University Athletic Association

[UAA Follower]

Congratulations to Case Western and Carnegie Mellon on your huge come from behind wins yesterday. "Unusual suspect"? I hope not any more. This is now the second year in a row the UAA has won a first round playoff game. Last year CMU shut out Millsaps. When will the good football being played in this league be recognized? Case runs the table and Carnegie is but a few turnovers and a dropped 2-point conversion from another great season. And WUStl has shown for years that it can play, too. These schools can compete against all but the elite in D-III. Good Luck against Wabash, CWRU!!!

[ExTartanPlayer]

Congrats to CWRU on a terrific game.  After our comeback win yesterday I thought it was one of the most exciting comebacks I could imagine - then I come home to see that Case pulled out an even more stunning victory than we had!

Great job guys and good luck.  I am now ex-TartanPlayer, but I still will pull for Carnegie Mellon and the UAA for years to come!  Two straight years with a playoff win - we are the "nerdy league" no more...now we are the "nerdy league that's good at football"!

[ADL70]

UAA is know as being good in almost every other sport.  No reason it shouldn't be in football as well.

I think CWRU will fare better against Wabash than CMU did againt Wesley last year, if only becasue of a more balanced attack.  I'm not saying the Spartans will win, but I'd be surprised by a blowout.

The spread on OAC Pickem is 17.5 pts.  I think they should cover that.

[DagarmanSpartan]

How good will we be over the next two years with Whalen back for his Jr. and Sr. seasons?

[ADL70]

At least Six VIPs will not be back next year.  But what was said after Appl St beat Mich, was with the spread any team with a good qb and wrs can beat almost anybody.

But this year's not over yet!!!

[DagarmanSpartan]

I took a look at the starting lineup for the Widener game, and I see MANY returning starters both ways.

We lose Zagorski and Jeffries on offense, and we lose Brew and Teurtschner on defense.

QB   5  Whalen, Dan (returning)
FB   31 Checkan, Corey (returning)
TB   25 Meyer, Greg (returning)
WR   83 Kolesar, Ryan (returning)
WR   86 Nicely, Shaun (returning)
LT   74 Kluczynski, Mar (returning)
LG   73 Zagorski, Tom
C    72 Jeffries, Brand
RG   62 Breon, Ryan (returning)
RT   71 Center, Chris (returning)
TE   80 Pfieffer, Micha (returning)

POS  ## DEFENSE
DE   97 Calderone, Bria (returning)
NG   64 Mey, Jake (returning)
DE   55 Genovesi, Gian (returning)
OLB  17 Chlebina, Ben (returning)
ILB  29 Tuertscher, Mik
ILB  15 Brew, Tom
ILB  36 Brown, Jeff (returning)
OLB  24 Tiemeier, John
CB   20 Bott, Bobby (returning)
CB   7  Goncalves, Luiz (returning)
FS   33 Pelyak, Mike (returning)

P Whalen (returning)
K Calderone (returning)

WOW!!!!  By my count, that's NINE returning offensive starters, EIGHT returning defensive starters, and BOTH kicking specialists returning, plus the WR Cowdrick, who is very likely the Freshman of the Year in the UAA.

I'd say that, based on that, we could make a very, VERY deep run in the Division III playoffs next season.

WATCH OUT MT. UNION!!!!

[ADL70]

Those five have all been All-UAA selections.  I'm pretty sure Mirando has eligibility left (grandfathered redshirt Fr year at Valparaiso) but was recognized at senior day.  So he may not be coming back to backup.  Calderone's eligibility is a question mark to me.  Not sure what his status was at Mich Tech.  Brenda Jones I do believe is also a grandfathered redshirt from UMass.

Nick Spring (started at LT first two games last year before injured) retutned at least for the OWU game and dressed for Widener.  He will mitigate the loss of Zagorski and Jeffries.

Let's not go overboard with talk of Mt. Union (or even Whitewater).  Let's get past Wabash first.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Major,

A few points:

1.  Enjoy the rest of this season.  I am pulling hard for the Case boys to beat Wabash as I want to see the UAA recognized as a stronger conference than it is given credit for, plus the guys were classy opponents and are having a heck of a season.

2.  Regarding the number of returning starters and how good you think the team may be next year...CMU returned nine offensive starters (four linemen and a pair of 1,000 yard rushers included in that) and six defensive starters from an 11-1 playoff team, creating very high expectations for this year.  We ended up 7-4.  DON'T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH.  Football is a very fickle game, and if all the bounces go your way one year, they may not go your way the next.

