FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[BashBacker#16]

Smeds - your "kool aid" posts get so old EVERY YEAR.  You should be #1 Dad-of-the-Year since you spend your Saturday mornings with your daughter at her soccer games....and none of us spend time with our families?  I don't get it.  

My only point about Wooster is that I believe they were exposed last week vs. Earlham.  Meaning, I do not think they are as good as their record leads us to believe.  That is it.  We shall see if I am correct starting this weekend and as the season unfolds.  ScotLas - its very difficult to compare 4-0 Wooster and 4-0 Wabash but I would feel better if my team was averaging nearly 50 per game, holding opponents to 13 per game, while rolling 500 yards of offense against all 4 opponents.  Numbers and stats are all we have to compare at this point until October 25.  I am being honest and this is only my opinion.  

Fijidoc - Kerney has the size and skills for sure, unfortunately, his entire career, he has fought injuries.  That would be great if he can make it back.  He is a hybrid TE/WR that could definitely help Wabash.  He had a great camp prior to the injury.

[jam40jeff]

  Denison vs Hiram  Since I,m new here Predictions//Facts . Who to watch for might be helpful .      THANKS

I am predicting that Denison wins by 3+ TDs.  Hiram's 2 wins were both in overtime against bad teams.  They will most likely end up 2-8.

[medicine man]

If we are bringing up the "injury" card for the Benedictine game ...... Wooster has played Denison and Earlham without Shepherd and his backup. Granted Bush did an absolutely tremendous job gaining 173 yards against Earlham but again Shepherd and his back up have been out for two games in addition to other injured players not playing or playing with injuries. 

Where does Scot Lass compare Wooster's 4-0 to Wabash's 4-0? She is much too smart to do that.....

Again, there is not a Wooster poster on here bragging, we all know this will be a very tough game.

Bashbacker #16

I am being honest and this is only my opinion. 

You know what they say about opinions.....

[ScotLass]

ScotLas - its very difficult to compare 4-0 Wooster and 4-0 Wabash but I would feel better if my team was averaging nearly 50 per game, holding opponents to 13 per game, while rolling 500 yards of offense against all 4 opponents.  Numbers and stats are all we have to compare at this point until October 25.  I am being honest and this is only my opinion.

I never compared 4-0 Wooster to 4-0 Wabash. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've had a post this year that has included any thoughts on Wabash. I haven't given much thought to Oct. 25th yet since we still have Oct. 11th and Oct. 18th that come 1st......doing otherwise would lead to Woo being "exposed" like they were against Earlham and suffering the consequences of thinking ahead to the next game instead of keeping their head in the current one. I am surprised that, unprovoked, you have jumped ahead to a match up against lowly, "exposed" Woo, with Washington and Witt coming up. One game at a time, one game at a time.

Sure, I'd love it if Woo were averaging 48.5 points per game like Wabash has against Denison, Chicago, Kenyon, and Allegheny. My previous posts have pointed out Woo's scoring average of 21 points per game against Waynesburg, OWU, Denison, and Earlham needs a boost heading into the next few weeks. Thanks bunches, but I will keep the average of 8 points per game allowed by our defense..........which has some depth by the way.....Woo has rotated in a lot of guys on defense, so they aren't having to rely on keeping starters in for every play. The fact that the offense has struggled at times doesn't negate the performance of the defense. 

[ADL70]

Med Man, in the interest of accuracy, Sheppard [sic] had 11 carries v Denison.  Not denying that he might have been injured, but he did play.

[ScotsFan]

My only point about Wooster is that I believe they were exposed last week vs. Earlham.  Meaning, I do not think they are as good as their record leads us to believe.  That is it.  We shall see if I am correct starting this weekend and as the season unfolds. 

Forgive us Wooster fans for having a bit of optimism following a somewhat surprising 4-0 start!  After all, at this point last season the Scots were the exact opposite sitting at 0-4 en route to a sub-par 4-6 campaign.  And it's not like any of the Wooster talk has been delusional like talking playoffs or anything.  Heck, there hasn't even been mention of Wooster's lack of inclusion in even receiving a single vote in the top 25.  So is it so hard to at least let us enjoy this run while it lasts???

