FB: American Rivers Conference

[DutchFan2004]

coocoo,

I congratulated BV and Simpson a few pages ago.  I think it is great.  The IIAC goes 7-2 and comes up with 2 that I didn't think we could get that is great.  I hope Simpson can do it again this weekend against Bethel. 

[TheOne89.1]

Congrats to all the wins this week from the IIAC....especially BV and Simpson who proved me wrong in the pick'em contest.  Luther put up one hell of a game and Sherden looks to be coming out of the gates running for the Norse (you don't even realize how hard it is for me to give props to Luther...it won't happen often).

Nice game by Loras against the D2 school up in Fayette...UIU will have plenty of chances to get kicked around against most of the NSIC.  If it wasn't for the big Luther/Wartburg game on the 22nd, it would be a good trip down to Iowa to see Winona State dominate the peacocks like the game last year.

As far as talk about non-conference games...anyone on here think some WIAC vs IIAC games would be interesting?  UWW, UWL, UWEC, UW-Oshkosh are all some pretty tough teams (and the rest of the teams aren't too shabby).

[warthog]

I guess I can understand why Peacock got me in his cross hairs.  He hasn't been at a Warthog family gathering with the Knight side of the family giving crap to the Peacock side of the family and vice versa.  Poor Grandma Warthog was the only University of Dubuque alum in the group and her job was to try keeping the peace.  So even though over the years I've posted my fond memories of Eb Eicheid, Doc Dorman and others at UIU, I can see why he gets a little defensive.

On the other hand I think coocoo may need to unbunch his undies.  I presented my "formula" with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.  I don't think there is anyone with IIAC ties that wouldn't think having an IIAC alum playing on Sundays is anything other than a great deal.  When DenHerder (Central), Young (Wm Penn) and Eicheid (UIU) were NFLers it was a big deal and having Jackson there now is still a big deal.  

So, coocoo, stop looking for throw down the gauntlet insults when there are none to be found.  This is a D3 football posting board, not the United Nations.

[warthog]

The decision process is more complicated now than it was when I was a high school senior.  I applied and was accepted at both Dubuque and Upper Iowa, then checked out other opportunities which landed me at Wartburg.  Why though Dubuque and Upper Iowa? 

A true story:

I took my ACT in Dorman Gymnasium at Upper Iowa the spring of my junior year.  Though not as smart, I was a worrier much like a former Knight who Walston Hoover, Lance and Sportknight all know. I was sure I would score the all-time worst ACT and I would end up attending Waterloo Barber College.  After completing the first section of the test, I began getting a head ache.  As the testing continued the head ache became steadily worse.  Finally after finishing a section that had something to do with science, I ran to the front of the room, tossed my test packet on the proctor's desk, ran outside and threw up in some bushes. 

It was then I noticed  the University of Dubuque baseball team standing all around me.  They were getting ready for a game againt the Upper Iowa Peacocks and their pregame was interrupted by some high school kid tossing his cookies right in the middle of their pep talk.  You can imagine how embarrassing that was.  One of the players obviously felt sorry for me and asked if I was taking the ACT.

As I stood there with part of my breakfast oozing down my shirt, I nodded  and mumbled something about being sorry that I puked in front of the entire Spartan  team.

The player said, "That's all right kid, don't worry about it.  I flunked the damn test and Dubuque still took me.  Maybe I'll see you on campus sometime."

With that comment the whole team, players and coaches alike, started laughing.  Now, I'm laughing with them as I stand there wearing a vomit covered shirt. I also have an ACT to complete.  To my rescue comes Eb Eicheid, the former Peacock football coach.  He was heading for the game and  realized I was in a bad situation. He took me to the locker room, gave me a towel to clean up with and then tossed me a Peacock t-shirt to replace the one I had worn to Fayette.  I promised to retun the shirt, but he told me to keep it and wear it around campus when I enrolled at UIU.  He then took me back to the testing area and straightened out my temporary absence with the test proctor.  She allowed me to continue the test.

With two nice people like the Dubuque baseball player and Coach Eicheid, I had to at least consider the Spartans and Peacocks.  I'm glad I chose Wartburg, but I will always remember the University of Dubuque and Upper Iowa from the day I flunked the ACT.

Here was a post I made nearly two years ago.  If you don't think I have a certain fondness for UIU and the Peacocks, think again.

