FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[WAF78]

Wally...thanks for the info. I'd love to sneak down there and take in that scrimmage. It's always nice to hit someone other than your own teammates after a couple of weeks at practice.

Wabash move up to number 1 in Kickoffs purchased. Way to go Little Giants.

[wally_wabash]

Hard to believe it's already time to get this going again...it doesn't seem like that long ago that I was up in Wisconsin freezing my marbles off.  I'm getting pretty pumped up here, fellas.  I might have to start working on the week 1 pick 'em spreads to sate myself.   

[bashbrother]

Wally -

Same here.   I have adjusted my work schedule to "Football Season"  Don't know if I am looking forward to my Cougs this year.   USC, ASU and Oregon look to be the class.   

..... Did anyone else catch the Carmel / Cathedral game on ESPN on Saturday.  It was about a thousand degrees on the field and the players were going down left and right.  But it was cool to see ESPN spotlighting some Indiana High School action.

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks to Wabash fans, who continue to be tied for the lead in Kickoff sales!

[bashbrother]

Let me break that tie 

Anyone who hasn't already signed up, do so.   Support this great site.

[wally_wabash]

Thanks to Wabash fans, who continue to be tied for the lead in Kickoff sales!

Thank you for putting together this awesome preview each year.  I'm looking forward to blowing off half a day of work tomorrow sifting through all of the new material.   

[DadofBashWarrior..]

I found it interesting that the Wabash football team was instructed to help assist freshman students in moving in to their new homes. Wow...it looks like ER may be as community oriented as CC was. Has the football team ever done that before? Just curious...I know it didn't happen when I was playing...back in the ice age.

Does anyone know...when and where is the Wheaton scrimmage?

Kickoff comes out tomorrow. Can't wait.

I thought it was interesting as well about the players helping the freshman move in. I noticed last week that Drake's players had done the same thing. Maybe it was a CC thing that was to start this year.

Frankly it does not matter who's idea it was as I think it's a great one.

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks to Wabash fans, who continue to be tied for the lead in Kickoff sales!

Thank you for putting together this awesome preview each year.  I'm looking forward to blowing off half a day of work tomorrow sifting through all of the new material.   

It's bigger this year. Will take you longer to read it all!

[WAF78]

Keith, Pat, et al....awesome job on the Kickoff. Not getting much work done today...except the necessary prep work for the upcoming D III season. Great Job...you guys get better and better every year. Thanks so much for all your work.

[WABCOL86]

The Kickoff is really great.  Just looking forward to another exciting small college football season!!  Go Little Giants!

[K-Mack]

Thanks to Wabash fans, who continue to be tied for the lead in Kickoff sales!

Thank you for putting together this awesome preview each year.  I'm looking forward to blowing off half a day of work tomorrow sifting through all of the new material.   

It's bigger this year. Will take you longer to read it all!

Maybe next year we should do a quiz ... first person to get a factoid from every article wins a refund!

[HScoach]

NCAC guys, be sure to check out the OAC Pick-Em's again.  We've enjoyed your participation over the years. 

The spreads will be posted in the next day or so.

[HScoach]

For those NCAC folks willing to cross conference boundaries to have a little fun, the spreads for week 1 of the OAC Pick-Em's has been posted.

[wally_wabash]

This place is quiet...let's get some week 1 talk going in here.  The LGs are off, but most of the rest of the conference is going and there are a couple of interesting games.

- Olivet @ Witt....Olivet was a playoff team a year ago.  Any chance the Comets can steal one from Witt here?

- Hiram has a chance to get off to a good start against Gallaudet.

- Oberlin gets to host a W&J team that has had about 9 months to stew over being the first #1 seed to lose in the first round of the playoffs.  Good luck with that. 

- Can Wooster get out of the gate well against Waynesburg? 

- OWU vs. Carnegie Mellon is an intriguing game. 

- And best of all, Earlham vs. RHIT.  I read that these two teams play for a big broadsword.  I've got instant karma for anybody who can post or link to a picture of this sword that Earlham and RHIT play for.  I haven't been able to find it yet...

[Superfoot Wallace]

The Olivet game has all the makings for a donnybrook.

No, that wasn't Keith Jackson, just Franks and Chmura.

Without having gone into the roster for returning lettermen and emotional leaders, a quick perusal of Olivet's record last season evidences a team that closed the gap and closed the gap and then got after it. 

After learning how to stand on the gas last season, Olivet won a close one over a conference rival in Siamese fashion to their struggle with Witt.

Started following this team a few years ago as they rotated the same two tenured leaders in and out as assistants and the head man.  Of course, my interest was piqued by their former Wing T as Dead T.  The Dead T from what little could be gathered involved a heavy dose of Single Wing or 30's series guard play.  Said here before and elsewhere think Spread teams, which I believe to be Coach Livedoti's forte, are more capably augmented by the T birddog than the I oskie.  Think Olivet's recent success has trumpeted this assertion.

Which brings me to the real Macleod litmus test of the NCAC-UAA agreement: OWU versus CMU.  First, Witt gets to see this CMU team later in the season.  And Second, CMU runs a more formationally traditional Wing-T while we have all seen OWU moving toward a long snap offense, albeit in my opinion Shotgun Wing-T.

signed,
Howard Cross and Mark Bavaro