FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[oshfb]

UWO started out slow this season sneaking by Central 24-20. I chalk that up to numerous new starters on the defense. They seem to have come into their own since then allowing more than 13 pts only once against Stout. Maybe O'Grady was able to provide some valuable insight to the Stout staff after spending a few seasons at UWO. Who knows.

UWO has definitly kept it interesting the past 2 seasons and I expect to see that again this year.

Historical Results
2012: UWO wins 28-13
2011: UWW wins 20-17 after being down 17-10 at half
2010: UWW wins 48-21
2009: UWW wins 40-7
2008: UWW wins 44-3
2007: UWW wins 26-14
2006: UWW wins 17-3

UWW offense has sure been on a roll though lately...42+ points in the last 5 games. Impressive. Lets see if the Titan D can pulloff what Wash U was able to do week 1.

[hazzben]

It was a part of the discussion about which are the strongest conferences. I was hoping for a better Non-con record from the WIAC (quality of opponents notwithstanding) to make a case for the MIAC and WIAC being the 2 best. Rank them as you will. The OAC and CCIW have to be considered as well.

The OAC is very good at the top, but the bottom of the conference is horrid.   

The same is true of the CCIW this year. 3 excellent teams at the top (NCC, Wheaton & IWU) and then a bunch of teams sitting at 1-5. The difference being the CCIW's bottom group is larger.

We'll see as the season progresses which conference has the better top teams.

@bleedpurple:

Those are valid points. The only thing I'd throw into the mix there would be that the psyche of a team at 0-0 or 0-1 is totally different than that of the same team several weeks later at 0-5 or 0-6.

Hope springs anew for every program at the start of the season. But for a team like UWRF (having struggled the previous years), that hope likely fades fairly quickly when the losses pile up. UWEC is probably a bit different. They've struggled against UST and SJU the past two years and still clawed their way back to a few wins in the WIAC. But, with Stout, UWL and UWRF still to play, that could happen this year as well.

Tough duty for coaches to keep a team engaged, working and competing when it gets to that 0-3+ point. Some guys checkout, especially as the mid-semester homework intensifies. Some guys start going through the motions. Some guys start expecting bad things/breaks to happen. The really mentally tough guys keep battling and improve. Those are the teams that you see make surprising jumps from one season to the next. The seeds are planted the previous year during the struggle. They've been refined.

Gustavus Adolphus is a good example of that in the MIAC. The wins haven't been there, but Haugen has kept the team engaged and they've gotten better each year. Now they sit at 4-2 and they've been very competitive in both losses.

[WarhawkDad]

UWO started out slow this season sneaking by Central 24-20. I chalk that up to numerous new starters on the defense. They seem to have come into their own since then allowing more than 13 pts only once against Stout. Maybe O'Grady was able to provide some valuable insight to the Stout staff after spending a few seasons at UWO. Who knows.

UWO has definitly kept it interesting the past 2 seasons and I expect to see that again this year.

Historical Results
2012: UWO wins 28-13
2011: UWW wins 20-17 after being down 17-10 at half
2010: UWW wins 48-21
2009: UWW wins 40-7
2008: UWW wins 44-3
2007: UWW wins 26-14
2006: UWW wins 17-3

UWW offense has sure been on a roll though lately...42+ points in the last 5 games. Impressive. Lets see if the Titan D can pulloff what Wash U was able to do week 1.

The offense UWW ran against Wash U was the 2012 offense.   The offense UWW has run since the Wash U game is unlike any offense I have seen them run, but it is most like the 2009 offense, balanced, potential of a big play every down, playmakers at all skill positions.   

From a defensive standpoint, this defense may be the best defense I have seen UWW play with.  It is at minimum equal to the 2010 and 2011 defense, although I think it is a faster defense than either of those.

Anything can happen and it is going to be a fun game and wish I could be there.

