FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[WLCALUM83]

End of 1st Quarter:  Manchester 3, Tri-State 0.

[WLCALUM83]

Halftime:  Manchester 3, Tri-State 0. (To this point, both offenses have sputtered--TSU has given up 3 INT's already but the Thunder D is on its' game.)

[ADAWGISADAWG4LIFE]

Picks for the Weekend:

I will forgo picking the TSU Manchester game as it is in progress.

Adrian @ Defiance: I am going with the home team as both have undergone alot of change in the offseason
Albion @ Butler:  Taking Albion, they played them tough the last two years and I like the squad they have.
UWRF @ Hope:  Tons of talent, great coaching and the home field, I take Hope.
Aurora @ WLC:  I will take the home team as I admittedly know little about either.

[WLCALUM83]

Tri-State has taken the lead, scoring 14 unanswered poiints, but Manchester just scored with a failed 2-pt conversion attempt. It's now 14-9 TSU with approx. 12 minutes left in the 4th.

[formerd3db]

WLCalum:

What's the latest on TSU/Manchester?  Is it a final yet

[OC_SID]

WLCalum:

What's the latest on TSU/Manchester?  Is it a final yet

According to the scoreboard here on d3football.com, Tri-State won, 14-9.

[HOF]

Friday morning....I'm jacked for kick-off on Saturday of the college football season.  I know some played last night, but come on....nothing like tailgating on Saturday morning, listening to some Michigan football pregame in the parking lot and going to watch some college football.   Then I remember....I got a wedding!  Ahhh well....I'll still work something out someway.  Doesn't look like I can make the trip to Defiance, but I'm sure I can find a bar with a TV and nice beverage.

Tri-State wins...congrats.  I know it is the first game, but to only beat a bad Manchester team 14-9...leaves me wondering what is going on.  I see their QB chucked three INTs, while Manchester's threw four.  If that is the same kid as last year, TSU's passing game will be below average.

Did they run the Wing Tish?  Spread?  They dropped back 30 times....I'd be curious...

Anyways....don't want to steal their THUNDER (no pun intended), but fill us in, whoever attended...

My picks:

Adrian 21, Defiance 14:  Adrian appears to have good overall team speed from everything I read.  Speed usually makes big plays early and Adrian will have three of them Saturday.

Albion 35, Butler 21:  Albion takes it to the Bulldogs in the new Butler Bowl.  I assume they are playing back on campus this year and not off campus.  Butler has the awesome schedule to recruit from, but too many kids in Indiana dream about playing in Hinkle fieldhouse, not the Butler Bowl.

UW-Riverfalls 28, Hope 24:  I saw Riverfalls on TV last week.  They have some good talent.  Hope is without their starting RB.  Though they think they can replace him....the mojo of having Booko out will affect the team.

Aurora 35, WLC 7:  No Matt Kehl = no offense.  I don't know, but I gotta believe last year they struggled to score with him....now without him....Dennis Miller might not sleep tonight.

[miaafbfan]

Congratulations to Tri-State on the win last night.  I know Manchester is far from a powerhouse team, but it was an early road win for TSU, which is never a bad thing.

My picks for tomorrow:

Adrian over Defiance
Butler over Albion
UWRF over Hope
Aurora over WLC

[formerd3db]

I could "eat my words" here, however, for those of you who are skeptical about Hope tomorrow due to the loss of starting RB Booko, I wouldn't count out replacement Jones.  He is a tough RB and has looked very good in camp (according to my sources).  Granted, he is a "rookie" so to speak with regards to varsity experience, he just might be a surprise and we've all seen that happen on occasion at other schools.  Certainly, however, as I and others previously mentioned, UW-RF is no sloutch team and Hope had better come with their "A" game or it could be a repeat start of last year in losing the opener.  Of course, I HOPE that doesn't happen.

[Uncle Rico]

With my Thunder blue colored glasses on, I would have to say that the Tri-State game was a good start.  They played a comparably ranked team at their place, on the road, and got the W.   They lost to Manchester last year.

The defense played awesome...they clamped down on Manchester when they had to.  The offense sputtered in the first half, but the coaches made good adjustments, the team executed, and scored two td's in third quarter.  Defense sealed the deal with some big int's.  Still more work to be done, they are a relatively young team, but they showed they could play under pressure. 

http://www.tristate.edu/tsuathletics/football/footballnews.cfm

[dc_has_been]

Any Adrian fan's our there have the final to the DC vs. Adrian game?  Last I heard Adrian was putting an unfortunate whooping on DC 35-7 at half.

