FB: American Rivers Conference

[warthog]

Though Waverly thinks of itself as part of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls metro, it is on the fringes of the city so it still has a rural flavor.  In fact when I entered the stadium today I figured a farmer northwest of town was clean the pits on his confinement hog building.  No such luck.  I think the smell was right there inside Walston-Hoover.

When the visiting team screws up three punts and the home team still loses there is a smell rising off the turf.  When the home team comes up short on three of five extra points attempts and loses the game by one point the odor is getting unbearable.

Simpson overcame their early game miscues and took it to the Knights.  On this day they deserved to win.  My congratulations to the Storm for never giving up.  Incidently, I purposely walked through the Simpson players outside their locker room after the game.  I made a point to congratulate several of their players in person.  I would like to compliment the Simpson players, coaches, parents, and fans for being very gracious in what I believe was probably an emotional victory.

While a spot in the NCAA playoffs appears to be a very long shot now, the Knights could still end up with a very respectable season.  They have some big games left, particularly against a revived Central Dutch team and arch rival Luther.  We now have the opportunity to see what sort of intestinal fortitude this team has.  Will they fold their tents and call it a season or will they regroup to pull off an upset of the Dutch, beat a wounded Loras team, and close out the season winning on the frozen tundra of Luther's Carlson Stadium?  Time will tell.  In the mean time, I assume their will be plenty of UD Spartan fans becoming enthusiastic Wartburg supporters when the Knights take on the Dutch in a couple weeks. 

doolittle, Dub1965, Willie U.:  Could you please start clearing a space on the bandwagon?  I'm getting closer to grabbing my flutaphone and climbing aboard.

[AZDutchman]

Trying to look at the glass half full....at least you have a new hat before you climb aboard. 

[Pat Coleman]

CRAZY STATS!!!

Statistic	Simpson	Wartburg
First Downs	30	19
Time of Pos.	27:42	45:52

http://www.simpsonathletics.com/sports/fball/2011-12/boxscores/20111015_allj.xml

That's very crazy -- it's more than 60 minutes of possession, which ain't right.

[doolittledog]

I had a great Saturday.  It started out in Mt. Vernon and I was able to meet CaliRam and his wife before the game.  Very nice couple, and CaliRam was nice enough to text me updates of the UD/Cornell and Wartburg/Simpson games after I left at haltime to get down to Iowa City for the 2nd game of the day for me. 

The Cornell game had a nice sized crowd from both fan bases and a nice game day atmosphere.  It was 19-7 at the half and sounds like the Spartans took control in the 2nd half.  I'll take a look around the Cornell website soon to see if they archive games so I can get another look at it. 

The Hawkeyes looked good in the nightcap against Northwestern.  Another great game day atmosphere.  Note to self, don't play flippy cups against pro competition when you are an amateur

I can't wait to see how the rest of the season plays out.  It's been an odd one so far.  I expect the oddities to keep up!!!

[Klompen]

Last week some WB posters were saying it was going to come down to UD and WB tied for first.  Now Warthog is wondering if WB can pull of the upset against the Dutch in a couple of weeks.  We Dutch fans would not consider it an upset and have no thoughts that the Dutch will be favored against WB in a couple of weeks.  I'm not even convinced the Dutch would deserve to be favored against Cornell.  70 points or not, the BV and UD games still show that the Dutch can forget to show up for the game on any given Saturday and WB at home is certainly no given. 

What I do know is the Dutch need to play it one game at a time and I still recall going up to Cornell not so many years ago and being fortunate enough to benefit from a dumb Cornell penalty away from the action that gave the Dutch an extra shot at tying the game and forcing OT before pulling out the win.  The Dutch need to focus and execute every game, one game at a time.  Two words that I never thought I would say to Simpson and Wartburg though are thank you.   But I do thank you because each of you had the win that gave us the chance to fight for a share of the championship. 

I would like to ask the real Central team to please step forward, but I'm afraid of what I might get.  So will the team that played yesterday please show up for the rest of the season!

[duhawk]

Wow, not the improvement I wanted to see from the Duhawks, that was a 1st class beatdown. Right up there with the worst in school history. Mierk sounded defeated in the TH today. 

Congrats to Simpson, anytme the under-belly teams of the conference upset a team, it's a good day.  I've said before that I was impressed by them at Loras' homecoming, they'll be a tough out for any team the rest of the way.

[Ash Park]

CRAZY STATS!!!

Statistic	Simpson	Wartburg
First Downs	30	19
Time of Pos.	27:42	45:52

http://www.simpsonathletics.com/sports/fball/2011-12/boxscores/20111015_allj.xml

That's very crazy -- it's more than 60 minutes of possession, which ain't right.

Looked at the stat sheet.....Wartburg was given 15:00 mins of possession in OT for some reason so that is the glitch right there.

[AZDutchman]

I definitely want to put a disclaimer on this post and mean absolutely no disrespect for any team...

It seems that the IIAC is playing the round robin of who's beating who. The big question is...are these teams good enough to win the championship?

