FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ExTartanPlayer]

Obviously, a great result from Oberlin and a terrible one from Denison.

Umm, it's Kenyon who lost to Earlham, not Denison.  Denison is undefeated (at least for a couple of more days). 

But Denison only beat Hiram by 5.

Hiram was undefeated coming into the game!

Seriously, I think Hiram has a chance to beat Gheny for the first time since they joined the NCAC this week.  Come on, Terriers, prove me right!

[waf56]

DePauw home opener, new turf, return of Coach Lynch, 2nd game improvements - I won't go so far as to call the upset, but I believe the Old Gold will keep it close.

Though I believe that Depauw is on the upward slope, I do not think that they will be able to keep this close at all. An angry Witt squad with a week of rest after a thrashing will come out firing. They are being questioned right now and they need to prove that they deserve to be in the top 15. There is going to be a stomping in Greencastle this weekend.

[BashDad]

So I have all these feelings regarding Wabash and these feelings are effusively, exuberantly positive and I'm sitting here  and I'm reading all these reasons why it's too early to be excited, mostly because Hanover sucks and who cares about 69-0 and who knows what's what with this offense, really, and "let's just wait and see" kinda being the prevailing tone of things around here (and on the North Region Fan Poll board which has begun to distract itself with a conversation about, wait for it, "karma" formatting). So I'm sitting here and I've read that stuff and I understand a certain reluctance to crown anyone with anything after one game and Hanover does suck and everyone is surely right to push back against, like, Wabash blustery whatever. Fine, okay, sure.

But.

After weighing whatever against whatever and trying, truly, to contradict my enthusiasm with the wisdom of others, I just... can't. I'm still genuinely unmoved from a position of, like, we haven't seen this before. So. Here are some reasons why.

THE SCOREBOARD

1. Playing bad teams is nothing new. This is the NCAC, remember? We invented bad football. So writing off a 69-0 score as merely indicative of a good team playing a bad team? Nuh-uh. Return to sender. Wabash plays bad teams all the time. It's not normal or expected or routine to see them do what they did Saturday.

2. Anyone wanna raise their hand and say they have a good sense of Wabash's offense? Are they good? You don't know? Oh. Me neither. And the score was 69-0. The score was 69-0 and we hardly have a sense of the offense. Relevant.

THE PLAYERS

3. The eye test. You can see quality in D III much easier than you can in the other divisions. "The look" stands out. I remember seeing a photo of Blake Elliot before I saw him play in 2003 and you could just tell. He was legit. It was a look I recognized in Knott and Chris Kern, and later in Shorts and Garcon, in Beaver and a whole host of other, lesser known players (meaning: I don't know their names. Pentello was not one, though. Zing!). Usually Wabash has one or two dudes like that. The top tier programs have handfulls. The Little Giants, this year, are loaded with them. Some quick, totally-creepy visual evidence:



(I'm a little embarrassed. Should I be embarrassed? I just... you know... they're big, right? Aren't they? Bueller..? Bueller..?)

4. The "Playing-Against-Yourself" test. Saturday, every part of the team showed brick-wall-solid, cog-in-a-machine execution. Our punter was great. We nailed field goals. We didn't drop balls. We forced eight turnovers--eight--when those chances presented themselves, meaning we didn't drop the other team's passes, either. These are the things that are not negotiated by the quality of a team's opponent, but by that team's own sorry self. It's what makes good teams great and turns ho-hum, could-see-it-coming victories into UMU-ish dominations. And I don't think Wabash has ever had that. Not like this. Not when I've been watching. I described it in an email chain as blanketing a drunk with a quilt and hitting him repeatedly with a hammer. That's what it felt like. It was gross.

THE OPENING

5. You know what feeling I've become accustomed to when turning on Wabash's opening game over the years? Just, like.... ew. That green, gnarly frustration of not having your team declare itself the powerhouse you've spent all off-season hoping for. That feeling crept up in Wabash's opening drive, but was quickly buried by an avalanche of The Ideal. Outside of 3 plays by Putko (the fumble and those two silly passes into coverage), that team was better than expected. It was better than "18 returning starters" and better than "I hope we find a quarterback" and certainly better than "Coaches Pick Little Giants to Finish Second in Conference." What game is the hardest to live up to the hype generated by a team's fan base? The first one. And Wabash transcended ours. I say that matters. 69-0 ain't your last year or the year before or the year before that. It's new. And it's thrilling.

[bashgiant]

So I have all these feelings regarding Wabash and these feelings are effusively, exuberantly positive and I'm sitting here  and I'm reading all these reasons why it's too early to be excited, mostly because Hanover sucks and who cares about 69-0 and who knows what's what with this offense, really, and "let's just wait and see" kinda being the prevailing tone of things around here (and on the North Region Fan Poll board which has begun to distract itself with a conversation about, wait for it, "karma" formatting). So I'm sitting here and I've read that stuff and I understand a certain reluctance to crown anyone with anything after one game and Hanover does suck and everyone is surely right to push back against, like, Wabash blustery whatever. Fine, okay, sure.

But.

After weighing whatever against whatever and trying, truly, to contradict my enthusiasm with the wisdom of others, I just... can't. I'm still genuinely unmoved from a position of, like, we haven't seen this before. So. Here are some reasons why.

THE SCOREBOARD

1. Playing bad teams is nothing new. This is the NCAC, remember? We invented bad football. So writing off a 69-0 score as merely indicative of a good team playing a bad team? Nuh-uh. Return to sender. Wabash plays bad teams all the time. It's not normal or expected or routine to see them do what they did Saturday.

2. Anyone wanna raise their hand and say they have a good sense of Wabash's offense? Are they good? You don't know? Oh. Me neither. And the score was 69-0. The score was 69-0 and we hardly have a sense of the offense. Relevant.