[ADAWGISADAWG4LIFE]

Adrian won the game 35-9.  Thats what I heard as a final which would mean DC got a safety towards the end.  Congrats to the bulldogs on starting off strong, perhaps the transitions will not effect them as much as I previously thought, but time will tell.

I also appear a bit foolish taking Hope and Albion, anyone have any insight as to what happened in those contests?

Lastly, for all you U of M fans out there, How bout your wolverines?  I was very glad to see Appalachin State pull it out after outplaying Michigan for the game.  If you are a fan of U of M or not, you have to be happy for those kids, thats a career win right there.  As for U of M things look bleak, I cant imagine they wont take a severe drop in the polls, this is the first time ever that an AP top 25 team has lost to a DIAA opponent so thats probably going to hurt.  As for a national championship this season that looks slim to, a BCS game is probably only going to happen with a Big Ten Championship and with the way U of M's defense was exploited.  Anyone else have thoughts on that game?

[wlcalum]

WLC gets a win 23-13. Thats what I get for picking against them.

[formerd3db]

DAWG:

Congratulations to your alma mater on their big win against Defiance.  I was surprised at the score as I would have thought it to be a closer game.

As far as the Hope debacle today (a 54-24 loss), for us about the only good thing was the great weather (quite hot mid-'70's and clear blue sunny skies) and nice decent crowd, at least for a Labor Day weekend.  It was not a fun day for Hope; quite frankly it was ugly.  Hope's defense could not handle UW-RF's huge OL which averaged 302 lbs (from LT - RT across: 285, 282, 330, 325, 290) - they were huge and not slow; Hope's secondary self destructed being unable to cover simple seam passes which went for TD's (despite 5 DB's).  There were glimmers of hope (no pun intended) with some defensive stops, however, I fear that poor tackling techinque still has it's tendency to haunt from last year.  Offensively, QB Manning did not have a good day passing (either errant throws and/or no time to set up), Hope could not get "around end" in their ground game, Jones and Rodriquez gave admiral efforts in filling in for Booko, but overall, just no offensive punch today.  Another aspect, IMO and that of many others, was the extreme lack of enthusiasm today by the Hope players for some reason.  Perhaps it was the shock of initially falling behind and not being able to generate any momentum. 

Overall, UW-RF appears to be a very good team, although it is somewhat difficult to give a true appraisal since Hope played so poorly.  As for Hope, unfortunately, there is a lot of work to do between now and next week when Central, IA comes in.  I fear a repeat of last year's start - I hope I am wrong.

As to the Albion game, the information I relate is from the Bulter Univ. athletics website.  It appears Butler has returned to improved form at least as far as a D-IAA non-scholarship team (sorry, I mean the former D-IAA classification!) with a 42-14 pasting of Albion.  Same weather conditions and crowd size there as at the Hope game.  People can read the box score/game review on Butler's website.  Not sure if that means Albion is not as good as last year or just had a bad day and/or Butler vastly improved - perhaps a combination of all to some degree.

WLCalum:  Congratulations to WLC on their win.  I had a feeling they would pull a "W" today - just a hunch, as again, I admittedly didn't really know anything about the two teams.

[formerd3db]

DAWG:

I forgot to opine on the Mich/Appl.St. game.  It is, for sure, a sad day for U of M, however, as many people indicated, Appl.St is no slouch team.  Anyone who saw them in the last two D-IAA Championship games (now the Championship Division) can attest to that.  It just goes to support what I and many others have said in past discussions on such a topic, that any given day, anything can happen and indeed, a team that perhaps should not have a chance to upset a major level team can certainly do it.  Some have pointed out to the parity in college football over recent years (due to the scholarship limits), however, regardless of that, it cannot be denied that this is a great opportunity and happening for a school such as Appl.St.  Probably, the greatest victory in the history of their program, although I would agree with others that perhaps the greatest upset in college football history still remains the 1921 Centre College upset of Harvard.  Anyway, you all know that it will be a tense and "not happy" atmosphere in Ann Arbor this week.  Like you, I will be interested to hear others comments on this game and it's potential effect.