FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[emma17]

Great victory by the UWW players yesterday. Stopping UWP twice in the last five minutes of the game was gritty.
This season is a real bummer for the players as there seems to be a disconnect between the coaching style and the players.

UWW offense still a giant headscratcher. 9 runs by receivers for a total of 5 yards. The last run by a wide receiver was at the UWW 4 on third and 8, tackled for a safety with  2:30 left leading 17-14. Was the safety intentional? I don't know. I do know the run plays to the wide receiver are intentional. This is a program with the strongest tradition of excellent running backs, and they are deep this year. Yet, no carries by any running back other than the starter Patterson- and 9 to the receivers.
29% on 3rd down conversions.
Yes, there were at least two long balls dropped. That's the risk with the long ball, lower completion rate, for all kinds of reasons. 

[UWO Titan 78]

Proud to be a Titan. WIAC titles are very difficult to win, and I couldn't be happier for the Titans. Hecker was in uniform on Saturday, so hopefully he will get some carries v. Stout and be ready to go in the playoffs. Let's get a win this weekend and hopefully stay healthy. Hail Titans!

[USee]

Bids go to teams, not conferences.

Pat,

While I generally agree and the criteria are laid out to analyze teams vs conferences, I remember the national chair going on record after the field was set a few years back as saying "XYZ conference was not getting 3 teams into the playoffs".

[02 Warhawk]

UWW offense still a giant headscratcher. 9 runs by receivers for a total of 5 yards. The last run by a wide receiver was at the UWW 4 on third and 8, tackled for a safety with  2:30 left leading 17-14. Was the safety intentional? I don't know. I do know the run plays to the wide receiver are intentional.

What was the play, an end around or something to Larson? I was watching the stats on my phone as it happened and I saw the play appear as: Larson rush, minus 4 yards, SAFETY....and I thought WTF was that!!!! Not sure that's the best play to call when you backed up against your own goal line. I highly doubt the safety was intentional. All needed UWP needed was to get into FG range being down by 1, with 2 minutes left on the clock and the ball at mid field (roughly). Luckily our defense came away with some huge stops.

One more game then onto next season.

[emma17]

UWW offense still a giant headscratcher. 9 runs by receivers for a total of 5 yards. The last run by a wide receiver was at the UWW 4 on third and 8, tackled for a safety with  2:30 left leading 17-14. Was the safety intentional? I don't know. I do know the run plays to the wide receiver are intentional.

What was the play, an end around or something to Larson? I was watching the stats on my phone as it happened and I saw the play appear as: Larson rush, minus 4 yards, SAFETY....and I thought WTF was that!!!! Not sure that's the best play to call when you backed up against your own goal line. I highly doubt the safety was intentional. All needed UWP needed was to get into FG range being down by 1, with 2 minutes left on the clock and the ball at mid field (roughly). Luckily our defense came away with some huge stops.

One more game then onto next season.

02- I'm doing my best to give the benefit of the doubt to UWW's offensive coordinator. I know I've been on his case all season and I want to believe there is something I'm not getting.

9 running plays to receivers including the Larson play out of the end zone. The fact that the OC could even consider calling such a play (by the way, Larson is a good athlete but he's nowhere near the runner the other UWW RB's are) is the clearest indication I've seen to date that his philosophy is way too far askew from what UWW is as a team.
None of us know whether Wilbur would have been successful if given a chance to run the traditional UWW offense he probably thought would be in place when he committed.
29% third down conversion happens when you mix handoffs to receivers with low percentage deep balls.
One last point. It's unusual to get offensive holding penalties with a quick passing game. It's more common on slow developing plays, which is all part of Smith's stretch the field approach.

[UWO Titan 78]

I liked Coach Smith when he was the Titan OC. I thought Nate Wara was the perfect match at QB for his creativity as a play caller. Maybe Nate's abilities made those gimmick plays easier to call and execute. I believe Smith is the recruiting coordinator, so he should be able to recruit the personnel to better fit his philosophy. I don't typically watch the Warhawks, except when they play the Titans or advance in the playoffs. From what I've seen, the Warhawk offense has the second most talent in the WIAC from what I've seen, so there appears to be a disconnect. I would still put the onus on the head coach to identify what philosophy is best for the team, and mandate that the OC call plays that adhere to that policy.

[02 Warhawk]

I liked Coach Smith when he was the Titan OC. I thought Nate Wara was the perfect match at QB for his creativity as a play caller. Maybe Nate's abilities made those gimmick plays easier to call and execute. I believe Smith is the recruiting coordinator, so he should be able to recruit the personnel to better fit his philosophy. I don't typically watch the Warhawks, except when they play the Titans or advance in the playoffs. From what I've seen, the Warhawk offense has the second most talent in the WIAC from what I've seen, so there appears to be a disconnect. I would still put the onus on the head coach to identify what philosophy is best for the team, and mandate that the OC call plays that adhere to that policy.

