FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[formerd3db]

Breaking down Hope's roster by class

Sr.  --19
Jr.   --21
So  --27
Fr.   --32

Out of their roster of 99, two-thirds have now played 2 years for Stuursma and only 19 played in a different system.   They return 5 offensive, 6 defensive starters.


Stuursma is 15-5 overall and 10-2 (MIAA) in his two years at Hope (14-2 in the last 16), there's not a lot of "upside" left other than winning the MIAA Championship.   Lest we forget Hope was actually the pre-season favorite in 2017 and set school records for points and rushing yards.   They've been pretty good already.

There does appear to be some kind of gap between Hope and Trine but I think optimism seems high for 2018.

sac, you always have good, sound insight and evaluation.  I agree with your overall assessment.  However, I would only add that I believe we will need to win all the MIAA games.  Another one loss league season will not do it, unless, of course Hope would be the one who defeated the other one loss teams by the overall higher scores.  IMO, that would be a very tough task this year, not only against Trine, but likely the other 4 teams which were voted in the top 5 in the coaches poll.  But, as always, we'll just have to see how things start out and shape up!

Also, it always amazes me how the attrition in the classes go, which basically, has been what has occurred historically for decades.  Big classes come in as freshman and you have a dozen or slightly more that stick it out for 4 years.  Way "back in my day", we had 40 freshmen in my class (Hope had 110 for football, which was the largest number the College had ever had to that date as I recall and Coach Smith made the first cuts ever in the history of the program to get it down to 90).  After four years, we had 14 in our senior class.  All that said, it is pretty much the same at most schools and certainly understandable for obvious reasons.

Looking over at the OAC board, one of the posters did a great summary of the entire numbers for all the Ohio colleges and universities that sponsor intercollegiate football at all the levels.  A very interesting piece of information.  Perhaps someone might do that for our state? (sorry, I don't have the time to do it! )

We'll have more conversation with you on this board soon I'm sure as the season progresses.  Thanks again for an interesting and informational post.   

[formerd3db]

Alma and Trine open their seasons  tonight.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  I suspect Trine will beat Manchester, although Alma might have a challenge at BW.  Hope opens tomorrow night hosting Millikin.

[Pat Coleman]

I'll be at both Trine and Hope the next two nights to start the season off!

[DBQ1965]

I'll be at both Trine and Hope the next two nights to start the season off!

I too will be at Hope.  Welcome to Michigan.

[TUAngola]

I'll be at Trine.  1st game, you never know what to expect.  Both Manchester and Trine have good running attacks.  New QB's for Trine, heard that both Duckett and Winters will get some series, we shall see.  I believe the defense will be ahead of the offense for Trine for this 1st game, lots of experience on D. Will be interesting to see what happens tonight.   

[TUAngola]

Trine 55 Manchester 7

Great start to the 2018 season.  Trine come out flying in the 1st quarter to go up 27-0.  Trine with 3 possessions resulting in 3 quick TDs before Manchester could get anything going.  Manchester then with what was probably their best drive of the night, but with the worst possible outcome as they tried a FG on 4th down.  Bad snap with ball rolling back to the kicker who made a lousy throw and resulted in pick6 by Cayleel Hill for a 90 yd TD.  Trine with a lackluster effort in the 2nd quarter, but regained control in the 3rd quarter to put the game away.  4th quarter uneventful, 2nds, 3rds and 4ths getting to play.  Vanilla stuff.   

Some takeaways.  Lamar Carswell = Stud.  I encourage you other posters if you get a chance to watch him play, do it, this is his final year.  He broke a couple Tri-State/Trine records last night, most points in a career and most TDs in a career.  He had another TD called back because of a holding penalty.  He's always been a quick guy, but I think he's gotten stronger this year and takes on more tacklers before going down.  Once he breaks line of containment its lights out, no one is catching him.  And he has that special gift of making plays out of nothing.  On one of his touchdown runs, he should have been stopped for a loss, but has a knack for making guys look bad trying to take him down.  He's a special talent, something you don't see often in DIII.

Trine rotated QBs between Andrew Duckett and Brandon Winters.  As expected they both can run, which is what Trine does with their QBs.  I'd like to see more passing attempts, but once we got up big in the 1st quarter we really didn't throw much at all.  When he did throw, Duckett was right on the money with his passes.  Offensive line looked good, we have some big guys. 

