FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Geezer Citizen]

Observations:  OWU v The Bash -
- Been to all three home games this year. OWU put up the best fight against The Bash  by far.
- OWU road unies are a disaster. Can barely read the numbers from the stands. Do the coaches want their players to be anonymous?
- A couple of the Bishop players let their attitudes get in the way of their game. They should let their game prove how good they are.

Oherwise, good game, Bishops and good luck the rest of the way.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

+1 Geezer Citizen. Appreciate your feedback.

[firstdown]

Geezer Citizen - I agree with your observations about today's game.  Once again Wabash came to play with all three phases of the game and it made a big difference.  The other big difference was Wabash's speed on defense.  Espinosa is a great quarterback and put on quite a show.   Finally, I was disappointed by the poor quality of the officiating in today's game particularly by the line judge. 

[sigma one]

Fun game to watch today at Hollett.  OWU has a ways to go, but that offense kept everybody on edge all day.   It seemed like they were one big play away from making a dangerous game of it, but the Wabash D would not let them break out.
     Espinosa's accuracy is impressive.  And several of the OWU receivers have terrific hands. 
     I did a quick breakdown.  Espinosa was 33-45 with 7 sacks.  So he dropped to pass over 50 times.  Of the 33 completions, if I have counted correctly, 13 were for 5 yards or fewer and 9 more for between 6 and 10 yards.  That's 22 or two-thirds of the completions for under 10 yards.  Only two completions over 20 yards.  The Wabash Defense was relentless on the rush; Espinosa did a better job in the second half of moving away.  Wabash just doesn't miss many open-field tackles, so the receivers never got much after the catch. The yards per catch kept the OWU passing game from becoming a consistent threat.
     Too bad for Zurek.  The injury may be bad.  Stella was impressive--he has another gear and accelerates well.  Recall that he was second in the long jump at the Indiana state track and field championship his senior year in high school.  that was about 25 lbs. ago.  Wabash is getting awfully thin at RB.  Who will emerge behind Stella, and how Porter will be used, are interesting questions.
     Good luck the rest of the way to the Battling Bishops.       
     

[BashBacker#16]

I'll have more tomorrow but wanted to share some thoughts on Wabash/OWU today.

- tough seeing Mason Zurek go down today, I've seen way too many guys go down over the years and it never gets easier.  I hope he can come back later in the season.
- the tandem of MacDougal and Sobleski is awesome (punter/kicker).  Weapons for sure...  Sobleski bobbled the one punt snap and had to rush but still had a good day.
- I thought the OWU o-line was pretty chippy all day long.  #77 was especially cheap all afternoon
- to the Bishop player that tweeted #wabashalways_________ - nice game bro.  It's actually #WabashAlwaysFights just so we're clear.  Also, did you play, I didn't notice you, even if I could see your #.  It amazes me what some guys say on social media. 
- Stella is a beast.  He should get better and better.
- the Bash D brought it all day, Espo never got comfortable.  He made some great throws and his receivers were impressive.  How about Buresh today?  Scola was all over the field and Eddie's 2 picks were sweet!
- lastly - special teams were awesome.  Hodges, Dickerson's KO return, Ethan Buresh's block on the punt return, etc.

Wabash is well rounded in all phases and any Saturday, one can stand out and change the game.  That's a cool thing.

38-13 - I'll take it.

On OWU taking the next step...Espo is a MAJOR piece and the last 2 years OWU has lost to Bash 66-13.  I'm not sure that is closing the gap.

WAF

[aueagle]

Bouncing around from the ALCS to CLU/Redlands to Ole Miss/Texas A&M to UCLA/Cal...and found this....

A tradition that began in 2012, Cal Lutheran and Redlands will again play for the Smudge Pot, a perpetual trophy that celebrates the heritage and history of the citrus industries in Ventura and San Bernardino Counties.  The winner of the annual game will be presented with the Smudge Pot and paint it in the respective colors of their University, holding the trophy until the next year.

