FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

A little side note from the MIAA meeting yesterday - Tom Renner with an official announcement about leaving his position with the MIAA:

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/080307/localsports_20070803049.shtml

[Uncle Rico]

Some info from Tri-State......

http://www.tristate.edu/tsuathletics/football/footballoutlook.cfm


Go Thunder!   

[D306]

Rico

certainly feel the energy from the coachng staff even in the Pre Season info.

I like the idea of a high pressure blitzing defense. If you have speed this is a great way to upset a superior teams, rythem.

As I have commented before, I think TSU is on its way up in the MIAA.
I could be just caught up in the hype of a new coaching staff, but I like what I hear and have seen in the last year.

[D306]

After seeing the Media day preseason picks

I see a large difference between Coachs and Media thoughts except for Hope which is consistent as the #1 pick.

I think Hope should be #1 but I still will go with Albion and Olivet in a fight for #2

Every team in the top 4-5 had several close would have, should have games last year. The same will repeat this year. 7-2, 5-5 are only a couple plays away from each other in football if you compete and are well coached.

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations to Tri-State on earning full member status.

[WLCALUM83]

Adrian's and Tri-State's 2007 pre-season team previews are now up on their respective athletics sites.

[wabashcpa]

In reading the Tri-State preview, I see Eric Watt will be in the mix at QB.  He had a great senior year at South Newton, and I expect he'll give the returning QB's all the competition they want.  A good recruit for an improving team.

[matblake]

Interesting blurb about Olivet and the preseaon picks for the MIAA
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708030369

[ACRULZ]

DAWG:

I am aware of how potent the Adrian offense was in those seasons.  Unfortunately the 2006 season was not a beneficiary of that.  Also, to build your entire offensive or defensive scheme around one player is foolish, i.e. DJ Howard being injured...what do you do then?  You have to rely on your other players and get them coached up.  If not scoring was not a direct result of coaching, then what was it?  All good coaches know that you should never blame a player for a loss, bad plays or whatever.  Everything is a result of coaching.  Hope has some great players but they also have a great coaching staff, which is probably why they won those close games last season.  The Hope coaches made the right adjustments and the other team's coaches did not.  And of course there are some things that happen through out a game that is just considered luck or "freakish" but not very often.  I am not bashing the old coaching staff I am just simply stating my opinions on the lack of scoring by the AC offense last season.

[ADAWGISADAWG4LIFE]

ACRULZ:

I didnt want to make it seem that you were bashing the coaching.  I agree that a large part of any teams success is built around the coaching staff that they can assemble. I will also agree with you that it is foolish to put all your eggs in one basket with a certain player but it has been done by coaches time and time again, when that player stays healthy no one notices when they dont or have a bad year they do.  I think a more balanced offensive plan wouldve helped Adrian adjust but that was not the case.  Hope is by far the finest coaching staff in the league overall in my eyes, they always have incredibly solid and fundamentally excellent players who dont panic and play with poise at all times.  I think a key part of any team is the level of mental toughness that they have, adjusting to bad breaks and the like and that is always something a championship team shows.  But anyways in conclusion scoring was a huge problem, the red zone offense was terrible last year and I will admit a large part of that had to do with the Oline that Adrian had on the field.  There was not a sense of toughness or urgency with the group and they were rather complacent unless they were actually called out.  They were in the Westminster game after a sorry start and responded with the three touch down drives.  The group has some potential this year if some of those players are used the right way.  The offense should be creative to say the least and make defenses work with lots of formations and motions and personell pairings and the like.  It should be interesting to see a new offense for the first time in around 6 years although Calhoun always changed the offense somewhat from year to year it was still the same OC. 

[ACRULZ]

DAWG:


I agree that a lot of coaches do practice that policy.  I also agree with you about Hope's coaching staff.  As an Adrian fan, I obviously do not have the inside info that you do, but I totally understand your points about the mental toughness factor.  That is a HUGE factor among the makeup of a football team.  Well it will be an interesting season, the is quite a bit of parity in the MIAA and I eagerly await this season!

[MId3Fan]

This is my first post.  I have been following the board since my son first started considering playing football at a MIAA school.    Now we are a week from reporting for practice.  I am geeked to have him continue playing football and to have him getting a good education.  Prior to this year I had rarely gave notice to the MIAA except in passing, now it has my attention.

[Ralph Turner]

Welcome MId3Fan.

The MIAA has a great group of Football fans (and an even more rabid following of Hoops fans.)

Here are three tips:

1)  There are many knowledgeable Division III fans across all sports.  They will respect a well-considered opinion and greatly appreciate any posts that have documentation or hyperlinks to other D3 related materials.

2)  Loyal, respectful boosterism and sportsmanship are hallmarks of the successful boards.  Some message boards have their own character, but these posters are great fans.

3)  The boards and the websites are driven by fan support.  The biggest financial contribution is to buy a copy of the e-zine Kickoff 2007, which helps defray charges for bandwidth and servers to run these boards.  (No pop-up ads!)  Check out the news on the D3football.com/hoops.com/baseball.com front pages daily.  (Those are the heart of the boards.)  Click on the ads if you see something that you can use.  Tell your friends, too.

Welcome and we are glad to have you.

[ACRULZ]

This is my first post.  I have been following the board since my son first started considering playing football at a MIAA school.    Now we are a week from reporting for practice.  I am geeked to have him continue playing football and to have him getting a good education.  Prior to this year I had rarely gave notice to the MIAA except in passing, now it has my attention.

Welcome!

[D306]

MId3Fan


Welcome to the site.
You will find this a friendly well informed group, whom share the excitement of D3 colleges and all they have to offer.

Enjoy your sons games. Great thing to see your kids playing, something for them and you to be proud of.