FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wally_wabash]

How ESPN can justify moving Ron Franklin from the Saturday night primetime game is beyond me...Mike Patrick is the stink. 

Some other non-Wabash NCAC observations from the weekend...

- We've not given Allegheny enough run here for winning at Carnegie Mellon Saturday night.  CMU was a round of 16 team in the 2006 playoffs.  After losing to Westminster and not exactly rolling up Hiram in their first two games, the Gators put together a solid second half (five turnovers forced) to knock off what would appear to be the cream of the UAA crop (although 4-0 CWRU and Wash U. fresh off of a win over then #14 North Central may beg to differ).  Obviously we'll find out just how good this win is as CMU plays out the rest of their season, but for right now this stands as only the second good win for the NCAC this year (Wabash over Franklin being the other). 

- Just when you think Hiram has some things turned around, they go and get rolled up by Manchester.  I still think Hiram is going to win a game this year...I'm not sure who it'll be just yet (relax my kilted friends...it won't be Wooster), but I think they'll get somebody. 

- Four teams in the NCAC are 0-3.  That's not terribly surprising...what is surprising is that two of those four are Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan.  Yikes. 

- Nice job by Denison for taking care of business against Gallaudet.  Dropping that game would have been permanent damage for the conference. 

[BrightGuy]

Bash had not scored and was really going no-where in the game prior to that and OWU took the ball at the five and tried to throw out of the endzone with a young QB on the first play.  Didn't work out too well for the Bishops and Wabash got on the board. 

Points of any kind mean a lot in a game like todays and Wabash seemed to be a different team after they got that safety.

Nice Win.... Next up Earlham in C-Ville

I just shows that this team, as many before them, rally around the Hard Hat D...  If you saw the Franklin game when Franklin was driving in the 3rd quarter and the D forced a fumble (recovered by 93-Gangloff).  And the next Offensive play was an interception.  The Defense and the fans were happy to see the D back on the field.  The same this weekend, I am sure that CC had a few things to say at half time.  Who was it that shot through the O line (as the team article said 93-Gangloff) to give the LGs the "Team" Safety" (as the team stats said).  This is a TEAM that plays as a team, to WIN as a TEAM

Go Bash

[wooscot]

Despite my obvious angst over the direction of the program right now, I still have faith the season can be salvaged.  That's all it is on my end...faith

I agree that having former players on your staff is a positive.  You want to keep quality people in the program, particularly those who grew up in the program.  I look at Duerr as a great example of this.  He was an awesome player for Wooster and gained a lot of coaching experience after Wooster by coaching at two different schools - one being ONU - before returning home.  He wanted to come back to Wooster, however, he did himself and the program a great service by learning at other schools and bringing back some new ideas.  I think this is the ideal - you want former players to WANT to come back to their alma mater b/c that says a lot about their experience playing there and the respect they have for the current head coach, but also you want them to spread their wings a bit, gain experience at other programs, and come back with new ideas to make sure the natural evolution of the program is positive.  This is NOT a knock on the other former Woo players who coach at Woo now b/c they clearly wanted to stay at their alma mater as well b/c of the experiences they had as a player too. 

I think when Barnes was head coach, there was usually one and at the most two former Woo players on staff at a time.  Other staff members had coached at other DIII institutions and typically at least one of the "new" assistant coaches was a recent player at another college (Div. I II or III).  In essence, it was a diverse staff with different coaching backgrounds.  The negative, however, in this situation was turnover - each year there was always at least two different coaches on staff (one year the D coordinator left), so what you sacrifice for a diverse and amibitous staff is stability in a sense.  Woo's staff has stability I think and I also believe an uncanny loyalty to Coach Schmitz, which is rare and was certainly not the case during the Barnes era.  Perhaps this is why Coach Schmitz looks for Woo players as coachs first - loyalty.  Loyalty is something you place a premium on in any business.

Lancer98,

Great point about the facilities.  Something needs to happen soon now that the academic/residential buildings are complete.  Wooster needs a fieldhouse, a stadium renovation, and some other new amenities if it wants to be consistent contender in sports like football.  I think these changes will happen soon (if the rumors are true, very soon) which will start a new chapter in Wooster football. 

[wally_wabash]

I just shows that this team, as many before them, rally around the Hard Hat D...  If you saw the Franklin game when Franklin was driving in the 3rd quarter and the D forced a fumble (recovered by 93-Gangloff).  And the next Offensive play was an interception.  The Defense and the fans were happy to see the D back on the field. 

I get what you're saying, but I for one wasn't particularly happy to see the defense back out on the field after one snap...my preferred sequence of events following that turnover would have been for Wabash to run a few minutes off the clock, finish the drive with a TD pass, go up 42-20 and snuff the life out of the game for Franklin. 

[aueagle]

wally is right...the Gators should get a "High Five"....except for a struggle against Westminster, they would be 3-0....Let's see how they do versus the Big Red and the LG's at the "Old Swamp"....Regarding the "Surprising 0-3 starts"...I am more disappointed than surprised at the Bishops start. Remember, OWU lost the first 6 games in '06....They lost to the same non-conference teams 2 yrs in a row. There is still alot of football left in OWU, they have to find a way to score (Red Zone) and avoid breakdowns (Safety-to many men on the field, etc). The NCAC crown can still be a reality in Delaware..

