FB: American Rivers Conference

[footballdaddy]

AZDut - Klomp - FRex:

Nice try guys, but I don't think the Knight fans are going to bite this year.   

Right now we are a little disappointed in the way things have been working out, so we probably won't say or write anything that can be used at a later date to make us feel any worse than we do at this time.   

A big win over the Dutch could bring us out of our funk, but it sounds as though the injury bug may still be floating around the "W" training room.   

What???  Throwing in the towel excuses before the game even starts?  What fun is that?  Central had 3 new injuries last Saturday too, every team has injuries, but one of them had a week off to heal. 

The way I see it, I might as well get my licks in now as Saturday night I might be licking my wounds.  But I'm not giving up before the game is played and I am the fan that is very hesitant about Central's inconsistent play.  I'm just hoping the team that played Loras shows up at this game.  If it is the team that played BV, it is going to be a long afternoon.  So on that note, I should come up with another zinger now.   

Not making excuses, just stating facts. Hopefully we don't have a repeat of 2009 and barely salvage a winning record after a playoff run the year before. 

[AZDutchman]

A man from out of town was visiting Waverly when he noticed coming down the street was a long line of motorcycle police, uniformed and undercover police patrolling the sidewalks, people on top of the buildings with radios and all the Waverly residents cheering!
He asked, "Is the President visiting?" The Waverly resident, rolling his eyes and with a big sigh, told the out of town stranger...The Party Bus is coming back from an away game (duh)!#? 

[Fannosaurus Rex]

Well you guys are no fun.  I guess I could start early trash talking at the Simpson people, where ever they are, except that I don't have two weeks worth of material.  I'm going to have to find a really obscure joke book to rip off and use for the bye week and the week before Simpson game.

[Ash Park]

I'm surprised there's not more chatter about the upcoming toilet bowl.  Somebody is going to leave Mt. Vernon with a win. I actually have a good feeling it will be the Duhawks.  We'll then catch a reeling 3-3 Wartburg team and surprise them in the Rock Bowl and beat BV on the road for a respectable finish a la the early-oughts Hawkeye teams.  This should build to conference championships for the next few years.  That's the way I'm seeing if folks, anybody with me?

You're drinking some of that kool-aid IdahoSoccer has been chugging

It's my belief that positive thinking goes a long ways towards happiness.  Us UD fans are prime examples...we stayed positive during a looooooong dry spell for our Spartans.  It could also serve the Loras faithful well.

Hopefully we will be able to say the same thing someday.....I mean we do have the coach who got UD turned around to begin with and we are getting a new field with renovations to the stadium....Have to stay positive!!

[Willie University]

I'm surprised there's not more chatter about the upcoming toilet bowl.  Somebody is going to leave Mt. Vernon with a win. I actually have a good feeling it will be the Duhawks.  We'll then catch a reeling 3-3 Wartburg team and surprise them in the Rock Bowl and beat BV on the road for a respectable finish a la the early-oughts Hawkeye teams.  This should build to conference championships for the next few years.  That's the way I'm seeing if folks, anybody with me?

You're drinking some of that kool-aid IdahoSoccer has been chugging

It's my belief that positive thinking goes a long ways towards happiness.  Us UD fans are prime examples...we stayed positive during a looooooong dry spell for our Spartans.  It could also serve the Loras faithful well.

Hopefully we will be able to say the same thing someday.....I mean we do have the coach who got UD turned around to begin with and we are getting a new field with renovations to the stadium....Have to stay positive!!

You almost have to look at it though as 2 separate turning points in UD Football.

Coach B certainly did a trememdous job bringing the spartans to 6-4 and 7-3 seasons after decades of poor performances.

Coach Z then took a 2-8 (last place conference team) and took them to 5-5, 4-6, and 7-1 (currently with 2 games to go)

The team Coach Z is putting on the field has maybe 1-3 players from Coach B's tenure so you cannot credit Coach B with the current teams success. They are 2 completely separate eras in Spartan Football.

Willie U

[Klompen]

They are two different coaches and different players at UD, but recruiting as a coach after a team has gone 6-4 and 7-3 is much easier than recruiting after a decade or more of losing records.  That is a slow turn around process when you start at the bottom.  And Coach B didn't bring in a son like Michael Z.

[CaliRamRL6]

I'm surprised there's not more chatter about the upcoming toilet bowl.  Somebody is going to leave Mt. Vernon with a win. I actually have a good feeling it will be the Duhawks.  We'll then catch a reeling 3-3 Wartburg team and surprise them in the Rock Bowl and beat BV on the road for a respectable finish a la the early-oughts Hawkeye teams.  This should build to conference championships for the next few years.  That's the way I'm seeing if folks, anybody with me?

Someone at work brought up the toilet bowl. This is a game that Cornell could win if they play a full 4 quarters. They're numbers are thin but I believe they have the talent and coaching to knock off the Duhawks at home. I think I might even make the game.

[Ash Park]

Not crediting the current teams success to Brautigam directly. However, in my opinion if it wasn't for Brautigam and his staff at UD...that program would be nowhere near where they are now (I think that is pretty safe to say). That is no disrespect to the current staff..they have obviously done a great job and have shown they are capable of building a conference contender. I think maybe you took what I said out of context...I was just saying I am simply happy as hell to have the guy who brought UD out of the basement.

I believe there are 5 players from the other "time period" . I think 4 out of the 5 start. Anytime a new coach takes over it is usually a new era 

[Ash Park]

I'm surprised there's not more chatter about the upcoming toilet bowl.  Somebody is going to leave Mt. Vernon with a win. I actually have a good feeling it will be the Duhawks.  We'll then catch a reeling 3-3 Wartburg team and surprise them in the Rock Bowl and beat BV on the road for a respectable finish a la the early-oughts Hawkeye teams.  This should build to conference championships for the next few years.  That's the way I'm seeing if folks, anybody with me?

