FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[WarhawkDad]

Uw-Eau Claire football is a joke, terrible coaching, no discipline, same old boring, non creative offense.  Hopefully a whole new staff by next year.

Sign up for an account. First post ripping on program. You pretty much identified yourself as a disgruntled player or the parent of a disgruntled player.

Something I've noticed with this type is that they never have any useful suggestions.  They're usually just here to bitch and complain.

I went to a game at a mediocre (not as bad as UWEC, but not very good, either) Division II school a few years ago.  Sitting behind me were the parents of the team's starting halfback.  Almost every time the halfback carried the ball in the first half, the father had some comment.  If he got stuffed for a loss, the father yelled "Turn the page, coach!" (i.e. go to the next page of the playbook); if he ran for a nice gain, he'd grumble that his son should be getting the ball more.  It was almost funny.  No matter what the coach called, he was wrong.

Evaluating a coaching staff's play-calling is too often confounded by the outcome and talent on hand. 

When a very strong team runs a simple, straightforward, smash-mouth offense with great success, the read on that is usually "Man, those guys are so well-coached, the offense is so simple but you just can't stop it."  But when a struggling team attempts to do the same, the coaches are criticized as "boring" or "uncreative" with some genius insight like "Gosh, they always get stuffed when they try that running play" (as though football only consists of "run" and "pass" plays).

Likewise, when a very strong team runs a complex, innovative scheme with great success, the read on that is "Man, those guys are so hard to prepare for, their offense is just constantly changing and you never know what's coming next."  When a struggling team attempts to do the same, the coaches are criticized for being too fancy, not sticking with what works, or not being decisive enough to let the kids run the offense with confidence.

"Boring" and "uncreative" offenses can work very well.  So can "exciting" and "creative" offenses.  It's definitely a mark of a good coaching staff to recognize their team's strength and maximize it while minimizing the weaknesses, but that can only go so far.  One team's "boring" offense is another team's simple, successful smash-mouth scheme.

It's also the misconception that play calling and coaches decisions can completely overcome your team's lack of talent. A coach can try to put his players in the best possible position to succeed, but if you just aren't very good it doesn't matter what you call.

Just once I wish I'd hear a parent shout from the bleachers "Hey, coach! Recruit kids more talented than my son next year!" At least they would be being honest with themselves.

+k   Had similar thoughts sitting in the stands on more than one occasion.

[bulk19]

Uw-Eau Claire football is a joke, terrible coaching, no discipline, same old boring, non creative offense.  Hopefully a whole new staff by next year.

Sign up for an account. First post ripping on program. You pretty much identified yourself as a disgruntled player or the parent of a disgruntled player.

If you want to hang around and join the discussion, then great, but more than likely you just want to make a hit-and-run job, so we'll gladly file away your opinion in the circular file.

If he's a disgruntled player, wouldn't that mean there are gruntled players on the Blugold team. 
I wouldn't necessarily assume the poster is a player or parent, but... My hunch is that the opinion expressed is one that is probably shared by many Blugold backers at the moment, though...
Anyway, it's nice to see such a warm welcome here for him/her, though...

[Just Bill]

That person had no intention of coming back. They did what they wanted to do.

Those who want to be part of the community are always welcome. Those who want to throw cheap shots, IMO, aren't.

[bulk19]

That person had no intention of coming back. They did what they wanted to do.

Those who want to be part of the community are always welcome. Those who want to throw cheap shots, IMO, aren't.

So you know who the poster is then, and his/her intentions?
If not, then didn't you perhaps just take a cheap shot at someone?

[emma17]

That person had no intention of coming back. They did what they wanted to do.

Those who want to be part of the community are always welcome. Those who want to throw cheap shots, IMO, aren't.

So you know who the poster is then, and his/her intentions?
If not, then didn't you perhaps just take a cheap shot at someone?

Before Ret or some other poster comes along to claim how mean the UWW people are, I'm going on record to say: I welcome the opinion of bluegoldbacker (unless he's ragging on Matt Blanchard  ) and any other new poster.  If the newcomer is going to come in firing at a program, it would be helpful, but not mandatory, to build some community first. 

[emma17]

This is a complete non-football related post and probably one of such randomness that it may be used against me for the balance of my D3 boards life.

During the bottom of the 8th inning last night, all the discussion was focused on whether Harvey would be allowed to pitch the 9th- and the camera was on him very often while in the dugout. 
As the third Met out was made, Harvey stood up and turned his back to the camera.  He proceeded to reach down w his right hand and then shook his arm in the identical way a guy does when packing a tin of chewing tobacco.  His arm then went toward his face, but the camera was at his back so no way to know with certainty he was putting a chew in.  He then raced out of the dugout onto the mound.  I could see his bottom lip was tight to his teeth, as though he was keeping the ol chew in place.  He walked the first batter and then gave up a double.
I don't know why that caught my attention, but it did.  I looked back on a couple previous innings to see his face while he was on the mound, and it was clear his lower lip wasn't tight to his teeth.  I didn't look back at every inning, only a couple. 

