FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Duster72]

Even though the playoffs would have been great, maybe this season ended for this Little Giant team the way it was supposed to.

+1

My thoughts exactly.

[nike]

St. Lawrence (5-5)-- How did these guys get in the playoffs and earn the right to play Mt. Union?  An automatic bid?
And OWU, next year please give the NCAC pictures of your players, so when they are accorded "Player of the Week" status, we see their pictures, not the "Battlin Bishop" logo.
The best to Witt.

[smedindy]

Yes, it was an auto bid from the Liberty League. Most all of the teams in that league were down and St. Lawrence snuck in!

[wally world]

I'm not as close a follower of the Wabash program as many here, but I have to think Erik Raeburn and company are excited from at least the offensive side of the ball for next season. The two-headed QB monster might work well next season now that the kinks seem to be worked out. O-Line is mostly back, and receivers like Horn and Kraus are returning.

Special teams will take a hit with Spencer Whitehead's departure. Defense loses CJ Gum among others.

What are the prospects for next year?

[Li'l Giant]

A nice tribute to a man who has given a lot of years to Wabash Football. Thank you, Coach House! Some Little Giant!

[OhNo]

Finally. A chance to exorcize the demons from 1999.

Robertson... Franzer... Vegades...

I still have nightmares about that game.

get ready for a repeat

Donley, Simmons, Fleming

[wabco]

A mouse in my pocket says the Little Giants may not have seen the last of 84 and/or 33.  Now wouldn't that just reset the scales.

And heard a wag at the game saying the win for Wabash was "priceless", and for the Dannies was both "pointless" and "Dick-less" .... uyk yuk yuk.

[wally_wabash]

Finally. A chance to exorcize the demons from 1999.

Robertson... Franzer... Vegades...

I still have nightmares about that game.

Wabash opened the 1999 season with that ONU team.  They were good.  Really, really good. 

[wally_wabash]

Regarding the Wabash Pool C situation....

Montclair State was on the very first screen that popped up and I pretty much knew that the LGs were out right then.  I think Coe was on the next screen which only twisted the dagger.  Unfortunately, Wabash didn't get the wave of week 11 upsets that they needed to get invited.  I'm not particularly upset about Wabash not getting invited because they did have two losses, even though that second loss was non-regional and not part of the primary criteria.  The beef that I do have with this committee is their seemingly selective usage of a particular criteria for a particular decision with complete disregard for the rest of the criteria.  This year, the committee seems to have relied almost entirely on the SOS metric...at least for seeding.  But the criteria are the same for selection and seeding.  So if SOS was the primary factor in seeding teams, I would think that the same emphasis ought to have been used for selection.  And if the committee can justify seeding 10-0 teams below 9-1 teams (not to mention the UWW as a #2 seed headscratcher), then why wouldn't the committee have offered the same bit of leeway in their pool C selections with respect to considering 8-2 with a beastly SOS over a 9-1 team with a more mediocre SOS?  If you're going to take the SOS metric so far that you'll use it as justification for making Wesley the top seed in the tournament and UWW completely off of the top line of teams in the bracket, then Wabash's SOS ought to have been good enough to merit inclusion. 

Again, I'm not surprised or bitter that Wabash didn't get in because the way I would have applied the criteria would have left Wabash out.  I am scratching my head because the rule that the committee seemed to apply throughout this year's bracket (SOS rules all) wasn't applied in Wabash's case. 

Anyway, putting this season in perspective....knowing that Wabash was rebuilding an entire offense and battling injuries to the starting QB all season...knowing that Witt was loaded with guys back from last year's team....finishing 8-2 with the 47-0 result against DePauw is a really good job.  This team has a lot of positive inertia heading into 2011. 

[The_Bishop]

And OWU, next year please give the NCAC pictures of your players, so when they are accorded "Player of the Week" status, we see their pictures, not the "Battlin Bishop" logo.
The best to Witt.

I'll get to work on that if the Wooster folks promise to upgrade the Baghdad-like streaming video feed for their games.  

[Li'l Giant]

Finally. A chance to exorcize the demons from 1999.

Robertson... Franzer... Vegades...

I still have nightmares about that game.

Wabash opened the 1999 season with that ONU team.  They were good.  Really, really good. 

That was a serious beating ONU gave us in that game.

[wally_wabash]

Finally. A chance to exorcize the demons from 1999.

Robertson... Franzer... Vegades...

I still have nightmares about that game.

Wabash opened the 1999 season with that ONU team.  They were good.  Really, really good. 

That was a serious beating ONU gave us in that game.

Aye.  Sometimes I remember Robertson running all over Little Giant Stadium and I get night sweats.  Interesting note though...that game may have been the genesis of the decade of awesome that Wabash fans have enjoyed.  That game was the first collegiate game for Knott and Short and Boulais and a bunch of other guys from the class of 2003 that broke Wabash through and into the tournament for the first time in the AQ era.   

I remember the beginning of that game...Wabash forced a punt and the crowd was feeling pretty good...nice start to the season.  Kind of like Willie Mays Hays getting the leadoff single at the beginning of the season in Major League.  Then Knott fumbled his first college snap...which was like Willie Mays Hays getting picked off.  Not to worry though...#19 bounced back and had a decent playing career.   

[BayernFan]

So why does Wittenberg, which is 10-0 and NCAC champs, have to go on the road and DPU, 9-1 and 47-0 losers to NCAC runner-up, get to host a playoff game?

DPU should be the ones going to Ohio Northern and Witt should host Trine.

Dumb.

[HScoach]

To our sometimes friendly NCAC brethren, you are all invited to join the 2010 OAC Playoff Pick-Em contest. 

Spreads for all 16 games have been posted in the OAC Pick-Em page.

[FightinScot]

Some comments from the Wooster-Witt game. I never thought this was possible, but Schmitz and company outcoached Wittenberg. In fact, this was probably the best coached game by this Wooster staff since beating Wabash in 2003.

The last thing you wanted to happen there was a turnover, and Barnes had trouble throwing the ball over the middle most of the game. His three interceptions all came over the middle, and he nearly had a couple of other passes picked off over the middle. And the way Obery was punting the ball, Witt likely would have started around their own 20 yard line with under three minutes to play, a big difference than starting at midfield.

The difference in the game was the Wittenberg defensive line dominating the Scots' offensive line. Wittenberg was in the backfield the entire game. Barnes really took a beating, but showed a lot of toughness for a freshman. The Scots had absolutely no answer for this. Of course, running the spread offense with no extra protection only exacerbates this problem.

Yea, I would have liked to see more blitzing at the end - Holtz, in particular was getting great pressure on the QB. He's only a sophmore too! However, from what I saw, the playcalling on the whole was much better than I expected.

Offensively, I liked what I saw for the most part. Cam Daniels really toughed it out on Saturday, kid has had multiple knee surgeries, so when I heard he was having problem I didn't expect to see him out there at all, much less making diving grabs in the end zone. He's far and away the best TE in the league, when healthy. The O line got handled - not surprising given the talent and experience Witt has up front. Vallery can be unblockable at times, he's no easy draw, especially for a first-year starter. Barnes is a slippery kid, will be good for them if he can learn to throw the ball away or get rid of it quicker. Sure, the improv can help (read Daniels TD) but I saw two times where he had the opportunity to throw the ball away, but ended up throwing a pick instead.

That last one was a killer. Right at midfield, with the lead! Man. Especially the way that punter was killing it on Saturday - that 60 yarder was a bomb. Just take a sack, and pin them back deep. That punter, he's a good looking kid too, though not as good looking as his older brother from what I hear...