[Purple Heys]

Purple Heys,


You would be right on in your evaluation.  Winning the IIAC is great but when the measurement is the Walnut and Bronze trophy then we do fall short.  Truth is harsh sometimes and I would love nothing more than to put some W's in the playoffs.  Nothing would please me more than to win some playoff games.  I do like your goals of the Stagg Bowl.  It would be a real treat to have the attitude of MUC that a bad season is not reaching the Stagg or better yet not winning.  You can either be a big fish in a small pond or try to be the big fish in the ocean.  You think because we seem to tell it like it is we are haters of the Rams far from it.  I would love to see the play elevated there and I think it is.  Teams that improve make the conference champs better and prepare them for the playoffs better.  10-0 records are nice but if you don't win in the playoffs it doesn't mean a thing.  The conference rankings are IMHO not conference rankings.  They rate you how you do in the playoffs.  Not a true ranking of how good the teams are.  I have made the point that the bottom teams in the IIAC are much better than the bottom teams of higher ranked conferences.  If the IIAC continiues to draw #1 or #2 seeds every year than the IIAC champs better raise there games so that they can become the #1 or #2 seeds so we can get the lower seeds and maybe get farther or maybe win the West.  Until  the IIAC gets some playoff wins we will be a middle of the pack conference.  Your ripping on the Dutch in your view from the MUC point of you use sure makes Cornell even look worse.   

Ripping on the Dutch isn't the point.  As I said before the ballplayers could care less what we write.  I don't rip any IIAC teams' players who are kids doing their best.

What I was ripping on, as you say, was the attititude of the Dutch fan represented on this board.  An attitude that seems to presume unless you are a Dutch fan, celebrating on this board is not appropriate, because Central posters, based on the team's past record is clearly entitled to lavish praise upon their team and diminish the efforts of any other.  I merely illustrated that there is always a bigger fish.  A comparison that apparently resonated...good.

And now they have some fans that don't give a shirt what folks with that type of attitude say.  I am a fan of the team and am not ashamed of it.

Now, Cornell may never win another game, then again they might.  They are not being trained to be satisfied with a conference win, they are being trained to compete at Central's level.  It won't happen overnight.  Then again, anybody watching what's gone on at Dubuque lately?

[DutchHawk]

I hope every team gets better and that no teams lose every conference game, It will only make our conference better and be able to compete nationally. I hope Cornell succeeds this year, except when they come to Pella. Not trying to bash on Cornell any, everyone has a right to celebrate a good win. Its just forecasting based on one game is foolish. I think schools such as Coe, Wartburg, Central of late playi n more close games because they have targets on them. Every week the opposition is more geared up to play them, why...because a win against those teams generally means more. Anyway...good luck to Cornell this weekend, a win will build some good momentum coming into conference play.

[Purple Heys]

Congrats to all the wins this week from the IIAC....especially BV and Simpson who proved me wrong in the pick'em contest.  Luther put up one hell of a game and Sherden looks to be coming out of the gates running for the Norse (you don't even realize how hard it is for me to give props to Luther...it won't happen often).

Nice game by Loras against the D2 school up in Fayette...UIU will have plenty of chances to get kicked around against most of the NSIC.  If it wasn't for the big Luther/Wartburg game on the 22nd, it would be a good trip down to Iowa to see Winona State dominate the peacocks like the game last year.

As far as talk about non-conference games...anyone on here think some WIAC vs IIAC games would be interesting?  UWW, UWL, UWEC, UW-Oshkosh are all some pretty tough teams (and the rest of the teams aren't too shabby).

It's a great thought to ponder.

But I don't think our conference is at the "Anyone, anywhere, anytime" level yet.  A 2 loss season is still typically enough to keep our teams out of the dance.

The NCAA selection process and our league's lack of recent playoff success would seem to discourage scheduling a tougher non-conference schedule.

Still, the IIAC is not far off that mark, at least with the top 3 or 4 teams.

[Purple Heys]

I hope every team gets better and that no teams lose every conference game, It will only make our conference better and be able to compete nationally. I hope Cornell succeeds this year, except when they come to Pella. Not trying to bash on Cornell any, everyone has a right to celebrate a good win. Its just forecasting based on one game is foolish. I think schools such as Coe, Wartburg, Central of late playi n more close games because they have targets on them. Every week the opposition is more geared up to play them, why...because a win against those teams generally means more. Anyway...good luck to Cornell this weekend, a win will build some good momentum coming into conference play.

Cool.

[Purple Heys]

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Dubuque wins 38-0.

They beat Rockford the way I was looking for Cornell to beat Northwestern.

Jackson passes and runs for TD's, no picks; Mashburn - 18 tackles

Take this team lightly at your peril.

[Purple Heys]

Defensively there were so man that deserve recognition...

Mashburn, Dubuque.  18 tackles, 2 TFL's

Gustavson, Cornell.  13 tackles, 2.5 TFL's, 1 Fumble Forced, 2 blocked kicks including game preserver, 30 bags of popcorn sold...