WarhawkDad

[bleedpurple]

UWO started out slow this season sneaking by Central 24-20. I chalk that up to numerous new starters on the defense. They seem to have come into their own since then allowing more than 13 pts only once against Stout. Maybe O'Grady was able to provide some valuable insight to the Stout staff after spending a few seasons at UWO. Who knows.

UWO has definitly kept it interesting the past 2 seasons and I expect to see that again this year.

Historical Results
2012: UWO wins 28-13
2011: UWW wins 20-17 after being down 17-10 at half
2010: UWW wins 48-21
2009: UWW wins 40-7
2008: UWW wins 44-3
2007: UWW wins 26-14
2006: UWW wins 17-3

UWW offense has sure been on a roll though lately...42+ points in the last 5 games. Impressive. Lets see if the Titan D can pulloff what Wash U was able to do week 1.

The offense UWW ran against Wash U was the 2012 offense.   The offense UWW has run since the Wash U game is unlike any offense I have seen them run, but it is most like the 2009 offense, balanced, potential of a big play every down, playmakers at all skill positions.   

From a defensive standpoint, this defense may be the best defense I have seen UWW play with.  It is at minimum equal to the 2010 and 2011 defense, although I think it is a faster defense than either of those.

Anything can happen and it is going to be a fun game and wish I could be there.

WarhawkDad

At the risk of agreeing with everyone and thereby making this a worthless post, I agree with Emma. It is good to get the UW-O perspective.  While indeed, UW-W fans are fired up, I believe it is warranted.  With the playmakers on offense and the quality of the UW-W defense, it is a really easy team to believe in and get excited about. I agree also with Warhawkdad.  UW-O will have a much different task than Wash U faced.  There's a bunch of reasons for that.

By no means is my excitement or confidence meant to disrespect UW-O in any way. They are the defending conference champs and deserve the respect that goes with that.  They beat UW-W last year and they deserve the respect that goes with that.  They are also 6-0 and the best opponent UW-W has faced all year. They also have talented playmakers. Their running back and wide receivers will be the best the UW-W defense has faced all year.  Their defense will likely be the best UW-W has faced all year. 

Do I believe UW-W will win? Yes. Not because of any weakness on the part of UW-O. And not simply because UW-W has blown out inferior teams.  I believe UW-W will win because I have seen an execution level, talent level, coaching level, and chemistry level out of UW-W that compares favorably to their National Championship teams. I am not saying they are as good as those teams, but they are comparable.  And only very special D3 teams over the past decade have been able to stand up to it.  The one caveat I would throw into this whole thing is that UW-W is very young on offense.  They will very likely start no seniors on Saturday.  For the quarterback, the offensive line, and the running backs, this will be the biggest game of their lives.  How will they respond?  To me, that's one of the things that make D3 football so much fun. 

To wrap up this long-winded post, I will say this. I firmly believe UW-W will play at a high level. If UW-O is good enough to beat them, then my hat is off to them.  In my opinion, it would be a much greater accomplishment even than beating UW-W last year. 

Is it really only Tuesday? You've got to be kidding me.... 

[badgerwarhawk]

I shutter to think what you will be putting out by Friday.   

[bleedpurple]

I shutter to think what you will be putting out by Friday.   

You shutter or you shudder?   

Poor Lance, you'd really cringe if you read what I sent emailed him. 

Maybe I need to do a self-imposed black-out until next week.  Of course then we play Platteville....

[WarhawkDad]

I shutter to think what you will be putting out by Friday.   

You shutter or you shudder?   

Poor Lance, you'd really cringe if you read what I sent emailed him. 

Maybe I need to do a self-imposed black-out until next week.  Of course then we play Platteville....

Bleed

Not sure you could survive a self-imposed black-out until next week!   

[bleedpurple]

I shutter to think what you will be putting out by Friday.   

You shutter or you shudder?   

Poor Lance, you'd really cringe if you read what I sent emailed him. 

Maybe I need to do a self-imposed black-out until next week.  Of course then we play Platteville....