*Being a Central fan, you seen my displeasure in their play. Are they good enough to win the rest of their games? If they play like yesterday, sure (against any opponent). I don't think we're going to see that again. They were truly in a zone that any team would want to be in.
*Is UD really that great of a team? Keep in mind that in the beginning of the season I said keep an eye on UD (along with Luther). I just took a look at their schedule and I am almost forced to say that they're an average team with a big win (Central). Their first three games were against teams that now hold 1-5 records (all of them).
*Wartburg...I really wouldn't count them out and I really wouldn't want to be on their remaining schedule. Yes, Central is in that schedule and worse yet...playing there. This is a key game to who ends up on top. Just like the Coe UD game.
*Speaking of Coe...I think that Coe is going to want to end their regular season on a high note. UD will be their championship game. If they win, that could create the flip of the coin that was talked about.

Again, I don't mean any disrespect. It's just an opinion, along with some probabilities. There's still games to be played. I think each and everyone of the games being played in the IIAC is going to hold an interest to all.

[doolittledog]

Wartburg/Simpson story from the Waterloo Courier

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/college/simpson-shocks-no-wartburg-in-ot/article_ae2a2cfe-f786-11e0-9e50-001cc4c03286.html

Chris Norton story from the Des Moines Register

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111016/NEWS/310160040/The-Norton-family-s-healing-bond?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Picture gallery from the Cornell/Dubuque game in the Cedar Rapids Gazette

http://thegazette.com/sports/?album=3&gallery=655

Nothing from the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald...they went subscription this year.  They have loads of great stories about UD and Loras...you just can't see them unless you want to pay. 

[BleednRednWhite]

As a former player I know there is no reason to talk about winning a championship until you get there. It goes with having a one game schedule. I believe the Dutch have just begun to grasp that this year and can only hope they continue to take it one week at a time because with that attitude and a little help from the Kohawks in 3 weeks we could be talking about the number 31 (iiac championships)...that being said its Cornell week!

[doolittledog]

Iowa Wesleyan joining the SLIAC.  Athletically, that probably makes more sense then the IIAC.  The SLIAC has schools Dubuque was beating up on back when they would typically go 1-7 in IIAC play. 

http://www.iwctigers.com/article/790.php

[DBQ1965]

Iowa Wesleyan joining the SLIAC.  Athletically, that probably makes more sense then the IIAC.  The SLIAC has schools Dubuque was beating up on back when they would typically go 1-7 in IIAC play. 

http://www.iwctigers.com/article/790.php

Remembering Iowa Wesleyan from my college days ("back in the day", as they say) that probably is a good move for the Tigers.

[CaliRamRL6]

Homecoming at Cornell was cool until kickoff. Doolittledog was generous with the pre-game beverage. I think that was the only thing Dubuque gave to Cornell for free yesterday. I saw some good things and a lot of frustrating things. Flores was trying to do too much for the team. I don't think he really has to. He needs to learn how to throw the ball away and not try to be Mike Vick or take a sack. Their defense made Dubuque look better than they were. That's not a diss. I'm just saying that good teams don't need any additional help if you expect to beat them.

Zweifel is a good player. There's no need to debate that. He played receiver, corner, returned kicks, and I think I saw him selling 50/50 tickets after they took him out of the game. He's got some shake to his routes but he didn't really have to do anything special to get in the endzone. Their backs run hard. One thing that seemed like a constant all day was Dubuque's DL making their presence known. It'll be interested to see how the rest of their season plays out.

Cornell needs to eliminate their penalties and start playing sound defense. You could hear Coach B remind them to "read their keys" repeatedly. I sat behind the defense so I couldn't hear what was said to the offense. Let's hope they get some things corrected before making the trek to Pella.

[warthog]

Last week some WB posters were saying it was going to come down to UD and WB tied for first.  Now Warthog is wondering if WB can pull of the upset against the Dutch in a couple of weeks. 

When I read the opening of your post I was confused since I watched all week at the posts hoping no Wartburg fan would come on here and say something like you said that we said.  I went back and searched all last week's posts from Wartburg fans.  None of us said we were going to win the title or share the title with UD.  Most of the posts were about being cautious about Simpson and discussing what to do with a bus load of strippers at the tailgate events.  You can blame us for lots of things, but counting our chickens before they hatch isn't one of them.

[NewKnightDad]

Last week some WB posters were saying it was going to come down to UD and WB tied for first.  Now Warthog is wondering if WB can pull of the upset against the Dutch in a couple of weeks. 

When I read the opening of your post I was confused since I watched all week at the posts hoping no Wartburg fan would come on here and say something like you said that we said.  I went back and searched all last week's posts from Wartburg fans.  None of us said we were going to win the title or share the title with UD.  Most of the posts were about being cautious about Simpson and discussing what to do with a bus load of strippers at the tailgate events.  You can blame us for lots of things, but counting our chickens before they hatch isn't one of them.

I was just going to say the same thing, I don't remember any WB fan saying it was between us and UD.

Two weeks to think about that loss might be too long.