FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Li'l Giant]

Good luck to the Bishops on their coaching search. I would love to see that program turn around and fight for conference titles. The more the merrier.

[formerd3db]

aueagle:

Good post. That would be great to see historic Selby really crammed and "rocking" for home football games.  Ohio Wesleyan has such an historic/storied traditon - as you say, it is time to make that step to the "next level" in this current era.  It will be interesting to see what transpires.  Keep us posted.

[aueagle]

The build-up in Delaware for the search has begun. And with Christmas in just over a week...January should be key.
I trust The Committee will leave no stone unturned. Sources for advice or "names" could be x-Bishop All-American and
3 time All-NCAC DB Dean Hood. Congrats to Hood...just named AFCA Regional Coach of the Year at E. Kentucky U. With 7 years at Wake Forest and a Ohio Valley championship...he might be of help. After the game on Friday...I'd call Larry Kehres and ask for his blue-print...How many Raiders are in the ranks now....Look at the LG's...Does Paul Gulling want a HC job? Just spit-balling, but, my point is; the Bishops have to get this "hire" right....tap into every resource out there.

[nike]

Maybe Raeburn is ready for a new challange.  Just kidding.
Always enjoy Selby, especially the night games now.  The atmosphere of the first night game with Wooster last year was tremendous.  A young, energetic coach would have such an opportunity there.  And OWU is a great school.
Hope things work out well Bishop people. 

[formerd3db]

aueagle and nike:

Good posts.  Also, initially, I mis-read your post aueagle regarding Hood.  I foolishly mis-read and thought you were thinking about his coming back to Ohio Wesleyan .  No way that would happen, at least for now as he has the Eastern Kentucky program on a good run right now.  Thus, in re-reading your post i.e. in taking my time in reading, duh..., I realized you were obvious suggesting (just as you wrote it) that he, as an OWU alum/former player and current DI HC, would be a very good source to go to to ask about who might be good candidates for the OWU job in his opinion.

BTW, speaking of Eastern Kentucky, I was checking out their attendance figures for both home and away games.  Aside from their playing at Kansas State in front of 50,000+, and a couple of their own home games at about 16,000 and 10,000+, I saw that a good number of their other home games had only about 3,300, 3,400 (two others at 4,100+ and 5,300+) with some other away games at about 8-9,000.  Heck, we at Hope (and certainly Wabash) had as many as they did for some of those home games - and they're DI one schools.  So in one sense, DIII "ain't all that bad" for attendance, by gosh!

[sigma one]

With the recent debate in mind . . .CRAWFORDSVILLE, IN.  Outlined against a cloudy November sky (apologies to Grantland Rice), Wabash College yesterday staged a furious second-half comeback against a powerful North Central College football team, eventually prevailing 29-28 on a TD and two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter. North Central had blasted through the balanced and always tough CCIW, winning every game by at least three TDs and scoring 70 and 86 points against non-conference foes, while Wabash had dominated the NCAC.  Wabash entered the game at 11-0; North Central came to Little Giant Stadium at 10-1, losing only in California the first game of the year vs. a strong Redlands team.  The visiting Cardinals jumped out to a commanding 21-0 halftime advantage on the strength of a punishing running game and suffocating defense.  The Little Giants, with a backup QB at the helm, had no answer for the visitors early on.  The second half was another story.   Taking the opening kick, the LGs marched quickly down the field, scoring on a pass, and drawing within 21-7.  North Central recovered, scoring quickly  to maintain the three-TD advantage.  That was to be their only second half success as the Wabash team dominated on both offense and defense.  Trailing 28-7 going into the final quarter, Wabash mounted drives of 85 (7 plays), 69 (10 plays), and 67 (13 plays) yards to bring the score to 28-27.  With the momentum in the LG's favor, head coach Eric Raeburn decided to go for two points.  His decision proved correct as Wabash threw a pass into the endzone that went through the outstretched hands of one receiver and was caught by a second receiver as North Central defenders stood by helplessly.  North Central had one more opportunity snuffed out by an interception on a long pass into Wabash territory.  Wabash came into the home game following early seeding in the Division III National Championship tournament and after a 38-20 first-round defeat of Illinois College.  North Central arrived having beaten Dubuque College 59-13.   Despite a strong early effort, North Central had no consistent response to the Wabash comeback; the game was truly a contest of two halves.  Wabash finished with 23 first downs to North Central's 16, and 403 total yards to the Cardinals 335.  The 28 points was the most surrendered by the Wabash defense this season, as was the 29 given up by North Central. The Cardinal's 208 rushing yards were by far the most the LG's defense allowed this season.  Wabash will travel to the University of Mount Union next Saturday to take on the multiple national champion Purple Raiders.   (With high regard for the posters, and understanding both sides of the argument about final rankings:  on THIS day, on THIS field, under THESE circumstances, Wabash squeezed out a win. If Alabama beats LSU this time around, and I think that LSU is still the better team and because they won the first meeting), do I continue to rank them higher, or do I put Alabama #1? Too bad that they can't be tied in the rankings if this happens; too bad Wabash and North Central can't be tied.  Great game.)                   

