FB: American Rivers Conference

vinnysboy · August 30, 2005, 08:19:24 AM

Pakk

The level of athletes down south is astonishing westwood is just 1 of many schools that sign frequent D1 players. The biggest problem is economic and environmetal. I'd say that in our tri-county area. There are at least 10 DI type athletes that can't play due to grade eligibility. I try to get every kid that can play out of florida because that is the only way many of these kids can get education and escape the continuous pattern of economic and social problems.

predictionking · August 30, 2005, 09:41:46 AM

Somebody asked about the scrimmages over the weekend. Simpson scrimmaged the #10 team from the NAIA, and got rocked.

You can't run the Spread Offense with slow athletes. I used to believe in the system and the scheme, but some people just can't get it down.

vinnysboy · August 30, 2005, 09:53:15 AM

i heard dubuque scrimmaged iowa weslyan. Defense looked strong. Offense was sluggish, but it is a new scheme

Walston Hoover · August 30, 2005, 12:33:08 PM

I was very optimistic after leaving Wartburg's scrimmage. In typical Rick Willis style the run defense was staunch. During the live session, a very brief live session, St. Ambrose ran 8 plays before getting any yards worth mentioning. They got 2 courtesy "fresh set of downs" from Coach Willis after running 6 plays for 0-negative yards. There were 2 goalline stands by the D. The only negative I could see on D was some holes in our pass defense during skelly, but hopefully when a quarterback is running for his life it will be a different story. More to come...

sc_stormchaser · August 30, 2005, 01:34:32 PM

PredictionKing- who did Simpson play? In previous years they played Graceland. That surprises me about the slow receivers. SC has an All-American WR and I watched a few games last year and most of the WRs had some speed.

predictionking · August 30, 2005, 03:12:05 PM

They played MidAmerica Nazarene, the NAIA's preseason #10 team.
Now when I say slow, I meant in comparison to their opponent. MidAmerica returns 19 starters from a 10-3 team in 2004 that went to the 2nd round in the NAIA playoffs. Graceland finished 8-2 last season, and MidAmerica beat them 44-10

MidAmerica has D-I and D-II transfers and tons of players from Texas, California, and Florida. Over half of their roster is All-State players from big schools around the country. They don't have near the academic requirements of the Iowa D-III schools, and they're also a fully funded NAIA school which means they can offer more scholarships than the D-II Northern Sun Conference with schools like Winona State, Wayne State, etc.

They would handle Wartburg pretty easily.

IMO, the D-III top 10 and the NAIA top 10 are about equal with regards to ability and talent. NAIA schools will occasionally have more talent than D-III's mainly due to transfers, but the high school talent is similar.

Linfield would've beaten Carroll last season, but Carroll would've beaten St. Johns in 2003. It varies from year to year.

dutchfan1 · August 30, 2005, 06:08:51 PM

Lance, buddy, you picked a bad time to move to the south! Were you affected by the hurricane? Coco and Mrs. Coco would be really disappointed if the affects of the hurricane kept you from the Wartburg/Augsburg game 9/10.

warthog · August 30, 2005, 06:29:25 PM

dutchfan1:

Are you going to pull out your orange hunting gear and join us at Wartburg on 9-10? I just read my last e-mail from Mrs. Coco. It sounds like they are heading east. 8)

dutchfan1 · August 30, 2005, 06:44:00 PM

Warthog -- I am planning on heading to the game in Waverly 9/10, after the Iowa/ISU game -- are you guys planning to tailgate before the game? If so, do you mind if this Dutch fan joins you guys? (I'll even wear orange for the occassion!)

warthog · August 30, 2005, 10:45:34 PM

Dutchfan1:

We would love to have you on board. Little Warthog and his West Deleware sweetie are doing the same Ames to Waverly excursion as you. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

vinnysboy · August 31, 2005, 10:11:38 AM

Any predictions for week 1 in the IIAC

dutchfan1 · August 31, 2005, 01:18:03 PM

Predictions for the week:

Central at Augustana
Cornell at Aurora
Bethel at Buena Vista
Westminster (MO) at Coe
Simpson at Illinois Wesleyan
Concordia (IL) at Loras
Martin Luther at Luther
Wartburg at Millikin
Dubuque at UW-Platteville

lorbec47 · August 31, 2005, 01:40:36 PM

Concordia will not beat Loras. Concordia was 0-10 last year. I know it's a new year and all, but come on.

Floyd in Iowa City · August 31, 2005, 01:44:40 PM

The Central-Augustana and B.V.-Bethel games will be by far the most interesting to me of the week one slate (Bethel should be favored). Both the Dutchmen and Beavers lost a ton of players from last season, and both teams play opponents with a name (Bethel has been good lately while Augustana is the closest thing to the Central of that state).

B.V. also is interesting to me because of the kind of season they had last year. They have performed better than the preseason rankings in recent years, but can they again this year?

Loras, Coe, and Luther will be the teams next week that will have perhaps the most interesting games.

Floyd in Iowa City · August 31, 2005, 01:50:06 PM

I also think Loras should win even though the offense is getting rebuilt. The defense is probably going to have to carry them again at least early in the season.

Did anyone here see the St. Ambrose-Loras game last season? I know it was a 16-14 Bee win, but I wondered how close the teams were in talent, etc.

These are big games for the Iowa Conference!