FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[BOYA87]

Actually during Tri-States most recent 0-10 season there were still several scholarship players on the team from the NAIA transition.  They were amazingly talented players but at that point in their career I dont know how much they cared about winning.  I vividly remember my freshman year and thinking "this is not what college football should be!" when I saw the attitude of the team and the coaching staff.

I personally was hardly recruited out of high school to play in college and would hardly call myself an "amazing" athlete or an "impact" player, but I had the opportunity to start on the varsity for 4 years at Tri-state/Trine and to help them get to where they are today.  So I dont know if it is so important to get the quality of player in DIII but the quality of person to play for your team.  Obviously you want the best talent on the field that you can get, but ultimatly DIII is about the STUDENT athlete not about the student ATHLETE.

[formerd3db]

Well said, BOYA87.

[Diezel1]

Just to reiterate a little on what Boya said, the last year Tri State went 0-10, there were many players on the team that were scholarship players or would have been on scholarship had the school remained NAIA.  The attitude of the team however was horrible.  It was if players were going through the motions and it would have been great to win but if we lost it wasn't a big deal.  The first team workout Coach Land found out who wanted to work hard and wanted to win and those who were just there because it was football.  Those who didn't want to make the sacrifice chose not to and left the team.  For us returners, we wanted to work as hard as we could and show everyone that we could play. 

While at Trine, I saw numerous very talented athletes come and go for numerous reasons.  Coach Land made it very clear that if you came to Trine you were going to work your butt off in the classroom and on the football field.  If you didn't there were serious consequences.  And if you did work hard, the team would be rewarded.  As those mentality spread throughout the team it made everyone better. 

As the team has reached success in the MIAA, the talent of the players coming in may be getting better but the coaching staff has not loosened up their standards in saying they only want kids who are gonna work hard in the classroom first and foremost and also on the football field. 

So, I guess what I'm trying to say in all my babbling is that attitude has been the biggest factor in turning around the program at Trine.  And all the credit goes to the coaches for instilling that into the players on the team

[formerd3db]

Thanks for the additional comments and insight Diezel.  For sure, Trine's success is not only good for them, but good for our MIAA.

BTW, who are you (and for that matter all our colleagues here) predicting will win next weekend's games to get into the Stagg Bowl?

[BoredatWork56]

This might be a little redundant, but as the other former Tri State/Trine player on these boards, I will put my two cents in on the attitude vs talent issue.

I dont think it was necessarily one factor over the other that lead the turnaround, but how the right attitude lead to better talant on the team.  I cannot agree more that some of the most talented players I have ever played with were the few NAIA scholarship guys that played into the transition to DIII.  But, like it has been pointed out, they were just going through the motions, not caring about the outcome.  When the new coaching staff came and the attitude of the program changed, it caused a lot of talented football players to quit the team.  I remember some of the offseason meetings that were held in a classroom because there were only about 30 returning players on the team.

So the talent has always been there, the difference is now, with a better team attitude, the talent stays on the team.  The winning attitude that  has been instilled by the coaches has been the factor that keeps the talented players on the team for four years, instead of a "one and done". 

Of course, the recent success has made it easier to recruit talented players to the team, and hopefully those players will buy into the winning attitude and stay in the program for four years.  This is a cycle, that if kept going, could lead to long term sucess for the program.

Relating this to the Olivet coaching vacancy, I think getting a coach that can change the attitude of the program and the University would be the right fit.  It is easier to hire someone that the players are fimiliar with, but sometimes shaking things up is the better way to go. 

[BoredatWork56]

As far as the Stagg Bowl match up: 

I dont want to see the rematch for the 17th year in a row , but i think MU and UWW are the class of Division III football and will meet once again.

[Diezel1]

Unfortunately I don't think there will be any shake up in the championship this year and once again it will be UWW vs. MUC.  Both teams are just way too good and unless something catastrophic happens it will be another rematch in Salem

[BOYA87]

Lets not be too quick to put MU and UWW back in the Stagg Bowl so quick!  You gotta look deep into each matchup and I think I have found an upset.  Linfield will be playing at UWW this Saturday and after much deliberation and research I think I have found the 1 common denominator that makes for a championship DIII team...their colors!  Linfield also has purple as their primary color which I think gives them a great chance to be amoung the other elite teams in DIII(Mount Union=Purple, UWW=Purple).  So watch for an upset and a new team wearing purple in the Stagg Bowl this year!  I think after Tri-States name change to Trine and color change, that they would have been better advised to put purple on those uniforms somewhere if they ever want to win a national championship!  That is obviously what seperates MU and WWU from the others.




::)I hope you all take this post as light hearted as I meant it to be

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yes, I took it as light-hearted, but there may be something there!  UMHB (generally regarded as #3 the last few years, and loser to Linfield in round two)) - purple.  UST (reasonably close loser to Linfield on Saturday in the Elite 8 ) - purple.  I haven't gone through all the teams, but has any purple team this year lost to a non-purple team?!

More seriously, while I expect MUC to handle Wesley with ease, I think Linfield has a reasonably decent chance of upsetting UWW this Saturday (and would feel that way even if they wore royal blue ).

[altor]

Defiance was 4-6 and Bluffton was 0-10.  Five of those sixteen losses were to non-purple wearing MIAA teams. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Defiance was 4-6 and Bluffton was 0-10.  Five of those sixteen losses were to non-purple wearing MIAA teams. 

Duh - I meant among the playoff teams.

[Pat Coleman]

Alfred lost to Albright.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Alfred lost to Albright.

If that's the only exception (and assuming Wesley doesn't shock the world at Alliance on Saturday), we stand at:

6 of 32 playoff teams wear purple.
1 lost of a non-purple team.
4 lost to a purple team.
1 took home walnut-and-bronze.

Or, an alternative accounting:

Purple teams went 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, and 5-0!

Or, purple: 15-5; all other colors: 16-26.

I think I'm ready to sign on to this conspiracy theory! 8)

[D306]

Since this is the MIAA board

Someone needs to get Albion ( purple uni's ) back into the playoff mode and complete the purple dominance

[Diezel1]

So even though real men wear pink, championship football teams must wear purple  . I wonder how long it will take for the other divisions to pick up on this?? And I also wonder if this will be used as a recruiting tool for incoming freshmen??