FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[smedindy]

Oui, L'il Giant. I think the Marlins should be ripped from Loria, and put into Montreal, since he's the eeeediot who basically ruined baseball up there. Well, he fired the last shot anyway...

...but I digress...

Somewhere, Le Grande Orange sheds a tear...

...now back to football...

[uknowme22]

So why are Finch and Creighton able to string very good years together and other NCAC coaches can't?  What makes them such good coaches?
Barnes had some good years at Wooster(and Augustana), but before him nothing great at Wooster that I can remember.  I don't remember much talk about Mt. Union before Kehres. But Witt seems to have had great teams regularly since the 60's and 70's.
anyway, only two days till the Thrilla in Crawfordsville.

Good coaches not only know how to get the most out of their teams, but are also great recruiters.  And in the cases of Fincham and Creighton, they are both tremendous recruiters along with their staffs.  Barns was also a very good recruiter.  Kehres obviously is a good recruiter (and if you knew their admissions standards you'd know why).  And that is not a knock on MUC.  They are doing what their administration allows them to do. 

The success of the 60's and 70's for Wittenberg goes directly to great coaching.  Two members of the College Football Hall of Fame coached during that time.  Wittenberg named their field after them.

Go Tigers!!!

[bashbrother]

This game could not come soon enough.  I have work to do. 

[BrightGuy]

my oldest daughter (who is in HS) was at the game with me and thought that the white pants with Wabash on the side were great (despite the fact that I thought they were ugly). 

Go figure a teenager not agreeing with the parent on fashon.  I have two and the are ALWAYS rolling their eyes at what I wear.

I personally do not like the WABASH on the legs.
But atleast..

WABASH Always Fights

[wally_wabash]

Word around the water cooler is that the LGs are dressing up the playing surface a little bit this week as well....should look awesome on TV.   

[smedindy]

Grunge's blog has pics.

Though it reminds me of Tennessee. Dunno if that's good or bad!

[wally_wabash]

The endzones look awesome!  This needs to be a permanent fixture at Hollett. 

[WAF78]

Yes, the endzones do look great...but for me and many Wabash alums, Runge's quote "Fall Break here at Wabash...on the day before what some are calling the "tied-for-the-most important" game of the season." strikes hollow. Witt is a rival come lately to Wabash football...just like other rivalries over the years have come and gone...Butler (in the 50's) Rose Hulman (when they were all male), Albion (in 70's-90's), etc.. There is only one most important game of the year...DePauw S (you can substitute the S word of your choice here). I'm glad for Wabash being in the NCAC and for being able to contend for an automatic bid in the playoffs... with Witt being the major hurdle to overcome. However, IMO, if Wabash wins the NCAC, goes to the playoffs, beats Mount Union and wins the Stagg Bowl...but loses to DePauw...sorry...not a successful year. As a matter of fact...that scenario would be a nightmare. Likewise...if the LG's go 1-9 and their only win is against the Dannies...good year...not as good as it could be...but nonetheless....good year. I know many of my younger Wabash brethren will disagree...but hey...that's ok...Wabash men know how to agree to disagree.

[bashbrother]

Looks awesome!!!

[aueagle]

I was in the DePauw website and they do have a cool feature on The Bell game. Footage from games in the 70's -80's- 90's....and I might add, a fair & balanced reporting...but what do I know....I did notice that a game at Blackstock had huge white "W"'s painted on the field...must have been a recon unit out of Crawfordsville doing a job.....Nice endzone...reminds me of a school in Knoxville.

[Li'l Giant]

The endzones look awesome!  This needs to be a permanent fixture at Hollett. 

Once again, sustained.

However, IMO, if Wabash wins the NCAC, goes to the playoffs, beats Mount Union and wins the Stagg Bowl...but loses to DePauw...sorry...not a successful year. As a matter of fact...that scenario would be a nightmare. Likewise...if the LG's go 1-9 and their only win is against the Dannies...good year...not as good as it could be...but nonetheless....good year. I know many of my younger Wabash brethren will disagree...but hey...that's ok...Wabash men know how to agree to disagree.

I'll take this opportunity to disagree. The difference between our program now and our program when I was a student is what we expect out of the other 9 games on the schedule as well as the expectation of playing AFTER the Bell Game.

We've lost to Depauw almost as many times as we've won. We play for the Bell every year. We've played in the Stagg Bowl ONCE.

If we won the Walnut & Bronze in a year where we lost the Bell, I'd still call it a great year.

Beating Depauw is great. Having the Bell is great. Winning the Stagg Bowl is greatest.

[smedindy]

Actually, winning the Stagg Bowl with no Bell would still seem a bit hollow. I think they are 1 and 1A.

[wally_wabash]

Yes, the endzones do look great...but for me and many Wabash alums, Runge's quote "Fall Break here at Wabash...on the day before what some are calling the "tied-for-the-most important" game of the season." strikes hollow. Witt is a rival come lately to Wabash football...just like other rivalries over the years have come and gone...Butler (in the 50's) Rose Hulman (when they were all male), Albion (in 70's-90's), etc.. There is only one most important game of the year...DePauw S (you can substitute the S word of your choice here). I'm glad for Wabash being in the NCAC and for being able to contend for an automatic bid in the playoffs... with Witt being the major hurdle to overcome. However, IMO, if Wabash wins the NCAC, goes to the playoffs, beats Mount Union and wins the Stagg Bowl...but loses to DePauw...sorry...not a successful year. As a matter of fact...that scenario would be a nightmare. Likewise...if the LG's go 1-9 and their only win is against the Dannies...good year...not as good as it could be...but nonetheless....good year. I know many of my younger Wabash brethren will disagree...but hey...that's ok...Wabash men know how to agree to disagree.

I understand what you're saying...Witt is a HUGE game.  This game probably means the playoffs (Wabash closes Oberlin, @ Wooster, Denison...Witt still has to travel to Allegheny and for whatever reason OWU has given Witt fits so Witt isn't out of the woods yet but would be heavy favorties from here on out).  The Bell game is its own animal...it's almost separate from the rest of the season.  Both of these games are huge games for Wabash, but they are huge for different reasons. 

And really, if Wabash were capable of marching through the North region playoff bracket, including MUC (and very likely all of these games would be on the road assuming that Wabash had lost a game to DePauw...ugh...I feel dirty even typing that hypothetically), and win the Stagg Bowl, you wouldn't have had to worry about losing to DePauw.  I get the hypothetical and agree with it in principle, but the reality is that such a thing would never happen. 

[Schwami]

Yes, the only somewhat plausible scenario is a Wabash team that loses to depauw (which has happened before, so I can tentatively put that proposition forward) but also wins the NCAC AQ.  That's a nightmare scenario going into the playoffs, and it is inconceivable to me that such a team could make a deep run in the playoffs.

[gobash83]

Schwami...you are probably right that a Wabash team that lost the Bell game wouldn't likely make a deep run into the playoff--though I can think of one team who might have, given the shot.  The '81 team was highly ranked nationally and was 9-0 going into the Bell game, where it lost 21-14.  Under today's conference and playoff structure, that team would have already qualified for the playoffs when they lost that game.  I think Metzelaars, DJ and that group may still have had success in the playoffs that year.