FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[sigma one]

Congratulations to all those who earned All-NCAC honors.  I thought the conference did a fine job of rewarding players whose teams finished at the top of the league while not forgetting that there are really good players on teams that did not have the same level of success.
     I've wondered for some time why the NCAA in this era of passing supremacy does not honor three wide receivers on each of the two all-conference teams.  Last year, they did name three to the second team.  I've checked and many conferences include at least three at each level.  I don't favor what some conferences do and load up numbers--for example, 8 or so offensive linemen, six linebackers, etc.  The NCAC rewards the best of the best and makes tough decisions on their selections.  Kudos to the coaches for that.
     One head scratcher for me is that Ryan Gleeson does not appear, even among the honorable mentions.  Victor and Tiffner are 1st team; Hunt and Weimar, 2nd team; Strausbaugh and Robertson, HM. 
Strausbaugh did not have the kind of year he had in 2017, but Woo was breaking in a new QB instead of having Muntean to deliver the ball.  Gleeson's stats were up there:  over a thousand yds receiving and a better yds per catch than the six who were named.  Also, 13 TDs.  Tiffner, with 12 TDs was closest.  Only two others--Victor and Robertson--were over 1000.   Just a puzzler.  There are other aspects of playing the position, blocking, for one--that I am sure the coaches consider.  So, . . .
     It's my understanding that the individual coaches could name up to three players from their team to be HM.  At least, it used to be that way.  Oberlin's three were QB, OL, and DB.
     Good luck to Dension on Saturday.  I hope they acquit themselves well.  We are all Big Red this week. 

[wally_wabash]

Wanted to give some brief Monon Bell thoughts before the second season officially gets going.
 
- What a huge play out of the gate on the 79 yard TD pass to Ryan Thomas.  When you hit one like that so quickly, I think it just releases so much pressure, particularly on QBs that are in that environment for the first time. 
- Which isn't to say that Reid was great all day.  Two of the three INTs were just super bad throws.  Missed pretty bad on a couple of other open targets.  13-28 isn't the best stat line, but the pass to Thomas was perfect and the TD pass to Martinez was really well done on Reid's part. 
- Pretty cheeky move on Morel's part- coming off the field at halftime he tells the Fox reporter that DPU is doing great against the run and they'll have to throw a lot more in the second half.  Second half play selection: 27 runs, 10 passes.  Good adjustments here at halftime to find Avant running room outside when he couldn't find it inside in the first half. 
- Big games are decided by special teams and turnovers.  Wabash lost the turnover game 3-2, but Wabash flipped a Chase Andries fumble into a scoop and score.  Probably the most important play of the game.  That's bonus points and it's hard to claw back from giving up a defensive score.  Fumbles have really hurt DePauw in the last two Monon Bell games.  I mean, really hurt.
- Speaking of the specials, Wabash special teams were an absolute circus a month ago.  There haven't been any major breakdowns there since the Ohio Wesleyan game.  Have to give credit to the staff here again for getting that fixed.  Special teams mistakes impacted both the Wittenberg and DePauw games, but it wasn't Wabash making the mistakes at the end of the year. 
- The Wabash defense played very well again.  It's not quite the same ultra-aggressive defense that we saw during the Hammer DC years, but Jeff Ramsey's defenses at Wabash have been pretty steady and consistent.  There were a lot of new faces on the defense this year, and they really came together after the Denison disaster.  Really looking forward to seeing this group next year. 

And speaking of next year, what direction is DePauw going in?  Coming in to this year DPU had to replace basically everything on the offensive side of the ball minus QB (Matt Labus) and WR (Andy Hunt).  Labus's season was unfortunately interrupted by a repeat knee injury and Hunt proved to be the only really dynamic piece in the offense.  This team returned 8 or 9 guys from the league's best defense in 2017 and now those guys are all graduating and the Tigers are going to be a year (or two) younger on defense.  It's not overstating things to say that DePauw had the pieces this year to entertain a run at the NCAC championship only to finish 4-6 with a zillion questions going into next year.  Wabash is going to have the bulk of a pretty good defense returning, a pair of first team all-NCAC RBs returning, good sized chunk of the OL back.  I'm not saying that Wabash is on the front end of another looong winning streak in this rivalry, but the immediate future looks pretty favorable from where I'm sitting. 

WAF.  Enjoy the tournament, gang.  Bunch of really good Division III football kicks off at noon EST tomorrow. 

