the game of the week! I think Concordia will be much better then last year but I think they will lose a close one to augsburg

[WLCALUM83]

My Week 1 guesses:

Wheaton
Concordia-Chicago
IL Wes
Lakeland    (Muskies will want to make a statement for Mr. Winslow)
Westminster
WLC
Maranatha

[d3fan1515]

Well so far the only NAC teams to win have been WLC and CIRF... I don't see anything about Lakeland and Carroll... If anyone knows can you please post!

[d3fan1515]

Nevermind Lakeland lost...

[RFMichigan]

WLC with a big win.  I think they are going to be a tough out for every conference foe this year.

CUC's offense looked decent against Lake Forest, but they were fortunate that they collected five turnovers on defense, because they struggled stopping Lake Forest otherwise.  They didn't allow any huge gains, but the Foresters just ground out yardage. (I think the Cougars are going to miss their nose tackle from last year, Dwyer. He did a fine job at "mucking up" the middle for the past three years.) Still too many penalties for Cuc which killed a few drives as well.

The next two will be pretty stiff tests for CUC.

[RFMichigan]

Looking over the scores of NAC teams from the weekend, I think it's tough to predict the top 4 or 5 teams in the conference, but here goes:

- No idea about BU or AU because Wheaton and IWU are programs which are on a completely different level of talent than NAC teams.  (See Alabama vs. Michigan )  I have to think BU is one the class teams of the conference based on their performance last year and their returning veterans. AU appeared by the box score to hang around IWU for about a quarter and a half but then the roof caved in. Hard to tell from a box score, however, how overall competitive a team will be. Don't count out AU.

- Most impressive team of the week: WLC. Wow. (WLCALUM83 - you must be shaking with anticipation by the prospects of this season.) They manhandled a Ripon team that beat the Warriors easily last year. Right now they're my conference favorite.

- CUC - Ask again in two weeks after the Cougars play Chicago and Hope how good they are this year. Same wild offense. Defense that -  ah - who knows. They start two freshmen on the O-line and one on the D-line which makes me nervous. Also, I don't think that they have quite the firepower of the last few years to make up for a defense that also lost a number of playmakers. (Although I just love Koehler.) Pries has worked miracles, but a fourth straight 8-2 season would be a lot to ask for. 

- CUW - Hung with Augsburg for a half. I have to think that they are about to turn it around this year. Can someone out there can give an inside heads-up on the Falcons?

- Lakeland. Darkhorse contender. Gave up late scores vs. Carroll (who, in my opinion, is a very quality club) to lose heartbreaker. They will have a say in who wears the crown.

Side note: Can anybody give me an idea of the "average" number of newcomers (freshmen and transfers) that show up for the beginning of fall camp that don't, for whatever reason, make it to the opening roster?

[d3fan1515]

My take on BU vs. Wheaton, Let me start off by saying that Wheaton is an excellent football team with a fantastic offense!  That being said, I think BU could have been much much more competitive in this game.  BU shot themselves in the foot on two occasions that I can remember and simply could not put the ball in the endzone right before halftime! Offensively they need to pick it up in the run game, there was no where to run on Thursday night... In the passing game they need to create more chemistry with our transfer QB and Wideouts (Kid only practiced for a week before starting his first game as an eagle).  I think once these guys develop some chemistry they will be a very good group! 

Defensively BU needs to improve, I know that they had some guys not play, but that is no excuse and every team deals with injuries and other issues.  Off the top of my head, I think two defensive backs were out and also one linebacker who I believe is done for the year. Either way I still think this could be a very good defense, they just need to get better every week.  I look to see much improvement from BU in the next couple weeks and hope that they are ready for this weekends game at NPU!

[WLCALUM83]

- Most impressive team of the week: WLC. Wow. (WLCALUM83 - you must be shaking with anticipation by the prospects of this season.) They manhandled a Ripon team that beat the Warriors easily last year. Right now they're my conference favorite.

I, too, was shocked that the Warriors won that big -- I'm hoping they can keep that momentum up against Olivet and an Adrian team that lost a heartbreaker to Carthage yesterday.

[irisheagle]

Some notes on the BU Wheaton Blowout:
Benedictine is going to have to play better than that to keep their conference belt. The 2 All americans on the team were completely shut down and it seemed like no one else on the team knew how to make a play. Lockton only had 2 tackles and I found out is playing with a torn meniscus, and Johnny had 16 carries for 18 yards, the o=line has got to help create some room so he can work his magic. Defensively they started out with 3 injured starters and finished with 5. Both D ends Lockton and White were pulled for injuries, Middle Linebacker Alteri didn't play, Corner Kiel only took 1 series then sat, and Captain Rickert did not play. Hopefully they will all be healthy by conference. All I know is BU has the firepower to be an amazing team but I now wonder if they will be able to avoid injuries and put together some blocking for Johnny and a defensive scheme that utilizes Lockton and the rest of the D-Line.
On another note Cyle Shultz had some really nice passes just not being brought in by the receivers and he was the only one in the game with a touchdown so hopefully he will be the second threat that Bu needs along with his brother.

[d3fan1515]

Congrats to these players for being named the players of the week for the NAC!

Ethan Lane of Maranatha, Jake Koehler of Concordia Chicago and Josh Ruppel of Wisconsin Lutheran were named the Northern Athletics Conference Defensive, Offensive and Special Teams Football Student-Athletes of the Week for events of Aug. 27-Sept. 2.

Lane posted 19 tackles -- including 11 solo and 5.5 for a loss -- to go along with three sacks in a loss to Martin Luther on Saturday. The senior linebacker also forced a fumble for the Crusaders (0-1).

Koehler completed 70 percent of his passes (21-of-30) for 305 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in the Cougars' 35-27 win over Lake Forest. The senior quarterback also scrambled for 89 yards on 13 carries for CUC (1-0).

Ruppel made an impressive debut for the Warriors (1-0) on Saturday, as he was a perfect 4-for-4 in extra point attempts. The rookie kicker finished the game with seven points as he also added a 29-yard field goal. Ruppel averaged 55.7 yards per kickoff in the Warriors' 31-0 win over Ripon.