FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sflzman]

I kept up a pretty good running commentary through the first 3 quarters on the ODAC board and missed the 4th quarter comeback because I had to go take care of my 2 year old daughter. Great game to watch, although as I re-read my comments it was really frustrating to watch both defenses get absolutely over-run. We also had no answer for your kick-off team! Holy cow you were getting great field position! Some of your receivers, especially number 1, are really good. If your QB had come out of the gate a little bit better I think we would have been in trouble. Blame that on a long bus trip as I'm pretty sure you win this one at home.

I liked your big back, Mason? It is tough to run on W&L because they get so much practice against it during the week. Even still, I could see his potential. That being said, you guys going all out throwing made too much sense as we had no answer. If you score instead of throwing the interception late that game is over. Good luck on the rest of your season. I think we are in for a tough time as any coach that watches film of our first four games is going to see that throwing against us is pretty easy. F&M, Centre and you all had great success. Sewanee, who runs an option, got nowhere in a really beneficial match up for us.

Though you say you couldn't stop our pass, we couldnt stop your offense pass or run! Your offense is greatly run since you hardly ever see it in d3. No matter how hard we work against a scout team nothing prepares you for the real deal.

Henderson (#1) is a very good reciever from Hot Springs, AR. His 6-6 frame has made him our favorite target. I agree with you that if Leister (QB) had been able to come out of the gates better it would have been beneficial. It kills that he missed twice to go deep into the W&L zone on the first drive and the one he hit was called back for holding.

All three of our games have been lost with tournovers in the red zone (INT against Heidelberg. Fumble against IWU. INT against W&L), and we have 5 red zone tournovers on the season (or did we have two today? That'd make it 6 on the season).

If we could convert better in the red zone we would be 4-0 right now!!!

Either way I see this as something positive for the Scots and I really feel like I can pick them in pick'ems 6/7 weeks the rest of the year (obviously not the bye week!  )

Gosh - you've gotten so discouraged you can't even pick the Scots to beat 'bye'?!!

Mr Ypsi, as little as a percent chance we will fail to win that week, i just can't come to ANY scenario where we get a win! 

[ThunderHead]

Anyone got a recap on the Albion game? It didn't look like either athletic department had posted a recap.

Though maybe had someone had some first hand insight.

[BoBo]

Anyone got a recap on the Albion game? It didn't look like either athletic department had posted a recap.

Though maybe had someone had some first hand insight.

UWSP's recap.

Albion's recap

[Raider 68]

The Adrian/Trine match-up will be a good one, but I give the edge to Trine at home. K-Zoo has been playing well, so another good one against Albion, but K-zoo may have the edge.
The Alma game is a real toss up!

[ForeverFootball]

Looking forward to the Trine/Adrian game

[kzoodad]

don't want to jinx the boys, but k-zoo is looking good. jones got o-player of week last week, he had an even better game this week. they have a look in their eyes this year. also, henderson isn't 6-6, he's only 6-5 he's my wife's & i's adopted son from hs. good kid, can't wait til fri oct. 28 for braggin rights in our house.  hope everyones enjoying the season.

[LETS ROLL]

Hey guys. Wheaton Poster here. I was wondering if there are any Olivet posters that were at all three games that the comets played against CCIW schools. I am curious as to what your thoughts would be after seeing EC, NCC and WC play the last few weeks.

I also want to express my sincere appreciation for the pride and effort that Olivet showed against Wheaton on Saturday. This is a team that has had an extremely rough  non-conference schedule, and to show up each saturday and fight hard from start to finish deserves to be commended in my opinion. Olivet was still making plays well into the 4th quarter and didn't let off the gas once, even when the game was clearly in Wheaton's favor.

I think that it can be very easy for a team who has had trouble winning games to show up week after week and still give each team your best shot. I recall an NCC poster last week expressing similar thoughts regarding the comets. With this kind of attitude, I feel like the coaches and players deserve respect, and if they can keep it up, with some added talent, could be the building block for success in the future. I hope the best for you this year as you enter conference play. Keep fighting.

[jknezek]

I liked your big back, Mason? It is tough to run on W&L because they get so much practice against it during the week. Even still, I could see his potential. That being said, you guys going all out throwing made too much sense as we had no answer. If you score instead of throwing the interception late that game is over. Good luck on the rest of your season. I think we are in for a tough time as any coach that watches film of our first four games is going to see that throwing against us is pretty easy. F&M, Centre and you all had great success. Sewanee, who runs an option, got nowhere in a really beneficial match up for us.

Though you say you couldn't stop our pass, we couldnt stop your offense pass or run! Your offense is greatly run since you hardly ever see it in d3. No matter how hard we work against a scout team nothing prepares you for the real deal.

Henderson (#1) is a very good reciever from Hot Springs, AR. His 6-6 frame has made him our favorite target. I agree with you that if Leister (QB) had been able to come out of the gates better it would have been beneficial. It kills that he missed twice to go deep into the W&L zone on the first drive and the one he hit was called back for holding.

All three of our games have been lost with tournovers in the red zone (INT against Heidelberg. Fumble against IWU. INT against W&L), and we have 5 red zone tournovers on the season (or did we have two today? That'd make it 6 on the season).

If we could convert better in the red zone we would be 4-0 right now!!!

