FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Raider 68]

ThunderHead,

Good post!

[formerd3db]

ThunderHead:

Good post and appreciate your opinion.  Also, indeed, a fantastic game at U of M last evening.  I'm envious you were there in person!  I haven't been to a U of M game for years (in part, due to own football duties like your past), and I really miss those, my dad having been an U of M alum himself.  My parents had season tickets for years and we always went, however, they gave those up when my brother and I played in college so they could come to our games.  Anyway, I had essentially given up on U of M after ND scored at the end.  But...that just goes to show everyone that "it ain't over till it's over" as that old cliche goes.  

I would also join you in assessing the secondary's:  you mention Trine's needing much improvement; so does U of M's which was horrible last evening (and as they have been the last 4 years) and, our own Hope's secondary (with the exception of our Sr. safety) again showed their chronic Achilles heel in giving up the long bomb TD.  That has been one the main aspects that has really bothered me the past 4 years straight (not to mention what it does to our defensive coordinator and secondary coaches! ).

Anyway, as you mention, it will be interesting to see how the MIAA teams start doing once they start playing some better calibur teams than some have in the next few weeks; or at least the level within our own league competition.

Hope your new job aspects go well whenever you are supposed to start those (I recall you mentioned the move was delayed some by your company).

[formerd3db]

It's not a record I've kept track of but I will noodle it in my head and see if I can come up with anything.

Thanks Pat.  It will be interesting to see what the actual statistic is/was.

[TUAngola]

Here is a question: Trine has given up 40 points in 2 games while scoring 65, could the MIAA be closer than than many thought this year or is it just that Trine's first two opponents were that good?

Yes the MIAA is up for grabs this year.  Trine graduated a great senior class, 26 guys I beleive, that turned this program into a DIII power.  We are still finding our way.  The first 2 opponents were picked near the bottom of their conference (Heartland).  We won the first game against Manchester with our defense and yesterday's game was definitely the offenses day...at least passing the ball, it was pitch and catch all day.  Rushing the ball has been a weakness so far.  We have no "bruisers" at RB, all our guys are the scat back type.

The defense lost 7 starters.  But giving up the 40 pts in 2 games is a little misleading I think.  Against Manchester both their scores were after turnovers with a short field.  Against Bluffton we were up 31-0 before they started to click with their second string QB as they scored 4 touchdowns in the last 18 minutes of the game..  It was a combination of rotating a lot of defensive players yesterday in the 2nd half and perhaps not the intensity we had to start the game.  But to Bluffton's credit the backup QB is a player, not sure why he isn't their #1 guy.  Our safeties did not play well the 2nd half, both of their deep throws for TD's were wide open.  And our special teams didn't play well either.  We don't cover kickoffs very well and our kick return team made a mental mistake on an onside kick that we weren't expecting.

As Thunderhead said, we will find out more about our team this weekend when Wisconsin River Falls comes to Angola.  It will be a big challenge.

[BoredatWork56]

For anyone wondering about the UM v ND game, it was an absolutely incredible experience.  I have never seen the big house that loud, excited, and packed that full (114,800). Even before the game, the atmosphere was electric. The ending of the game speaks for itself.  You don't need me to tell you it was an exciting finish.  Exciting doesn't even do that ending justice, it was almost indescribable how everything went down.  The big house was rocking for almost 30 minutes after the game before it started to clear out.  Needless to say, I left my voice in Ann Arbor and its going to be a quiet day at work.

As for the Trine game, I am glad to see the passing game look much sharper than game 1.  Hopefully the running game can regain form for game 3.  Congrats to Hope, i know all those Dutch fans out there are glad to have that monkey off their backs.  Looks like the MIAA is going to be a dogfight this year, and I, for one, am looking forward to it. 

[Stinger]

For anyone wondering about the UM v ND game, it was an absolutely incredible experience.  I have never seen the big house that loud, excited, and packed that full (114,800). Even before the game, the atmosphere was electric. The ending of the game speaks for itself.  You don't need me to tell you it was an exciting finish.  Exciting doesn't even do that ending justice, it was almost indescribable how everything went down.  The big house was rocking for almost 30 minutes after the game before it started to clear out.  Needless to say, I left my voice in Ann Arbor and its going to be a quiet day at work.

Fantastic game between two crappy, irrelevant football programs.  As The Onion correctly described before the '08 match-up: "Two of the most self-important programs in college football meet in this utterly unimportant early season game"
Of course, as a Spartan fan, the result Saturday scares me. ND is going to be out for blood, esp after last year. The Spartans are 10-4 against ND since 1997, including a streak 6 straight in South Bend that ended in 2009.