Bleed

Not sure you could survive a self-imposed black-out until next week!   

Not to mention my wife and kids.  Probably better to dump some of my obsession here! 

[Raider 68]

Have not posted on this board in while, but from a non-WIAC perspective, I concur with Bleedpurple
on his accessment. The Warhawks, in my view have been quietly getting back to their championship
form and will be a real power heading into the playoffs. IMHO, they will win against a very good
Oshkosh team this Saturday. Our OAC Pickems has them at 10.5 and they will cover that.
They will also win the conference this year, but have some tough games remaining.

[emma17]

Have not posted on this board in while, but from a non-WIAC perspective, I concur with Bleedpurple
on his accessment. The Warhawks, in my view have been quietly getting back to their championship
form and will be a real power heading into the playoffs. IMHO, they will win against a very good
Oshkosh team this Saturday. Our OAC Pickems has them at 10.5 and they will cover that.
They will also win the conference this year, but have some tough games remaining.

Raider 68- thanks for the UWW support.
I haven't checked your performance in the OAC Pickems so I hope you're right much more often than you're wrong.
I'm looking forward to the OAC slugfest coming up next weekend.

[bleedpurple]

It was a part of the discussion about which are the strongest conferences. I was hoping for a better Non-con record from the WIAC (quality of opponents notwithstanding) to make a case for the MIAC and WIAC being the 2 best. Rank them as you will. The OAC and CCIW have to be considered as well.

The OAC is very good at the top, but the bottom of the conference is horrid.   

The same is true of the CCIW this year. 3 excellent teams at the top (NCC, Wheaton & IWU) and then a bunch of teams sitting at 1-5. The difference being the CCIW's bottom group is larger.

We'll see as the season progresses which conference has the better top teams.

@bleedpurple:

Those are valid points. The only thing I'd throw into the mix there would be that the psyche of a team at 0-0 or 0-1 is totally different than that of the same team several weeks later at 0-5 or 0-6.

Hope springs anew for every program at the start of the season. But for a team like UWRF (having struggled the previous years), that hope likely fades fairly quickly when the losses pile up. UWEC is probably a bit different. They've struggled against UST and SJU the past two years and still clawed their way back to a few wins in the WIAC. But, with Stout, UWL and UWRF still to play, that could happen this year as well.

Tough duty for coaches to keep a team engaged, working and competing when it gets to that 0-3+ point. Some guys checkout, especially as the mid-semester homework intensifies. Some guys start going through the motions. Some guys start expecting bad things/breaks to happen. The really mentally tough guys keep battling and improve. Those are the teams that you see make surprising jumps from one season to the next. The seeds are planted the previous year during the struggle. They've been refined.

Gustavus Adolphus is a good example of that in the MIAC. The wins haven't been there, but Haugen has kept the team engaged and they've gotten better each year. Now they sit at 4-2 and they've been very competitive in both losses.

Hazz,

I agree with what you are throwing in the mix. It's not necessarily apples vs apples. And I'm not making an argument about specific WIAC teams "therefore" being better than MIAC counterparts. However, for anyone looking at the WIAC's 13-11 OOC record and questioning the WIAC's strength, I would think the data I provided would cause pause before getting on that train.  That's all I was looking to point out. It would be fun to look at 1's vs 1's and 2's vs 2s of various conferences and see who we think would win the most.  I think we did a little of that from last year with WIAC/MIAC. Obviously subjective, but a fun way to pass time until Saturday. I'm pretty sure Saturday will get here, right? RIGHT? 

[bleedpurple]

Have not posted on this board in while, but from a non-WIAC perspective, I concur with Bleedpurple
on his accessment. The Warhawks, in my view have been quietly getting back to their championship
form and will be a real power heading into the playoffs. IMHO, they will win against a very good
Oshkosh team this Saturday. Our OAC Pickems has them at 10.5 and they will cover that.
They will also win the conference this year, but have some tough games remaining.

