FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[formerd3db]

BTW, yes, let me join the others in welcoming ADAWG back posting with us.  It has been to long, friend.  Keep posting one here once in awhile, will you?!   Hope all is well with you.

Also, a welcome to MIAA In Exile and welcome back to stinger!

[ThunderHead]

Randon thoughts after yesterday's games:

1) Well, I am absolutely shocked that Adrian had a letdown and lost to Albion.  Which makes our (Hope's) loss to Albion that much more disappointing.  While Albion has obviously improved over the weeks, still, I'm not sure whether they or Adrian would be the best team to represent our conference as far as having a chance to advance to the second week of the playoffs.

2) As many of you have already mentioned, indeed, Alma is having a very tough season.  I'm sure Coach Cole and his coaching staff and the entire team are more than frustrated.  A nice win at home for Kazoo to stop their slide the past 2-3 weeks.  Still, disappointing that they only drew in the mid-600's for attendance for that home game played in Western Michigan University's Waldo Stadium.

3) Michigan State played as I thought they would against Nebraska.  My previous opinion on them still stands.  We'll see what happens.

4) In following up on Mr. Ypsi's and sac's posts regarding Eastern Michigan; wow, they stand at 5-3 and have an outside chance at the MAC title game.  They should beat Kent State, although the other games will be tough.  Still, they only had just over 6,600 for their Homecoming game win over Western Michigan.  Pretty sad for a D-I team, although obviously, we've discussed this topic before.  Wabash has had crowds in the mid 5,000's, so they are drawing almost as good (actually better if  you average the home game attendance).  Anyway, I agree that if Coach English has Eastern in a winning season, he will again be a "hot prospective" coaching candidate for some other bigger school, returning to that status he had before taking the Eastern Michigan job.  Some have said that job would be a "career killer" for most coaches.  Obviously, time will tell for his case scenario.  Regardless, it is good to see Eastern Michigan with a winning record so far, although they've been blown out by Michigan and Toledo.  Also, you guys were mentioning Eastern's record against some of the bigger teams.  Since we are on the topic of past oppoents, although this one is small, how about remembering this record? - Eastern last played Hope College in 1958 and lost to Hope 19-7, the second year in row. Wow!

BTW, since Eastern beat Central Michigan, what are you opinions about what that does to the status of Dan Enos' job?  I realize this is only his second year there, however, it seems they are going backwards instead of making progress, at least from what I've seen/heard.

The seat is warm from what I hear, the WMU loss was probably the most unbearable to most CMU people and the EMU lose was just frustrating to most of them. Not sure, but maybe Danny will let Watts start calling the plays as a possible solution next year, then again, that assuming Watts doesn't jet.

By the way, 3-1 was a decent run for MSU during the October stretch. I'm sure that's better then you thought they would be (it's better then I thought they would be), their last great test is a road trip to Hawkeye country. If they do well to close out, I think they have they'll be playing in Indy.

Oh and btw Stinger, you're pretty much accurate.

[Raider 68]

Formerd3db,

No doubt a few surprizes on Saturday. Hope as a chance to win against a shocked Adrian team. Not many thought they would lose to Albion, but it happened. With 2 weeks left, we'll see how MIAA finishes. Early in the year, Trine was picked to win the conference. I would say the conference became much more competitive this fall!

[kzoodad]

glad for the seniors at kzoo. well played game for the most part.thought a couple times they were gonna have a brain fart late in the game, but stepped it up and played tough down the stretch. proud of each and everyone of them especially the seniors that stepped up at the end.sorry a fans, not that impressed with alma this year. you have owned us in the past, but my opinion is just my opinion.last game next week against trine, and gonna be looking for the bus.

[formerd3db]

kzoodad:
Indeed, that was a great way for the senior to finish their home careers.  BTW, the construction photos and architect/engineering renditions of the new athletic facilities at Angell Field/Fieldhouse, including the new football stadium look excellent.  They even have a vistors side press box for the visiting coaching staffs.  I see where many of the small colleges and universities are doing that now when they renovate and/or build new stadiums.  Anyway, good luck in Kazoo's final game.  You will enjoy playing in front of a big crowd down at Trine - they have a great stadium now also.

Raider68:

I would agree with you in the MIAA's apparent better competitiveness this year.  The real test will again come in regards to how far our representative will be able to advance in the playoffs.

[sac]

Alma high school is moving on in the MHSAA d4 tournament - because the team they were playing failed to take a knee on 3rd down with 25 seconds left, and then fumbled, and then allowed Alma to go 70 yards on three plays and 17 seconds to win

This game reference between Alma high and Chippewa Hills may have passed by some people so here's a write-up from yahoo sports.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Instead-of-taking-a-knee-team-fumbles-away-play?urn=highschool-wp7855

This happened to the Philadelphia Eagles once a long time ago.

Alma now gets the pleasure of hosting the Escanaba Eskymos in round 2.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Alma high school is moving on in the MHSAA d4 tournament - because the team they were playing failed to take a knee on 3rd down with 25 seconds left, and then fumbled, and then allowed Alma to go 70 yards on three plays and 17 seconds to win

This game reference between Alma high and Chippewa Hills may have passed by some people so here's a write-up from yahoo sports.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Instead-of-taking-a-knee-team-fumbles-away-play?urn=highschool-wp7855

This happened to the Philadelphia Eagles once a long time ago.

Alma now gets the pleasure of hosting the Escanaba Eskymos in round 2.

Thanks for the link, sac.  +1

What a brain fart!!

Win or lose, I'll bet Alma will like taking on the Eskymos more than Chippewa Hills will like staying home!

