FB: American Rivers Conference

[War Pig]

I was 3-1 for the second consecutive week.  I was dead wrong on the Luther/Wartburg game.  I'm 6-2 for the season against the spread.   Congrats to Luther.  I'm not sure if there tailback(Hammes) got hurt or not. 

It appeared from the stats that Luther's Defense shut them down in the second half.   How did Luther's Dline perform?  I thought that was one of their weak spots coming into the game.  I'll be curious to see if Coe is sluggish after a bye week. 

Is Luther playoff material, or is the IIAC just not very good this year?

[Floyd in Iowa City]

There has been some talk of the talent level of this current Wartburg team, but they still have a very good chance of going 6-2 or 7-1 in the league.  As good as they have been recently, they still were co-champs in two of the last three title years (6-2 last season).  They host Coe, Central, and B.V., so they should not be counted out at all.

Off the top of my head, Wartburg's best years of football have mostly been in the last 10-15 years (they were pretty good in the late 50s as well), but the league continues to change.  In the early 90s if my memory serves, a school like Loras was usually losing every year to Central, Simpson, and eventually Wartburg.  They in turn would usually beat Billy Penn, Dubuque, and Upper Iowa, while the Luther and B.V. games were more even.  The IIAC back then was probably more like the MIAC is today with a clear upper and lower division with less upsets.

Now the last two years the IIAC may currently lack the true Central in its heyday program that was a national title contender, but most of the current IIAC schools have or have had solid football traditions.  Cornell may be a little down right now, but I certainly think more of their football program than what I remember Billy Penn or Upper Iowa offering most seasons.  Central, Simpson, Luther, Wartburg, Loras, and Coe have definitely had good decades of football within the history of their programs.  

The league is deeper now than it was 10 years ago, and the last couple of seasons have seen 7 of the 9 programs capable of knocking a contender off on a given week without it being seen as a shocking upset to most.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

I thought Luther's Defense played better last year against Wartburg with Romens and Jaeger leading the way.  The difference this year was that the turnover margins were reversed and Luther won the field position and special teams battles.  Oh, and I guess Luther ran the ball a little better this year as well.

Cody Webb is a freshman from Decorah who I noticed as being one reason the front seven played better than they did against St. Olaf.  He doesn't start, but he played well when he was on the field.  The linebackers were also more active by far against the Knights, but Wartburg doesn't spread the field and make LBs play in space the way that the Oles did.  Luther got much better on defense as the year went on last season, maybe that is starting to happen this year as well.  Coe should be able to start to answer whether that is the case.

Wartburg did get lots of yards in chunks, but they had a hard time sustaining drives from a lack of offensive balance.  They have a good running attack and ran a couple nice flanker screens, but the downfield passing game in wet conditions was not as strong as the passing game the Oles offered a couple of weeks ago.  Still turnovers and special teams play were huge, although the big plays were not all on the one side.

Let's not start even thinking about playoffs right now.  Things might look a lot different after this weekend.  Nobody has shown themselves to be clearly above the rest.

[LC65]

Wow, what a great weekend in Decorah, Club Scoe's was crazy! As great as this win is, Luther's work is not done. We had the weekend to enjoy the win, but now it's a new week, and time to get back to work. We now have yet another tough game ahead of us. As I predicted, Luther's offense showed up to play. However, I was somewhat surprised at how well the Luther Defense played against a tough Wartburg team. They seemed to step up and "put out the fire" every time we really needed them too on Saturday, but particularly in the 2nd half. The Norse are a legit play-off contender. It has been a building process that is finally starting to culminate now in Hefty's 4th season. Hefty is the real deal when it comes to X's and O's, he came to Luther 4 years ago from Aurora College where they were always on top of the conference and averaging 35 points per game. But also, he's the kind of coach that is able to create such a loyalty and respect from his players, that they would rather die trying than know that they did not live up to his expectations. Look for the Norse to be towards the top for some time now. It is becoming much easier now for the Norse to get talented players to come to Luther with some success and a coach like Hefty and his staff. Luther has turned their program around!

[Floyd in Iowa City]

By 2003 or 2004 it was already a much better overall program than it was from 1995-2001 (22-48 record), but I am not ready to yet say that it is back to the Edsel Schweizer years from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s (150-79-6 and he won 6 of Luther's 11 conference titles).  Until the Norse continue to prove otherwise, most of the rest of the league is going to see Luther as an improved program that is solid but not that different from the period right after Schweizer from 1978-1994 (86-75).

Luther needs to go at least 7-3 this year (barring injuries) for the season to be considered a successful step forward.  I think they can do that, but Saturday would be a huge step in the right direction if they play well against Coe.

