FB: American Rivers Conference

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Thanks Warthog and Walston.  I think the sort of percentages that Warthog mentioned from 2003 is not that unusual.  I would think that most schools bring in 35-50 new players almost every year because there is going to be some sort of attrition over four years.  I would also imagine that Wartburg gets quite a few guys that weren't really recruited that pick the school because they want to play football for a successful and known program.

Can anyone from Coe or Central speak to how many new players are generally brought in and what sort of retention rate they have with football?  I would love to hear how many people stuck with it at Pella when Schipper was coaching the program.

Roster turnover and poor recruiting helped to run down Iowa Football under Coach Fry in his last couple of years (especially 1998 and what Coach Ferentz inherited).  D-I is a totally different animal than D-III in terms of scholarships and recruiting restrictions, but I guess the Division III powers with good budgets can all win with different ways of building or running a program.

[Walston Hoover]

The only IIAC team I can find that has how many newcomers is UD and the 2004 and 2005 previews they have claimed 70 newcomers. I know that includes jucos and transfers, but I have to believe a bulk of those are freshmen. Anyway, I counted Sophs on their roster and they have 22. 1 of 2 things happened. Nowhere close to 70 newcomers reported or they have a heck of a turnover problem.

[K-Mack]

Well, UD is a special case because the current coaching staff inherited something like 21 players when they took over a few years back, and are still trying to build the program up.

But most D3 coaches will tell you it's a numbers game, in that, they'll all have a handful of guys they've seen and know they want, but for the most part, D3 coaches don't get the type of information on a recruit that a D-I college gets ... D3s often try to bring in numbers and let them sort themselves out in camp and practices, or the JV program, if applicable. They're recruiting kids that can play football but are also good fits for the school, since they have to get in at least partially on their own merits ... so I'd imagine there's not a lot of guilt when these guys quit and become "just" part of the student body.

So yeah, I don't completely discount some of those numbers just because they are large. Happens all the time, and not just in the IIAC, where big groups of newcomers whittle themselves down over four years to about 20 seniors.

[davedevine]

Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated has an article in today's issue about a tragic story of a former Simpson Golfer.. Cory Lemke..  If you get a chance, try to read the article.. it's a tear jerker..

I never heard about this before today, anyone have any idea what year he was at Simpson?

[Charlie Kohawk]

Buffalo Bills camp notes from Thursday: Running backs Lionel Gates and Fred Jackson worked out on a limited basis, which in Jackson's case was surprising. He appeared to suffer a serious knee injury during Tuesday's practice.

Go get it Freddy!

[sc_stormchaser]

Dave - thanks for letting us know about the article on the Simpson golfer. Looks like he would have been going into his sophomore year.

[Pakk]

Catch me up to speed here.  Who are the top 3 teams  this year in the conference.  Here's my vote.

Central
Coe
Luther

[Pakk]

I played for schipper (1992-1995), we had a great retention rate.

[wildcat11]

Floyd:

The undefeated conference champion Wartburg Knights of 2003 started with around 50-55 classmates when they arrived on campus in August of 2000.  The roster for their final game at Linfield in November 2003 included 21 seniors.

Floyd and Wart,

The 2003 Linfield/Wartburg game was a classic.  In fact, the game was one of Catdomealumni.com's top ten moments over the past ten seasons.  You can watch a "balanced" highlight video clip of the game at Catdomealumni.com.  Here is the link:

2003 Wartburg vs Linfield playoff game

[press_box]

Here's the Reilly column:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/rick_reilly/08/14/reilly0821/index.html

[Walston Hoover]

I would have Luther in the top 4, but rumor has it Sherden is done. If that is the case, they will be bottom 3.
Thanks for that clip Wildcat. That was fun to watch even though we came out on the short end that day.

[alfredenuemann]

Sherden is DONE

From Decorah Newspaper

*Sherden will miss 2006 grid season*

Luther junior Tyler Sherden from Rochester, Minn. will miss the 2006 campaign while recovering from off-season surgery. Sherden, who has one year of eligibility remaining, will return for his final season in 2007.

During the 2005 season, Sherden competed in five games before an injury against Coe Oct. 1 cut his season short. He gained 754 yards rushing on 137 attempts (5.3 yards per carry) and scored 11 touchdowns. He also caught 10 passes for 107 yards and returned four kickoff returns for 83 yards.

Sherden nabbed all-Iowa conference honors in 2004 when he led the conference in rushing with 1,057 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also led the league in all-purpose yards (217.5 yards per game).

[Floyd in Iowa City]

It was also in the school website preview posted above that Sherden is sitting this year out.

So Luther finishes 7th without Sherden?  It could happen since they both won and lost so many close games last year, but Luther returns a lot of players and has better depth and talent on the roster that a few years ago.  They have been 4-4, 5-3, and 5-3 the last three years in the conference and in no worse than 4th place.

The Norse were 3-2 last year with Sherdan, 3-2 without him.  That is a little misleading since Sherden played against St. Olaf, Wartburg, and Coe, meaning that the 1st half of the season might have been a little tougher.  However, in the 2nd half of the season they also lost RB Adam Lamos (now a sophomore) who played well in the Simpson and Central games before also getting hurt early in the 3rd quarter against the Dutch and missing the last three games.

I know Luther did not run well at all after Sherden and Lamos got hurt, but the OL is mostly back, a talented senior QB returns who split time last year, very talented and experienced WRs return (especially Pearson), and Lamos is back to go with some new recruits at RB.  I think the Norse Offense might be pretty good or very good if guys can stay healthy this year.

At this point I personally think Wartburg has more questions than Luther, but I will still honor recent tradition and say Central, Coe, and Wartburg should be the top three followed by Luther.  Central was picked 5th in the preseason poll last year with Wartburg being picked to win it, so it could be interesting again this year.  If Luther can split the Coe-Wartburg start of the IIAC season and stay healthy, maybe the Norse get on a run like Central did last year.  All we know so far is that Central and Coe look the best on paper right now.

[Walston Hoover]

Preseason Offensive MVP- Schuring (Central) Other potential-Northern (Coe), Suckow (Coe) and Hammes (Wartburg)-Any of them could win it.
Defensive is a toss-up-Not a ton of returning talents. Central's got a DB that was pretty good, and Weber returning at Wartburg is pretty salty.
I guess I will be curious to see how the Dutch come out this year. If memory serves me correctly, they had several games that could have gone either way last year, so we'll see if its a fluke or if the Dutch are back.
My preseason coach of the year is a tough one. As always, it will probably go to the conf. champ. However, if Central or Coe win the title, and any of the following happen, these coaches will get it (in this order)
Dillon goes 5-5
Brautigham goes 5-5
Anderson goes 7-3 or better
Koehler goes 8-2 or better
Osterberger or Hefty go 7-3
Niemann splits for the title.

[Confused77]

Finally looked at the previews that are posted and I see that Simpson is dropping the spread? I know they have a good back, but every opposing D. Coordinator  in the IIAC or that Simpson played out of conference had a giant headache preparing for that spread. I really hope the IIAC isn't reverting back to the "3 yards and a could of dust" philosophy, because frankly that is boring. If you want to watch 3 yards and a cloud of dust go watch HS football.  Basically, we lost the spread, we lost the double slot option and we gained the Wing T and another Pro Style Offense. Offensively the IIAC seems pretty vanilla to me.