FB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[retagent]

02 warhawk. I can't answer for Mt Union, but if I can give a little insight from a St John's perspective, that has a program that has been dominant, though maybe not as dominant as MUC, in D III for over 40 years. The quick answer is; Success breeds success. It starts with a coach who is able to get the best out of his players, and create an atmosphere that people want to be a part of. Once you have obtained a certain amout of success, it becomes easier to recruit players who will perpetuate that success. (Read the Austin Murphy book "The Sweet Season" for more insight on that) St John's is also a unique and inviting place to spend four years. I'm not sure about Mt Union in that respect, since I've never been there, but there must be something other than a winning football program that attracts people.

It will be interesting to see if UWW can build on what they have done for the past three years in years to come. I believe it may be harder since there are other WIAC schools that have had success. UWL , except for some off years, seems to be able to do it to some degree. The next few years may tell the tale since I see that UWW will be losing a good number of excellent players this year, in addition to those they lost last year. They have a lot of holes to plug, and if they do this, you will probably see it snowball. The change in coaches may also contribute to some question as to whether a player will go there instaed of somewhere else that may have other attractions to him.

[stealth]

Any given Saturday strange things can happen.  Footballs take strange bounces, key players get hurt, weird calls by the refs, etc. So if anybody is excluding anybody in the top 10 from beating  Mount Union I would ask USC, LSU, Boston College, Cal. etc. what happened ? I'd ask MHB what thier mentality was prior to and after the WW beat down. So many variables.
All the chatter over the last few days about who is the best RB in WIAC history is quite educational if not entertaining. When does the discussion start about the best O lines that opened the holes. Last I checked no openings means no yards.
Old Indian will jump in anytime now with  grammar lessons on the last 15-20 posts and start calling people names so I better go.  

As great as UWW has been over the past three seasons, Mount Union has been 10 times better. I just don't understand how a non-scholarship program can be this dominant over the past decade.

I'm not sure if this topic has already been discussed. But i was just curious on what's in the water over there in Ohio that makes the Purple Raiders a national power house year-in and year-out??

As good a UWW is this year, i don't see them coming within 3 touchdowns of MU if they would meet for the third straight year in the Stagg Bowl.

Can anyone offer any insight???

[Goo 62]

The MVP this year will be Beaver because he is the best player in the conference.  Which will be another 3 peat for the hawks. The fact of the matter is Beaver is better in terms of stats and just as a football player. He will be a 3 time first team all american, 3 time first team all wiac and possible a 2 time gagliardi finalist. Teams load up the box and still cant stop him.  He is the #1 part of UWW offense for the last 3 years.  Justin Jacobs reaped the benefits of teams stacking the box. Dont get me wrong Jacobs deserved POY the last 2 years but Beaver was a very close second and this year he will get it.  Warhawk 96 hit it right on the head as he always does.

J44 thanks for the compliment but I dont know if I should take it from a person with such little football knowledge.
MUC will always be good because success does bring success but it also helps that they can keep 200 players on the roster.  UWW will meet them in the Stagg Bowl and will not lose by 3 TD's.  MUC is a great team but UWW aint to shabby either.

[02 Warhawk]

The MVP this year will be Beaver because he is the best player in the conference.  Which will be another 3 peat for the hawks. The fact of the matter is Beaver is better in terms of stats and just as a football player. He will be a 3 time first team all american, 3 time first team all wiac and possible a 2 time gagliardi finalist. Teams load up the box and still cant stop him.  He is the #1 part of UWW offense for the last 3 years.  Justin Jacobs reaped the benefits of teams stacking the box. Dont get me wrong Jacobs deserved POY the last 2 years but Beaver was a very close second and this year he will get it.  Warhawk 96 hit it right on the head as he always does.

J44 thanks for the compliment but I dont know if I should take it from a person with such little football knowledge.
MUC will always be good because success does bring success but it also helps that they can keep 200 players on the roster.  UWW will meet them in the Stagg Bowl and will not lose by 3 TD's.  MUC is a great team but UWW aint to shabby either.

Yea, i agree that success brings success. But even D1 teams like USC, Miami, FSU can't sustain dynasties like what MU has put together. It's almost like they don't belong in DIII.

On a side note, does D3football.com (or any other sight) have a link that rates strength each conference. I bet the WIAC is in the top 5.

[DuffMan]

Me love Beaver!

