FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[formerd3db]

Uncle Rico:

Glad to see you still hanging with us!

[d3fan1515]

Can anyone give me the skinny on Kalamazoo this year? BU plays them this week in the challenge series so i'm curious... Thanks in advance!

[adidas28]

Nice to see some non-conference wins for the MIAA!

Hey Rico, it's been a while. I went to the game last weekend. The Thunder defense was great! The offense found it's way in the second half and started clicking. The offensive line has alot of size and I think wore down Elmhurst. I'm going to try and get down there this weekend too.

[RFMichigan]

(Copy-and-paste job from the NACC board)

Picks for the NACC-MIAA Challenge:

Adrian - CUC - CUC is too young for a veteran and tough Adrian outfit, although the Cougars were somewhat competitive in the last three quarters against Chicago.

Kalamazoo - BU - Benedictine looked pretty good in a loss to Wheaton and took care of business against North Park. If the Hornets find a way to scheme this into a win, the NACC is in trouble.

Olivet - Rockford - I thought Olivet would be a year or so away from being competitive, but by association: If Olivet is better than WLC, and I think that WLC is better than Rockford, then Olivet is better than Rockford. (But this never works the way you think it should in football, so who knows?)

Hope - WLC - Before the season began I would have picked WLC, but based on their first two games I'm going to go with Hope; too much offense for the Dutch.

Alma - Lakeland - It's hard to get a read on these two teams from their previous two games, as they both got smoked last week against vastly better teams. I'll go with Lakeland as they looked decent against Carroll in their opener.

Albion - Aurora - No idea. I'm freaked out that Albion got crushed by an admittedly very good Wheaton team and Aurora had the ability to hang around with IWU for a little while.

Trine - CUW - This could be a very competitive game in which I don't have a great deal of confidence in the pick. Bold prediction: whoever wins this game will win their conference.

I have 4-3 NACC, but four is the absolute number of wins they get unless some MIAA teams come down with mass food poisoning or something. I could easily see the MIAA winning six, but the NACC was surprising last year. No sneaking up this year.

It's interesting how these teams are matched up. I realize that you have to go by last year's records, but I don't think that these matchups/rankings reflect the NACC's relative strength to each other this year.
CUC is "seeded" #1 based on last year's record but may easily be the cellar-dweller in the conference at the end of this year (although I hope not). Benedictine struggled down the stretch last year, but I think they were better than that last year and they are certainly better than their seeding this year. WLC may not be nearly as strong as last year's team was and might be a bad match-up with Hope. The better match-ups would be (to me):

Benedictine-Adrian
CUW-Trine (the same)
Aurora-Hope
WLC-Albion
Lakeland-Olivet
Rockford-Kalamazoo
CUC-Alma

I see Hope, Trine, and Adrian (with the Bulldogs as slight favorite) battling it out for the top spot in the MIAA and CUW and BU as the only real threats to win the NACC this year.

Let's hear your thoughts.

[sac]

Hope returned an onside kick for a TD against Millikin, you just don't see that often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mRVMbNTHo

[DBQ1965]

Hope returned an onside kick for a TD against Millikin, you just don't see that often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mRVMbNTHo

I saw that last Saturday and it was pretty amazing.  I know he was excited but could have done without the dive into the end zone.

[formerd3db]

Hope returned an onside kick for a TD against Millikin, you just don't see that often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mRVMbNTHo

I saw that last Saturday and it was pretty amazing.  I know he was excited but could have done without the dive into the end zone.

I know that player well and he is a great young man.  He is not a showboat; that was just one of those things that happened.  As I recall, we got flagged for "excessive celebration" on that play, which was enforced on the ensuing kickoff.  He also had an INT later in the game. 

As to the onsides kick early in the game, I can understand (well, only slightly ) their coach wanting to cause a surprise/quick change, however, were it me, I would not have called it right then.  As I recall, the score was only 21-7 at the time and, while Hope would have still beat Millikin handily, that play kind of turned the tide for good, even though it was still in the first half.

 

[DBQ1965]

Hope returned an onside kick for a TD against Millikin, you just don't see that often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mRVMbNTHo

I saw that last Saturday and it was pretty amazing.  I know he was excited but could have done without the dive into the end zone.

I know that player well and he is a great young man.  He is not a showboat; that was just one of those things that happened.  As I recall, we got flagged for "excessive celebration" on that play, which was enforced on the ensuing kickoff.  He also had an INT later in the game. 

As to the onsides kick early in the game, I can understand (well, only slightly ) their coach wanting to cause a surprise/quick change, however, were it me, I would not have called it right then.  As I recall, the score was only 21-7 at the time and, while Hope would have still beat Millikin handily, that play kind of turned the tide for good, even though it was still in the first half.

I'm just old school I guess.  As Coach Lombardi said, "When you get into the end zone, act like you've been there before."

[formerd3db]

Hope returned an onside kick for a TD against Millikin, you just don't see that often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mRVMbNTHo

I saw that last Saturday and it was pretty amazing.  I know he was excited but could have done without the dive into the end zone.

I know that player well and he is a great young man.  He is not a showboat; that was just one of those things that happened.  As I recall, we got flagged for "excessive celebration" on that play, which was enforced on the ensuing kickoff.  He also had an INT later in the game. 

As to the onsides kick early in the game, I can understand (well, only slightly ) their coach wanting to cause a surprise/quick change, however, were it me, I would not have called it right then.  As I recall, the score was only 21-7 at the time and, while Hope would have still beat Millikin handily, that play kind of turned the tide for good, even though it was still in the first half.

