FB: Centennial Conference

[old ends]

With not seeing all the teams it is tough to pick, but here goes.

Dickinson
F & M
Gettysburg
Moravian

Question? Does your local Newspaper give your college a good write-up? All of the places that I have lived it seems that the Pro's and Div I get big press with the Div III getting, oh by the way so and so played and won/lost. Even the web pages for Centennial seem to be Monday before you can read something about the game.

[BITMAT.24CB]

The Allentown Paper covers D3 in an "oh by the way" on a wednesday when it previews the local D3 & D2. Penn State gets ink the other 6 days of the week.
Having relocated to this area, I do not know of another state that has as many D1, D2 & D3 schools as PA. I grew up in the midwest and played for the Buffaloes of Colorado. My point is if you did not play D1 you played D2. The local D2 school received as much if not more press coverage than Colorado did. There was one D1 school, 3 D2 schools and 2 D3 schools in our area.
I never see PA having a championship team at the D2 or D3 level simply because there are too many schools in the state. The talent of players is spread thin throughout the state. Unlike the Grand Valley's of D2 or UW-Whitewater or Mount Union's of D3 where they receive talent that in another state would be able to play D2 or D1.
Just my Opinion 8)

[Pat Coleman]

BITMAT, if I understand Michigan correctly, there are a bunch of D-I schools. What unusual talent do you think Grand Valley is getting?

[BITMAT.24CB]

My point is that although PA teams may get to a championship game there chance of a national championship title is slim because of the number of schools in PA.
No other state has as many college football teams per capita as PA. 3-D1 schools, 3or4 D1AA schools, 16 D2 schools and countless D3 schools. If you are a student athlete that wants to stay within the state there are plenty of schools to choose from. With this many choices your talent pool is spread quite thin. Whereas in Michigan you have 3 D1 schools & 9 D2 schools (half of PA)
Murphy- look at the box scores from the teams that have gotten to the playoff games outside of PA. Bloomsburg last year was buried by NWMST, the offense with the harlon-hill candiate rushed for a total of 23yds. as a team they had a 191 total yds to NWMST 431 total yds. East Stroudsburg with the all-time leading NCAA qb lost to GVST 55-20. East Stroudsburg had a total of 10yds rushing. there total offense was 297 to GVST 562.
In D3 in 1997 Lycoming lost 61-12 and in 1973 Juniata lost 41-0. M

[splik]

There are more than 3 or 4 DI-AA schools in PA.  I can name at least 6 off the top of my head, though most of them are known for their academics like Penn, Bucknell, Lehigh and Lafayette and not necessarily football.  Don't forget the NAIA schools. 

Seriously Murph, have you ever heard of the Denver Broncos?  You don't need 300lb linemen to run the ball. 

[Red Devils 07]

Week 4 Schedule   
McDaniel @ Dickinson
Franklin & Marshall @ Juniata
Muhlenberg @ Gettysburg
Moravian @ John Hopkins
Week 4 Picks:

Dickinson - Dickinson over a McDaniel team that is really struggling this season
F&M - As much as it pains me to pick F&M I do not see them losing to Juniata
Muhlenberg - Mules have yet to let up a single point this season, but they are going to be faced with a real good Gettysburg offense, this week should show a lot either way
John Hopkins - More of a hunch or gut call than anything else, probably went with Hopkins because they are at home.

[Red Devils 07]

Murphy -

While Splik may have taken his example to the extreme with the Denver Broncos his argument is still sound.  If you still have doubts look no further than Dickinson's conference championship team from last year.  It was a team that I was proud to be a part of, and if you look at the heights and weights of the offensive and defensive lines you'll see that we were usually undersized compared to our opponents.

[splik]

Murph
I saw them play at FDU two weeks ago.  Underwhelming. 
I'm probably going to see the first half against F&M this weekend. 
I'm not sure if you're questioning running out of the spread or running out of the spread with the current crop of running backs. 
You definitely can run from the spread formation, did you see Florida win the national championship?  Have you watched any college football lately besides Juniata? 
Juniata in fact did run the ball out of the spread in 2002 and 2003.  Look up the name Craig Moshier in their record books. 