[Warhawk 96]

Can't argue with Mr. Downtown on that one.  Good call

I can. With three conference losses already the Titans could possibly finish with a 6-4 overall record and a losing conference record. The MVP of a conference should not have a losing conference record and should be the best player on the best team or at least the undisputed second place team. If you guys want to give him an award because he's your best player do it, that's what banquets are for

Another point is that Beaver has played much harder opponents than Moriarity. They both played Lakeland but instead of playing teams like St. Cloud State and Mary Hardin Baylor you guys played Huntingdon and Ripon......who can't even beat St. Norberts. With all that said and done Beaver still has 50 more yards? Give me a break, if he played those two teams instead it wouldn't even be a discussion.

We've already discussed the touchdowns and how we like to spread the ball around in the redzone and use him as a decoy sometimes. Maybe that's also the reason why we are number one in the redzone instead of fourth. We'll put up points while you build Mo's stats........good call.

You said this: "The MVP of a conference should not have a losing conference record and should be the best player on the best team or at least the undisputed second place team."
Really. Thats the problem with MVP awards these days.  It shouldnt be called the MVP award if thats the way it should be given out it should be the MVPOTTWTBRA (Most Valuable Player On The Team With The Best Record Award).  In 1997 the Detroit Lions went 9-7.  That tied them for 3rd in the NFC central with the Vikings and behind the 13-3 Packers and the 10-6 Buccaneers, but yet Barry Sanders tied with Favre for the MVP.  A lot of people think he should have won it outright and the only reason Favre got it because they wanted someone to have the MVP 3 years in a row.  So I guess you dont have to be on the best team to get the MVP award. 

http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=187

The most impressive feat of his remarkable career, however, came in 1997, when he rushed for a league-best 2,053 yards and gained another 305 yards on 33 catches for an amazing 2,358 combined yards gained. That year, Sanders, who was named league Most Valuable Player, gained more than 100 yards rushing in an NFL record 14 consecutive regular season games.

Comparing what Barry Sanders did in 97' and what Moriarity did this year is a joke. He hasn't broken any league records or done anything remotely close to that. The best you can say is that he almost has as many yards rushing than Beaver and more touchdowns even though he played easier competition and we still have a week where Beav will probably rack up a ton more yards. Mo's team hasn't won anything so you can't say he helped lead his team to anything but a ten game season's end. Brett Favre led his team to a 13-3 record and threw 35 touchdown passes and only 16 picks, that's why it was split. The leader of the best team (defending champions) had a great individual year and led his team to a great year is the reason why the decision was split.

Next argument please......

[DuffMan]

On a side note, does D3football.com (or any other sight) have a link that rates strength each conference. I bet the WIAC is in the top 5.

Here you go.

[Mr. Downtown]

Never did I say Moriarty should be MVP of the WIAC, I just said he was the better RB this season.

What i think an MVP is the player who personally lifted their team to success (whatever that may be).

Would Whitewater still be winning Football games without Beaver? The answer is yes. They proved that last year.

Would Oshkosh win games without Moriarty? The answer is no.

Would River Falls win games without Zweifel? The answer is no.

Would Eau Claire win games without Schaeuble Punting and QB-ing? The answer is no.

Whitewater has the best team, because they have few holes as a team. Meanwhile, there are some great individuals that are putting up impressive numbers while carrying their team.

Here's a similar question to MLB.

Who's the NL MVP? Prince Fielder, Matt Holiday, or Jimmy Rollins?

Each one lifted their team and achived team success (Brewers first winning season since '92, Phillies post season berth, Rockies first World Series appearance).

Prince had the most Homers
Holliday had more RBI's
and Rollins did a bit of everything

So who deserves the MVP? Cause without any of these guys, there teams would be hurting.

Beaver doesn't have to be the Running Back in order for Whitewater to be great, and I think the Whitewater fans know that.

My player of the year?

Moriarty/Zweifel/Beaver

Congrats, your first co-co-co-player of the year.

[Devil Badger Gopher]

Never did I say Moriarty should be MVP of the WIAC, I just said he was the better RB this season.

What i think an MVP is the player who personally lifted their team to success (whatever that may be).

Would Whitewater still be winning Football games without Beaver? The answer is yes. They proved that last year.

Would Oshkosh win games without Moriarty? The answer is no.

Would River Falls win games without Zweifel? The answer is no.

Would Eau Claire win games without Schaeuble Punting and QB-ing? The answer is no.

Whitewater has the best team, because they have few holes as a team. Meanwhile, there are some great individuals that are putting up impressive numbers while carrying their team.

Here's a similar question to MLB.

Who's the NL MVP? Prince Fielder, Matt Holiday, or Jimmy Rollins?

Each one lifted their team and achived team success (Brewers first winning season since '92, Phillies post season berth, Rockies first World Series appearance).