I am sure Coach Zorbo doesn't believe in moral victories, so Saturday's loss at Manchester had to hurt. I do like the direction they are headed. They are battling. I expect good things during the conference season.  This weekend will be a special one in Kalamazoo as they host Rose-Hulman under the lights at Waldo Stadium. It also marks the return of Jeff Sokol K'96, former wide-receiver, and first-year HC at RHIT.  He most recently was offensive coordinator at U Chicago. Sokol and Zorbo missed playing with each other by a year.

[BOYA87]

Story on the home page about Franklins tailgating was interesting.  They really have always had an interesting atmosphere as far as the tailgating goes.  As a Franklin player I would love having that crowd at the games.  As a visiting player however, we didnt always appreciate the beer getting thrown on us.  Franklin was always a very hostile place to play. 

I think Trine's tailgates draw some pretty amazing numbers but there could probably be more done to increase the commrodery amounst the tailgate.

One quick note on Trine's game this last weekend since a couple already touched on it.  I was VERY impressed with Ryan Hargraves this week!  From the first play of the game you could see he felt more comfortable in the pocket.  He also made much quicker and more accurate decisions in the throwing game and very rarely made the wrong read on which receiver to hit.  On one particular play I watched him drop back and check the #1 who slipped, he turned his head quick to #2 who was covered, and came all the way to the backside of the play to hit his #3 on a curl route.  I was really impressed by this play.  I've played in this offense and that #3 receiver on this play is hardley ever an option but Ryan did a great job working his way back to him.

Of course there were some bad things but Trine looks like they are just one missed block or one filled gap away from being solid all the way through.  Lets hope they put it all together this week.

[ThunderHead]

Story on the home page about Franklins tailgating was interesting.  They really have always had an interesting atmosphere as far as the tailgating goes.  As a Franklin player I would love having that crowd at the games.  As a visiting player however, we didnt always appreciate the beer getting thrown on us.  Franklin was always a very hostile place to play. 

I think Trine's tailgates draw some pretty amazing numbers but there could probably be more done to increase the commrodery amounst the tailgate.

One quick note on Trine's game this last weekend since a couple already touched on it.  I was VERY impressed with Ryan Hargraves this week!  From the first play of the game you could see he felt more comfortable in the pocket.  He also made much quicker and more accurate decisions in the throwing game and very rarely made the wrong read on which receiver to hit.  On one particular play I watched him drop back and check the #1 who slipped, he turned his head quick to #2 who was covered, and came all the way to the backside of the play to hit his #3 on a curl route.  I was really impressed by this play.  I've played in this offense and that #3 receiver on this play is hardley ever an option but Ryan did a great job working his way back to him.

Of course there were some bad things but Trine looks like they are just one missed block or one filled gap away from being solid all the way through.  Lets hope they put it all together this week.

After watching the game several times, and with the benefit of replay and slow motion  I have to disagree with you here. Trine as an offensive unit averaged 1.8 yards per carry on 30 attempts last Saturday, and against two bottom dwelling teams in the Hartland Conference they have averaged 1.83 yards per carry on 60 attempts with a long of 13 yards in both contests.

If you look to the film, Trine is a long ways away from being "solid all the way through" and have much much more then "one missed block and one filled gap" to straighten out if this football team wants a serious crack at its fourth straight MIAA title.

It's also fairly evident that although the offense looked good Saturday, they only looked good for 2 quarters. When Bluffon decided to rush more then 3, they held the starting offense to just 14 points, while scoring 27 themselves. To complicate things, Bluffton's backup quarterback Tyler Wright went 14-15 for 175 yards and 2 touchdowns in the air, while averaging 4.8 yards on 8 carries with a long of 23 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

As a matter of reference, Bluffton's average snap in the 3rd quarter took place with 18 seconds on the play clock, by my count they left around 2 minutes and 45 seconds of the 3rd quarter on the field. Had they played like a team trailing, and managed the clock, things may have ended differently. As it stood, and despite their success, they moved to slow during the 3rd quarter to have a chance to catch Trine in the 4th.

Still, overall Trine's offense has played a dismal 6 quarters where they have scored only 21 points, and against a Manchester defense that Kalamzoo put 331 yards on in 72 plays, Trine managed just 238 yards of total offense on 71 plays.

While the bottom line is Trine got the win, and Kalamzoo didn't, it would be unwise to look at those statistics and simply brush them under the rug or drown them in the sea of blue Gatorade. 