[nike]

This week is so very crucial to Wooster and OWU. A loss pretty much ends conference hopes for this year, given each of their schedules for the remainder of the year. Do not think teams can "turn things around" in a week. Don't know who OWU played the last couple years when they won a bunch in a row after losing several to start the season, but Wooster doesn't get much better as the season goes on when they start out slow, like this year, at least from my recollection. I know last year they lost to Witt by 24-22, I think. OWU lost to Kenyon last year, too. OWU lost their first six last year. WOW!
So for Woo's homecoming to matter as  far as football is concerned, they better beat Witt on Sat.  And to do that they are going to have to "turn things around " this week. Don't think they can do it cause they haven't before. Unless Bill Cowher is coming in for the rest of the year.  Then we take the d3 title from Mt. Union.
Homecoming is always great and The Shack has great sandwiches named after the coaches. I think Schmitz's is a bratwurst

[aueagle]

Hollway said the turning point of the game came on a Bishop fake punt attempt on a fourth-and 4 call late in the third quarter at the OWU 39. Taking the snap from center, Kras was unable to connect with a wide open Daniel DeLay at midfield for what would have been a Battling Bishop first down.

"That, if anything, was turning point of the game," Hollway said. "The completion would have given us a first down and possibly a touchdown."

[nike]

Huh?

[wally_wabash]

Isn't it a bit presumptuous to think that OWU was going to get into the endzone had they converted that fourth down play? 

Like I mentioned earlier, the game was all about field position.  The key play in the game really was the second half kickoff which flipped the field in Wabash's favor.  Once that happened, the game turned pretty decisively. 

[Schwami]

Good point about field position . . . Wabash never had it in the first half.  Never even crossed midfield (finally got to the 50 yard line on the final play of the half).  But OWU could not do anything with their field position advantage.  0-2 in the red zone, now 2-10 for the season.  Ouch.

Did Hollway mean he thought the fake punt play itself could go for a TD?

[bashbrother]

Wally,

It was nice to see #1 get into the offense against OWU.  Was he moving pretty well?

 

[wally_wabash]

Wally,

It was nice to see #1 get into the offense against OWU.  Was he moving pretty well? 

Yes...it's been far too long since anybody wearing the #1 jersey for Wabash has gotten his hands on the ball.  It was good to see Russell on the field and contributing. 

He seemed to be moving pretty well on the field.  He got some separation and split some double coverage on the deep ball that got picked off (the first INT...the OWU safety came over from the middle of the field and made a good play on the ball).  There was one other incomplete pass from Augie toward Russell that looked like a clear case of miscommunication which probably isn't too surprising.  On the sideline, Russell was favoring the foot noticeably.  He's not 100% to be sure, but sometimes with these foot things you don't get to be 100% unless you completely shut it down for the season which isn't going to be an option for a senior. 

[BashBacker#16]

I was bummed with the slow start - especially from suicidal text messages from BashBro and Wally...but glad Wabash started playing in the 2nd half.  Credit OWU - if you look at prior years games...the Bishops have posed some tough games and some ugly wins.  Remember OWU vs. Knott in 2002 at Hollett?  Worse game I ever saw Jake play (sorry 19) and Harbaugh had some tough games too against OWU.  Huff struggled the year he and Harbaugh were battling for the job.  I heard OWU had some athletes and some hitters.  Apparently it took the Bash D a half to figure things out.  So back to the QBs, wondering how much we read in to Augie's ineffectiveness on Saturday.  Who starts now?  It should be interesting.

Hoping Evan Isaacs gets back which should provide a boost on the O-line.  I had heard he had a great camp.

I didn't realize Russell had 4 catches until I read the box score.  Great to have him back.  I can't answer your question though BashBro since I wasn't able to attend.

Schwami - that is how I read that quote from "FilmTrader" - that that play may have gone for 6 points.

[bashbrother]

Having the benefit of seeing the game via stream, It seemed as though Augie was getting a lot early of pressure off the ends and was throwing on the run much of the first half.  Some of this was by design and some was simply pressure from a very fast OWU defense.   

CC has always used the designed roll-out for his QB's.  Knott, Harbaugh and Huff all were/are very accurate when throwing on the move.   For young QB's like Augie or Hudson, it may take awhile for them to be able to find their accuracy on the run at game speed.

One would say, you give Augie the ball again and see how he does. Young Qb's are bound to have their good and bad starts.   Another train of thought is to let Hudson ride the confidence that he built in the 2nd half last Saturday and see what he can do as a starter.

The big thing here is we need to find a QB that the team can rally around and trust.  Earlham this week, then a long trip to Meadville, which never is easy and then Witt comes to town. 

[wally_wabash]

I really hope Wabash doesn't get into a situation where the qb has to be looking over his shoulder for the hook all the time.  That was the situation in 2004 and I don't believe that it is coincidence that 2004 was the low point of the CC era.  One of these two kids is going to be the quarterback at Wabash through 2009.  They, and the team, need to know who is Q1 and who is Q2...sooner rather than later for the sake of the long term prosperity of the team.