Prince had the most Homers
Holliday had more RBI's
and Rollins did a bit of everything

So who deserves the MVP? Cause without any of these guys, there teams would be hurting.

Beaver doesn't have to be the Running Back in order for Whitewater to be great, and I think the Whitewater fans know that.

My player of the year?

Moriarty/Zweifel/Beaver

Congrats, your first co-co-co-player of the year.

I disagree on this with you.  I do not think that Z did enough to warrant MVP honors.  I know he had many catches, but not enough game changing performances putting his team up with big touchdown catches.  He is a great possession receiver, but I do not see him as a game breaker.   
I would really like think the UWW defense should be the MVPs because without them, I do not see the Whitewater team being undefeated in D3.  None of the players in the WIAC this season have the glaring stats as have happened in the past so a co-MVP is certainly not out of the question.  I think Schaeuble is the real conference MVP to his team comparative to all other schools as I think he has been the positive difference in more games.

[Warhawk 96]

Mr Downtown-

You're right, you didn't say anything about MVP and I shouldn't have made it out that you said more than you actually did. You did however say.....

in 2007, my vote for Running Back of the Year has to go to Moriarty and he's shown why the past two weeks with 94 carries for 602 yards and 5 rushing Touchdowns.
They are both great backs, but as far as 2007, Mo's been the best.

and I still have to disagree with that and I gave my reasons two posts ago on that one (non conference competition, lack of WIAC records broken, lack of a winning conference schedule, lack of leading the league in stats, etc. )

What i think an MVP is the player who personally lifted their team to success (whatever that may be).

Would Whitewater still be winning Football games without Beaver? The answer is yes. They proved that last year.

Would Oshkosh win games without Moriarty? The answer is no.

Would River Falls win games without Zweifel? The answer is no.

Would Eau Claire win games without Schaeuble Punting and QB-ing? The answer is no.

Whitewater has the best team, because they have few holes as a team. Meanwhile, there are some great individuals that are putting up impressive numbers while carrying their team.

Here's a similar question to MLB.

Who's the NL MVP? Prince Fielder, Matt Holiday, or Jimmy Rollins?

Each one lifted their team and achived team success (Brewers first winning season since '92, Phillies post season berth, Rockies first World Series appearance).

Prince had the most Homers
Holliday had more RBI's
and Rollins did a bit of everything

So who deserves the MVP? Cause without any of these guys, there teams would be hurting.

Beaver doesn't have to be the Running Back in order for Whitewater to be great, and I think the Whitewater fans know that.

My player of the year?

Moriarty/Zweifel/Beaver

Congrats, your first co-co-co-player of the year.

If that's the case then we should also include Griffin Moe because Lacrosse can't win without him and also Mike Ferron because Point can't win without him. Five players of the year? We might as well not even have the award. You all seem to forget about "who" we played while Beaver was out in 2006 and who we had at QB/WR/TE that year as well as other areas. I think that if you take Beaver out of the mix this year you would see a huge drop-off in production and I don't know if we get past St. Johns without him.

IMO I would say that Griffin Moe is the most important player to any one team in the conference. We all saw the difference live and in living color.

Also, to define success I would think that you have to have more wins than losses if not win it all. If you think 3-4 or 4-3 is successful then that is just a personal opinion difference. I'm pretty sure that if the Hawks went 3-3 or 4-3 this year they would consider the year a failure

Why does it have to be an offensive player also? Why not AJ Raebel? The man is a monster out there.

[Warhawk 96]

   
I would really like think the UWW defense should be the MVPs because without them, I do not see the Whitewater team being undefeated in D3.  None of the players in the WIAC this season have the glaring stats as have happened in the past so a co-MVP is certainly not out of the question.  I think Schaeuble is the real conference MVP to his team comparative to all other schools as I think he has been the positive difference in more games.

You beat me to it

I would think that Griz or Raebel would be MVP candidates this year. I also think that Moe is the most valuable to his team seeing that LAX can't even protect a 25 point lead in the fourht quarter without him.........even though it was against the Warhawks

[WIACPOWER]

Okay guys...the Beav is better then Mo....Mo is better then the Beav..Let's just say they are BOTH damn good players and move on...can't we all just get along??

[Warhawk 96]

Okay guys...the Beav is better then Mo....Mo is better then the Beav..Let's just say they are BOTH damn good players and move on...can't we all just get along??

Not until I get to 200 posts

[BOBCAT04]

somebody is being a little hard on the beaver today

[ihavesomething2say]

somebody is being a little hard on the beaver today

So was Eddie Haskell, Wally and Miss Clever.