ScotLas - its very difficult to compare 4-0 Wooster and 4-0 Wabash but I would feel better if my team was averaging nearly 50 per game, holding opponents to 13 per game, while rolling 500 yards of offense against all 4 opponents.  Numbers and stats are all we have to compare at this point until October 25.  I am being honest and this is only my opinion. 

Whose been comparing Wooster and Wabash???  Clearly, Wabash has played better at least offensively.  But, I don't think you can discount how well the Scot's defense has played to date.  If Wooster's offense ever were to find somewhat of a pulse, they will prove to be a much tougher out than the 'monkey stomp' predictions you and your fellow brash, errr, Bash supporters seem to be predicting...

[medicine man]

Correct. I was there, I forgot Shep did play at Denison but was out very early. He actually was injured in the Waynesburg game but played. He tried to play at DU but was out quickly.

[Ryan Tipps]

As for the accounting problem...the scores and results reported in Oberlin's media guide leave the series, including the 1944 game, at 6-5 in favor of Chicago.  You're right that the differences probably come from disputed forfeits or some such thing, but no asterisks or any other mention of that is mentioned in the media guide.

Stuff like this is interesting -- especially for us history buffs.  I ran into it earlier this year after a team's "historic win," while I was trying to make sense of records from two schools in the mid-Atlantic. A game from 1932 was in one team's record book but not in the opponent's. An odd occurrence, to be sure, but maybe not as rare as we might think. Our own D3F Guru told me that he also saw this kind of thing during his SID days.

Might make for a good broad-scale story some day...

[ScotsFan]

As for the accounting problem...the scores and results reported in Oberlin's media guide leave the series, including the 1944 game, at 6-5 in favor of Chicago.  You're right that the differences probably come from disputed forfeits or some such thing, but no asterisks or any other mention of that is mentioned in the media guide.

Stuff like this is interesting -- especially for us history buffs.  I ran into it earlier this year after a team's "historic win," while I was trying to make sense of records from two schools in the mid-Atlantic. A game from 1932 was in one team's record book but not in the opponent's. An odd occurrence, to be sure, but maybe not as rare as we might think. Our own D3F Guru told me that he also saw this kind of thing during his SID days.

Might make for a good broad-scale story some day...

That would be interesting to see how many historic records are off and if there are any references as to why Team A counted the game from, say 1936 and Team B has no record of said game happening.  Such as forfietures, the war, not having an 'official' school sponsored football team, etc.

That would take someone doing a TON of research though or else getting a TON of help...

[DarkSide-D]

Bashers may want to be cautious when talking about how potent their offense is.  I remember a year when Woo dominated teams (winning by 30-40- even 50 points), averaging about 500 yards a game.  Then, oops, Oberlin beat them.

Just because you have a team the scores a lot of points, and racks up a lot of yards, doesn't necessarily mean they will wipe the floor, or "monkey stomp", other teams.  They still have to play the game.

[DarkSide-D]

Wooster has an interesting blurb in its record books.  According to the great Roy Lockett (RIP), back in the 1970s Wooster had only one blemish on its record, against Witt.  It turned out Witt was playing an ineligible player at the time and was forced to forfeit the game.  As a result, Wooster won the game.  However, the AD at Woo at the time refused to accept the win, and subsequently, the championship.  Thus, although other record books show the win for Wooster, Wooster does not acknowledge the win.  I just looked up the records from Woo in 1970, and it does note Witt forfeited.  However, it still shows the game as a loss.


Speaking of Coach Lockett, as a reminder to Woo fans, there will be a tree dedication in his memory before the homecoming game outside the Papp.

[ScotsFan]

For anyone interested, Matt Florjancic wrote up a little piece on Wooster LB/Pitcher, Matt DeGrand as the feature in this week's GL Around the Region page: 

Wooster pitcher throws himself in on defense

I also found it odd that in his featured games of the week, the rivalry game between the battle of the unbeatens going after the golden fishing stringer wouldn't have been featured...