I would much rather have an OC that matches the style that was already established at UWW. I mean the offensive scheme that was already in place took us to 9 Stagg Bowls in 10 years...why change it? No offense to what Smith did at Oshkosh, but UWW doesn't need to turn into that to win. Especially since they talked about not changing things when the new coaching regime came on.

But I agree about the head coach, it comes down to him selecting a coordinator that's best for the program.

[emma17]

I liked Coach Smith when he was the Titan OC. I thought Nate Wara was the perfect match at QB for his creativity as a play caller. Maybe Nate's abilities made those gimmick plays easier to call and execute. I believe Smith is the recruiting coordinator, so he should be able to recruit the personnel to better fit his philosophy. I don't typically watch the Warhawks, except when they play the Titans or advance in the playoffs. From what I've seen, the Warhawk offense has the second most talent in the WIAC from what I've seen, so there appears to be a disconnect. I would still put the onus on the head coach to identify what philosophy is best for the team, and mandate that the OC call plays that adhere to that policy.

I would much rather have an OC that matches the style that was already established at UWW. I mean the offensive scheme that was already in place took us to 9 Stagg Bowls in 10 years...why change it? No offense to what Smith did at Oshkosh, but UWW doesn't need to turn into that to win. Especially since they talked about not changing things when the new coaching regime came on.

But I agree about the head coach, it comes down to him selecting a coordinator that's best for the program.

You guys bring up a great point about the responsibility of the head coach in all of this. I've been operating under an assumption that I realize may be totally inaccurate and that is: Coach Bullis has neither played nor coached on the offensive side of the ball in his entire career. If this is true, I can envision he delegates 100% of the authority to Coach Smith, including accepting Coach Smith's proposed concepts. I think that's a problem if true, a big problem.

I wonder, is Coach Bullis aware of the play call in advance? Did he know Coach Smith called a slow developing hand-off to a 6'2", 210 lb receiver running laterally in their own end zone? If so...

[Pat Coleman]

Bids go to teams, not conferences.

Pat,

While I generally agree and the criteria are laid out to analyze teams vs conferences, I remember the national chair going on record after the field was set a few years back as saying "XYZ conference was not getting 3 teams into the playoffs".

And yet ... did that hold up last year? That's a highly paraphrased version of what was said -- I believe what was actually said was, "With X (was it six?) at-large bids, it was highly unlikely two of them would go to one conference."

[USee]

Bids go to teams, not conferences.

Pat,

While I generally agree and the criteria are laid out to analyze teams vs conferences, I remember the national chair going on record after the field was set a few years back as saying "XYZ conference was not getting 3 teams into the playoffs".

And yet ... did that hold up last year? That's a highly paraphrased version of what was said -- I believe what was actually said was, "With X (was it six?) at-large bids, it was highly unlikely two of them would go to one conference."

We were both off a little. Just checked. It was 2013 when the Chair said something close to "With 5 pool C's we weren't giving 3 to one region". That was when Wabash got left at the table. It was later clarified to be a mathematical improbability that one region would get 3 when only 5 were given out that year.

[emma17]

I get that it's improbable, as long as it's not intentionally (as in manipulation) improbable.

[emma17]

Last game of the season (unless...) has me wondering if we will see more subs should game be in control. I'm surprised we haven't seen backup QB Ryan Curran (assuming he is the backup).

This will be last game for both tight ends and several O Linemen. I hope they go out with a bang.
Maybe this can be a 10 catch day for Gumina.
Hudson, a senior, will probably get his touches, especially with Smith's love of the wide receiver sweep.

[Pat Coleman]

Latest regional rankings are out:
http://www.d3football.com/playoffs/2017/second-regional-ranking

[WRMUalum13]

Latest regional rankings are out:
http://www.d3football.com/playoffs/2017/second-regional-ranking

Wow, very surprised UWW didn't get ranked despite beating UWP last week.

[emma17]

Latest regional rankings are out:
http://www.d3football.com/playoffs/2017/second-regional-ranking

Wow, very surprised UWW didn't get ranked despite beating UWP last week.

I'll pass on what I learned on the comments page. There appears to be a rule (assume unwritten but not unspoken) that any team with a win percentage below .667 cannot make the top 10 regional ranking. The assumption is with a victory Saturday UWW will break into the rankings.
It will be very interesting given UWL has a game w tough UWRF and Concordia-Moorhead plays St. John's.