FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Raider 68]

Okay. Now that I have seen the first practice, I'm going to give you my season outlook for the Scots.
Offense:
Quarterback: Jarrett Leister will take the reins in the Scot-Gun offense. Leister (St. Louis, MI/Mt. Pleasant High) played in the MHSAA all-star game a few years ago, and committed to Ferris St. At Ferris he was redshirted his Freshman year, before transfering to Alma after the departure of Mackenzie McGrady. Leister was ruled ineligable last season, so he has not seen any game action in over two years. The Scots are returning Garret Cook and Ross Richard who played quarterback for the Scots last season.
Running Back: N/A - nor is it relavent 
Wide Receiver: The Scots lost arguably the best receiver in the MIAA a season ago, Andrew Schaar, and are looking to fill some big shoes. They will look to Austin Montgomery (Charlotte, MI) who was a consistant #2 receiver for the Scots a year ago. Barak Henderson (Dallas, TX) is a 6'6" outside receiver that was big for the Scots - when he was healthy. Henderson is a big target with speed that can spread defenses and test their depth. The problem is, Henderson has not been 100% for more than 6 games in a season. Michael Lennaman (Chelsea, MI) is going to be a key guy in the slot, and could grow to be what Schaar was - a quick, undersized reciever in accross the middle. Besides those three, the Scots will look for big contributions from a variety of underclassmen, that they themselves don't know the names of yet....
O-Line: The Scots were young, and injury prone a year ago on the line. Look for a better offensive line performance with a year starting under the belts, but they are still young, and could still struggle a little bit.

Defense:
D-Line: The Scots graduated 6/7 contributers of the defensive line last season, and will be young. Outside of Ed Raby (Reed City, MI), the young linemen will have a lot to prove. One key gone on the edge can be Alex Andrus (the Sr from G.R.). Andrus transfered in from D1 (Eastern I believe) last season after suffering with a knee injury and surjery. Andrus only played in 3 games last year, but watching him today he looks fast, and ready to be a key on the edge for the Alma D-Line.
Linebackers: I don't think there is a better linebacker group in the conference with Conrad Bovee (Ithaca, MI), Garrett Thelen (St. Johns, MI) and Anthony Sabatella (St. Clair Shores, MI/Warren De La Salle). Both Sabatella and Thelen were featured on the d3football.com Team of the Week last year. Bovee and Sabatella were both all MIAA second team last season.
Defensive Backs: The Scots return 6 DB's from a season ago, including All-MIAA Second Team, Scotty Cole (Alma - Jim Cole's son) and Andrew Funsch (West Branch, MI/Ogemaw Heights). Michael Veeney, Xavier Carranza, Brian Halas, and Luke Kanine will also be key for the Scots.

sflzman,

Good post, +k!

[LetItRain]

Trine's Outlook is posted.

http://trine.edu/trineathletics/football/outlook.cfm

Short & sweet - exactly what we've come to expect.  Keep those cards close to the chest.   

[BOYA87]

I like the short and sweet outlook because this is all we can really know at this point anyways.  But to be fair to everyone else, these are all things that were pretty well known months ago and probably could have been posted up once summer hit and the eligibility of some players is confirmed!

However I am sure Coach Land has his reasons for holding back.  I don't think this is the SID's issue here.  I just think its a matter of not broadcasting team information until as much as possible is known.

wabco-Hope has always played a really strong off season schedule.  That is quite the loss streak but they always push themselves in their preseason play.  A continuing topic of debate is whether it is better to play such a strong off season preparing the team for stronger competition, or if playing such a competitive pre season hurts the team with tired, banged up, and dejected players.

[wabco]

boya87

I know Hope does.  A number of years ago Wabash and followed by DePauw would play them first two games.  Hope's teams were pretty good then and always played tough but often started their conference season out with 2 or 3 losses.  Problem was also that players got injured before the conference started.  Smith was a great Hope coach.  I suspect this tradition of "into the fire" started with him and has carried over.

[ThunderHead]

Regarding Trine's outlook, I agree with everyone here, it's basically not much of an outlook.

The information presented isn't anything that couldn't be figured out by simply looking at last years roster, and viewing the already published coaches poll.

This all said, like it's been stated here, I think Trine just has a lot of positional question marks to address this year and at this point there are simply no defined answers. Fall camp is about position battles for teams in transition, and although big schools have scouting services that update you on the progress of camp, it's still all speculation if it isn't coming from the coaches mouth publicly. Though it is nice to hear how camp is progressing from a fan's stand point, especially for those of us trying to scratch that football itch.

On another note, I do wish Trine had a football web site that was more reflective of their past success. If you look at a lot of the other successful D3 programs, they have web sites that are on par with big schools. It would be nice if Trines web site looked like something other then a side note on the athletic section. Though Trine does not seem to be having an issue with recruiting, I can't help but think a web site on par with other programs with similar success would only add to the programs overall image.

[02 Warhawk]

Regarding Trine's outlook, I agree with everyone here, it's basically not much of an outlook.