Lastly, here's further fun facts concerning the Baird Brothers Trophy.  The fish that gets added after every game signifies some aspect of how that year's game was played.  They listed all the fish that have been added since the trophy's inception on Wooster's weekly release.  Makes me wonder what the games must have been like the years that the sucker and the crappie were added...     

[smedindy]

Smeds - your "kool aid" posts get so old EVERY YEAR.  You should be #1 Dad-of-the-Year since you spend your Saturday mornings with your daughter at her soccer games....and none of us spend time with our families?  I don't get it.  

Well, the kool aid drinking gets old too. Of course, I know that intelligent rational discourse and critical assessment aren't de rigueur on message boards.

All I was saying is that being removed from Indiana, and with the new job and traveling everywhere, priorities change, and I've found that I'm not wrapped up into it like I used to be. I've only posted this week because I'm not on the road and need a break from report writing. So my Saturdays are with Katie's soccer games, then getting everyone lunch (since usually I'm traveling 4-5 days a week and can't do that) and then relaxing with everyone, and by the time I remember the Wabash game is on it's the 3rd or 4th quarter anyway.

And being away has given me a different perspective on it. Actually, a refreshing perspective. Rebalancing my life has done wonders for me.

Now if I could just have rebalanced my portfolio 2 weeks ago!

[wally_wabash]

Bashers may want to be cautious when talking about how potent their offense is.  I remember a year when Woo dominated teams (winning by 30-40- even 50 points), averaging about 500 yards a game.  Then, oops, Oberlin beat them.

Such things can happen when the best player in the school history misses a week.   

And being away has given me a different perspective on it. Actually, a refreshing perspective. Rebalancing my life has done wonders for me.

Speaking of rebalancing, I think that is the thing that has a lot of Wabash fans so excited this year.  Balance.  Wabash is dedicated to the run in a way that they haven't been since Morris/Lafitte.  And they're doing it successfully.  The ability to run was a big, big deal in both of Wabash's losses last season and now that Wabash is re-establishing that part of the offense, the results have been great.  The competition gets tougher (we said this last week right before the LGs put over 230 rush yards on the #8 ranked rush defense), so we'll see if the trend can continue. 

I don't think it's fair to paint everybody with the blind homerism brush.  Most of the people that post here have been following Wabash football and seen enough football to know when they're seeing something really good.  Saying so in this forum doesn't automatically make somebody an ignorant kool-aid drinker (that's the last time I'm using that phrase, btw...it's been beaten like a dirty rug). 

[wabco]

Smeds    "Earlham may have matched up well ... etc."?  The quaking Quakers? The only corner Earlham is going take is when it turns its bus around after it gets a football lesson from Witt.

Scotlass  Case by a case (i.e. 24).  Just being honest and this is only an opinion.

Wabash will win out over Wash U ... but it could be a real head but.  Wash U isn't turning any corner annd has beaten a quality team.  Wabash is getting better each week.  The beat down of Alleghney was a thorough in every phgase as I have seen Wabash perform overe the years.  I do not anticipate another like it this week ... but do anticipate a win.  NOTE (at the risk of jinxing) the Little Giants are basically healthy without season ending injuries plagueing as have in the past several years.  The schedule is perfect for a new coach, new system on O and D, and players who can adapt and get it going with a little practice.  Watching the first 4 games is a steady improvement.  As the competition toughens it will not be by scores equal to Kenyon etc.  BUT I do believe Wabash will win and win out.  Interestingly, the wASH U game is great where it is on the schedule and basically meaningless where it impacts either conference championship or playoff bid.  (A fact we learned last year when we let down against DePauw.)

BB 16 ... keep up your posts and comparisons.  Knowing your experience, knowledge, and attention to D III, Wabash, and NCAC ... you are a rational and good thinker.  Keep it up.