FB: American Rivers Conference

[footballfan413]

This award also shows that not only does Coach Z know how to recruit and coach outstanding young men, he raises them, too! Congrats again to the whole Zwiefel family!     

[NewKnightDad]

Congratulations Michael Zwiefel, what a great honor.  The first one for someone in the IIAC as well.

I know Carey Bender won the award also but that was before Coe joined the conference.

[badgerwarhawk]

Congrats Michael

[TOPDOG]

This award also shows that not only does Coach Z know how to recruit and coach outstanding young men, he raises them, too! Congrats again to the whole Zwiefel family!     

Spot on.

[Fannosaurus Rex]

I see no problem with the DIII playoffs the way they are. I agree that it's a little boring with the Purple Bowl for seven years, but MU and UWW are the two best teams in DIII. If someone is tired of seeing them there, then all you have to do is beat them. The "Bowl" scenario presented sounds good at first, but it reminds me of the "participation ribbon" we give to kids in park and rec for just showing up. I'm all for having an undisputed champion, and I belive it's the way FBS should be also.

To me a champion is a champion whether they win a conference and a bowl game or a 5 week tournament.  There wouldn't be a real National Champion, but I could live with that.  Isn't the reason that we have different divisions because there are different philosophies about how to participate?  Not to say my view wouldn't be different if Central had won a national championship lately.

[doolittledog]

Every now and then you see someone on this site say MUC and Whitewater should move up to D2 because they are too good.  (my view is we need to get better)

When Central won 7 conference titles in the 1980's and made a Stagg Bowl appearance...Where there any out there calling for Central to leave the IIAC because they were too good?  Kind of like there were some in the 1990's calling for UD and Billie Penn to improve or leave the IIAC because they were too weak. 

And once again, congrats to Michael Zweifel on winning the Gagliardi Trophy.  Incredible accomplishment.  And...I wonder what that will do for UD recruiting over the next few months  

[CaliRamRL6]

Was the Gagliardi Trophy presentation on "ESPN the Ocho"? I must have missed that one.

[CaliRamRL6]

This award also shows that not only does Coach Z know how to recruit and coach outstanding young men, he raises them, too! Congrats again to the whole Zwiefel family!     

I think you said it best. There's something to be said about parents that are actually raising well balanced kids these days.

[warthog]

Every now and then you see someone on this site say MUC and Whitewater should move up to D2 because they are too good.  (my view is we need to get better)

When Central won 7 conference titles in the 1980's and made a Stagg Bowl appearance...Where there any out there calling for Central to leave the IIAC because they were too good?  Kind of like there were some in the 1990's calling for UD and Billie Penn to improve or leave the IIAC because they were too weak. 

And once again, congrats to Michael Zweifel on winning the Gagliardi Trophy.  Incredible accomplishment.  And...I wonder what that will do for UD recruiting over the next few months

This Tuesday, while at a local high school basketball game, I had a Cornell grad tell me the Wartburg wrestling program should move divisions.  The implications were that the Knights lied, cheated , and played loose with the rules to be as good as they are.  I'd suggest other teams just need to get better.  Likewise my position is the rest of us need to get better in football to compete with UWW and Mount Union.

[Fannosaurus Rex]

I don't think there is anything fishy going on nor do I think Mount or UWW are in the wrong divisions in football or Wartburg in wrestling.  My point in stirring the pot was more that, I don't need to know who is the best Division III football team in the whole country, especially if it involves stretching the season five more weeks.  I could get all flowery and try to use Division III student athlete ideals to make my argument, except that I would probably screw that up and end up looking dumber than I care to when I am just making off-season small talk. 

[Ash Park]

Every now and then you see someone on this site say MUC and Whitewater should move up to D2 because they are too good.  (my view is we need to get better)

When Central won 7 conference titles in the 1980's and made a Stagg Bowl appearance...Where there any out there calling for Central to leave the IIAC because they were too good?  Kind of like there were some in the 1990's calling for UD and Billie Penn to improve or leave the IIAC because they were too weak. 