On another note, I do wish Trine had a football web site that was more reflective of their past success. If you look at a lot of the other successful D3 programs, they have web sites that are on par with big schools. It would be nice if Trines web site looked like something other then a side note on the athletic section. Though Trine does not seem to be having an issue with recruiting, I can't help but think a web site on par with other programs with similar success would only add to the programs overall image.

Same with d3football.com...ever since they changed their layout/look, it looks like they lost ALOT of historical data during the conversion.

Not sure if that's something they're still working on or what maybe they wanted to cut back?

[ThunderHead]

Warhawk,

I wish Trine's site was more on par with your teams site. I think UWW does a  nice job.

[sflzman]

Regarding Trine's outlook, I agree with everyone here, it's basically not much of an outlook.

On another note, I do wish Trine had a football web site that was more reflective of their past success. If you look at a lot of the other successful D3 programs, they have web sites that are on par with big schools. It would be nice if Trines web site looked like something other then a side note on the athletic section. Though Trine does not seem to be having an issue with recruiting, I can't help but think a web site on par with other programs with similar success would only add to the programs overall image.

Same with d3football.com...ever since they changed their layout/look, it looks like they lost ALOT of historical data during the conversion.

Not sure if that's something they're still working on or what maybe they wanted to cut back?

Yes, I agree. A lot of schools seem to lose information when they upgrade to a new athletic's look, such as a presto website.. That's why I think the Olivet one is so nice, they were able to include all of their historical data in the upgrade....

[02 Warhawk]

Warhawk,

I wish Trine's site was more on par with your teams site. I think UWW does a  nice job.

When I attended Whitewater (early 2000s) the UWW athletic website was nothing great at all. I'm not sure when the transition occurred, but in the mid 2000s they switched the athletics page to a different URL entirely.

As far as historical data, you try the MIAA website? the conference site usually houses historical records available to web users.  

[sflzman]

You know how you have you "poster staus" thing in stars, along with a title like all-region and whatnot? What is the 4-star title? I can't find anyone with 4, only 3 and 5 stars....

[Raider 68]

You know how you have you "poster staus" thing in stars, along with a title like all-region and whatnot? What is the 4-star title? I can't find anyone with 4, only 3 and 5 stars....

sflzman,

Pat will have to clarify, but I believe it is the following:

All- Conference- 750 or 800 Posts ?

All- Region- 1250 Posts

All- American- 2000 Posts

[sflzman]

Thanks Raider. Sounds good. I was just wondering how many more posts I'd need to move up lol 

[ThunderHead]

Only 140 some to go sflzman, then you're big time. 

Throw one of your tailgating receipts on here, I know a guy like you gets down on the tailgating...

[TUAngola]

Yippee...an updated outlook for Trine football....bleck...ptui...what, are you kidding me?  I agree ThunderHead, you or I could have written that outlook.  Other than the news that receiver Mario Brown was returning from being out all last year, which was pretty much common knowledge, it was a total waste of space.  I wasn't expecting to hear about every position battle and who is involved, but would have been nice to be given a couple new names, not necessarily freshman or transfers, but maybe sophomores or junior reserves who figured to be vying for a starting position.  It's not like the other MIAA teams are going to starting game planning Trine from an outlook of the team.  Why so secretive about players?  Is Denard Robinson transferring in from UM?! 

I also agree, ThunderHead, about our athletics website, it not much to brag about.  But I am going to reserve judgment for now until the new SID gets his stamp on things.  Ok I am done griping about cyber space...love reading about all the updates from camp, keep 'em coming. 

 

[ThunderHead]

TUAngola,

I understand your frustration, and I also hope the new SID gets to give some input on the web site (or lack there of).

I understand that sometimes programs want to keep things under wraps, and yet at some point a program needs to grow up a little and realize that when you're 29-1 during three season, you're not going to "sneak up" on anyone.

It's my guess that Trine is circled on most of the MIAA opponents schedules. Them knowing who Trine has coming in, who is coming back, and who's battling for positions isn't information that most programs are going to find all that relevant.

I'm sure that other MIAA programs are not saying this:

Coach 1: "well, Watt is gone, and only 4 starts are coming back on defense so I'm sure they're going to really be a poor team this season, finally."

Coach 2: "I don't know Coach, did you read their pre-season preview? I guess they think they have other guys who are pretty good competing for the vacated spots."

Coach 1: "Really? You mean they have other good players at Trine who want to start? Are you sure?"

Coach 2: "Yeah Coach, to be honest I thought they would be bad too, but then I read that Coach Land said in the write up he's excited about the new guys coming in and several players that didn't see much action last year are ready to compete at a high level this season. Once I read that, I though ""oh no"" then I realized they weren't going to be a push over."

Coach 1: "Oh crap, well thank goodness for that write up, otherwise we'd have no idea."

Coach 2: "yeah that's what I was thinking".

Anyway - that's just my take. I don't think Trine has to much to worry about, a review doesn't win you or lose you games. The game is played on the field. I use to work for coaches who actually sent their game plan to opposing schools. That might have been a bit over the top...but it just goes to show, play the game, and give the fans a web site and pre-season outlook that will give them something to look forward to in Angola.