FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[BashBacker#16]

SigmaOne - I've regrouped.

Wes - nice post bro.  Your AD has 5 last names and LOVES women's sports more than Billy Jean King.  Loves!  Fortunately we don't have women's sports because if we did, you'd  kill us.  It's not the "Monon" - it's the "Monon Bell." 

Great article in the NW Tribune on Wabash and the players from the region. We get some players out of there for sure!  WabashCPA - your Griffith boy got some pub.  ER's comments on Denzel Wilkens were impressive.

Seriously, if Wabash and Franklin meet, it will be a great game.  Bash needs to take care of business before then though.  I like Coach Leonard and have since my Bishop & Dullaghan days.  He was our NCAA rep in 2005 and was a VIP guest at our tailgate.

Only 11 teams in Wabash history have started 7-0....  That is interesting.

WAF

[bashgiant]

SigmaOne - I've regrouped.

Wes - nice post bro.  Your AD has 5 last names and LOVES women's sports more than Billy Jean King.  Loves!  Fortunately we don't have women's sports because if we did, you'd  kill us.  I bet she's dressed up tonight as a Dannie field hockey player.  Bet me...  Also, it's not the "Monon" - it's the "Monon Bell." 

Great article in the NW Tribune on Wabash and the players from the region. We get some players out of there for sure!  WabashCPA - your Griffith boy got some pub.  ER's comments on Denzel Wilkens were impressive.

Seriously, if Wabash and Franklin meet, it will be a great game.  Bash needs to take care of business before then though.  I like Coach Leonard and have since my Bishop & Dullaghan days.  He was our NCAA rep in 2005 and was a VIP guest at our tailgate.

Only 11 teams in Wabash history have started 7-0....  That is interesting.

WAF

What about 8-0?

[The_Bishop]

GO BISHOPS - Beat Witt!

[Bishopleftiesdad]

GO BISHOPS - Beat Witt!

I second that.

[bashbrother]

In the Bash/Hiram game today,  I really don't care what the final score is as long as we win,  I want:

#1.  Wabash to play "Wabash Football" and execute offensively

#2.  Both teams to stay healthy.


WAF!

[aueagle]

anyone getting the Tiger/Bishop feed

[bashbrother]

Wabash 66
Hiram 0

Final

PS... Cam Belton looks like a player.


Great work for the LG's today... Got work and seemed to come through it healthy.

WITT WEEK!!!!! Has begun.

[DPU3619]

Wooster beats DePauw 27-24.

Rat farts.

[wally_wabash]

It's Friday. Week 6. The time of year where getting excited for league games usually means getting excited for something other than just who's playing who.

So.

With half a season gone and three weeks remaining until what could possibly be the most anticipated conference championship game in recent NCAC memory, it seems like a fun time to untangle the various strands of story that have begun to rocket Wittenberg and Wabash towards one another. Again. Five weeks in, we are all three weeks away from the kind of Saturday that happens once a decade. That makes me giddy. With fingers firmly crossed that Wabash doesn't go all 2012 in 2013, or that Witt doesn't lose to Ohio Wesleyan (more on that in a bit), here's what to pay attention to in these next three weeks.

THE STRENGTHS -- WITTENBERG'S OFFENSE VERSUS WABASH'S EVERYTHING ELSE

WHATTUP, MIKE GREGORY

Reed Florence is the best offensive player in the league. It's not close. It's not subtle. To my eye, he may be the most skilled offensive player we've seen since Sutton. He's that good. He can make all the throws (just last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKbM2_jnWdc ) and is dangerous enough with his feet to give a defense pause. After his breakout You-Picked-Who-As-OPOY? game against Heidelberg in the first round of last year's playoffs (Remember that? 402 yards of total offense, 5 TDs), he's picked up right where he left off. He's completing 70 percent of his passes, has been responsible for 18 TDs, and is crushing his previous mark in efficiency (182 vs. 155). But what's most impressive is how that offense looks right now. When they're not killing themselves with penalties (see below) or turning the ball over, they're gobbling up yards like it's practice. You can count on one hand the scoring drives that needed more than 9 plays. And Florence should get a lot of the credit. For all the talk that Wabash's Defense has provoked, there's a feeling here--be it for the Butler game or just the under-representation on the boards--that Witt's offense isn't getting the kudos they deserve. I don't think we can consider this Witt offense as, like, the best they've ever had, but Florence? Yeah, I'm sayin' it.


A BLANKET AND A HAMMER

There are five categories that make championship teams. They are: Defense, Special Teams, Turnovers, Line play, and Offensive Standout X. Wabash can check four of those boxes. This Little Giant team, after five weeks, can lay claim to an unprecedented amalgam of top tier departments-- they are top 5 nationally in a host of major defensive and special teams categories. It's not just that they have a great ball-hawking defense, or that their punter is killing it, or that they've scored nine non-offensive touchdowns, or even--look at that--they're quietly the second best kickoff return team in the country. No, it's none of these things individually. It's these things together. All these things together mean field position. Field position means points. With an offense that is entirely suspect, Wabash is scoring 54 points a game. If that holds, it will be the most points ever scored by a Wabash team. That's crazy.

Wabash has had the ball 79 times in the first 5 weeks. Wanna take a guess what the average starting field position is for the Little Giants? Go ahead. Guess.

It's the 48 yards line.

They've started with the ball in the other team's territory twenty seven times. Twenty Seven. Your mediocre offense is going to be pretty good when they're playing on a field half the length of the opposing team's. Wabash on the year has scored 35 touchdowns and 22 of those have come on drives that were less than 50 yards. Significant.