And once again, congrats to Michael Zweifel on winning the Gagliardi Trophy.  Incredible accomplishment.  And...I wonder what that will do for UD recruiting over the next few months

This Tuesday, while at a local high school basketball game, I had a Cornell grad tell me the Wartburg wrestling program should move divisions.  The implications were that the Knights lied, cheated , and played loose with the rules to be as good as they are.  I'd suggest other teams just need to get better.  Likewise my position is the rest of us need to get better in football to compete with UWW and Mount Union.

I can't say that I am a huge fan of Wartburg but I do respect what that athletic department has accomplished. For some reason we live in a society that when a team or a person have so much success that people start to automatically think they/he/she must have cheated to get that success. I'm like you....instead of bi***ing about a team's success and saying they should go up a division...why not work that much harder to beat them.

[warthog]

Every now and then you see someone on this site say MUC and Whitewater should move up to D2 because they are too good.  (my view is we need to get better)

When Central won 7 conference titles in the 1980's and made a Stagg Bowl appearance...Were there any out there calling for Central to leave the IIAC because they were too good?  Kind of like there were some in the 1990's calling for UD and Billie Penn to improve or leave the IIAC because they were too weak. 

Perhaps Central wasn't asked to leave in the 80s, but in the 50s it apparently was an issue with St. Ambrose and Loras.  The following comes from the IIAC history as found on the conference web-site:

The Iowa Conference reorganized in 1953, effective with the 1954-55 school year. Nine schools remained in the Conference: Buena Vista, Central, Dubuque, Iowa Wesleyan, Luther, Parsons, Simpson, Upper Iowa and Wartburg. According to The Iowa Conference Story, "St. Ambrose and Loras were dropped because they were too strong for the others and Westmar (formerly Western Union) and William Penn because they were too weak."

[footballdaddy]

5 – Names I've heard connected to potential pro careers so far: Monmouth quarterback Alex Tanney, North Central tight end Kyle Fiedorwicz, Hampden-Sydney wide receiver Kyle Vance, Shenandoah wide receiver Rico Wallace, Wittenberg wide receiver Josh McKee.

The above from the ATN Year in Review.

Two things stand out: Why no Zweifel?
                               Wartburg is 3-0 against a potential NFL QB.

[doolittledog]

Perhaps Central wasn't asked to leave in the 80s, but in the 50s it apparently was an issue with St. Ambrose and Loras.  The following comes from the IIAC history as found on the conference web-site:

The Iowa Conference reorganized in 1953, effective with the 1954-55 school year. Nine schools remained in the Conference: Buena Vista, Central, Dubuque, Iowa Wesleyan, Luther, Parsons, Simpson, Upper Iowa and Wartburg. According to The Iowa Conference Story, "St. Ambrose and Loras were dropped because they were too strong for the others and Westmar (formerly Western Union) and William Penn because they were too weak."

Sometimes I wonder if that was really more of an anti-catholic bias in the conference back in those days.  Loras never has won a conference football title and St. Ambrose only won 3 football titles.  Just how strong were they??? 

[doolittledog]

5 – Names I've heard connected to potential pro careers so far: Monmouth quarterback Alex Tanney, North Central tight end Kyle Fiedorwicz, Hampden-Sydney wide receiver Kyle Vance, Shenandoah wide receiver Rico Wallace, Wittenberg wide receiver Josh McKee.

The above from the ATN Year in Review.

Two things stand out: Why no Zweifel?
                               Wartburg is 3-0 against a potential NFL QB.

He's white, small, slow...he doesn't fit into preconceived notions of what an NFL WR should look like.  Of course, neither does Wes Welker...so there you go. 

Or, maybe the pro scouts listened to the Wartburg posters that said Zweifel was average and he only got his stats because he got the ball thrown to him all the time

Either way, he had a great career, he is a great person, and he will do well in life no matter what he ends up doing.  Now, I can't wait to see what kind of recruiting class UD brings in for next season!!!