[HScoach]

How in the world did Denison hang 60 on Witt?  Yikes

[wally_wabash]

How in the world did Denison hang 60 on Witt?  Yikes

4 Overtimes.  And Witt's defense wasn't particularly good this year. 

[CollegeGolf18]

I wasn't surprised by the score of the Denison and Mount game, but I was more surprised by the lack of effort and the want to be there by Denison.

The Big Red had no chance to win this game but the lack of emotion really surprised me.

[Li'l Giant]

Denison learned what "The Machine" means. It's never a pleasant welcome. The quality of ball they play in Alliance is in a different universe than what anyone in the NCAC plays.

[formerd3db]

Denison learned what "The Machine" means. It's never a pleasant welcome. The quality of ball they play in Alliance is in a different universe than what anyone in the NCAC plays.

I wasn't surprised by the score of the Denison and Mount game, but I was more surprised by the lack of effort and the want to be there by Denison.

The Big Red had no chance to win this game but the lack of emotion really surprised me.

I was surprised. While no one expected Denison to win today's game, and there is no question about "the machine" as as you term it, that Denison scored so many points against Witt (obviously not a powerhouse but not a bad team, I would have expected them to have at least scored on nce or twice in the game at some point, even if in the "mop up" time.

However, as has been discussed, apparently Denison just came put flat, no enthusiasm for some reason today. Just another example that regardless of what teams are involved (whether it is lier tier vs. top tier or top tier vs top tier/ anything can happen in the playoffs. That said, I agree with all of you as to what teams we'll highly likely see in the quarter, semis and final. Always an exciting time this year.

[Dr. Acula]

Denison learned what "The Machine" means. It's never a pleasant welcome. The quality of ball they play in Alliance is in a different universe than what anyone in the NCAC plays.

The thing that struck me was that they never seemed to adjust to the speed.  As Wally pointed out, DU had an easy month coming into today.  Even if not you figure initially the team speed would take some getting used to for Gebele and co.  But I guess I expected something like Case where as the game rolls on they get adjusted and move the ball, score a couple times.  With a backup QB committee I would have guessed something like 42-10?  I definitely wasn't expecting a shutout.  Certainly not the performance he wanted to end on, but congratulations to Canaan Gebele on a stellar career.  I've enjoyed watching him play as much as any non-Raider I can recall.  Absolute gamer.

[wabco]

Easy answer ... the best NCAC teams were/are respectively Wabash and Witt.  NCAC selection process is flawed and more directed toward ponies to pet and "can't we all just reason together" than sending the most qualified team to the tournament.  Denison was just a very large step down ... obviously demonstrated.

[HScoach]

A better tie breaker in a 3-way like you had this year would be to take the highest NCAA regional ranked team.

[wally_wabash]

A better tie breaker in a 3-way like you had this year would be to take the highest NCAA regional ranked team.

I know that this would have favored Wabash in 2018, but based on the way the North RAC has operated in the last two seasons, I think a better solution would be to let that World Cup octopus pick a team. 

[smedindy]

I come not to damn Denison but to praise Mt. Union. Wabash fans should not talk smack about a team that owned us this year.

[smedindy]

A better tie breaker in a 3-way like you had this year would be to take the highest NCAA regional ranked team.

You won't know that until the final rankings which is kind of late for an "A".

I can see Denison not being intimidated by Witt - it's the bully you know and can outsmart. Mt. Union is an unknown bully from a different part of town. In the NCAC Denison were the Warriors, and in the playoffs they were The Baseball Furies.

[firstdown]

Congrats to the Big Red of Denison for having made the playoffs.  I watched them play several games this year.  When a team faces Mount Union for the first time, they really don't know what to expect from the "Machine."  Drawing Mount Union in the first round of the playoffs has "sacrificial lamb" written all over it.  Rather than playing their game, the Big Red fell into the typical trap  of playing to Mount's tune.

In 2002, Wabash fell into the same trap.  On the next visit to Alliance, the Little Giants played a much better game.  Having Coach Raeburn's intimate knowledge of Mount Union, and Coach Hammer having faced them when he coached in the OAC helped the Little Giants to be much better prepared in 2011.

Wittenberg and Wabash understand what it takes to be successful in the playoffs.  Denison had a hard lesson about the playoffs last weekend, but should be better for it.  With Allegheny, DePauw, and Wooster not far off, and OWU capable of stronger play, the NCAC will help prepare the conference AQ and any at large teams better in the future.

[old scot]

NCAC is light years behind Mount and the OAC. The NCAC"s best may be 3rd in the OAC. Just saying