[War Pig]

I know I've asked before, but does anyone know of any websites that take bets or list spreads on DIII football? 

Is the Luther running back (Sherden) the best back in the league? 

[Pat Coleman]

War Pig:

No. And we wouldn't encourage it either.

[underhills]

To anyone who thinks the sky is falling in Waverly Iowa:

You are some fickel motherf**ckers.  Rick Willis is 74-16 in this 8 years there with numerous IIAC titles.  And we have some people questioning things.  Wow.  3rd Highest active winning percentage in Division III.  Do you think he is getting dumber in his 9th season.

Maybe we should hire some alumni.... that were getting their ass beat by Central and the likes before Willis showed up.  Asked some of the guys that have played for Willis what they think of him.  I doubt too many of them would be on here ripping him.

Wartburg lost a game to Luther where they turned the ball over 6 times.  Luthers scoring drives were 6, 12, and 24.  Its hard to be perfect every time you step out there.  Give credit to Luther, and keep the big picture in mind.

The fickel Wartburg fans can respond all you want but I'm not getting into it my mind is made up...you are not going to be able to convince me that Wartburg sucks.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Sherdan has certainly been the most statistically successful back in the league over the last year and a half, but I haven't seen everyone (like the current Central back).  Sherdan is averaging 42 yards per game this year more than any other back (he is averaging 159 yards per game = 636 total) and has 11 TDs (7 more than anyone else) so far this season.

It has been said a zillion times that he led the league in rushing in 2004 with 1,057 yards and 14 TDs, but he did it even though he played RB for only 5.5 games after moving over from safety.  He is a faster back by IIAC standards (especially in the open), but he also is tougher and more physical between the tackles than he sometimes gets credit for.

Luther is 8-2 over his time at RB with wins over Wartburg, Simpson, Central, Loras, Cornell, Dubuque (2), and Martin Luther.  The losses were also good statistical games for him against St. Olaf this season and B.V. last season.  The B.V. loss was his first RB start last year and the Norse lost in double overtime.

The team is obviously much better with him at RB, but his future success and the team success also depends on the continued offensive balance Luther is trying to take pride in.  It isn't balanced every week, but over the course of the season the offense does have balance with WRs Pearson and Sheetz in the passing game.

I thought Van Rees ran with a tough physical style that should suit the Knights system very well.  If they can find enough balance, Wartburg should have another stellar year on the ground.

[War Pig]

Coleman, gambling on DivisionIII sports would be outstanding for the fans.  When you look at all the posts made on this site alone, the demand would be there for sure.  It would be a great business idea for anyone wanted to make a lot of money.

Underhills, please keep in mind that Willis is a very good coach but he doesn't go on the field and play. Wartburg surely doesn't "suck" but any team that turns the ball over 6 times would have trouble beating any team. 

Coe has the best turnover margin in the league over the past year and a half.  If that trend continues on Saturday, we'll find out just how good Luther can do against a pretty solid defense.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

war pig,
So, you are saying that because you post on a message board you are also a gambler.  Making predictions about who is going to win a contest does not translate into placing bets for money.  I think you should call 1-800-betsoff.  I'll give you 10-1 odds you don't call.

[norse99]

Although the win over the Knights last weekend was huge for the Luther program it was just another step to what Hefty is trying to accomplish at Luther.  The big test is going to come this next weekend when the go to Cedar Rapids and play a pretty talented team at Coe.  Coming off a huge win like this hopefully the Norse can concentrate before friday afternoon the day before the game so they are prepared for what Coe is going to through at them.  But I do think last week a lot of the young players on the defensive line stepped up and are growing up fast.  Especially little Webb he showed me something last week hopefully the coaches will see it on film he could be a big key in filling the void in the middle.  And he has a great number 99 hahaha

[DutchFan2004]

what are the opinions for this week? who is favored in which games.  the big game has to be Luther and Coe.  then Central/Simpson. 

[ram_this]

How does the fastest team in the league run for negative 74 yards?

[Lance Harbor]

War Pig - There's a reason why virtually no games involving at least one non-DI-A team get a spread put on them....SCANDAL.

Can you imagine how easy it would be for a team to shave points at the D-III level.  It would happen all the time.

Look, that's that whole point of D-III football.  You don't have all the hoopla of big-time college sports.  No way would that be a good thing for D-III.

Underhills - I'm not going to write off Willis and the Knights as failures just yet.  This whole thing is a learning experience for the younger players.  Willis always has a way of getting back on track.  I don't know if an IIAC title is within reach.  However, there's better days ahead for the Knights.