FB: American Rivers Conference

[NewKnightDad]

Only because I know I will get in trouble for saying this I will preface this by saying this is my opinion, I believe the quality of teams in the IIAC this year is down and the fact that Coe led in all of those categories is misleading a little bit.

Now, I believe Coe is the real deal, they have tall athletic receivers that can run and jump and they have great hands.  They have a senior quarterback that can deliver the football to them and does not wilt under pressure.

Their defense is good and they have a defensive end that will get to the quarterback and can stuff the run.

Coaching is very solid with this team as well.

I know there are parts to their team I am missing but those were the things that stood out to me when Wartburg played them.

I believe they will be a tough out for anyone and will make a run in the post season.

[notlongago]

Only because I know I will get in trouble for saying this I will preface this by saying this is my opinion, I believe the quality of teams in the IIAC this year is down and the fact that Coe led in all of those categories is misleading a little bit.

Now, I believe Coe is the real deal, they have tall athletic receivers that can run and jump and they have great hands.  They have a senior quarterback that can deliver the football to them and does not wilt under pressure.

Their defense is good and they have a defensive end that will get to the quarterback and can stuff the run.

Coaching is very solid with this team as well.

I know there are parts to their team I am missing but those were the things that stood out to me when Wartburg played them.

I believe they will be a tough out for anyone and will make a run in the post season.

I agree, I think what Coe did this year is what happens when you have 1 team up to snuff and the rest of the league is sub-par. I think in any given year, this Coe team would've challenged for the conference title, but probably wouldn't have won it by 3 games and led every category.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

Only because I know I will get in trouble for saying this I will preface this by saying this is my opinion

Not surprised to find bitter Wartburg Burger Burglars.

Can't wait to see this team play.

[Charlie Kohawk]

In 300 words or less.  Who are the Kohawks this year (this will be graded):

Undefeated Iowa Conference Champions.

[NewKnightDad]

Only because I know I will get in trouble for saying this I will preface this by saying this is my opinion

Not surprised to find bitter Wartburg Burger Burglars.

Can't wait to see this team play.

I am just a bitter American clinging to my religion and guns. 

[coocooforcoekohawk]

Undefeated Iowa Conference Champions.

For Shizzle!

[Klompen]

I agree with NKD, Coe was obviously the best team in the conference this year.  This team would have competed well with the conference champs from any of the past few years, but the fact that the rest of the conference really was down this year makes them look even better statistically. 

Speaking of statistics, nice to see the Dutch team get 3 more picks and the only fumble Coe lost all year, given that in the prior nine games Coe only had 7 interceptions and no fumbles.  It was good for the Dutch to compete well enough to keep Coe starters in most of the game, Coe will need to be ready for full games in the playoffs. 

Doolittle, maybe I will "see" you on the men's basketball board.  Will have to see how things go with a new coach this year. 

[doolittledog]

Doolittle, maybe I will "see" you on the men's basketball board.  Will have to see how things go with a new coach this year.

Yes, I am already looking forward to basketball now.  Coach Sieverding has 3 straight 2nd place finishes.  I'm rooting for the Spartans to make the leap up to conference champs.  The UD basketball program was in as bad of shape as the football program a decade ago.  Coach Mac started the process of turning the UD program around and now coach Sieverding is on the verge of taking them to the next level.

I am also a bit curious to see how the UD wrestling team does this year.  They brought in a former Iowa All-American as an assistant that had been an assistant at Indiana the past 9 seasons and specializes working with the lower weights. 

[Fannosaurus Rex]

You guys can talk about who was the best of the second best teams in the conference and wrestling and basketball and the quality of visitor side porta potties if you want to.  I'm getting ready for football 2013.  I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that Central's 2013 non-con schedule will be the same as 2012 with home teams swapped.  So Central will open 2013 in Pella against a 2012 number one playoff seed (Oshkosh).  I look for a top ten national ranking after the Dutch squeak out a win in that one.  Then I hope Coe is the 2013 homecoming opponent since it will likely be the only game I get to see before the play-offs.  Go Dutch!  And oh yeah, good luck to Coe in the play-offs.  They seem to have a solid team.  It didn't look like they got rattled after a bad start Saturday so play-off pressure might not bother them.  A couple of wins would please me and wouldn't surprise me.

[Pat Coleman]

Linfield is the No. 1 seed in that bracket, with UW-Oshkosh the two seed.

[notlongago]

You guys can talk about who was the best of the second best teams in the conference and wrestling and basketball and the quality of visitor side porta potties if you want to.  I'm getting ready for football 2013.  I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that Central's 2013 non-con schedule will be the same as 2012 with home teams swapped.  So Central will open 2013 in Pella against a 2012 number one playoff seed (Oshkosh).  I look for a top ten national ranking after the Dutch squeak out a win in that one.  Then I hope Coe is the 2013 homecoming opponent since it will likely be the only game I get to see before the play-offs.  Go Dutch!  And oh yeah, good luck to Coe in the play-offs.  They seem to have a solid team.  It didn't look like they got rattled after a bad start Saturday so play-off pressure might not bother them.  A couple of wins would please me and wouldn't surprise me.