[splik]

Did you really play college football even in DIII as a 165lb guard?
I was asking whether you made a blanket statement regarding whether it is possible to run the ball out of the spread.  Clearly, it's possible.  Lots of college teams do it in the read option offense that has become very popular.  Since I couldn't tell you what DIII schools ran it I used Florida as an ecample.  Juniata ran that offense when I was there in 2001 and 2002 and we ran the ball a lot.  At the time it was just becoming popularized by Urban Meyer at Utah and Bowling Green and Rich Rodriguez at WVU.
Now if you're saying the running backs and offensive line need some work, maybe they do.  If the offensive coordinator is no good, I don't know that either as I've only seen the one game since I have graduated. 
As for underachieving....you need high expectations to underachieve.  Outside of their locker room, not much has been expected.  When was the last time anyone picked this team to finish anything but last in their conference?  As long as the women's volleyball team is good life is good in Huntingdon.
As for F&M their opponent this week, are they good this year?  It seems they challenged Dickinson, the defending conference champs.

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

The news is not good from Westminster, Maryland ... not that it was any good to begin with.

McDaniel QB Brad Baer is done for the season after suffering a broken leg in Wednesday's practice. (click here for the story)

That's a shame.  He was a good kid and great quarterback.  I don't see how McDaniel can win a game this season without him.

[BTEXPRESS]

Who knows how good F & M is this year?. They lost to Washington & Lee 20-0 in their first game(Defending ODAC Champs) and from what I heard, their Dickinson game was not as close as the final score indicated. It should be a decent game in Huntington.

[WR#1]

Week 4 Schedule   
McDaniel @ Dickinson
Franklin & Marshall @ Juniata
Muhlenberg @ Gettysburg
Moravian @ John Hopkins

[Ryan Tipps]

Who knows how good F & M is this year?. They lost to Washington & Lee 20-0 in their first game(Defending ODAC Champs) and from what I heard, their Dickinson game was not as close as the final score indicated. It should be a decent game in Huntington.

I think I suggested it pretty well in my column this past week, but I would disagree with that assessment of the Dickinson/F&M game. It was a close game throughout, and the Dips played with a lot of heart right up until the very end. In that fourth quarter, the tide could have swung either way.

I just responded to a reader who emailed me, and I said this very thing: I very much doubt that the F&M team that played last weekend was the same one that lost to W&L. If they played in Week 1 like they did last week, they would never have gotten shut out. Of course, you can't turn back the clock, and that just the growing pains that comes with football. But the Dips looked alive this week, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them hit about .500 this year.

I would like to see their RBs get some experience. If I remember right, the top two in the backfield are freshmen, so Turner became a much more potent player as both a passer and the lead rusher.

George Eager was a stud last weekend. I can't say enough about this kid. He was hauling in some tricky passes, and really came through for the team. The most notable catch was a 4th-down conversion in the final quarter. I think it ended up being a 7-yard reception, but Turner threw the ball low and away, and Eager literally held onto it by his fingertips (in the rain!). That kept the team alive that drive and in the game.

The defense is one notable weak spot, but I couldn't tell if Dickinson was just that good on O or if F&M needs that much work on D.

[BTEXPRESS]

Ryan, I only passed along what I heard from a DICKINSON family who was at the game. You know the old Saying " you and I could be watching the same game and we would see what we want to see depending on what side of the fence we were on". Dickinson felt they did not play as well against F & M as they did the week before against Hobert. I guess that is why they play the games and each week is different depending on the weather, field condition, inuries, confidence etc.

[Ryan Tipps]

Perhaps then those people only *wished* the game wasn't as close as the final score indicated.    Whether F&M played well or Dickinson played down, I definitely thought it was close.

But certainly everyone is entitled to their own impressions and interpretations of a game. I was just sharing mine -- and for what it's worth, I'm probably more unbiased than 99.9% of the rest of the people in attendance.