Either way I see this as something positive for the Scots and I really feel like I can pick them in pick'ems 6/7 weeks the rest of the year (obviously not the bye week!  )

Good luck with the rest of your season. I'm looking forward to getting into our conference schedule now. Don't think we'll run the table like we did last year, D is too porous right now, but it has been a good pre-season. Not often we play teams in 4 different states to start the year (PA, TN, KY, and MI) and it was great that Alma was willing to make the drive. I hope your boys appreciated the trip, even if the outcome wasn't what they hoped. Don't get too discouraged, we started 1-3 last year, improving each game, and then swept through the conference. I'll be rooting for you to do the same, although mainly to help our SoS!

[formerd3db]

Kzoodad:

Nice to see Kazoo off to a good start this year (too bad about that close(r) loss to Manchester).  Coach Zorbo and staff seem to be on the "edge" of getting the program finally turned around, at least competitive, although it is too early in the season to tell.  The only other disappointing aspect so far (IMO) is the dismal attendance they've had - 883 and 606 for home games in Western Michigan University's huge Waldo Stadium is not good.  I would have thought that playing there might have somehow brought in some additional fans.  Anyway, this will be a huge test for them against Albion this Saturday.  Even though Albion has not done well so far, they are always tough and, most likely, they'll be "gunning" to avenge the loss to Kazoo last year as I recall.  Then the following week, Kazoo plays at our place, so I guess I'll be able to make my own assessment as to how they are doing.

Hope had a nice win Saturday to get us back to .500 record and that is a good confidence booster.  I probably shouldn't say this here, however, I'll just mention it anyway...playing in front of only 300 fans as we did against Lakeland this past Saturday is quite disappointing.  Heck, even some of the most less-talented high schools play in front of more fans than that.  Very disappointing.  I think even Eureka College in Illinois pulls more fans than that.  Oh well.  Anyway, Hope will have a tough contest up at Alma this Saturday as the Hope/Alma game is pretty much always a "barnburner", especially up there at Balhke Stadium.

BTW, sflzman, don't forget that we'll have to meet at the Victory Bell on the south end of the field either say, during pre-game warm-ups or at halftime (my brother is coming with me also, so that will be great, even though we'll be cheering for opposite teams ).  Let me know.  Pre-game time slot might be a little less hectic for both of us, but let me know.  We'll work it out one way or the other.

Mr. Ypsi:
Poor Eastern Michigan - another blowout this past weekend.  Ouch.

[formerd3db]

Although probably not many of our MIAA fans have and/or are able to make it out to the Stagg Bowl (with the exception of the year that Albion won it all in 1994), although I have gone 3 times, so there probably isn't much interest in this topic and unlike over on the OAC board for obvious reasons.   Still, it is disappointing to see that ESPN and the NCAA have moved the Stagg Bowl to a Friday late afternoon/early evening time slot now.  Various opinions have been expressed regarding that (and also the poll here on d3.com's front page), yet I guess I'm of the opinion that it is not a good move for the fan's perspective.  Without question, it is the $ aspect that the NCAA has to make sure they obtain and, as such, they have to follow what ESPN want's to dictate.  Yet, for many people (at least for me), it will make it much more ifficult to now have to take off additional regular work days to go out there (even if one were to fly) as even if you drove and were getting there late Friday night for the Saturday game, you could still be home by Sunday evening.  Of course, for those who were planning on going for all of the festivities from Wed on (obviously, for parents of the team's players and alumni), it doesn't matter as they would be there anyway, regardless of when the game is to be played.  Yet, for the rest of us fans who enjoy going to that game occasionally, it will be harder.  Especially since I don't have ESPNU.   Your thoughts anyone? 

[formerd3db]

Raider68:

Garcon played very well last evening against the Steelers, yet too bad his teammates couldn't help him pull out the win.  Had Painter made that one pass to him toward the end of the game, I think it very well could have have won the game for Indy by "changing the flavor" at that point, even though it was a close game and Pittsburgh moved the ball well in the last 3 minutes. 

[ThunderHead]

Anyone got a recap on the Albion game? It didn't look like either athletic department had posted a recap.

Though maybe had someone had some first hand insight.

UWSP's recap.

Albion's recap

Thanks BoBo,

This wasn't up when I put up my post. I had checked on both sites. Thanks for the link.

[sac]

The basketball side of this site will reference masseyratings.com frequently.

Here's the MIAA's ratings for football.  (There are 240 D3 programs rated)  Here's the link  http://masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cf   You'll have to play around with the settings to get the D3 list.

RATING
Trine #54
Adrian #55
Albion #90
Kzoo #136
Alma #143
Hope #145
Olivet #213




Schedule strength.
Albion #9
Olivet #88
Alma #124
Adrian #137
Hope #158
Trine #173
Kzoo #201

What I find interesting here is the perception on the board (perhaps I'm wrong) that the MIAA has been playing better opponents when in fact 5 of the 7 teams played a below average non-conference schedule.


As a conference the MIAA comes in ranked #14 or just slightly above the average in D3.  Last weekend's performances were enough to raise the MIAA from last week's slighly below average rating.

[jknezek]

While the Massey ratings can be debated until you turn blue in the face, just keep in mind it has all 10 NESCAC schools rated in the top 52 teams in the country after 1 game. Since they only play each other, half those teams have wins, half have losses. However, since it ranks as the toughest conference, they all appear high in the ratings. Given we have no actual way of ranking these teams against any other, since they don't compete out of conference or in the playoffs, it is a ridiculous skew of the rankings in general.

[ThunderHead]

Not to be a dead horse, but I've been saying for a while that the strength of schedule for the MIAA isn't very good, especially as it relates to Trine.

If the conference is going to gain any respect in the future, they're going to have to do it as a whole against other conferences in the non-conference schedule.