[BoBo]

This game reference between Alma high and Chippewa Hills may have passed by some people so here's a write-up from yahoo sports.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Instead-of-taking-a-knee-team-fumbles-away-play?urn=highschool-wp7855

Anyone know if the Alma QB, Vinny Costanza, has a famous relative named George? 

Mircle at the Meadowlands

[jknezek]

My H.S. in NJ did the same thing back in the early 90s. It cost us a regional title. To this day no one has figured out what the qb was thinking. The whole team lined up in victory formation and for some reason he dropped back beyond the running backs and the ball just slipped out of his hand. Since the rest of the team assumed he was taking a knee to end the game, no one did more than token blocking. Some LB came through, scooped up the ball, and ran 70 yards the other direction to score with no time on the clock. I wish I could find some video of it.

[sac]

Adrian #48
Albion #82
Trine #103
Hope #114
Alma #158
Kzoo #176
Olivet #188

No one really moved up......Trine moved down 16 places, Kzoo down 17.

....you would think Hope would have moved up given their win over Trine.  What's going on here?  Well, a couple of Hope's non-conference opponents took it on the chin this past weekend with Lakeland, Milliken and IWU all losing.  Call it the quirks of a computer formula.  IWU's loss probably hurt the most because they were easily Hope's strongest component in their ranking and IWU was shut-out in their first loss of the year.

Massey now favors Albion over Trine at season's end 24-21.

The big one this weekend massey has Adrian beating Albion 28-21

This weekend's other two games
Trine 38 Olivet 21
Alma 31 Kzoo 28

Last week's massey ratings quoted above.  This week's below

Albion #62
Adrian #67
Trine #101
Hope #112
Kzoo #167
Alma #170
Olivet #192

Obviously Albion moves up big, Adrian drops big.  Alma and Kzoo flop positions.

Next week's predictions:
Albion 23 DePauw 10
Adrian 24 Hope 17
Trine 31 Kzoo 18
Alma 35 Olivet 26

Albion's game with DePauw is completely meaningless for the Britons, they are in the NCAA tournament as the AQ.

Massey still has Albion a narrow favorite over Trine next weekend.
Albion 24 Trine 20




Albion has won at least a share of the MIAA, back on top after 6 years.  Their 6 year drought has been their longest without a title since 1978-1984 when Hope and Adrian were busy trading championships.

I think this is title #34 for the Britons, and assures that Albion has won an MIAA football championship in every decade since competition began in 1894.

[ThunderHead]

OFF TOPIC RANT: Halloween Night

To the idiot parents who literally drive their kids door to door in their mini-vans, you suck.

To the kids who are texting in one hand while holding out a bag in the other: you suck.

To the 20 year old dude that show up at the door pretending to be dressed as "the common man": even though it was some what amusing, you suck too.

Finally when it was lights out at 9pm and the street was pretty quiet a neighbor stopped by for a beer so I turned the light back on so he could see the decorations. This is about 9:50-10pm. Within a minute a car pulled up in front of the house and 5 kids piled out and ran to the front door, followed by a Baptist Church van with 9 or 10 kids.... I had to go into the back-up (my) stash of candy - you know, the good stuff...

For that - I suck, I should not have been so eager to show of my wife's decorations....

[sflzman]

This game reference between Alma high and Chippewa Hills may have passed by some people so here's a write-up from yahoo sports.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Instead-of-taking-a-knee-team-fumbles-away-play?urn=highschool-wp7855

Anyone know if the Alma QB, Vinny Costanza, has a famous relative named George? 

Mircle at the Meadowlands

Vinny's a great kid athletically and academically, and I hope the coaches at Alma are giving him a look, he has the potential to play at the next level and it'd be a shame to let someone else find him.....

Also, I loved in the story how at the end they say a questionable call, it wasn't even close, the ball popped free at contact....I hope they mean questionable PLAY-call 

[NCF]

OFF TOPIC RANT: Halloween Night

To the idiot parents who literally drive their kids door to door in their mini-vans, you suck.

To the kids who are texting in one hand while holding out a bag in the other: you suck.

To the 20 year old dude that show up at the door pretending to be dressed as "the common man": even though it was some what amusing, you suck too.

Finally when it was lights out at 9pm and the street was pretty quiet a neighbor stopped by for a beer so I turned the light back on so he could see the decorations. This is about 9:50-10pm. Within a minute a car pulled up in front of the house and 5 kids piled out and ran to the front door, followed by a Baptist Church van with 9 or 10 kids.... I had to go into the back-up (my) stash of candy - you know, the good stuff...

For that - I suck, I should not have been so eager to show of my wife's decorations....

sounds like a lot more fun on halloween night in michigan than in illinois.

[Uncle Rico]

Did anyone else read this article about Albion senior Julian Paksi?

http://www.freep.com/article/20111030/SPORTS08/110300589/Until-final-snap-Albion-senior-puts-transplant-hold-football

Hope that he enjoys a long D3 playoff run this year as well.

[sac]

Did anyone else read this article about Albion senior Julian Paksi?

http://www.freep.com/article/20111030/SPORTS08/110300589/Until-final-snap-Albion-senior-puts-transplant-hold-football

Hope that he enjoys a long D3 playoff run this year as well.

I may have.    Good to see the freep pick up the story, much more in depth than the one the State Journal ran in August (which is no longer available).

If you are going to root for anybody this fall, root for Albion's Julian Paksi......worth the read.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110801/SPORTS/108010312/College-football-St-Johns-graduate-Paksi-playing-for-his-life?odyssey=tab