FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wally_wabash]

The point margin is somewhat surprising, but the result not so much. Tough road trip for Witt to travel all the way down to Alabama and we can thank Hiram for this one!

It's not Hiram's fault.  Maybe Hiram took advantage of the chaos created when Earlham dropped out and opted to not play Witt in a non-league game (and let's not forget that Witt took their own advantage of that chaos) but if y'all didn't want to go to Alabama you didn't have to.  There were other games available for this year (DePauw needed a tenth game and was off this weekend, for example).  Witt went to play a good team this weekend and got housed.  Honestly, it might not have mattered if that game was played in Alabama, Springfield, underwater, or on Mars.  I think they got beat by a better team. 

[bishopowu]

traveled to see a great campus of Carnegie Mellon and the city of Pittsburgh yesterday. Have onky been there a few times. Well game was a mess for the Bishops. Carnegie Mellon rushes for over 300 yards on owu. I just dont get it anymore. This team needs change asap. I know it will never happen. I am so tired of hearing they are young. Ive heard it before and again time after time. Maybe we need to go with a younger coach. How about that. Whole coaching staff needs to go. They dont make adjustments at all. Whats the sense of freshman being showcased they play as freshman then leave. It will be same as last year and years before. We all keep saying we want to see owu come back to a great program i dont see it i really dont. We need someone to come in and pump up the program with a new life and winning attitude. Someone who wants to win NOW and this regime doesnt. I see fight in the players but not in coaches. Shouldnt want to put points on board put points onnthe board to beat the other team.

AUEAGLE i dont know how we do it each week.

[Hawks88]

So it's the trip to Alabama that was the issue for Witt? Was that with the banjo on your knee?

You know, I saw Birmingham Southern play down in Naples, FL. That's 12 1/2 hours on a bus. They took care of business with great ease.

Those wacky ASC teams have to travel all over Texas (and Louisiana and Mississippi).

Mississippi College has to travel to Sul Ross State this year (Clinton, MS to Alpine, TX). That's 15 hours in a bus.

Don't cry for me Wittenberg. Your team has trouble on the road, whether it's just to Delaware (remember, you only led OWU 20-13 in the fourth) or St. Louis, or Alabama.

Huntingdon just made that bus ride to Naples, FL last week and have a bus ride to San Antonio next, so, yeah, boo hoo.

[bashbrother]

Tough road trip for Witt to travel all the way down to Alabama and we can thank Hiram for this one!

With respect, Hiram is probably the last thing you want to blame.   Maybe it was the defensive and offensive lines that got man handled.... maybe it was the fact that long passes, which work against Oberlin, OWU & Allegheny,  work less often against talented teams, when your QB actually feels pressure.

Huntingdon had 30,  yes 30 first downs yesterday...that means it was not about big plays....it was about offensive rhythm and a 52% 3rd down effic. and 60% 4th down effic. (3 of 5  ) for the Hawks.

It is ok in sports to just admit you were defeated by a better team and work to get better.   Huntingdon is obviously not the same program that you enjoyed beating up on 5 or so years back!

Hiram had nothing to do with it.

[wabashcpa]

Any word on Scola's knee?  That was not good to see yesterday, especially with some of his family sitting right in front of me.

[BashDad]

...and 60% 4th down effic. (3 of 6) for the Hawks...

Uh-oh.

[wabashcpa]

...and 60% 4th down effic. (3 of 6) for the Hawks...

Uh-oh.

Ha!  Better leave the math to the pros!

[bashbrother]

My math skills rule.   I'm an artist...what can I say.   

Misread the box score -  Actual -  FOURTH DOWN EFFICIENCY    60% (3 of 5)

[old wabash]

wabash picks up 30 points in the polls, but remains 12th!

[smedindy]

I personally think the voters are overrating T More and Kean. But they're also under-rating Illinois Wesleyan and Wheaton. 12th may be about right. I have them 9th in my Fan Poll ballot, but Wabash may be right there with Montclair, Wartburg and Bethel, which I have under the LG's but still in the same 'pod' of teams to consider (along with the CCIW duo).

[ExTartanPlayer]

I don't know if it will be possible for Oberlin to finish the year.  Their two-deep only listed 7 O linemen.  Their left tackle went out with a serious leg injury (air cast).  Shortly thereafter RB and WR left the game with injuries and were iced the rest of the game.

The final 20 miinutes or so of the game were played with a running clock.   

That's really a shame.  It seems like the few guys they have are playing really hard, too, as they've put up some respectable showings against good teams.  If they had a little more depth, they might be the 4th/5th best NCAC team (actually, they still might be).

A few years ago, Lewis & Clark forfeited their entire conference schedule due to a shortage of players.  Incredibly, the program has risen from the ashes (after a few more rocky seasons, going winless in 2006 and 2007) to start this year at 4-0, with a realistic chance at their first winning season...one of the feel-good stories in D3 this year.

[formerd3db]

In regards to the Witt/Huntingdon discussion, I didn't realize that Huntingdon was that good.  Their program was only started in 2002 and although they had a couple of very good season records 3-4 years ago, again, I thought perhaps some of the teams they play in the south were not quite as good as some of the teams up this way.  Being the only DIII team in Alabama (although Samford was DIII when it reinstated their program several years ago before going to D-IAA, now FCS), I guess they have that advantage in attracting such student-athletes.  Anyway, a tough loss for Witt, although they always seem to have one loss like that during the regular season.

Also, nice home attendance so far for Wabash.  Wow, 4,300+ for a couple of games and the 5,300+ for the other.  That is great and I'm sure has been an awesome atmosphere there.  Quite surprisingly, we've had some good crowds at Hope for our home games; 3,175, 3,425 and a 1,400 one, although I still believe the latter was well more than that (we also played in front of only 300 people at an "away" game at Lakeland, uh, not good ).  Also, surprisingly (and sadly ) the two higher attendance games for us were very close to what DI Mid-American Conference member Eastern Michigan's first two home games were and, of course, Wabash easily has outdrawn Eastern Michigan in that regard. Anyway, always nice to see good home crowds for DIII.

[Pat Coleman]

Birmingham-Southern is also in Alabama.

[formerd3db]

Birmingham-Southern is also in Alabama.

Oh yes, Pat, I forgot about that.  As you know, they had been D-I in other sports before starting football, although Huntingdon has always been smaller college sports.  Thanks for the correction.

[formerd3db]

Indeed, it is too bad about Oberlin being down in numbers on the roster.  They seem to have trickled back to that 1977-early '80's era where their numbers were way down and the administration almost voted to drop football.  People worked hard to resurrect that storied/historic program and, without question, Coach Ramsey has as well in the last decade and done a very good job.  Not being from that area or obviously your conference, I'm not sure what is going on there.  As you mention, they seem to be playing very hard, have players of good talent, but when you have the low numbers, that can be a huge problem to overcome no matter how good your players are.  I've noticed in recent years their overall enrollment has decreased significantly as well, although while that is a problem that most (yet, obviously not all) DIII schools have faced/are facing, Oberlin's seems to be a little more drastic as far as comparison to what they had for quite a few years.  Hopefully, they can "weather this storm" and re-group.  It can be done - Olivet and Kalamazoo in our conference have done it after having had rosters with numbers in the mid-40's a couple of times in more recent years.  Also, at least Oberlin has had decent crowd attendance at 2 out of three of its home games so far; about 2,300 for two of them, despite only 370+ for the home opener against Kenyon.