THE WEAKNESSES -- WABASH'S OFFENSE VERSUS WITTENBERG'S EVERYTHING ELSE

THE PUTKO PROBLEM

As others have noted, and I will avoid elaborating here, the offensive identity of Wabash has shifted post-Hudson. Quarterbacks are mechanical pieces in a larger machine that has its focus elsewhere: run the ball and don't turn it over. You give the keys of the ride over to the quarterback maybe eight or ten times a game, as opposed to, say, twenty. And while Putko is probably being unfairly compared to the team's strengths elsewhere, to say nothing of him just being a sophomore, it's hard to ignore the lack of production and the general "bluh" of his play when the team has called his number. It seems clear to me that he was tabbed the starter on the strength of his legs and not his arm, but through 5 games, Putko has rushed for 86 yards and is averaging two yards a carry (Wabash has had four running backs average over 5.5). I just can't imagine that ER envisioned this kind of play from under center and now they're in a tough spot. It's too late to start trying out different QBs and unless he wants to just switch to Walsh, which seems unlikely at this point, they're gonna be stuck with a quarterback they can't really trust when they find themselves in a game where they need points from the part of the team ostensibly designated to score them.


RAISE THE RED FLAGS

Back to those five championship categories. Remember those? They're above. Wabash can check four. Do you know how many boxes Witt can check? One. Florence. Offensive Standout X. Check. That's it. Nearly every other category, when investigated, yields.... "uh-oh"

We started the year questioning whether or not Witt would be improved defensively from a year ago and nothing we've seen so far can be taken as evidence that they have. It's not that they're bad--they can boast two shutouts and a comparable-to-Wabash Denison game--but they're decidedly not good at forcing turnovers (Wittenberg is 8th in the league in turnover margin at -4 which is better than, wait for it, Oberlin and Allegheny), they're at the bottom of the league in opponent first downs and third down conversions, and they're special teams have given up a score and a handful of big returns against suspect competition in the last couple weeks.

The turnover thing is big. Witt's offense is really good, but if they're turning the ball over against the Hirams of the world (two fumbles and a pick), that's not a good sign for when competition gets stiffer. Which it's about to. It's also worth noting that Witt has had over 100 yards of penalties in each of the last two weeks. Last week, their penalties single handedly kept Denison in the game in the first half. It was gross. Wittenberg may have a great offense, but they're doing everything they can to mitigate that offense's power in determining ball-games. They turn the ball over, they do dumb stuff to stall drives, their defense provokes suspicion, and their special teams, so far, are luke warm.

Uh-Oh.


WHAT TO WATCH FOR

1. If you only track one question in the following weeks, it should be this: Can Reed Florence keep Wabash from playing on a short field? That's the sentence. Everything above is in that sentence.

But. More specifically. Here are some things to be aware of:

2. Wooster and OWU could really scare Wittenberg. OWU/Witt, particularly, could become a monster shoot-out that may catch the Tigers--and us--off guard. The way to beat OWU is to sack Espo and disrupt the system, corral it into swing passes. But Wittenberg only has 13 sacks on the year and over half of them were against Hiram. My gut says OWU will have a shot and I'm guessing tomorrow might see Wooster putting up a real fight for a while, too.

3. But here's the thing. Florence is going to have a game this year that seems totally out of this world. 500 yards and 6 TD kind of game. That's happening. But when?

4. Wabash may start chucking the ball. I don't see why not. They have to get Putko some plays to reference when he's staring down 3rd and 12 against Wittenberg on a must-score drive. Plus they're a play away from total annihilation at running back. I bet we get all excited about Putko in the next couple weeks and then he pisses us all off on the first drive of the Witt game. That's my guess.

5. Someone new is going to burst onto the Wabash scene.That's not really informed by anything other than the feeling of this first half-season which has somehow managed to exceed expectations while producing radical surprises.

Here's to the next three weeks.

Boom. Happy Friday.

Just wanted to go ahead and bring this slice of genius back to the front. All conversations about the title game next Saturday should probably start here. 

[ExTartanPlayer]

Wabash's ability to keep producing non-offensive scores is amazing. Will they be able to do it against better teams whose offenses and special teams MAY be a little more sound? If they can keep it up against really good teams, that might well offset the merely "okay" play of their offense described in the post above.  Wabash is practically playing offense when they're on defense/ST's.

[BashBacker#16]

I think Wabash is now +26 in turnover margin through 8 games.  That is crazy.  Also, 18 picks and 7 of those have been returned for scores.  The Wabash D just flat out gets after it.  I'm really anxious to see them vs Reed Florence and Co. 

How about Buresh's block on Woods 1st pick 6 today???  OMG

It's Witt week!

WAF

[DPU3619]

From the official twitter account, @WabashFB:

Stats don't mean everything, but we have outscored our opponents 401-57 & our Def & ST have outscored our opponents 84-57. #oneatatime #WAF

Goodness gracious.

[wally_wabash]

From the official twitter account, @WabashFB:

Stats don't mean everything, but we have outscored our opponents 401-57 & our Def & ST have outscored our opponents 84-57. #oneatatime #WAF

Goodness gracious.

That's fun.

[bashgiant]

Looked to me the Bash defense and special teams were sending a message today! Putko looked pretty good, he was accurate and just looked confident. I would love to have a quality audio recording from field level of todays game because those pads were popping pretty loud even from the stands! I'm thinking the speed of our defense is going surprise some people next week, films are one thing live action(sorry I had to) is another.


Go Wabash!
Beat Witt!

[firstdown]

I think Wabash is now +26 in turnover margin through 8 games.  That is crazy.  Also, 18 picks and 7 of those have been returned for scores.  The Wabash D just flat out gets after it.  I'm really anxious to see them vs Reed Florence and Co. 

How about Buresh's block on Woods 1st pick 6 today???  OMG

It's Witt week!

WAF

Buresh's block on Woods was unreal.  Woods has the number 39 permanently tattooed on his side from that hit!