Someone at work brought up the toilet bowl. This is a game that Cornell could win if they play a full 4 quarters. They're numbers are thin but I believe they have the talent and coaching to knock off the Duhawks at home. I think I might even make the game.

Cali, if you go to the game send me a couple text updates please!! Not sure I'll be near a computer to watch the game on the internet.

[Willie University]

They are two different coaches and different players at UD, but recruiting as a coach after a team has gone 6-4 and 7-3 is much easier than recruiting after a decade or more of losing records.  That is a slow turn around process when you start at the bottom.  And Coach B didn't bring in a son like Michael Z.

If your logic was correct, then the Spartans never should have dropped to 2-8 the following year. All I am saying is Coach B did a great job to get to 6-4 and 7-3. And IF Coach Z had come in the following season and continued that success with a follow up campaign of 7-3 or better, then I might agree with you.

HOWEVER, he inherited a 2-8 team and bottom dweller. Half the team (the large junior class you see now on the roster) his first year were his recruits. 2 seasons later 97% of the team are his recruits so you can in NO WAY credit his success by his predecessors. It's not like he was taking over for Schipper and a 40 year tradition of winning that most any coach could step into and succeed to a certain degree. 2 winning seasons by Coach B didn't  erase 30 years of being bad and all of the sudden make recruiting "easy".There were still PLENTY of challenges Coach Z had to endure to get the team to where it currently is.

Like I said, I appreciate the success Coach B had very much but you can't for 1 minute give him credit for the current teams success. No way, no how. I wish him the best at Cornell and think he will do a great job there and you can see small improvements this year.

Willie U

[Klompen]

Not crediting the current teams success to Brautigam directly. However, in my opinion if it wasn't for Brautigam and his staff at UD...that program would be nowhere near where they are now (I think that is pretty safe to say). That is no disrespect to the current staff..they have obviously done a great job and have shown they are capable of building a conference contender. I think maybe you took what I said out of context...I was just saying I am simply happy as hell to have the guy who brought UD out of the basement.

I believe there are 5 players from the other "time period" . I think 4 out of the 5 start. Anytime a new coach takes over it is usually a new era 

That was what I was trying to say as well.  I have a lot of respect for Coach B because he was the first coach in a string of new UD coaches that stuck around long enough to start turning the tide and I guess I still hate that he was pushed aside.  Strange, since I am a Central fan that I really care.  It's just that I have watched IIAC football long enough to see a string of coaches come and go at UD when they couldn't get immediate positive results.  Coach B stuck out the bad years and had to leave when things were finally getting easier, I'm sure, for recruiting.  To me, that makes Cornell lucky to have him, now if you were just sticking around the IIAC.

[Willie University]

Not crediting the current teams success to Brautigam directly. However, in my opinion if it wasn't for Brautigam and his staff at UD...that program would be nowhere near where they are now (I think that is pretty safe to say). That is no disrespect to the current staff..they have obviously done a great job and have shown they are capable of building a conference contender. I think maybe you took what I said out of context...I was just saying I am simply happy as hell to have the guy who brought UD out of the basement.

I believe there are 5 players from the other "time period" . I think 4 out of the 5 start. Anytime a new coach takes over it is usually a new era 

No offense taken so hopefully my response wasn't too harsh but I just think you can't compare taking over for a UD program that was 2-8 to taking over for Coe/Wartburg/Central that had just won the IIAC championship the year before. People have short memories and when you are recruiting for a 2-8 team, it really doesn't matter that you were 7-3 the year before the 2-8 season, all they care about was what your record was at present.

[Willie University]

Not saying I am an "expert" in Spartan Football or history as Spurrier will always be the "King" of the Spartan Nation but I have followed it about as closely as a fan could for the past 20 years. A large portion of that time on this postboard.

I have respected and appreciated every coach for what they did or tried to do with the Spartan program. I am happy for the Cornell faithful to have Coach B and I am happy for the Spartan faithful to have Coach Z.

And all I care about right now is Luther 

Willie U

[doolittledog]

We will be hosting a halloween party with a whole mess of kids at our house this saturday...but I will have the UD game loaded up on my computer.  I've already told my wife I'm going to the Coe game the next weekend...in good or bad weather.  (she's hoping for good weather so I can take the kids along)

Good luck to all the UD seniors on their senior day at Chalmers.  You have been fun to watch over the past 4 or so years.  Let's get another victory!!1

[Klompen]

Willie, I too did not mean to imply that Coach Z's success is due to Coach B.  As an outsider looking in for years, my view is Coach B started a turn around.  Not all turn arounds mean up years every year, such as the Central men winning the basketball title one year then slipping back to the lower middle last year.  But it was still the start of what I hope will be a prolonged turn around and if we had changed coaches and this one started with the team and last year's record, I would still give Boschee credit for starting the turn around.  Thankfully he is still at Central because I believe he can make positive changes, but turn arounds tend to be long range goals out of necessity.  Most coaches have up and down years.  I sure did not mean that Coach Z was starting with a team with a Schipper kind of record after Coach B.  Even the Central coaches struggle to maintain that high level of success.

Coach Z has them playing at a higher level of success and I don't mean to take away from that at all.  I would be surprised if he is not IIAC COY if they win out. 

I am with both you and Ash Park.  I think UD is lucky to have Zweifel, he was a good hire and is moving things to the next level.  For Cornell Coach B is a good hire and they are lucky to have him.  Staying power at a loosing school is a rare find and I think it will benefit Cornell in the long run.