Breitbach, Coe.  Int/92 yard TD return, 5 breakups..but you gotta give the rest of the Kohawk D its due as well

Central:  Badeaux, Altmaier and really the entire Dutch D

Stover, Simpson.  12 tackles, 2 TFL's, and Int/24 yards.

Lansing, Wartburg. 10 tackles...again another team D effort

Hall, Loras.  13 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 TFL's

Hendrickson, Luther.  8.5 tackles, 2 TFL's

Sly, Buena Vista.  16 tackles, 2.5 TFL's, Int/48 yards TD

[youcantseeme]

From what I have heard, no one player was more instrumental to their team's victory than Breitbach from Coe.  He was a one man wrecking crew.  According to the conference site here was his stat line:

1 catch for 10 yards
2 PR for 62 yards and a TD
1 INT for 92 yards and a TD
1 KR for 19 yards
183 yards of total offense
6 tackles (4 solos) and 5 pass breakups

He has set the bar pretty high for himself.

[Ash Park]

Wow, no kidding. I wasnt trying to start WW3 or anything in here, just saying that jumping to greatness conclusions this early in the season is a bit much. After being in Pella on Saturday its easy to see the Dutch have some improvements to make if they are going to go undefeated again this year. Im not trying to be hard on Cornell just saying that we should wait for all this look out talk. I dont think anyone ever said the IIAC is the greatest conference ever, although its not bad. Losing a close playoff game to St. Johns last year and the eventual runner up by 20 the year before isnt exactly soft playoff draws. (Wesley lost on the same field to UWW by more than 50 in the semis that year for comparison).

I just want to say that not a single Cornell person this year or last year was saying woah look out for the Rams they are going to win conference and all that. If anything we have just been on here supporting our team. Obviously it would be kind of ridiculous if we really thought our team could go win conference after a couple of 2-8 seasons. We have to be realistic which is why I believe myself and purple heys picked our rams in the middle of the pack or just lower. The turn around isn't going to happen over night...I wish would happen that way but that just isn't realistic.

I'm not trying to chew out anybody here I just wanted to clarify that point.

[Klopenhiemer]

As far as talk about non-conference games...anyone on here think some WIAC vs IIAC games would be interesting?  UWW, UWL, UWEC, UW-Oshkosh are all some pretty tough teams (and the rest of the teams aren't too shabby).

I think this would be an interesting game to measure the differnece between the conferences.  UWEC went over to Southwest MN State, mind you a D2 and NSIC member, and spanked them.  I do recall a few years ago my Beavers stolled into the same Marshall, MN and beat the Mustangs as well.  The NSIC used to play their final games of the year against the WIAC in Metro Dome as a rivalry type weekend.  Does anyone know any more about this or what the all time records on this serries were? 

I think this would be an interesting conversation between comparing the IIAC, WIAC, and NSIC, and also include the MIAC in there as well.  I think the stats might show that even though the NSIC is a scholorship conference that other the top 3 this is really a poor group of team. 

Think about this as well.  UWEC beat a team that is building a multimillion dollar regional event center, with all the bells and whistels, and with an inflatable dome over the top of this for spring ball and winter activities.  This will be completed this spring.  Shouldnt this have helped recruiting? 

More than anything is food for thought and something differnt to talk about than the Dutch or the Knights. 

By the way congrats to all winners and most of all CONGRATS TO THE BV BOYS LETS CARRY THIS OVER FOR TWO WEEKS AGAINST THE KNIGHTS!!!!!!!!!

[Charlie Kohawk]

From what I have heard, no one player was more instrumental to their team's victory than Breitbach from Coe.  He was a one man wrecking crew.  ...

He has set the bar pretty high for himself.

I couldn't agree with you more, invisible one. That Breitbach had his breakout game the same day as his close friend Freddy Jackson made it to the NFL was icing on the cake. You say he's set the bar pretty high, and he has, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was just a preview. It may not be him every week -- Coe's defense is loaded with playmakers -- but I'll be shocked if he's not first-team all conference at the end of the year. He's a strong candidate for Academic All-American too.

[sportsknight]

That Breitbach had his breakout game the same day as his close friend Freddy Jackson made it to the NFL was icing on the cake.

No offense, Charles, but I'm curious to know how someone who didn't report to his first preseason camp for Coe until 2005 can be a "close friend" of someone that had graduated in 2003.  Not to say that its impossible that Breitbach likes to hang out with guys 6 years older than himself, but still strikes me as odd.

Don't get me wrong, if a former Knight made an NFL roster, I'd be thrilled.  But injecting Freddy's name into every mention of Coe more than just a bit ridiculous.  I'd go so far as to say that it might take away from the accomplishments of others.  Its as if you're saying "That Breitbach kid, yeah he's good, but only because he's Fred Jackson's buddy."  I know that's not your intention, but it kind of comes off that way.