FB: Middle Atlantic Conference

[PA_wesleyfan]

ExTartan


You're a CB West grad from that era?  I was a kid during the big CB West powerhouse days and remember watching their teams in the AAAA title games.  I thought Dustin Picciotti was going to play in the NFL.

He went to Pitt but concussed out before he ever stepped on  the field for a game

[MonroviaCat]

Monroviacat

Understood, and the core posters (for the most part) certainly weren't disrespectful, but when you look at the tenor of the board, and see terms such as:
"That is funny MC. So the Pride's coach had an excuse the boys in the booth didn't use? Im sure they would have had they known. Kind of sad to be honest, what did he think? Chip slipped Coach Smith the master game plan of the pride?
or
Great game today Cats. Total domination on both sides of the ball."
or
"but to bring it up publicly with anger after totally getting drilled??? "
or
"Outside of the east region its been thought of as pretty weak for years now."  followed by "Then there could/should be a new formula where they don't get home games consistently. Just sayin'."
or my favorite...
"What a loser of a coach, he must be buddies with Ben McEnroe. Sorry coach, you just ran into the Linfield buzzsaw. and Just a reminder that the east region is overrated."
Was disappointed that D.O.C. who has been nice all week, mocked our Video/Radio crew...who BTW get little support from the University...
"And more homer announcers."...

Maybe I was just oversensitive last night...

In any case, I do hope Linfield does well (read into it wins) against UWW.  In a weird sense, their success, kind of validates WU's season...Personally, I don't have a real good feeling about it, comparing 2012's loss to MU, to this one...but understand they all are completely different teams.  Would also note that it would be great for the Linfield family to win for Parker Moore and his family.  That's really helpful for the healing process...

Also as a last note, was able to meet Wildcat 11 yesterday.  He took 5 minutes out from his filming duties to talk football, the team, and Philly.  Class guy, and represents your program in the best manner.  I know you are all proud to have him associated with the program, and he does a great job...although It will be too painful to watch the highlights he produces for this game...

Fair enough---in defense of DOC, he complains about all the announcers, including our own (which I'm very guilty of) on occasion.  I actually thought the Widener guys were too hard on their own team yesterday and didn't give enough credit to Linfield in some cases----they complained a lot about not getting the ball to Davis.  Having only the videocast to go by (an no replays) I'd assume that the Cats did a good job of taking him out of the game (perhaps your onsite eyes can comment on this)......aside from that, they did about as good a job as any other teams broadcasters especially given that it was obviously with minimal resources available.....  Anyway, congrats again on a good season.  It was fun to see the Cats face a new opponent with a lot of quality players!

[Pat Coleman]

All Chip Kelly did was allow a team to use the practice facility. That's nothing -- lots of coaches do that.

[D3MAFAN]

I watched the full game yesterday, hats off to Linfield. I think Widener loss this game due to okay coaching and bad quarterback play. How do you not scheme to get you best player the ball. Widener was able to run the ball effectively when they actually committed to it but would throw the ball three straight times with a struggling quarterback after not having success throwing it. I think Linfield experience playing in the playoffs year in and year out tremendously effected the game. Linfield utilized its best players to maximize their opportunities and capitalized, Widener not so much. The score did not reflect what was indicate how tough the Widener D played, they created turnovers, made some stout plays, the offensive game plan was just not adequate. Also, kudos to Linfield D-Line, they were putting on a clinic on Widener O-Line in passing situations, I think I saw every defensive technique used. Congrats to Widener on a great season, I just think playoff coaching experience showed.

[jmcozenlaw]

ExTartan


You're a CB West grad from that era?  I was a kid during the big CB West powerhouse days and remember watching their teams in the AAAA title games.  I thought Dustin Picciotti was going to play in the NFL.

He went to Pitt but concussed out before he ever stepped on  the field for a game

It was a real shame about Dustin.............what an incredible high school athlete. He used his head as a battering ram and that was all she wrote!! I grew up and remain close friends with Mike Pettine Jr. and we are all extremely proud that he has 1 of only 32 jobs in the world as an NFL Head Coach............and he takes no krap off of anybody

[jmcozenlaw]

I'm getting ready to watch my beloved, Chip Kelly led Eagles take on the Seahawks after watching Philly's other two pro football teams (St. Joe Prep and Archbishop Wood) yesterday.

bman - Would you say that DelVal's Chris Smallwood was the best running back that Widener faced all year, statistically or not?

Reading your comments about what is necessary to take the Widener program to the next level................I just think it is so hard given the number of not only DIII teams, but DII and DI-AA teams as well.

After looking at the rosters, watching a few games over the past couple of years and talking to coaches in the know.............the teams in this year's Final Four have two dozen or so players who would be playing at the DII level in PA (Bloomsburg, Kutztown, IUP, Slippery Rock, etc.) if not the D1-AA level (think Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, etc.).

You don't want to become the weigh station for D1 transfers to get to the next level (see Rowan in their glory days). Winning a conference championship and a game or two in the NCAA's is an excellent season and yesterday's game doesn't change a thing about that whatsoever, regardless of the comments made by posters who live 3,000 miles away and don't understand the differences in dozen's of schools, at a few different levels, competing for a greater number of, but still not endless supply of game changers.

Without playing the admissions game and the transfer game, there are too many schools within an hour or two drive, competing for a shrinking number of talented football players (see concussions, local high school roster shrinkage and lacrosse) to become a Linfield or Mount Union.

Lastly, to all of those within not only Pacific Northwest, but throughout the country..............Delaware was, is and will always be in the Eastern United States. I have never and will never care what the NCAA has needed to do from a numbers standpoint.