I don't know if he chewed during other parts of the game, but it got me to thinking about the mindset of a guy with so much pressure.  If he hadn't put a chew in during the rest of the game, did he feel it was something that would give him an extra boost to pitch the 9th?  And what if he won the game, how would he have been able to hide that chew in his mouth as his teammates and reporters would have been all over him?  I'm pretty sure MLB strongly opposes the use of chewing tobacco during the game, so he had to do the mental gymnastics of intentionally hiding it while using it- and he had to do this as he was preparing to pitch the most important inning of the 2015 season for the Mets. 

The whole aspect of it seemed really odd to me.   

[emma17]

"An Undefeated Iowa"-
This is really funny:
http://collegespun.com/big-ten/iowa/alabama-fan-makes-talk-to-your-kids-about-undefeated-iowa-video

[emma17]

If you've already seen these, I apologize, but too funny to pass up. 
Iowa's Reply:
http://collegespun.com/big-ten/iowa/iowa-fans-troll-entire-sec-with-talk-to-your-kids-video

[WarhawkDad]

If you've already seen these, I apologize, but too funny to pass up. 
Iowa's Reply:
http://collegespun.com/big-ten/iowa/iowa-fans-troll-entire-sec-with-talk-to-your-kids-video

Hilarious!   Thanks for sharing... 

[Just the stats]

The Warhawks' 63-0 win over Eau Claire Saturday was the largest margin of victory in any WIAC conference game (all WIAC games, not just UW-W games) in over 45 years. Platteville beat Stout 70-6 on October 10, 1970.

Not to nitpick, but Stevens Point beat Oshkosh 76-6 in 1993. The Pointers had everything rolling that day!

[Just the stats]

The WIAC has had some amazing successes, and some not so amazing. While looking through the conference-only records on the WIAC page, this one jumps off the page: in 1989, Superior gave up 447 points--in 8 conference games. That's more than 55 per game! No wonder they dropped football soon after.

[wsuc/wiac fan]

Unless uwec pulls a major upset, they will be winless and 3-18 over the last three conference seasons. While they have played a quite tough non- conference schedule recently, the fact remains that they have been a poor football team during that span. Uwec should be able to field a respectable squad every year. However, it is also worth pointing out that, barring a major upset, the four "western" teams will finish 0-16 against Uwo, Uww, Uwp, and uwsp. I would like to see the league return to at least a semblance of its former balance, but a number of factors are working against this goal.

[ScreamingEagles]

Unless uwec pulls a major upset, they will be winless and 3-18 over the last three conference seasons. While they have played a quite tough non- conference schedule recently, the fact remains that they have been a poor football team during that span. Uwec should be able to field a respectable squad every year. However, it is also worth pointing out that, barring a major upset, the four "western" teams will finish 0-16 against Uwo, Uww, Uwp, and uwsp. I would like to see the league return to at least a semblance of its former balance, but a number of factors are working against this goal.

Which are?

[wsuc/wiac fan]

Well, opinions will vary considerably. In 1998 uwrf hammered d2 bemidji state 45-14 in the metrodome game. Bemidji coach tesch said-I am paraphrasing from memory- something like this in the bemidji paper: uwrf is a legit d3 team in a legit d3 league. But there are no d2 teams in wis and many wis kids want to play close to home. As a result, the league has quite a few players who could play in d2. Lacrosse, for example, had considerable success against d2 Winona state until 1998. Then wsu won four straight and the series was dropped. The nsic has upgraded overall in the past 15 years or so. It seems to me that many more d2- type  wis players are playing in the nsic since they have upgraded and they apparently have more scholarship money now.  In my opinion, many of these players would have chosen uwec, uw stout, uwrf, or Uwl back in the day.  On the other hand, how many players in a Uww- mt union championship game could be playing somewhere in d2? Quite a few.
This is not the only factor, but I think it is an important one.

[hazzben]

Well, opinions will vary considerably. In 1998 uwrf hammered d2 bemidji state 45-14 in the metrodome game. Bemidji coach tesch said-I am paraphrasing from memory- something like this in the bemidji paper: uwrf is a legit d3 team in a legit d3 league. But there are no d2 teams in wis and many wis kids want to play close to home. As a result, the league has quite a few players who could play in d2. Lacrosse, for example, had considerable success against d2 Winona state until 1998. Then wsu won four straight and the series was dropped. The nsic has upgraded overall in the past 15 years or so. It seems to me that many more d2- type  wis players are playing in the nsic since they have upgraded and they apparently have more scholarship money now.  In my opinion, many of these players would have chosen uwec, uw stout, uwrf, or Uwl back in the day.  On the other hand, how many players in a Uww- mt union championship game could be playing somewhere in d2? Quite a few.
This is not the only factor, but I think it is an important one.

I think there's probably something to this.

When the North Central Conference had all of its power teams (UND, NDSU, SDSU) jump up to FCS it created a power vacuum in the D2 world, especially in the upper midwest. UMD, MSU, Winona and SCSU have all benefited from those teams jumping up a division (and not just in football). All of those schools are a good deal closer to Wisconsin than the old powers were. That, combined with the fact the 'old powers' now have more scholarship to offer and have also increased their own recruiting radius, might explain some of it.

I think coaching and/or institutional support, probably has a lot to do with it as well. You guys know the details better than I, but didn't Terry step down at Lax in some degree as a protest against dwindling budget, staff and support? The scuttlebutt I've heard about UWEC's coach isn't glowing, and that was from day one of the hire, not just after the slide into WIAC obscurity.