FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[hopewatcher]

Good Morning all....

Its a beautiful day to go watch football...should be good for the boys too.....cool, crisp, shunshine.....Its gonna be a GREAT day!

Just a quick weigh in on the helmets...I think that HS that use the 'Michigan' helmet may have to get permission from U of M......It depends on all of the trademarking stuff...If I rememebr right, there was a HS in West Michigan that had to make some changes to their hawkeye logo becuase the University of Iowa thought it was a trademark infringement...This is all part of the everchnging money world of college football and so much royalty money and revenue stream being tied up in school appearal & mechandise for many large schools.....

As for today...its going to be a big day in Holland for both Hope and Adrian...as former d3db has said, it the 'right' Hope team shows up it should be a very exciting and competitive games....I think the Dutchmen are ready to play, and I'm sure Adrian is too...but, we'll see in a couple of hours.....regardless this all bodes well for the MIAA for this year and going forward (as I look at what is potentially coming back for each school)...I know its not neccessarily good from a National Tournament seeding perspective (that single dominant 9-0 high seeded team), but what a great experience for the players and students to be part of a championship race, where every week there is a big games and mutiple teams smashing it out for a conference championship (I guess kinda like the big 10).....Isn't that waht DIII is supposed to be all about......the experiience, the thrills, the sacrifice and the reward (maybe a board topic for next week).......regardless, its going to be a fun day of football.....we're hoping today's big game (they all are for Hope) will be a great one......Go Hope!

[sac]

  Pretty much Michigan has used it the longest, not even sure that can be disputed by anyone, .....not that it stops people from trying.

To chime in on all the winged Helmet talk, it definitely has Michigan roots...

http://www.spartanjerseys.com/michigan-state-football-jersey-helmet/winged-helmet/

Exhibit A   

[sac]

Hope and Adrian going to OT tied at 21.  I think Hope had a big lead, like 2 TD or so kind of lead, then I have no idea what happened.

Alma 24 Olivet 7
Trine 35 Kzoo 21
DePauw 7 Albion 3  (this loss pretty much assures Albion will get Whitewater or Mt. Union, if they weren't already)

[sac]

First OT

Adrian misses FG

Hope drives inside the 10, Adrian stiffens on D......Hope wins on a FG


Hope 24 Adrian 21, Hope's first win vs Adrian since 2007.

[sac]

Just thought of this, but I guess Hope fans should be big Trine fans next weekend.

[hopewatcher]

More about today's game later, but looking ahead, you are right...there are no bigger Trine fans in the world for the next week....However, its all for naught if the Dutchmen don't take care of the business they can control at at Olivet......

[bleedpurple]

First OT

Adrian misses FG

Hope drives inside the 10, Adrian stiffens on D......Hope wins on a FG


Hope 24 Adrian 21, Hope's first win vs Adrian since 2007.

Good! 

[sflzman]

Okay I ditched the Scots to root for "Old Alma High", as the rip off of Notre Dame's fight song states, in their 25-15 win over Escanaba today to win districts, but talking to some people that were there, they said it was maybe the worst football game they've ever seen. 7 fumbles, including three olivet punt snaps that went over the punters head. Alma also missed three extra points, had their 2 pt conversion to a wide open Ed Raby (yes, the defensive tackle #99) swatted down, and missed a field goal. Olivet's XP bounced off the uprights and went in. And to those of you wondering if it was windy: it wasn't. Alma high who hadn't kicked a field goal all season hit two from 35+....

Ed Mason, who was serving a suspension (sort of) had a stat line of (att - yards - td) 1-1-1...that's a whopping 0.01 % of the total yards for the Scots. If that percentage seems high, it is, considering Alma only had 222 yards of total offense....

One positive, was that Anthony Sabatella had 17 tackles, which increases his lead in the MIAA race to be tackles champion to a 4 tackle cusion (yeah thats spelled wrong but I have no idea how to spell it so I'll leave it).

All in all. Two bad teams = one ugly game.

[formerd3db]

OC_SID:
Yes, how could I have forgotten that?   I did like those helmets!  Sorry Olivet lost today, both in football and the MIAA soccer championship.  Right after our football game got done in which we blew a huge lead and won in OT on the FG as has been mentioned already, I caught the end of the soccer game.  As you know, with the score tied 1-1, Hope blew it open with 3 straight goals in the last 5 minutes of the game (a couple on breakaways, the other on a free penalty kick).  A great day for footgball and soccer in regards to the weather and some huge crowds at Hope for Family (formerly Parents) Weekend.  I hope that next weekends weather holds the same.

Hopewatcher:
Good analysis.  Sorry I missed you at the game today. 

sflzman:
Well, I can certainly understand the analysis/opinion of the game, but I guess...a win is a win!  You'll take it anytime!

[formerd3db]

The official attendance listed for yesterday's game at Hope was 3125.  Our attendance this year was up.  The official listings for the five home games were as follows:
3380, 1400, 3050, 3475 and 3125.  IMO, there were more than 1400 for that Millikin game, however, since Hope keeps meticulous attendance stats (and I've argued that here for a long-time ), my contention regarding that attendance figure for the Millikin game may sound like a contradiction or hypocritical (or both ).  Anyway, the "supposed" average home game attendance then was 2886, although in my mind, it was just over 3000. .  Regardless, it was nice to see the support increased support this year, returning to what we are accustomed to historically, although it does help when you win.

