FB: American Rivers Conference

[Thunderbolt]

  See, your orange and black are shining through again. Even a Dutchman from Kansas City knows it Mabe's first. The Corner Bar 2nd because you can have a mixed drink there, order your pizza from Mabe's, walk across the street and pick it up, and take it back to the Corner  Bar to eat it.
T-Bocks third  (great food but beer only)and lefsa a distant fourth.

[NewKnightDad]

How many of you remember the days of Matter's Ballroom?  A great drinking establishment and one that was not to good at checking ID's either in my high school days.  Matter's and Mabe's two legends from Decorah that I grew up with and remember fondly!!   

[Old Dutch]

From the WIAC write up of UWOK:

" The Titans ranked dead last in the WIAC against the run last year giving up an average of 194.6 yards per game on the ground. The Titans will return a young defensive line and linebacking corp in 2010. Missing will be the WIAC leading tackler, linebacker James Taraboi."

Sounds like a nice game for The Dutch to try out a bunch of RBs!  Ought to be fun if the DBs can slow up the experienced Offense. 

Good luck tonight DBQ!!!  Is ISU on the TV??

[doolittledog]

Thast's okay, you didn't strike a nerve, it was more that it was so laughable.  I wasn't sure how to respond.  Central is capable of having a down year, they just do it so rarely and our definition of a down year pretty much means we didn't win the conference or get in the playoffs.  Plentry of other teams would love our down year record and call it a great year.  Others just hang on the fact that it took triple OT to beat them.     (that's for my friend Doolittle.)

Thanks for the link.  I will check it out.

Hey, my Spartans have WON against Central as RECENTLY as 1987!!!  Um, hmm, yeah, that's not so good   Oh well, at least I am fairly certain there will be a win for my Spartans tonight...and a decent chance of my Spartans being 2-0 when we travel down to Pella in two weeks time

[doolittledog]

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald with their prognostication for this weeks games

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=294350

UD game is in a rain delay right now.  I guess that rain that went through Reinbeck today about 4pm is in Dubuque right now!!!

Radio says 7:30pm kickoff tonight for UD/Rockford

[Klompen]

Hey, my Spartans have WON against Central as RECENTLY as 1987!!!  Um, hmm, yeah, that's not so good   Oh well, at least I am fairly certain there will be a win for my Spartans tonight...and a decent chance of my Spartans being 2-0 when we travel down to Pella in two weeks time

Glad to see you reading the posts so closely Doolittle, would hate to slip one by you!  Good luck to UD tonight.  Come down to Pella 2-0 with loads of confidence.  I like to see Central challenged, as long as the winning kick hits the uprights and still goes through.  

[DutchHawk]

Thast's okay, you didn't strike a nerve, it was more that it was so laughable.  I wasn't sure how to respond.  Central is capable of having a down year, they just do it so rarely and our definition of a down year pretty much means we didn't win the conference or get in the playoffs.  Plentry of other teams would love our down year record and call it a great year.  Others just hang on the fact that it took triple OT to beat them.     (that's for my friend Doolittle.)

Thanks for the link.  I will check it out.

Hey, my Spartans have WON against Central as RECENTLY as 1987!!!  Um, hmm, yeah, that's not so good   Oh well, at least I am fairly certain there will be a win for my Spartans tonight...and a decent chance of my Spartans being 2-0 when we travel down to Pella in two weeks time

Nothen like 23 years to make ya hungry

[Willie University]

Doolittle and family must be driving home from the game  DBQ1965 must still be enjoying his post game coctail so I will give my thoughts on the game.

Started a little slow. Wyatt's throws a little off mark as he got the 1st game jitters out. Rockford came out inspired as is usual 1st game with a new coach. They scored first and then it was all spartans. Towards the end of the 3rd qtr I believe is when the 2nd teamers got their chance to play. Coach Z played 3 back up QB's in the 4th qtr. Very impressed with the freshman RB Acker, has a bright future for sure. Of course Michael Z, Flemming, Spaulding, and Hookstead all contributed in some spectacular ways. Once Wyatt settled down, I thought he showed nice poise and threw some great balls. He definitely did not look like a soph that has never started a college game. Best of all, as a whole I felt the special teams and defense played very solid.

Of course I realize it was Rockford and the games just get more competitive from here so I am tempering my excitement.

BUT, I want to point one thing out that stuck out at me the most following Spartan football for 2 decades. There is a confidence with this team and and they don't panic and there is a chemistry that people that know football and understand the "team concept" will understand. I don't know if this is THE year yet but I am excited about the future of this team.

Platteville and Lorass were there scouting of course as was lorass's legendary Bob Bierie

Willie U

[sportsknight]

Might as well blame me too while we're at it.  I'm pretty good at starting $h!t around here.

 I miss the good old days when life was simple and you knew where you stood.