The East does play great football, dispersed (and diluted) amongst a lot of schools at all four levels of collegiate play and the East does have a seat at the DIII Final Four...............

Her name is Wesley

(and little DelVal is ranked fourth in the country, not the East, in wrestling )

[repete]

Without playing the admissions game and the transfer game, there are too many schools within an hour or two drive, competing for a shrinking number of talented football players (see concussions, local high school roster shrinkage and lacrosse) to become a Linfield or Mount Union.

This comes up from time to time, but nobody's sure it's really the case. Yeah, there's a higher density of schools in the East, but there's also of higher population density. (And lax is growing everywhere.) 

I'd love to see a deep report on this. There are an amazing number of factors at play and it's tough to know how much to weigh the factors. Just as an example: in the West, Minnesota has a strong d2 conference to content with, while there are no d2 programs in
Wisconsin and Iowa have one D2 schools between them. How much of a factor? Tough to say, but it's just one of the many considerations any worthwhile examination would need to include.

That said, I like Wesley's a lot this year. I think this is the year they get over the hump. Great program.

[CalCat]

Without playing the admissions game and the transfer game, there are too many schools within an hour or two drive, competing for a shrinking number of talented football players (see concussions, local high school roster shrinkage and lacrosse) to become a Linfield or Mount Union.

This comes up from time to time, but nobody's sure it's really the case. Yeah, there's a higher density of schools in the East, but there's also of higher population density. (And lax is growing everywhere.) 

I'd love to see a deep report on this. There are an amazing number of factors at play and it's tough to know how much to weigh the factors. Just as an example: in the West, Minnesota has a strong d2 conference to content with, while there are no d2 programs in
Wisconsin and Iowa have one D2 schools between them. How much of a factor? Tough to say, but it's just one of the many considerations any worthwhile examination would need to include.

That said, I like Wesley's a lot this year. I think this is the year they get over the hump. Great program.

Population in Pennsylvania 12.7mil...Population in Oregon 3.9mil...High schools in PA. 4389...High schools in Oregon 1370...Linfield has 3 DIII football schools within 20 miles and a 4th within 40 miles...we all have our challenges at the DIII level... that is what makes us so special😀

[wildcat11]

Good to meet you, Bman! Widener is a very talented program. Lots of promise and limited some aspects of the 'Cats yesterday that others haven't been able to do.  Loved my visit to Philly and hope to bring my family back one day to visit the historic sites.

[D O.C.]

DO.C. was nasty to the enthusiastic Widener announcers in the chat column while watching the game. They calmed down and started giving credit to the visiting team. DO.C. calmed down.

I believe Widener to be a ranked team that did let the game get out of control from the kick out the end zone on the bad snap. LINFIELD made some catches in coverage that neither set of announcers were sure were completions until the refs indicated. Could have easily been dropped or intercepted. Read where LINFIELD receivers chose not to wear gloves because of the rain. Sam Riddle threw into triple coverage a couple times and got away with it.
When the #2 Qb Yarbrough came in he ran the ran just like Riddle had been doing. Widener seemed to have stood up straight by that time of the game and just weren't that 12-0 team any more.
Smack talk on the internet is an anonymous dessert not everyone chooses.

[bluenote]

If you want my opinion on the webcast radio personalities.... I thought they were way too hard on their own team....from what I heard.

Go Cats... all the way to Salem.... #35!!!

[bman]

They are typicall Philly area guys... We boo our own teams as readily as we boo others...! ...hey we paid our 8 bucks to get in, why not!  They just do it over the air...

[bman]

bman - Would you say that DelVal's Chris Smallwood was the best running back that Widener faced all year, statistically or not?

He was the best that I saw...but to qualify, I didn't see Needhammer play, as I was traveling on Lyco day...

I was really impressed with Smallwood, and thought he played great against Widener.  He's a hard nosed runner...

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Smallwood is certainly up there... I think Trey Lee from Stevenson is underrated. That being said, this is a smash-mouth league and running the ball is so important. Just look at Wilkes who struggled to control the line of scrimmage this year, forced to throw all of the time, and didn't fare well against the top of the conference.

[bill]

Without playing the admissions game and the transfer game, there are too many schools within an hour or two drive, competing for a shrinking number of talented football players (see concussions, local high school roster shrinkage and lacrosse) to become a Linfield or Mount Union.

This comes up from time to time, but nobody's sure it's really the case. Yeah, there's a higher density of schools in the East, but there's also of higher population density. (And lax is growing everywhere.) 

I'd love to see a deep report on this. There are an amazing number of factors at play and it's tough to know how much to weigh the factors. Just as an example: in the West, Minnesota has a strong d2 conference to content with, while there are no d2 programs in
Wisconsin and Iowa have one D2 schools between them. How much of a factor? Tough to say, but it's just one of the many considerations any worthwhile examination would need to include.

That said, I like Wesley's a lot this year. I think this is the year they get over the hump. Great program.

Population in Pennsylvania 12.7mil...Population in Oregon 3.9mil...High schools in PA. 4389...High schools in Oregon 1370...Linfield has 3 DIII football schools within 20 miles and a 4th within 40 miles...we all have our challenges at the DIII level... that is what makes us so special😀

Saw the facts & figures being thrown around...just want to shed more light on the topic: The above comparison, due to population & density, is very difficult to do - in fact, I'd say it's impossible.

PA has 25 (by my count) D3 schools! Of course, the 4-5 in western PA are certainly not anywhere close to Widener...but using Widener as the center, There are about 35 d3 schools within a 2.5 hour drive when one includes NJ, MD, and yes, the one school in DE.