Plus, don't underestimate the loss of Brew (and possibly Calderone).  Having a bunch of other starters back is nice, but when you lose a guy who is truly a superior player at the Division III level, it has a much greater impact than you think.

Also, your schedule will be more difficult next year than it was this year.  Yeah, I know...who could possibly beat us, we're a team that advanced in the playoffs?  CMU had Randolph-Macon on the schedule this year, a game that we looked at before the season and chalked up as a sure W...they were 2-8 last year.  Little did we know that RMC would have their best year in a decade, beating us in the process.

And the final point...that line about Mount Union had better be a joke.  I've been arguing for some time that the UAA is better than it's given credit for, to the point where I actually think that even with only four teams it's about the 11th or 12th best conference (out of 25), but no UAA team would finish in the top three in the OAC.

[MUC57]

Good luck to the Case Western Reserve University Spartans this week. It's always good to see the Ohio teams doing well. You may develop a real taste for the playoffs and want to start doing it every year.

Wabash says, "Wabash always fights". Show them some real fight.

Go Spartans!

[BDTartan]

Excellent points TartanPlayer.  By the way, it was a pleasure watching you pave the way for two teammates who rushed for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons.  I won't lie, I expected more out of the season with what you had returning, but as you said, the ball doesn't always bounce your way.  I was proud to watch you guys climb out of a four game losing streak and rip off 5 straight wins to end the season, including that incredible comeback in the ECAC game.  I wasn't sure the O could get two scores in under 9 or 10 minutes but Erd opened it up and you guys executed.  Good luck in the future and I'll possibly keep you updated on CMU next season.

MajorSpartan, CWRU should be congratulated for their playoff victory, but please, don't go poppin' off about Mount Union.......that's so laughable only because I have many friends who attend/attended Mount Union and even a couple buddies who played for them.  I was at the Academic Bowl this year and I can tell you right now that the Spartans would be hard pressed to give Mount Union's 2nd or 3rd team a run for their money.  In fact, I believe Mount Union's 2nd team could beat some of the playoff teams.  And the funniest thing about it all was that when my one buddy was on the team a couple years back and won a couple titles he never acted like their football team was the best thing since sliced bread.  He actually said they could have been better.  That's scary good!!  CWRU is surprisingly good, but not scary good.

Good luck in the 2nd round Spartans and be prepared for a much tougher test.

[DagarmanSpartan]

BDTartan,

We're not scary good this year, but if the folks we having coming back continue to improve..........well.........WHO KNOWS?

Anyway, I was being somewhat facetious when I mentioned Mt. Union.  Obviously, they play on almost an entirely different level from the rest of Division III.

But I stand bye my statement that with the players we have returning, we could make a VERY deep run in the playoffs next season.

Time will tell whether or not my prophecy comes true.

[bman]

CWRU fans

This is the first chance I have had to post since Saturday.

Congrats on the win on Saturday.  What a great drive with everything on the line...it shows the kind of players you have.  Although I wasn't able to get the video to stream, I was on the edge of my seat most of the game via audio...

Good luck the rest of the way!

[BashBacker#16]

MajorSpartan,

Is Cowdrick hurt?  DNP vs. OWU nor Widener...

Just curious...

Will they bring in extra seating for the Wabash game if needed?  I wasn't sure how firm the 2,400 capacity was???

[hot stuff]

WOW!!!!  By my count, that's NINE returning offensive starters, EIGHT returning defensive starters, and BOTH kicking specialists returning, plus the WR Cowdrick, who is very likely the Freshman of the Year in the UAA.

cowdrick isnt a frosh so there goes that, however possibility that nicely gets frosh of the year?...

MajorSpartan,

Is Cowdrick hurt?  DNP vs. OWU nor Widener...

Just curious...

Will they bring in extra seating for the Wabash game if needed?  I wasn't sure how firm the 2,400 capacity was???

Cowdrick is out, and as for the seating....honestly Case students and fans still have no idea they have a team, so don't worry about that, unless wabash brings 1500+ fans (which they could, i have no idea) there honestly will be no problem with seating...against widener i would say about 1500 of the 2400 seat were filled and that was with all the students on campus...with them being gone for thanksgiving, i would say only 1000 case fans will even show up

[WAF78]

hot stuff,
Thanks...I guess I won't worry about buying a ticket ahead of time...unless, of course,  your post is a clever CWRU ruse that will end up with hundreds of Wabash faithful being turned away at the gate because there are 2,400 screaming CWRU fans in the stands who bought their tickets before the game.