Luther and Wartburg hated each other
Dubuque and Loras hated each other
Coe and Cornell hated each other
Simpson and the Dutch hated each other
And everybody kind of come together to hate BV because they didn't have anyone to hate.

So who opened Pandora"s box?

I'll take the blame before someone assigns it to me. 
After all, Wartburg is the Evil Empire!

[DBQ1965]

Couldn't get to the computer last night so I'll give you my quick take on the game (Willie University gave a good synopsis already).

All in all, its always good to see a Spartan victory.  I thought Rockford started out with lots of emotion ... spent it too soon ... and didn't have a lot left after the first quarter.  UD had two scoring opportunities in the first quarter but Rockford shut them down two different times on fourth-and-short.  UD may have been a little over-confident early in the game given previous blowouts of Rockford.

Once the run got mixed in a little more with the pass, UD began to establish itself.  Hanus looked good at QB ... and didn't seem to get rattled when pressured or when protection broke down.  He was impressive as a soph starter.  MichaelZ was open a lot ... Rockford seemed to be playing him a bit soft  but closed quickly so there weren't always big gains after the catch ... but there were some good ones.  Other receivers looked good as well ... I loved TE Hookstead's 54 yd TD pass from Hanus.  Fleming looked good also.

Special teams apparently were better than last year ... didn't hurt the Sparans except on one, indecisive punt return when the return man waited too long to pick up the ball, got hit and fumbled. 

I'm guessing 4th place in the conference is within reach ... third place with a break or two.

The campus looks terrific ... hadn't seen it in 5 years.  Especially impressed with all the athletic facilities.  Happened to run into Coach Z in the hallway ... introduced myself ... and he seemed to be a very warm, out-going, friendly guy.  We had a good chat.

It's 6 a.m. Dubuque time ... so now a quick breakfast and then hit the road for Grand Rapids.

[doolittledog]

Sorry Willie, I posted a bunch on the in-game thread last night and didn't come on here with a synopsis.

Willie and DBQ1965 did pretty good write-ups. 

Hanus will be a good QB for UD.  He started out like a sophomore QB starting his first game, a few throws behind his receivers and some underthrown balls.  But I think his final line was something like 20-27-300+ yards no int's and 3 td's.  Pretty darn good.

Zweifel got his typical 10 or so receptions and about 100 some odd yards.  The kid is good.  On another note, the UD offense isn't designed around him.  Demacus Fleming probably had 5-6 receptions called back because of UD penalties.  Fleming is another UD receiver that should have a good year. 

Hookstead had a Tony Moeaki type long TD run from his TE position.

Justin Spaulding rushed for about 100 yards.

I was really impressed by the UD defense.  I know the opponant was Rockford, but the Spartan defense is fundamentally sound.  They close well, wrap up the ball carrier when tackling.  Great overall performance by the UD defense.

One area of concern for me is I think the UD O-line still needs a bit of work.

One area that I really LOVE was the video production.  Multiple cameras and replays...very nice production.

On to UW-Platteville next Saturday!!!

[AZDutchman]

High school games are threatened by heat today (111 degrees). Some of last years games were started an hour later. This year they're thinking of rescheduling.
I played ball in the mid west. I remember some very bitter cold days when the wind chill was in the negatives. I did a search on canceled football games. There were games canceled due to lightning and hurricane warnings, but I didn't find any on the cold.
Does anyone recall any games canceled due to the cold?? If not, wouldn't the cold be considered the same danger to the players as the heat? 

[Willie University]

Word is....the video crew was the same one that does the Iowa Hawkeye games 

I believe they plan to be at all of the spartan games. Other then the size of the stadium (seating), I almost felt like I was sitting in kinnick or lambeau. The jumbotron (megatron??) had replay on it and was a live video feed of the entire game switching from camera to camera. Giving close ups on the sidelines, in the stands, and of course the action on the field. I saw the "control booth" in one of the meeting rooms inside the rec center--pretty impressive.

Great crowd for a rain delayed/school night Thursday evening. Had it been a saturday, there wouldn't have been an open place to stand.

Willie U

[Fannosaurus Rex]

It's the start of football season and a three day weekend.  Could life be any better?  +K to all of the Dubuque fans for making the IIAC perfect against non-conference competition.

[Klompen]

High school games are threatened by heat today (111 degrees). Some of last years games were started an hour later. This year they're thinking of rescheduling.
I played ball in the mid west. I remember some very bitter cold days when the wind chill was in the negatives. I did a search on canceled football games. There were games canceled due to lightning and hurricane warnings, but I didn't find any on the cold.
Does anyone recall any games canceled due to the cold?? If not, wouldn't the cold be considered the same danger to the players as the heat? 

I remember freezing through several games, many of them playoffs.  I have sat in the snow at games many times.  The unfortunate Bethel ice storm game and a game at Concordia in Moorehead, MN that were particularly cold.  Central had a game moved to ISU once because of snow, don't remember if they had to push it back a day or not.