I like this idea. Lets look at possible contenders next season

Coe favorites by virtue of being returning conference champs. Lose a great SR qb, but that will be soph looks like a playmaker so thats a wash...losing many members of that D could hurt them though
Wartburg definitely a contender. Lose the starting RB? some of the line? A playmaker in the secondary, but return a core full of potential
Central Return basically everyone...has the potential to be a dangerous team
DBQ lose a good TE, a great QB, and a RB? They lose too much to be a contender next year
BV another middle of the pack team
Simpson Lose a lot of firepower on offense...likely to regress to the middle of the pack next year
Loras and Luther...

Very preliminary predictions:

1A Coe
1B Central
1C Wartburg


4 BV
5 DBQ
6 Simpson


7 Loras
8 Luther

[coocooforcoekohawk]

I'm getting ready for football 2013. 

I'm not.

Looking forward to one possibly two more games, dare I say three or four?

[Willie University]

You guys can talk about who was the best of the second best teams in the conference and wrestling and basketball and the quality of visitor side porta potties if you want to.  I'm getting ready for football 2013.  I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that Central's 2013 non-con schedule will be the same as 2012 with home teams swapped.  So Central will open 2013 in Pella against a 2012 number one playoff seed (Oshkosh).  I look for a top ten national ranking after the Dutch squeak out a win in that one.  Then I hope Coe is the 2013 homecoming opponent since it will likely be the only game I get to see before the play-offs.  Go Dutch!  And oh yeah, good luck to Coe in the play-offs.  They seem to have a solid team.  It didn't look like they got rattled after a bad start Saturday so play-off pressure might not bother them.  A couple of wins would please me and wouldn't surprise me.

I like this idea. Lets look at possible contenders next season

Coe favorites by virtue of being returning conference champs. Lose a great SR qb, but that will be soph looks like a playmaker so thats a wash...losing many members of that D could hurt them though
Wartburg definitely a contender. Lose the starting RB? some of the line? A playmaker in the secondary, but return a core full of potential
Central Return basically everyone...has the potential to be a dangerous team
DBQ lose a good TE, a great QB, and a RB? They lose too much to be a contender next year
BV another middle of the pack team
Simpson Lose a lot of firepower on offense...likely to regress to the middle of the pack next year
Loras and Luther...

Very preliminary predictions:

1A Coe
1B Central
1C Wartburg


4 BV
5 DBQ
6 Simpson


7 Loras
8 Luther

The Spartans do not lose a RB. However, they do lose a very good LB in 4 year starter and all conf player Trevor Runkle. Also all conference center Richard Scaife that tore his ACL or MCL against Coe I believ???. Good thing is the replacements are very good. The biggest question mark would be at QB and TE but just like Michael Zweifel and Demacus Fleming that graduated last year, there will be players to fill the holes. There were WR's that certainly emerged this year. You should remember the one that broke the IIAC single game reception record previously held by M Zweifel against central this year?? He got injured early in the next game against luther and wasn't quite as involved until the final games.

I would give preseason rankings for 2013 as follows:

1.) Coe
2.) Wartburg
3.) UD
4.) Central
5.) Simpson
6.) BV
7.) Luther
8.) Loras

[DutchFan2004]

In 300 words or less.  Who are the Kohawks this year (this will be graded):

Coe led the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense, total defense.  Won the league by 3 games.  I can't ever recall a conference winner taking the title by more than 2 games, and a 2 game margin is pretty rare.

The question is not that if Coe was so much better to have won the conference by three games but is the rest of the conference that bad or improving?  This is not a knock on Coe at all.  They have a good team and had the stats to prove that they are real.  DD's comment about the rest of the conference has nothing to do with Coe and how they performed because they only played each team once and accounted for 1 loss per team. 


If you are filling brackets out I would take Coe over Elmhurst.  I watched the Millikin/Elmhurst game on the net and Elmhurst has a great RB and a very average defense so I think Coe can and will limit the Elmhurst RB.  I think Coe's offense should have not trouble scoring. 

[NewKnightDad]

In 300 words or less.  Who are the Kohawks this year (this will be graded):

Coe led the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense, total defense.  Won the league by 3 games.  I can't ever recall a conference winner taking the title by more than 2 games, and a 2 game margin is pretty rare.

The question is not that if Coe was so much better to have won the conference by three games but is the rest of the conference that bad or improving?  This is not a knock on Coe at all.  They have a good team and had the stats to prove that they are real.  DD's comment about the rest of the conference has nothing to do with Coe and how they performed because they only played each team once and accounted for 1 loss per team. 


If you are filling brackets out I would take Coe over Elmhurst.  I watched the Millikin/Elmhurst game on the net and Elmhurst has a great RB and a very average defense so I think Coe can and will limit the Elmhurst RB.  I think Coe's offense should have not trouble scoring.

I don't think anybody was knocking Coe, as a matter of fact everybody said they were the real deal and could do well in the playoffs.

Most people are saying the rest of the conference was down this year which I guess in a way could be misinterpreted as a knock but I don't believe anybody meant it that way.