FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Mr. Ypsi]

I will go with:

Adrian
Albion
IWU
Carthage
Rockford
Elmhurst

I hope to see a few more MIAA wins but I think these are the results

I do not see a clear MIAA winner this year wide open race for the conference

As an IWU and CCIW partisan (but Michigan resident for almost 40 years), I certainly agree with IWU over Alma, and suspect Elmhurst will down Olivet, but I think Hope will break their non-con streak in Carthage.  It's the Red Men's first game, and Hope no doubt lost some jitters in the tight loss to IWU.  A Carthage win would not surprise me (they are VERY tough at home), but I'll pick Hope.

[hope1]

adrian
albion
alma
hope
rockford
olivet 

[ADAWGISADAWG4LIFE]

Picks:

Adrian
Albion
Alma
Hope
Rockford
Olivet

Obviously im looking for a strong showing from the MIAA this week, Kzoo is questionable every week even against Rockford, Hope bounces back and Albion finds a way to win.  Olivet will depend as always on which Olivet team shows up.  Adrian could win big, home opener, looking for revenge after an opening loss.

[sac]

In case anyone was wondering the 70 points allowed today by Hope was the most ever and broke an 87 year old mark in a 65-0 loss.

http://hope.edu/pr/athletics/

I was told today the Irish are the new Dutch..........take the Spartans and the points, run don't walk.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I was stunned by that Carthage/Hope score, since the concensus on the CCIW board seems to be that IWU has a more potent offense than Carthage.  Strange.

I thought Michigan thoroughly outplayed ND today, but when you have 8 fumbles, losing 4 of them, AND throw 2 interceptions, your gonna be hard-pressed to beat K'zoo.  TOs led directly to 21 Irish points, and prevented 2 likely TDs for the Wolverines - that game could have easily been a 31-14 win.   (I suspect that Nick Sheridan may have taken his last snaps today, barring mop-up action in a blowout.)

[Uncle Rico]

I think Michigan spent too much time trying to learn their offense, and not enough time learning how to field kicks, and tackling.

[D306]

Random comments:

Congrats to Kazoo, 1st win for the new coaching staff, big last minute drive for FG.

U OF M  playing too many of the young guys and trying too many Spread Plays before the team is up to speed on system.
Way to many drive killing or point generating for ND turnovers.
Hold onto the ball. Bad weather game, fundamentals win, not flash.
Have a quality RB, nice moves and great speed, watch for him the nice couple years

I attended the Albion game, man was it raining the whole day.
Great execution and ball protection for Albion.
The defense was strong and took away the run,  plugged up the middle and contained the edges forcing the flow to LB's, DE's pressured QB all game. This young group is shaping up to be a force.

Strong running, on a wet day, some good play calls with the passes in the flats, and use of TE.  Ball security was the key, as well as stopping the run.
Field crew at Albion did a great job having and maintaining the field as there literally was streams of water running by the field as the crew pumped the sidelines and cleared the field of play. The field has a nice crown on it so the water ran to the sidelines.

MIAA had a rough weekend, Hope and Alma score in the 30-40"s and take loss. Looks like we will see some wide open football during the conference play.

So who sets a personal record for Green Bay today VS. the Lions lousy tackling and weak Oline play.

[miaafbfan]

Yes, good win for Kalamazoo.

Also good to see Albion and Adrian win as expected.

Alma's shootout with Illinois Wesleyan was no surprise, as both teams have potent offenses, but Alma's D is typically unable to keep up.

Hope's loss at Carthage was surprising.  Looks like a wide open conference race.

I don't know what the story is with Olivet.

[formerd3db]

D306:

All the more reason for Albion to put in the new style synthetic turf!   Hope needs to do this also and there is serious talk "'behind the scenes" for this happening possibly next year or in 2010.  Still, that remains to be seen.

I, too, was very surprised to see the Hope score - a pasting by Carthage.  I was not at the game, and while I'm sure Carthage is a good team, Hope must have self-destructed again.  Like Alma, you can't put up a ton of points without having your defense being able to stop some drives.  Anyway, like most of you, I see the conference race as another "shootout" this year and I think all have a shot at it except Kazoo.  Teams will obviously start "jockying" themselves in about a couple of weeks once conference play gets underway.

Despite the experience of playing some better teams, these losses still do not help in regards to the playoffs, at least for this year.  Perhaps in the long run in the sense that by playing better teams non-conference will help in experience "of the situation" per se, yet if you don't end up getting the better talent, your team is not going to progress in the playoffs against the consistent upper tier teams.  Then again, perhaps that is never going to happen for our MIAA due to the larger number of DII programs in our state competing for some of this talent - a situation that some of the other DIII regions don't have - this has been discussed before so is not a new theory obviously.

BTW, I agree, a nice win and good positive for Kazoo's program.   

[D306]

D3DB

I think as you said the amount of D1 and DII teams in the general area does hurt the MIAA.
I know several players in the MIAA whom had preferred walk-on at D1 and DII offers but choose a DIII or D1 non scholarship school due to the Educational value, and the Academic Scholarships they recieved. Lets face it if you are not going to play on Sunday or are a "stud" I would pick one of the above schools over DII schools with few exceptions IE: Hillsdale if we speak locally. We all have been over this subject before on the site.

So who is with me wishing Drew Stanton was healthy, I would pull Kitna and try Stanton. Kitna has a knack of throwing interceptions forcing the action late in games. Late interceptions the last 2 weeks. he will never be a playoff quality QB. I will say the Oline is so porous that I am not sure Brady or Manning would be their great selves with this line. Look at Manning with Indys OL injures this year. Just a thought out of udder amazement at the new ways the Lions self distruct every week.

Packers look to be fine at QB give Rodgers this season he will be a player for a while. Smart QB and has a arm. Good example of letting a QB learn the game prior to putting them into the fire. Look at all the recent big name QB's must are failing miserably.

[usee]

...the concensus on the CCIW board seems to be that IWU has a more potent offense than Carthage. 

Mr. Ypsi,

Who ever said that?  I don't think that was ever a topic we discussed.

[Mr. Ypsi]

...the concensus on the CCIW board seems to be that IWU has a more potent offense than Carthage. 

Mr. Ypsi,

Who ever said that?  I don't think that was ever a topic we discussed.

You nailed me, and 'concensus' was certainly too strong a word.  But there was talk of IWU having a very potent offense (perhaps as potent as any in the conference, with Ladd, Ceisel, Lanter - who may not even be the starting RB even when healthy the way Christian is going), but a suspect defense with all the graduation losses.  I just don't recall much talk of Carthage in the 'potent offense' department - it appears that either we were wrong, or my memory is shot!  (Or that too much should not be read in from one game!)

[sac]

Oh I'd have to say IWU has the more potent offense

Look at these drives by Carthage

3 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
9 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
3 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
3 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN

Have you ever seen a team struggle to move the ball 0 yards like that before? 

http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/fb/08/HOPE.HTM

[matblake]

Oh I'd have to say IWU has the more potent offense

Look at these drives by Carthage

3 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
9 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
3 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
4 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN
3 plays 0 zero yards  TOUCHDOWN

Have you ever seen a team struggle to move the ball 0 yards like that before? 

http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/fb/08/HOPE.HTM

In "Comic Book Guy" voice: Strangest stats ever. 

[D306]

Slight recording error, or just still stunned by the number of TD's and gave up recording 

Wow never seen that many points in a game, was there any defense?
110+ points combined.
Looking at that drive chart you can see there must have been numerous "huge" plays with only 3-4 play drives.

matblake please tell me the CCIW is very strong this year, I noticed the MIAA is not doing well VS them this season.