FB: American Rivers Conference

NorseFan · August 30, 2006, 08:14:52 PM

Been a while since I've been on here. Been reading for the last few weeks just to catch up. To bad about Coe's QB.
Here are my weeks picks:

Bethel over BV by a hair
Central over the Tommies
Coe over IL
Northwestern just edges Cornell
Platteville over UD
Loras wins over Ambrose
Simpson, Wartburg and Luther round out the IIAC winners. Good luck to all teams on opening weekend.

DutchFan2004 · August 30, 2006, 10:04:43 PM

K-Mack,

Nice to see you playing along with us. Now we will get to see how good your preseason predictions are.

I know that with the loss of the Coe QB that might have swayed your preseason pics down the road but we will have to see.

Floyd in Iowa City · August 31, 2006, 12:22:49 AM

Waterloo Courier article on the RB situation at Luther:

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/08/30/sports/local/doc44f5ab849327d695083734.txt

An additional article that may have been posted earlier since it is an online preview of both Luther and Wartburg with the Luther preview being mostly about the WR corps:

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/08/30/sports_tab/doc44f5b935a199c418367381.txt

lorbec47 · August 31, 2006, 09:01:46 AM

Floyd--

It sounds like things are good coming out of the Loras camp. I saw them scrimmage Aurora last Saturday and they looked pretty sharp. I do think they'll be tougher than most people give them credit for, although you never though. I think they've got enough fire power to really make an impact this season.

Confused77 · August 31, 2006, 10:26:51 AM

Looks like Wartburg got the whole West Delaware team. That was a great football team no doubt, so I do not blame anyone for wanting every single one of those kids, hopefully the majority of them stick it out and make an impact in the IIAC

Floyd in Iowa City · August 31, 2006, 11:10:39 AM

Thanks Lorbec!

After all of those years of having pretty good talent on the Duhawk roster, part of me thinks Loras has a chance at bouncing back a little and winning 5 games this year. However, on paper the Loras non-conference games look tougher than some years as St. Ambrose and St. Thomas both have solid football programs. Can they at least split those first two games? If they can, they should be able to win 3-4 league games.

2001: 5-5 (4-5 in the IIAC)
2002: 5-5 (4-5)
2003: 7-3 (5-3)
2004: 4-6 (3-5)
2005: 3-7 (2-6)
2006:

(

)

The Loras Defense played pretty well when I saw them last year. The QB play and running game looked pretty inconsistent though. It will be interesting to see how much the young QBs have progressed now that they have been around for a year.

How good did Aurora look?

Thanks

Walston Hoover · August 31, 2006, 11:40:21 AM

For those of you who last year said Loras was better than mediocre-I was wrong, they were 24-26 over the last 5 years, not even .500

Confused77 · August 31, 2006, 12:03:12 PM

Point taken Walston. Loras struggled last year with injuries. especially on offense. If the young guys have improved then they should be a lot better offensively. Defense has been the strong point since '02. Even with the not so great records the last 2 years, the Duhawks have had a hell of a defense, and don't forget the great Duhawk drubbing of the Knights a few years ago

It will be interesting to see what they can do, I know last year at this time I was expecting big things from them, but injuries and inconsistancy set it. This year, I am going to sit back and not say a word, hoping that it was me that jinxed them last year.

lorbec47 · August 31, 2006, 12:13:19 PM

Facts don't lie Walston, you have a strong point about being mediocre. If any Loras football fan tries to disclaim that...well you can't!

Floyd--Aurora was not very good. On the other hand, maybe Loras made them look worse than they are? We'll see Saturday against Ambrose. Could be a tone-setter for the season.

iiacfan21 · August 31, 2006, 02:53:07 PM

I have a question on Wallner Belleus and how he got to UD. Here is my info on how he got to UD:
He transfered to Iowa Weslyan in the spring of '05 because of acedemic issues at Iowa. He was going to play football in the fall of '05 for them, but for some reason he did not (he has no stats on their website). I heard it was because of acedemic issues again so he decided to transfer to UD for the spring of '06 and will be playing for UD this fall.
I believe the NCAA rule on transfering without acedemic elidgeablility is that if you are not elidgeable at an insitution and transfer than you are not elidgeable at the next institution for at least 1 whole year. If that is true than how is Belleus elidgeable at UD this fall if he transfered there last spring?

KoHawk01 · August 31, 2006, 03:45:48 PM

I think I agree with most of you on the Loras situation. They're going to have an uphill battle all year long! While their defense has had significant losses they have one of, if not thee, top linebacker in the conference in Hall in my opinion. One kid can only do so much, their 'O' needs to step up this year and fill that void.
When looking at the conference overall I have to go with my gut and make Coe my conference winner, lol .... for obvious reasons... But with all the returning starters I still feel we have a legitimate shot despite the loss of Tekippe ... Hope he recoveries fully and doesn't push it! Good luck to all though!! can't wait for Saturday!

DutchFan2004 · August 31, 2006, 05:39:44 PM

Where has Dutchfan1 been. She always makes things interesting. I thought she'd have her picks up here by now. Having only followed the IIAC the last three years what everyone says about Loras seems right on. If you are not 500 mediocre isn't even a fair description. To me 500 is mediocre.

I think that is correct about kids playing sports going down in size doesn't matter to the NCAA. If you are not eligible at one school transferring will not make you eligible to play. Having said that maybe he earned enough credits at Weslyan to get eligible at UD. That would make sense. He couldn't play at Weslyan last year but now is eligible to play at UD because he earned enough credits there.

sportsknight · August 31, 2006, 07:35:33 PM

Dan Bauder named Wartburg starting quarterback for Saturday's opener against Monmouth...
http://www.go-knights.net/news/Article.aspx?ID=1382

K-Mack · September 01, 2006, 11:13:03 AM

Quote from: DutchFan2004 on August 30, 2006, 10:04:43 PM
K-Mack,

Nice to see you playing along with us. Now we will get to see how good your preseason predictions are. I know that with the loss of the Coe QB that might have swayed your preseason pics down the road but we will have to see.

Yeah,
there's no way I could keep up with all 26 or however many pick-ems, but since I did the preview ... You never like to see your preseason picks shot before the first game, nor do you like to see teams not at full strength, but I think it's clear to fans who have and haven't read the preview that there's three, maybe four, contenders in the conference this year and as many as six, seven, eight teams who will be a tough W. Actually maybe all nine, you could make a case for Loras (a lot of starters back, Osterberger's track record/IIAC knowledge), Dubuque and Cornell, as well as the top three and middle three, so this'll be a fun one to watch from afar.

WartTrainer · September 01, 2006, 12:14:19 PM

DutchFan....im not a doctor but once an ACL is fully torn it cant get any worse. All Tekppe can do is brace it and play through some pain. Wartburg had a guy a couple years ago that did this in the middle of the year and he managed to get through the rest of the season but he was hurting real bad on Sundays.