Raider 68- thanks for the UWW support.
I haven't checked your performance in the OAC Pickems so I hope you're right much more often than you're wrong.
I'm looking forward to the OAC slugfest coming up next weekend.

Emma, he's just playing it safe agreeing with me.  (For those who still don't get my humor, I'm KIDDING!).

I'm actually pretty impressed with observers like 68, the D3fanpoll, and D3football.com poll (not to mention the pick-ems that have point spreads).  I thought UW-W would have to beat UW-O and UW-P before people nationally to start believing in them again.  Obviously, people pay pretty close attention and know their stuff. (For those of you who still don't get my humor, I'm NOT kidding. )

[02 Warhawk]

It was a part of the discussion about which are the strongest conferences. I was hoping for a better Non-con record from the WIAC (quality of opponents notwithstanding) to make a case for the MIAC and WIAC being the 2 best. Rank them as you will. The OAC and CCIW have to be considered as well.

The OAC is very good at the top, but the bottom of the conference is horrid.   

The same is true of the CCIW this year. 3 excellent teams at the top (NCC, Wheaton & IWU) and then a bunch of teams sitting at 1-5. The difference being the CCIW's bottom group is larger.

We'll see as the season progresses which conference has the better top teams.

@bleedpurple:

Those are valid points. The only thing I'd throw into the mix there would be that the psyche of a team at 0-0 or 0-1 is totally different than that of the same team several weeks later at 0-5 or 0-6.

Hope springs anew for every program at the start of the season. But for a team like UWRF (having struggled the previous years), that hope likely fades fairly quickly when the losses pile up. UWEC is probably a bit different. They've struggled against UST and SJU the past two years and still clawed their way back to a few wins in the WIAC. But, with Stout, UWL and UWRF still to play, that could happen this year as well.

Tough duty for coaches to keep a team engaged, working and competing when it gets to that 0-3+ point. Some guys checkout, especially as the mid-semester homework intensifies. Some guys start going through the motions. Some guys start expecting bad things/breaks to happen. The really mentally tough guys keep battling and improve. Those are the teams that you see make surprising jumps from one season to the next. The seeds are planted the previous year during the struggle. They've been refined.

Gustavus Adolphus is a good example of that in the MIAC. The wins haven't been there, but Haugen has kept the team engaged and they've gotten better each year. Now they sit at 4-2 and they've been very competitive in both losses.

Hazz,

I agree with what you are throwing in the mix. It's not necessarily apples vs apples. And I'm not making an argument about specific WIAC teams "therefore" being better than MIAC counterparts. However, for anyone looking at the WIAC's 13-11 OOC record and questioning the WIAC's strength, I would think the data I provided would cause pause before getting on that train.  That's all I was looking to point out. It would be fun to look at 1's vs 1's and 2's vs 2s of various conferences and see who we think would win the most.  I think we did a little of that from last year with WIAC/MIAC. Obviously subjective, but a fun way to pass time until Saturday. I'm pretty sure Saturday will get here, right? RIGHT? 

Before comparing the 1's vs 1's, 2's vs 2's of various conferences.....It's a debate in itself to see who the #1, #2 and #3 teams even are right now in the WIAC.

I suppose two weeks from now we'll have a better understanding.

[WarhawkDad]

Actually

I wonder how all three unbeated WIAC teams; UWW, UWO and UWP would do against Bethel and North Central, since the MIAC and the CCIW are often considered two of the top conferences.    Out of those six games how many would the WIAC win?

WHD

[02 Warhawk]

Actually

I wonder how all three unbeated WIAC teams; UWW, UWO and UWP would do against Bethel and North Central, since the MIAC and the CCIW are often considered two of the top conferences.    Out of those six games how many would the WIAC win?

WHD

Very tough to say....maybe 3-3. For some reason Bethel was never a team that really scared me. I went to the Oshkosh/Bethel game last year in the playoffs, and Oshkosh just destroyed them.