In a race as close as the MIAA might be this season, I give a distinct edge to the 0-2 Albion Brits. They have played a tough non-conference and I fully believe they have less area's to "shore up" within their overall scheme. While Trine is 2-0 it's a very deceptive 2-0 from both an offensive and defensive standpoint.

While my fellow Trine fans may straight up smite the heck out of me these are just my thoughts on where Trine is at. I definitely hope Trine address these issues, and while I'm sure they will try, sometimes success can be a downfall. I hope that's not the case this season, and soon enough a good team will expose the weaknesses, and hopefully that will allow them to address them.

I'm not saying the coaching staff doesn't see the problems on film, and I'm not saying they won't attempt to address them, but overall I don't think Trine is a "great" football team right now, despite their 2-0 start. Still, they will compete for the conference championship, I just don't see them winning it this season. I hope I'm wrong, but as is - they just lack the fire power on both sides of the ball and I feel like a half way decent defense or disciplined offense will reveal exactly that.

[formerd3db]

Amazing, but perhaps not surprising aspect (at least not to Mr. Ypsi ).  Hope had about 3,200 in attendance for their home opener, which essentially was near the same as DI Eastern Michigan University in their first home game two weeks ago. (At Hope and others in our MIAA, (and now including Trine for regular season games), we get 4,000 or more for homecoming and the really big games.   Sadly, Eastern only had about 4,550 at their second home game this past Saturday against Alabama State.  (Last year, Eastern averaged about 15,500 per home game to meet the requirements for DI).  They will be playing in front of 110, 000 this Saturday when they invade nearby U of Michigan stadium.  Wow, what a contrast in playing experiences!    

[Uncle Rico]

Congrats to Ryan Hargraves, MIAA Offensive player of the week!

http://www.miaa.org/fb/

[ThunderHead]

...and also Anthony Sabatella (Alma) and Clinton Orr (Albion). 

[hopewatcher]

Just a few comments on the Hope game this past Saturday, after agreeing with the observations of both DBQ1965 & formerd3db......I just need to echo the thought that it was a big win for Hope...beyond just the win, getting rid of the losing streak monkey is a great thing for Dean and the rest of the staff who has been enduring it and a credit to the team and their effort to make it happen. It was also nice to see the progress from week 1. Although things are not nearly where they can and need to be, it was a substantially better performance than against IWU (although there were still periods of offensive inconsitency, key penalties and that darn big play by WLC did creep in there). I am looking forward to the continued effort, performance improvement, and seeing them coming together as a team for progressively improved results. Also, on an off the field observation, the band was a great add, and hopefully is something that can continue somehow, someway. My son said that the team noticed the added enthusiasm that it brought to the stadium. If anybody from Hope is listening...it does matter. We have 2 more challenging non-conference opponents coming up, followed by the league...a good win to celebrate, but there still lots of work still to do....and its time to get back at it and get ready to compete for another win against Milliken in the 'Orange out against cancer game' on Saturday......Go Hope!   

[Uncle Rico]

...and also Anthony Sabatella (Alma) and Clinton Orr (Albion).

I was holding out to see if our Albion or Alma posters would get it.   

Nice accomplishment for all three!

[ThunderHead]

...and also Anthony Sabatella (Alma) and Clinton Orr (Albion).

I was holding out to see if our Albion or Alma posters would get it.   

Nice accomplishment for all three!

I figured Uncle Rico, I wasn't trying to show you up. Just figured I'd post it when I seen it.

[sac]

Amazing, but perhaps not surprising aspect (at least not to Mr. Ypsi ).  Hope had about 3,200 in attendance for their home opener, which essentially was near the same as DI Eastern Michigan University in their first home game two weeks ago. (At Hope and others in our MIAA, (and now including Trine for regular season games), we get 4,000 or more for homecoming and the really big games.   Sadly, Eastern only had about 4,550 at their second home game this past Saturday against Alabama State.  (Last year, Eastern averaged about 15,500 per home game to meet the requirements for DI).  They will be playing in front of 110, 000 this Saturday when they invade nearby U of Michigan stadium.  Wow, what a contrast in playing experiences!    

To make matters worse, the  EMU game was moved to Sunday afternoon because of the storms that cut short the Michigan game that Saturday.  They offered free admission.  Attendance was 3,563... they had 4,771 for this past weekends game.

It should be pointed out EMU played FCS schools Howard and Alabama State, not exactly a big draw for any D1 program.

Howard went 1-10 the last two years, and Alabama State at least had a pulse going 7-5........so the answer is "Yes, Eastern can find cupcakes to play too"