FB: American Rivers Conference

[warthog]

Speaking of Coe fans; tonight the Muskies hosted Cedar Rapids Xavier for a high school baseball double header.  As I was pulling into the local athletic complex, with Wartburg plates on the Wartmobile, a kid in a Coe Athletic Dept. t-shirt gave us a middle finger salute. 

This is no indictment of Coe fans, but it is the first negative reaction I had to the plates.   

[doolittledog]

Speaking of Coe fans; tonight the Muskies hosted Cedar Rapids Xavier for a high school baseball double header.  As I was pulling into the local athletic complex, with Wartburg plates on the Wartmobile, a kid in a Coe Athletic Dept. t-shirt gave us a middle finger salute. 

This is no indictment of Coe fans, but it is the first negative reaction I had to the plates.   

Does your Wartburg plate read "THX COE"

That might explain the reaction you received 

[warthog]

In the last month or so I had asked the question about how many national championships IIAC teams had won.  I ended up with a partial answer from the IIAC website.  With the first being listed as Central's 1974 football title and the last Wartburg's 2009 womens track & field title; the list has 25 national championships. 

Central has 11
Wartburg has 10
Simpson has 2
Luther has 1
Buena Vista has 1

We know there are others such as the national wrestling championship won by Cornell.  That probably wasn't listed since they were in the MWC back then.  Does anyone know of others that may have been won while teams were in other leagues or when IIAC teams were in the NAIA?

[sportsknight]

Speaking of Coe fans; tonight the Muskies hosted Cedar Rapids Xavier for a high school baseball double header.  As I was pulling into the local athletic complex, with Wartburg plates on the Wartmobile, a kid in a Coe Athletic Dept. t-shirt gave us a middle finger salute. 

This is no indictment of Coe fans, but it is the first negative reaction I had to the plates.   

Looks like he was just showing his own personal way of expressing that Wartburg is #1.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

This is no indictment of Coe fans, but it is the first negative reaction I had to the plates.   

sarcastic

Fixed it for you.

[Purple Heys]

We know there are others such as the national 1947 NCAA and AAU National Wrestling championships won by Cornell. 

http://revwrestling.com/articles/2917/Rev-Rewind-1947-Cornell-College

Fixed it for you...

[Purple Heys]

Has the IIAC become more of a passing than a running conference?

[doolittledog]

Has the IIAC become more of a passing than a running conference?

Hmm, I don't know.  I do know there are posters on here that want to see a return of smash mouth football and to see teams getting away from wimpy football.  Is it because they like to watch smash mouth football?  Or is it that running the ball generally keeps the clock running, therefore the game gets over sooner, therefore they can get to the bar for postgame drinks sooner???

Here are UD stats over the last 5 seasons.

2004
Rushing   946
Passing 1,312

2005
Rushing   688
Passing 2,837

2006
Rushing  1,639
Passing  2,142

2007
Rushing 2,253
Passing 2,081

2008
Rushing 1,307
Passing 1,961

I don't know if you can conclude anything from those stats...and with a new coach this year who knows...though Zweifel has said he wants to establish a strong running game at UD. 

[sportsknight]

I think the schematic changes we've seen in the Iowa Conference have mirrored some of the national trends.  Even 7-8 years ago the IIAC was very much a "three yards and a cloud of dust" kind of league with some of the weaker teams in the league employing "gimmick" offenses (Cornell's triple-option as an example).  As coaching staffs changed and the West Coast and spread offenses became more prevalent, we saw more and more of them here in this league too. 

Today, almost all of the programs in the IIAC pass the ball a larger percentage of the time than they did a decade ago (with the exception of Luther, who was running that Fly offense during the Brad Pole era).  You see a lot more 3- and 4-receiver and empty backfield sets than ever before. 

But when it comes down to it, I still don't think a team can win the Iowa Conference or make a deep run into the playoffs by completely abandoning the run.  Just look at Central in 2007.  They had a great passing attack, but were a much more complete team when Vance Schuring was healthy and they were able to keep the defense off balance with the rushing attack.  Wartburg's team of a season ago is another, though different, example.  The Knights had well documented problems developing a consistent rushing game last year.  But Lamar Harvey's emergence at the end of the regular season and into the playoffs was a big key to Wartburg's run.

I think that the increased variety in schemes in the conference has also helped set IIAC teams up for more postseason success.  Not only are the better teams in the league more varied offensively, but because the defenses in the conference see more and more of those schemes in the regular season that they aren't caught off-guard by them in late November.  If Wartburg hadn't seen BV and Dubuque last season, woud they have been as able to withstand Monmouth's prolific passing attack?  No way to know for sue, but it sure didn't hurt.

[Ram2]

Even though teams in the IIAC have gone to this spread offense trend, running the ball is still the priority. As stated in an earlier post if you can't run the ball in the IIAC winning will be tough, not impossible, look at last years Wartburg team, but tough.

I wouldn't say they are getting wimpy, offenses are just looking for an advantage in spreading things out. I really didn't understand the spread offenses until I began coaching. If you look at how the spread offenses is executed, it's basically triple option from the shotgun.

[the_mayne_event]

I know at Coe, even the last few years with Raeburn there we were pretty much 50/50 or  60/40 unless the game dictated otherwise, which it usually didnt. we had the spread, but just ran it out of that formation - it makes you more versitle (defense usually has to guard short pass first) but also takes away some advantages of a true running set.

[Klopenhiemer]

The run sets up the pass bar none!

If you can not run the ball good luck, because the defense can sit in zone coverage and pick you apart all day long.  That and the fact that their just are not that many great QB's and WR's coming out of the state to totally build a team around the pass.   

All of this of course if my opinion. 

Sincerely,

Klopenhiemer

[Purple Heys]

Here's my take...

I would say...and this is based on only my last 3 years observing the IIAC...the IIAC is in fact becoming more of a passing league.

But then so is the rest of college football.

[desertgator]

I have seen more and more of the pass setting up the run.  Spreading out defenses, quick routes, deeper routes to stretch the defenses while play actioning the inside and outside zone runs has made most teams a pass to set up the run type team.  The zone read running attack has also done a good job of slowing the pass rush of some defenses too.  The other trend is to take 4 and 5 athletes and making defenses match them up with the attempt to get mismatches, such as receivers on linebackers.  If you have a QB who is an above average passer and and average threat to run, you have the gold standard.  You can have a great running QB who is not an accurate thrower and you can contain him.  He is predictable.  The guy who can throw and every once in a while tuck it and pick up 6-8 yards is much harder to defend and causes defensive coaches nightmares.  I know Tim Tebow is exceptional but he is accurate and then when he scrambles he usually picks up 6-8 yards or he picks up the 2-3 yards on third down to keep drives going on QB draws and zone reads.  As soon as you stack the box they look for mismatches over the top.  They can score on 1-2 plays or 15 plays, pick your poison.  They throw the ball to set up the run.   Just my opinion.

[Willie University]

You can have a great running QB who is not an accurate thrower and you can contain him.  He is predictable. 

That is not true. Jermar Jackson was a great running QB and an average passer at best and NO ONE could contain him and he was certainly not predictable.

Willie U