Defense, played pretty well.  Had one series where we gave up some big runs, but generally won in the trenches.  LB Hunter Hiatt with a pick6 to end the scoring in the 3rd quarter.  Our secondary is the strenghth of the D.  3 out of the 4 starters had picks.  2017 MIAA DPOY Marcus Winters is now tied for 1st in career interceptions.  Kicking game, punt and kick coverage were good.  1 missed PAT by Garza where it appeared he lost his footing and didn't get a good leg into the ball, everything else was money.  Kickoff guy Hibbets has a cannon for a leg, most all kickoffs were at the goal line or into the endzone.

Packed house, 5100, great atmosphere.  Manchester with a good crowd too, and brought a fan bus with students.

Got Bluffton at home next Saturday.  One game at a time.   

[TUAngola]

First weekend games are now in the books and no one is talking here?  No recaps?  Good?  Bad?  Ugly? 

[formerd3db]

Pat:
Very sorry I missed seeing you at Hope. I didn't check the board before leaving Friday to drive down to the game, so didn't know you were going to be there. I'm disappointed in not having the chance to visit with you, obviously no fault of yours. If you stayed until the end, and I had known, I would certainly have made the effort to seek you out to chat for a few minutes at least. I did have to work at the end of the game in suturing up one of our player's hand laceration!☺

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed coming to our stadium. Hopefully, if you ever chose to come back, please let me know. You must be a bit tired after all that driving the past 3-4 days! You are getting to be like me in that regard to the traveling!😀 Best to you. Talk to you again on the boards soon I'm sure.

[Diezel1]

Pat,

What is your take on the two MIAA teams you saw this weekend?

[RuleBritannia]

Just announced this morning that Craig Rundle will retire after the 2018 season and 22 years of being the head coach at Albion College.

While Coach Rundle's tenure will never live up to the glories of Pete Schmidt and the Britons of the 90s, he's put together a remarkable career at Albion including 7 MIAA championships. He leads all Albion head coaches in victories, and is 2nd in the MIAA all time in years coached, victories, and championships (3rd, technically as 1st is shared by Schmidt and Hope's Ray Smith).

Albion announced the current assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, and Albion alumnus Dustin Beurer will succeed Rundle. Beurer has been on staff since 2008 has directed some of the MIAA's most prolific offenses in his 10 years as an assistant coach.

In terms of the Britons themselves, I expect an improved squad this year that is probably a year away from being a contender for the conference championship, but should challenge for 3rd in the league with Adrian and Olivet. I wouldn't read too much into their 59-6 demolition of Defiance as that squad was extremely young (like 60% freshmen), and had only had a head coach for 3 weeks. They host HCAC favorite Franklin this Saturday in what will be an important out of conference measuring stick for the Britons.

[formerd3db]

Just announced this morning that Craig Rundle will retire after the 2018 season and 22 years of being the head coach at Albion College.

While Coach Rundle's tenure will never live up to the glories of Pete Schmidt and the Britons of the 90s, he's put together a remarkable career at Albion including 7 MIAA championships. He leads all Albion head coaches in victories, and is 2nd in the MIAA all time in years coached, victories, and championships (3rd, technically as 1st is shared by Schmidt and Hope's Ray Smith).

Albion announced the current assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, and Albion alumnus Dustin Beurer will succeed Rundle. Beurer has been on staff since 2008 has directed some of the MIAA's most prolific offenses in his 10 years as an assistant coach.

In terms of the Britons themselves, I expect an improved squad this year that is probably a year away from being a contender for the conference championship, but should challenge for 3rd in the league with Adrian and Olivet. I wouldn't read too much into their 59-6 demolition of Defiance as that squad was extremely young (like 60% freshmen), and had only had a head coach for 3 weeks. They host HCAC favorite Franklin this Saturday in what will be an important out of conference measuring stick for the Britons.

I was wondering when this would happen.  I thought it would be after this year or perhaps next.  I'm assuming that Polnasek had no interest in returning to being a head coach and the Albion administration probably wanted someone younger and who might stay on longer. Wasil hasn't had coordinator experience as yet (correct?) and the other potential "within" candidate long time assistant D.J. Rheberg?  Was he not interested or Albion just not interested in him as H.C.?  Just curious as to if you know any of the additional inside info.