Besides the Wesleyan-Wabash game...D3 allowed me to see ballgames from Hamilton/Bowdoin to Cal Lutheran/Redlands, with the Midwest in-between....saw parts of 7 games.....It was a great day...Thank-You D3 Football

You're right, sigma one...the Bishops have a ways to go....BB#16, the "gap" is still big, but, the Red & Black are building....
  I'd like to see a running game to add balance, but that won't come until after the Espo era....
I was not a fan of the white jersey's with a "designer look" number...stick with some of the basics, please!

[bashbrother]

I will say this... In my 13 years of following the Little Giants... They have never had such quality depth at RB......I will admit I was very sad about seeing Zurek on the turf...  I truly hope he makes it back in 2013.   Huge props to Stella.. Being the next man up!

To the Bishops tweet star posting crap...  You're an idiot

[Joe Wally]

Tough to hear about Zurek.  Anyone heard a report on the nature and extent of the injury?

[Wabash Hokie]

Zurek update:   Nothing official but word on the street is a broken tibia and some torn ligements in his ankle - looks like he is out for the season.   Don't know if Wabash has a freshman in their stable of running backs that is ready to move up.  Wonder if there are any former RBs in the defensive depth chart that  might get a look.  Just read that Anthony Stella was a linebacker before being moved to  RB.

Stella showed that he can carry the load and CP will be a good change of pace but we are one injury away from being in a world of hurt at RB. 

[firstdown]

Wabash Hokie - Matt Gibson sophomore from Avon ran for 56 yards at Allegheny and will likely be part of the mix with Stella and Porter.  Best wishes to Zurek for a full and speedy recovery.

[sigma one]

Everyone:  can anyone remember when three different running backs on the same team rushed for 150+ yards in a game during the same season?  Two of those backs for Wabash are gone; fortunately, one remains.  These days of the one-back set makes that extremely difficult.  Could it have been in the OWU Delaware wing-T offense?  Wittenberg, when they were more of a grind it out team?  Three over 150 is rare and impressive.  Losing Holmes and Zurek before mid-season is terrible for Wabash and for those two young men.  And then Stella breaks loose.  Shout out as much as anything to the offensive line.  A few people have mentioned the size of the line.  Yes, they are big--and tall.  There's depth, too.  The projected starting RT is out, causing some adjustments (he  was the "little guy,") and the LG missed last week with hardly a notice.  His replacement was actually an inch or two taller.  He was back for OWU. 
     Several years ago while messing around in a library, I started looking at back issues of Sports Illustrated from the early 1970s.  There was an article about Nebraska, which had won the national championship the previous year.  The writer commented on their massive offensive line; he noted that it averaged 6'3, 242, tackle to tackle.  How times change.  I noticed that OWU averaged about 300 lbs from guard to guard.
     

[wabashcpa]

Nathan Brock may be the largest center I can remember seeing.  Even among big linemen he looks big.

[wally_wabash]

"Kenyon has two of the best linebackers in all of the NCAC, the region, and who knows, maybe the entire NCAA."

--Kenyon announcer, just now.

This is worth bringing back this week.

I just hope Scola, AJ, and Buresh (and the other half dozen guys that will get snaps at LB) don't embarrass themselves on Saturday sharing the field with such an accomplished duo of linebackers.

[Goscotsgo]

Does anyone else think its ridiculous that vs the Same Wabash Defense, Richard Barnes threw for more yards, let his team to more total yards and to more points, yet Espo still gets more credit and people still bash Barnes?

[Li'l Giant]

Does anyone else think its ridiculous that vs the Same Wabash Defense, Richard Barnes threw for more yards, let his team to more total yards and to more points, yet Espo still gets more credit and people still bash Barnes?

I think some of the Barnes "bashing" this year was a result of his unfortunate Twitter prediction. I mean, don't start s**t won't be none.

In the past, however, I think a lot of the Barnes bashing came from Wooster's own fans to the point that, if I recall correctly, Wally even said "can we have him, then?" (or words to that effect).