[Raider 68]

The official attendance listed for yesterday's game at Hope was 3125.  Our attendance this year was up.  The official listings for the five home games were as follows:
3380, 1400, 3050, 3475 and 3125.  IMO, there were more than 1400 for that Millikin game, however, since Hope keeps meticulous attendance stats (and I've argued that here for a long-time ), my contention regarding that attendance figure for the Millikin game may sound like a contradiction or hypocritical (or both ).  Anyway, the "supposed" average home game attendance then was 2886, although in my mind, it was just over 3000. .  Regardless, it was nice to see the support increased support this year, returning to what we are accustomed to historically, although it does help when you win.

formerd3db,

Great game at Hope on Saturday! You have to be pleased and also that the MIAA has been very competitive this season!

From an earlier post, I guess the outcome was #4!

[adidas28]

Sounds like it was a great game at Hope yesterday, congrats to the Flying Dutchmen! I hate to admit it but I was hoping Adrian could run the table and the possibly get an at large playoff bid and see two MIAA teams go doancing. I know it was going to be along shot but it would have been nice to see.

What are your thoughts on Albion going west to play Whitewater or staying in the north and pying Mt. Union in two weeks?

Yesterday was definitely a great day for watching football.

[hopewatcher]

Good Afternoon.....

It was a great day to watch football and for the Hope faithful all the way around....

It was a great win for the Dutchmen, but some will focus on the Adrian 21 point comeback and characterize it as a Hope failure  ......here are a few random thoughts about that topic and the game....

1. The fact is that Adrian is a good football team (7-0 at one point, previously ranked in the top 25 etc), and it should be more of a suprise that they were down 21-0 than the fact that they made a comeback....The comeback says alot of positive about their character and the kind of competitors that they are....They never quit.....and Hope played them tough......

2. It was interesting to look at the stats...In Adrian's first 8 possessions, they only passed the ball 9 times...and had a really tough time rushing against the Hope defense (I do remember one fairly long run in the first quarter, but not much else)....They threw the ball 16 times (completeing 13) in the 3 scoring possessions late in the game....None of the completions were really 'long gainers'...I don't think this means that Adrian should have thrown the whole game, but between the possibility that Hope playing more of a prevent style coverage, Hope getting burned a couple of times, a couple of penalties, along with some good execution worked out for the Bulldogs during this time.....Also, I'm not sure it was sustainable as they were 0-5 passing in their last 4Q possession and in OT.....Not sure if any of this matters for anything, but I thought it was interesting as it was the way they set up their 3 short run scores.....

3. This game felt different for Hope than others had is the recent memory...Hope came out really ready to play and it showed.....They did a nice job of getting on top when they need to.....Also, It felt different late in the game. In the recent past it seemed like an opoonent scoring run like this would have spelled disaster...In this case the team seemed to keep their head about them, buckled down and played with determined confidence to win (versus not to lose)...even when the crowd got really relly quiet at one point, the the players on the field, the kids on the sideline and the coaching staff never let up.....this was really encouraging, shows the progress this team has made, and, hopefully, bodes well for the future.......building on this success will be critical for them......   

All in all it was a great day for football.....but one more game remains, and Hope needs to get ready for the next 'big game' at Olivet...they can't look by anybody and need to stay focused on the Comets, play hard and finish the season with a win......and, HOPE, good things will happen.....Go Hope!

[formerd3db]

Thanks Raider68.  Yes, it has been much more enjoyable this year.  We haven't quite got back to "that level" and before we can go on to "the next level", we still have to have some improvements for next year.  However, our QB Atwell has tremendously improved this year, our running game is good; we need to get some receivers like we had a few recent years ago who "could catch everything and anything" and continue to get some big linemen.  Secondary was better this year than in previous years, but still had some breakdowns.  Anyway, I expect a win against Olivet next weekend, but...as you know, we are playing at their place and it is always a tough game for Hope @ Olivet, especially when it has been the last game or near last game of the season.  Also, Olivet has played pretty well at their home stadium, despite their record.

You guys appear to have had a "barnburner" down there at Mount yesterday.  No disrespcet, but it appears that Mount got lucky and escaped with the win.

adidas:
Thanks for the congrats to our team also.  Yes, it was a beautiful day and great outcome for us both in football and soccer as I mentioned.  No problem with you rooting for Adrian in the sense that it would have been nice to have a possible 2nd team be selected for the playoffs.  As neat as that would have been for our MIAA, still deep down and obviously I could not root for that at all i.e. rooting for Hope all the way!   With that said, I will obviously be rooting for Trine next weekend.  If both Hope and Trine win, we get to share the title and that would be huge for our program, the players and our coaching staff (not to forget mentioning our fans! ).

Regarding your question about Albion's chances against either Mount or Whitwater, as much as I'd like to see our MIAA representative advance in the playoffs, I think their chances are "little or none" , unfortunately.  But... as we all know, anything can happen on any Saturday.

[formerd3db]

hopewatcher:
Excellent post and I think your summary/analysis of the game is "right on".  Indeed, the attitude is what made the difference.  Also, we both agree about next weekend at Olivet!  I am hoping and praying for one last great weather Saturday!

P.S. Since I gave you +k for a recent great post, I'll give you another for this one when the "time limit" is up for that!