I suspect Albion will be improved from last year and I would never count them out in any MIAA game, especially against my Hope.  As you know, in most years (when Albion wasn't pounding everyone), that rivalry is a very intense contest regardless of whose stadium it is played at.  I am looking forward to that game this year.  It is back in the spot on the schedule when it was way back in my day! The latter due to the longstanding league schedule rotation, of course.  Anyway, thanks for the info on the Rundle announcement.

[RuleBritannia]

I don't have any inside info really, but having watched the team pretty close up for the last 11 years I can tell you that Beurer was "the guy" on offense. He was always huddling with the offense on the sidelines when they were off the field and he was the one calling plays. He was certainly higher in the pecking order than Wasil who has only worked with QBs as far as I know.

I think your supposition that Polnasek didn't want to assume the top roll at this point in his career is a correct one. Plus, Greg's always been a guy who likes cooking three small dishes than one big dish I think. I don't think he's ever worked somewhere he had less than three jobs either coaching or in the athletic department.

I don't know about Rehberg, I'm not even sure if they had an "application" process. It sounds like Rundle went to the AD Matt Arend and said "I'm done, and I think Beurer should replace me", and he and the AD asked Beurer and he accepted. In all, i do think he's the guy who has the pulse of the team and has the most recent period of sustained success coaching on his side of the ball, and I think that makes him the best internal choice.  You do wonder what external candidates might have thrown their name in the ring however.

The Hope-Albion rivalry is indeed intense oftentimes with much on the line, between two great schools with outstanding football tradition. Can't get much better for a fall Saturday afternoon.

[formerd3db]

I don't have any inside info really, but having watched the team pretty close up for the last 11 years I can tell you that Beurer was "the guy" on offense. He was always huddling with the offense on the sidelines when they were off the field and he was the one calling plays. He was certainly higher in the pecking order than Wasil who has only worked with QBs as far as I know.

I think your supposition that Polnasek didn't want to assume the top roll at this point in his career is a correct one. Plus, Greg's always been a guy who likes cooking three small dishes than one big dish I think. I don't think he's ever worked somewhere he had less than three jobs either coaching or in the athletic department.

I don't know about Rehberg, I'm not even sure if they had an "application" process. It sounds like Rundle went to the AD Matt Arend and said "I'm done, and I think Beurer should replace me", and he and the AD asked Beurer and he accepted. In all, i do think he's the guy who has the pulse of the team and has the most recent period of sustained success coaching on his side of the ball, and I think that makes him the best internal choice.  You do wonder what external candidates might have thrown their name in the ring however.

The Hope-Albion rivalry is indeed intense oftentimes with much on the line, between two great schools with outstanding football tradition. Can't get much better for a fall Saturday afternoon.

I agree with your suppositions also-those all make the most sense.  Thanks for the follow-up comments.  I, too, would have been interested to see who from the outside would have applied.  However, as you have mentioned, Beurer was was/is probably the best choice and a good one.

I am surprised we haven't heard from any other of our fellow posters here relating their thoughts on Rundle's decision and career.  It will be interesting to see how your Britons end up this year in the W-L column.  I also believe they will have a better record than last year, although I do think the parity in the league will be again evident this year.  Even if Albion ends up with a .500 or sub.500 season, he will still have a well-above .500 career record in his overall head coaching record.  Not bad at all.  While he certainly was not my favorite coach in the MIAA for a variety of reasons, I still have to give him credit for a fine overall career and especially at his alma mater.  With his stepping down, it pretty much puts the closing chapter on the veteran MIAA coaches era over the past several years and the link to, at least my and others long past MIAA days.   But that is just life and we'll all keep moving forward.

Perhaps see you at the Albion/Hope game if you are able to attend that weekend.  As it is at your S-S stadium, I do not doubt that we'll have a tough time there as always.  Yet, as I said before, I am certainly looking forward to it. 

[waxx]

It's difficult for me as an Adrian alum to ever compliment Albion on anything but it seems like this was the perfect way to handle the situation. It was done in a way that should minimize staff turnover and should have almost no negative effect on recruiting.

I was only able to watch the first half of the Adrian-ONU game and it was tough to see the momentum shift after the 1st quarter. Adrian had to the ball for almost 13 minutes in the first and scored early in the 2nd quarter. If I recall correctly, ONU's first TD came after a 3rd down stop, but a personal foul on Adrian. And then from there it ONU just took control for the rest of the half. Hopefully, they can get back on track at home against Buffalo St.

[DBQ1965]

How about Keith McMillan's "dictionary words matchup" description of the Hope - Defiance game?  That defnitely is worth "plus karma".