THE PLAYERS

3. The eye test. You can see quality in D III much easier than you can in the other divisions. "The look" stands out. I remember seeing a photo of Blake Elliot before I saw him play in 2003 and you could just tell. He was legit. It was a look I recognized in Knott and Chris Kern, and later in Shorts and Garcon, in Beaver and a whole host of other, lesser known players (meaning: I don't know their names. Pentello was not one, though. Zing!). Usually Wabash has one or two dudes like that. The top tier programs have handfulls. The Little Giants, this year, are loaded with them. Some quick, totally-creepy visual evidence:



(I'm a little embarrassed. Should I be embarrassed? I just... you know... they're big, right? Aren't they? Bueller..? Bueller..?)

4. The "Playing-Against-Yourself" test. Saturday, every part of the team showed brick-wall-solid, cog-in-a-machine execution. Our punter was great. We nailed field goals. We didn't drop balls. We forced eight turnovers--eight--when those chances presented themselves, meaning we didn't drop the other team's passes, either. These are the things that are not negotiated by the quality of a team's opponent, but by that team's own sorry self. It's what makes good teams great and turns ho-hum, could-see-it-coming victories into UMU-ish dominations. And I don't think Wabash has ever had that. Not like this. Not when I've been watching. I described it in an email chain as blanketing a drunk with a quilt and hitting him repeatedly with a hammer. That's what it felt like. It was gross.

THE OPENING

5. You know what feeling I've become accustomed to when turning on Wabash's opening game over the years? Just, like.... ew. That green, gnarly frustration of not having your team declare itself the powerhouse you've spent all off-season hoping for. That feeling crept up in Wabash's opening drive, but was quickly buried by an avalanche of The Ideal. Outside of 3 plays by Putko (the fumble and those two silly passes into coverage), that team was better than expected. It was better than "18 returning starters" and better than "I hope we find a quarterback" and certainly better than "Coaches Pick Little Giants to Finish Second in Conference." What game is the hardest to live up to the hype generated by a team's fan base? The first one. And Wabash transcended ours. I say that matters. 69-0 ain't your last year or the year before or the year before that. It's new. And it's thrilling.

You're preaching to the choir here BashDad! I went to the game Saturday and that defense is something special! Speed everywhere and we know what they say about speed! 

[wally_wabash]

Nailed it.  One hundred percent, BD.  Saturday was just different.  All of it was just different. 

[DPU3619]

I wouldn't be that concerned with Wabash's offense because I don't think they need to be all that good, honestly.  That defense is just nuts. I think Wabash's offense will be fine.  I think they'll hang some big numbers on people. But, even if they don't, they ought to be good enough to get W's because there won't be many points surrendered on the other side.

[Joe Wally]

Well said, BashDad!

[Wabash Hokie]

Wabash has published it's Homecoming game day notes.  Here is the link:

http://sports.wabash.edu/documents/2013/9/18/ReleaseSept182013.pdf?id=194

Weather forecast for Saturday looks great for Homecoming.

As for Denison, Clubber Lang forecasts "pain".

[Wabash Hokie]

The game notes for Wittenberg have been posted for the  DePauw game.

Below is the link:

http://www.wittenbergtigers.com/sports/fball/2013-14/releases/gamenotes/depauw.pdf

With only one game under their belts, there is not much of a story to tell from a statistics standpoint.  The two teams could not have played a more different pair of schools in their first game. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers (both Old and New) fair in this match up having both come off of a bye week. 

[wabco]

Hard to say this ... But ... (holding my nose) ...good luck Dannies ... I hope you win Saturday.

[waf56]

Erik Raeburn show is up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHhGXYL9EC4&list=UUoEOd19LmiGQTQWSr3yD0sA

[bashgiant]

#1 Defense in the country !!!! That is awesome regardless of who they played !! Keep up the good work gentlemen !!

[sigma one]

Yes, I know last year was then, and this year is now.  Some numbers, just for fun, on Wabash. 
     Beginning with the Wooster game in 2012 (Game #7 on the season) and continuing through Hanover:  Wabash Defense has four shutouts with W winning those games by a combined total of 150-0.  In those combined shutouts--Wooster, OWU, DePauw, Hanover--the opponents have rushed for a TOTAL of 84 yards.  In three of those games, the opposition had under 200 yards in total offense. (In the other, OWU passed for over 400 yards, throwing 75X; they rushed for minus 22 yards).  So, Oberlin:  Wabash gave up 403 yards, including only 29 rushing.  And was beaten at home 31-16.  Go figure.  Even more props to the Yoemen.
     Also, in those four shutout games Wabash rushed for a combined total of 1050 yards on 202 carries (5.2 yds a play); they passed for (only) 640 yds; 39 complete on 65 attempts (but 16+ yards per completion). In only one of those games did the LGs throw more than 20 passes (v. DePauw/24.)  In three games they ran the ball 50 or more times.  Versus Obe Wabash threw 35X, many of them late in the game trying to catch up.
     That's a splendid and rare run.  The last time they shut out 4 teams in a stretch of five games (either in a season or stretched over two seasons) was 1946.  They shutout six teams that year on the way to a 7-1 record. 
     I'm messing around, of course, but last year's and this year's defense is doing something special. And now that I have jinxed the team, I will say five Our Fathers and Five Hail Marys.
     If you are a Wabash fan, this Saturday is Homecoming and a chance to watch the team v. a 2-0 Denison Big Red.   

[smedindy]

I'm of the mindset that Hiram's D shape shifted into the Wabash D for the second half of the Oberlin game...

[sigma one]

Smed:  I've looked at the tape again.  I believe you are correct.