I'm just old school I guess.  As Coach Lombardi said, "When you get into the end zone, act like you've been there before."

Oh, I agree with you entirely.  I am not a supporter of "over the top" celebrations at all.  Although I don't agree with the NCAA rule that doesn't allow any reasonable expression of emotion by a player who has just scored, we still have to follow the rules, yet, IMO, there should certainly be some discretion by officials at times.  Yet, for a purposely executed flip, I think they have to make that call.   I'm just saying he is really not a "showboater", but at some time or another, we've all let our emotions get the best of us and have made a "mistake"!

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Hope returned an onside kick for a TD against Millikin, you just don't see that often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mRVMbNTHo

I saw that last Saturday and it was pretty amazing.  I know he was excited but could have done without the dive into the end zone.

I know that player well and he is a great young man.  He is not a showboat; that was just one of those things that happened.  As I recall, we got flagged for "excessive celebration" on that play, which was enforced on the ensuing kickoff.  He also had an INT later in the game. 

As to the onsides kick early in the game, I can understand (well, only slightly ) their coach wanting to cause a surprise/quick change, however, were it me, I would not have called it right then.  As I recall, the score was only 21-7 at the time and, while Hope would have still beat Millikin handily, that play kind of turned the tide for good, even though it was still in the first half.

I'm just old school I guess.  As Coach Lombardi said, "When you get into the end zone, act like you've been there before."

Oh, I agree with you entirely.  I am not a supporter of "over the top" celebrations at all.  Although I don't agree with the NCAA rule that doesn't allow any reasonable expression of emotion by a player who has just scored, we still have to follow the rules, yet, IMO, there should certainly be some discretion by officials at times.  Yet, for a purposely executed flip, I think they have to make that call.   I'm just saying he is really not a "showboater", but at some time or another, we've all let our emotions get the best of us and have made a "mistake"!

Not to mention that 1) at his age we were all more likely to give into our emotions, and 2) I seriously doubt that any front line blocker on that receiving team expected an onside kick, let alone running it back for a TD. 

[Captain_Joe08]

Early MIAA-NACC Challenge scores

Wisconsin Lutheran 7
Hope 3

Half

Alma 20
Lakeland 0

2nd

Trine 17
Concordia Wisconsin 7

2nd

Kalamazoo 7
Benedictine 7

2nd

Olivet 7
Rockford 0

2nd

Albion 7
Aurora 0

1st

[sac]

Early MIAA-NACC Challenge scores

Wisconsin Lutheran 7
Hope 3

Half

Hope 43 Wisc- Lutheran 7  4th Quarter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FONN-0uoTHI

[Captain_Joe08]

Early MIAA-NACC Challenge scores

Wisconsin Lutheran 7
Hope 3

Half

Hope 43 Wisc- Lutheran 7  4th Quarter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FONN-0uoTHI

Actually the final score is 37-7 Hope. WLC just imploded in the second half after heading into the locker room up 7-3.

Other Finals

Lakeland 21
Alma 20

Final

Muskies come 20 down to take it.

Olivet 34
Rockford 7

Final

Benedictine 28
Kalamazoo 23

Final

[sac]

Early MIAA-NACC Challenge scores

Wisconsin Lutheran 7
Hope 3

Half

Hope 43 Wisc- Lutheran 7  4th Quarter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FONN-0uoTHI

Actually the final score is 37-7 Hope. WLC just imploded in the second half after heading into the locker room up 7-3.

Live stats went super screwy right around the time I updated that.  The video still stands though.

[TUAngola]

Just back from Zollner Stadium here in Angola.  Trine wins a crazy game 47-41 over Concordia (WI).

The good:  Trine's offense.  Had a solid day running the football and passing.  Andrew Dee gets the start at QB with Anthony Yoder, weeks 1 and 2 QB, moving back to WR.  I like the move.  Dee throws a nice ball.  He did have one bad mistake on a screen pass where he threw it right to the Concordia DE which set up their TD right before halftime.  But otherwise managed the game well.  Trine's run defense was very stout.  But Concordia went to their spread game after their first series where they went 3 and out trying to run on us.  More on Concordia's aerial assault later.

The bad:  Penalties...ugh.  We got to get that cleaned up.  I don't know how many times we gave up first downs on penalties.  Most were pass interference calls, some good calls, some very questionable.  Also the O Line has too many holding calls.  Concordia has 2 guys who were very impressive pitching and catching the ball.  We had no answer to Concordia's 6'6 WR Wenzelburger.  Wish we would have doubled him more as it was obvious he couldn't be stopped 1 on 1, but then again it's hard to do when Concordia has your defense spread out with their 4 and 5 wideout sets.  Wenzelburger dominated all day.  He made a lot of tough catches plus Damaschke has a terrific arm too.

The ugly:  Game management.  Coach Land almost became the goat of the game.  Up 47-27 with 9 minutes to go, he decides to sub in 2nd team on offense and defense.  To me the way Concordia can throw it around and make big plays I didn't think it was a wise move.  It just about backfired.  If Concordia recovers either one of their onside kicks, first with around 3 minutes to go, then after their last touchdown under a minute to play, Trine very well could have lost.  Plus we tried a FG late in the 4th and got it blocked too.  Maybe a better move would be to run another play deep in their territory, if we don't get the first, they have 90 yds to go the other way. 

We got the W and in the end that is all that matters.  Concordia was solid, kudos for making this one interesting at the end.