[aueagle]

Thought I could make the championship this year....but can't.
If any NCAC posters can...have fun....stay warm & dry.

[formerd3db]

bashbro:

Indeed, interesting quote.  Also, speaking of Mike Leach, I just happened to hear his interview with Jim Rome on the Jim Rome Radio Show today.  They were talking about his new job as HC at Washington State, although, of course, the topic came up about his incident and feud (now continuing lawsuit) against all three i.e. Tech Tech, Craig James and ESPN.  I was somewhat surprised at Rome's approach as he seemed to be going overboard in cordiality to Leach, although I suppose he has to if he wants to continue being considered one of the better and classier sports talk show radio hosts.  At the same time, while Leach seemed to be obviously looking forward to his new job and also very more relaxed in talking, it appears to me from what I heard (and this is my own opinion on this) is that he is still contrite, ticked off and will not admit that he had any wrong doing in the incident.  He has an obvious legit point about TT being obligated to pay him for his final season of coaching (which they have not), and while I believe TT could have handled that situation as far as the firing and the alleged incident better than they did, at the same time Leach simply claims he did nothing wrong and that most of what ESPN, James and his son, etc., etc. reported was outright lies and false.  I find that extremely difficult to believe (actually, I don't believe it and never will - unless it is proven otherwise and without question - and that is doubtful because they all will probably settle the lawsuit for big $, which is what Leach's goal is anyway - I'm not sure he really wants the entire truth to be known).  I don't believe for one second that all of the athletic trainers would purposely perjure themselves to EVERYONE in any and all of the investigative phases - they all can't be lying about the same thing, unless there was a conspiracy and no evidence (at least that we know of) has been publically brought to light to suggest that was true.  I believe Leach did mis-handle the situation with the James player and that he is not telling the truth, although obviously, he and the TT administration, Craig James and others had HUGE personality problems and egos.  I believe there was fault on both sides.  Also, Leach simply was not believable in his televised interviews on all the television programs he appeared on right when that incident all broke out 2 years ago - he handled it poorly.  Of course, he still is bad-mouthing all the parties involved in his lawsuit and also claims their actions were the reason why he could not land another DI coaching job until now (some of that last aspect might be true, however, I don't believe it responsible for all of it, because he decided to take some additional time off, write a book which just came out - which I have not read - not sure I will -, but again, doesn't admit he made a mistake in handling the kid's situation, regardless of whether or not there were extreme hard feelings over the James kid's playing time The latter is irrelevent to the issue of mis-handling concussions, etc.  My apologies for this perhaps rambling "re-cap" of an old incident/topic, however, since you mentioned his name and I had just heard the Rome show today, I thought it was an interesting follow-up.   Your and other's thoughts? 

[sigma one]

My apologies:  in the earlier post.  It's Erik (not Eric) Raeburn.  It's the University of Dubuque (not Dubuque College).  I know these; just careless.

[formerd3db]

sigma one:

No problem.  We all make some typos/minor errors like that at times.  Indeed, sometimes in being in hurry to get my thoughts down abnd posted, I am careless, too.  But...that is what the "modify" option is for and/or just simply posting an additional clarification as you did.

[ExTartanPlayer]

...at the same time Leach simply claims he did nothing wrong and that most of what ESPN, James and his son, etc., etc. reported was outright lies and false.  I find that extremely difficult to believe (actually, I don't believe it and never will - unless it is proven otherwise and without question - and that is doubtful because they all will probably settle the lawsuit for big $, which is what Leach's goal is anyway - I'm not sure he really wants the entire truth to be known).

Agree with some of what you said, disagree with other parts.

I agree that Leach did SOMETHING wrong.  However, I've read (somewhere, not in Leach's book because I haven't read that either) that much of the James' story was, in fact, severely exaggerated or fabricated.  For example, the cell-phone video that Adam James leaked to the public was supposedly a fake; he just went into the closet and shot the video himself, then spread the story that he had been locked in the closet for practice.

Do I think Leach could have handled it better? Yes.
Do I think Leach is a bit of whack-job? Yes.
Do I think Texas Tech had grounds to fire him? Maybe.

Do I think Leach was treated unfairly? Yes.
Can I imagine a scenario in which a hot-headed announcer would get mad that his coach isn't playing his son, and try to use his influence to lean on the coach? Absolutely.
Do I think that the James' had it out for Leach? Yes.

[Li'l Giant]

Can I imagine a scenario in which a hot-headed announcer would get mad that his coach isn't playing his son, and try to use his influence to lean on the coach? Absolutely.
Do I think that the James' had it out for Leach? Yes.

And said hot-headed announcer has the cojones to run for Senate? I can't WAIT for the opportunity to vote against him.

I think it's hilarious that within minutes of saying "f**k it" on College Game Day Lee Corso has to apologize on the air but to this day James has never been held accountable in any form for hiring a PR firm and using his influence to get a coach fired for not playing his kid.

[formerd3db]

I agree with you guys entirely.  Yet, I also never said that James (neither one) didn't tell any untruths about their side of the story and, for sure, I believe (and apparently) it has been shown that they made some fabrications - but fabrications were made by all the parties involved.  They all (Leach, TT, ESPN and both James) should be held accountable for those aspects.  Also, without question, there is a double standard at ESPN in regards to what you mention and that is simply not right.  I think the father certainly is a hot-headed and arrogant at times announcer - I've never really cared for him as an ESPN announcer.  However, as I said, all parties involved are at fault here and my point was simply that Leach has never had the integrity to own up that he made ANY kind of mistakes in the situation.  The playing time issue was certainly the underlying point of contention to begin with and then a "meddling father", however, for Leach to claim he never ever mis-handled the situation in any aspect is simply self-denial, dis-honest, arrogant and, I'm sorry to say, laughable (well...perhaps that is not the right term as this is not a laughable situation). I will admit, that he is not one of my favorite college coaches whatsover - for me, I put him in my "self made" category of Saban, Miles, Kelly, Rodriguez, and Weis (and even L. Holtz).   Overall, I think your description of him as a "whack job" is about right.   He may be a good coach regarding the "X's and O's", however, as an example for young players, at least with regards to how he has handled this situation, I think he falls miserably short.  Again, admittedly, I am basing this on this alone as I know nothing of how he personally coached down there at TT.  Anyway, time will tell as he now has a "second chance" at Washington State, so we'll see what happens.  I am not, however, going to hold my breath! I'll believe he has changed when I see it, yet, I certainly wasn't convinced of that by his demeanor/attitude on the Rome show interview today.

Thanks for both of your "takes" on this topic - very interesting.

[smedindy]

Was James ever implicated in the SMU fiasco during his playing days?

[DagarmanSpartan]

NCAC Fans,

Based on recent news that CWRU will join the PAC as a "football only" member together with Carnegie-Mellon in 2014, will play an 8 game conference schedule there, and will play their other two games against the other two UAA teams, it appears that our last opportunity to play NCAC teams for quite awhile may come in 2013.

2013 could be the last Baird Brothers Trophy game, and the last matchup between Case and local (maybe 1.5 hours away) rival Oberlin.

I'm going to miss playing NCAC teams.  Lots of history there!