FB: American Rivers Conference

[DutchFan2004]

Purple Heys,

Those are points well taken about 100 or more playing football and paying tuition.  My whole point though is of the 600 or so students per class like at Wartburg or Central (and I am not sure of enrollment figures just a guess at 600) the freshman class is only 10% of enrollment.  If BV's enrollment is diving there are more troubles than the football program   I think sports are a very important part of college.  I am glad that my sons participated in them.

[WartTrainer]

W.H. -

I went to the Simpson-UD game last week and most of the runs for Jackson were either desgined draws or they would do read option.  The thing that gave the Storm problems is they wouldnt wrap up when they would hit him and the lack of a scheme to stop the option play in the first half.

A side note about Jackson...I thought he would be faster than he was, this was the first time I have seen him play and the way people talked about him I was thinking he was a run away from you kind of guy. 

[Floyd in Iowa City]

He's athletic, but he wasn't near as fast when I saw him last year as the Luther QB from that game.  Sweers had those long strides though.  Belleus as WR/DB/PR/KR was the real deal though.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Thanks for bringing up those horrible memories from last year Floyd... That guy absolutely destroyed the Norse

The hot seat topic was a few pages back, but the Luther coaches had to be feeling a ton of heat after the Dubuque game last year.  Most people knew who Belleus was before the game, but even the most mannered fans by the 3rd quarter were saying, "Why are we still kicking to that guy!"  It was a fun day to be a Spartan.

[Thunderbolt]

  I like the option the Spartans run out of the shotgun. 1st option being a shovel pass, and usually two recievers at different depths, in the same line of sight. Puts a ton of pressure on one side of the field. With the athletes they have, it requires great disipline to to contain it all day.

[the_mayne_event]

  I like the option the Spartans run out of the shotgun. 1st option being a shovel pass, and usually two recievers at different depths, in the same line of sight. Puts a ton of pressure on one side of the field. With the athletes they have, it requires great disipline to to contain it all day.

Is it like the speed shovel, like Urban Meyer runs?  If it is, I know Coe tried to run it the first year we put in the spread but it was so hard to time and get right during practice let alone games.  Lots of dicipline.  Really hard for the QB to think that fast.  If it works it is dynamite though.

[Thunderbolt]

 Not sure of all the nuances, its just engrained in the dark side of my mind, after watching them run it successfully 15 or 20 times against the Norse last year. Its more of a pass-pass-run option. The beauty of it is, a botched pitch is just an incomplete pass, as opposed to a fumble or big loss.

[Thunderbolt]

  After Clayton gashes you a few times on the shovel pass, and people start pinching in a little, Jackson's on the perimeter putting the DB's in a bad position.

[New Storm]

I don't know what's going on at Simpson. It seems like they've been getting some good players in the past few years, but it hasn't produced on the field. There have been several games over the past few years where we were up (and dominating) at half, only lose the game. The BV game last year was just like the UD game last week. I will be at the Simpson - Central game on Oct. 6. So I'll be able to comment more than, but the past few years have been tough.

Oh how times have changed, I remember the '98 team went 7-3 (coming off IIAC championships in '96 & '97) you would have thought the sky was falling. That was the talk of campus...3 losses in one season, how could it be? I thought we were back when we went to the playoffs in '03, but haven't had a winning season since. It's funny how the perspective can change in just a few years...we would be excited about a 6-win season.

1st time poster have been reading awhile. I have seen the storm this year. Last week 70 total yards 2nd half. To put it nicely selection of personal and play calling questionalable

[WartTrainer]

New Storm...I agree with you on the questionable play calling and the lack of a true starter at QB.  The two times I have seen the storm this year it seems as though once the Unkrich kid gets going the change to the other kid and the offense doesnt seem to move the ball as well.

[DutchHawk]

From personal experience on the field the key to beating a superiorly talented (arguably) Dubuque team is to get them down early. They will tend to get on each other and not be supportive. This was always my opinion when I was on the field against them recently. If you let them hang around they stick together better as a team and are far more dangerous. I think it is imperative for Wartburg to jump on them early, score, or at least make some big plays on both sides of the ball to not give them any momentum.

[TheOne89.1]

the key to beating a superiorly talented (arguably) Dubuque team is to get them down early. They will tend to get on each other and not be supportive.

D.H. - I agree with you on this.  I would see that same situation in most of the sports Wartburg competed in against UD (also against UIU when they were still in the IIAC).  If the Spartans or Peacocks got on a roll, the team played well together and kept getting baskets or scoring TD's...but once their opponents had a big scoring run or put together some solid drives, the players would start to take it upon themselves to try to create a big impact play instead of just running what works best for their team.

I think Wartburg needs to keep throwing the ball if they want to be successful.  Yordi has a great arm and knows when to throw it or when to tuck it and run or when to get rid of it to avoid a sack or INT.  The Knights have a solid TE who can really make some big plays and looks like they have another TD threat with Weber.  Putting him and Duchman on opposite sides of the field will be a huge advantage for the Knights.  Van Rees was still running hard as a solid work horse for the Knight's run game and Suckow has shown he can get himself into the endzone.  And of course the 'D' just needs to keep doing what they are doing.

[New Storm]

New Storm...I agree with you on the questionable play calling and the lack of a true starter at QB.  The two times I have seen the storm this year it seems as though once the Unkrich kid gets going the change to the other kid and the offense doesnt seem to move the ball as well.

The game at Coe was just the opposite the other kid moved the team to both scores and the starter didn't do much but play calls not good

[Wartburg Fan]

last years Wartburg-UD game, Wartburg could not throw the football. In the first half UD played the pass and run and Hammes eat them up. Then UD realized that The Knights couldn't throw the football and UD went to just stopping the run and dared Wartburg to throw. They completely stop the running game and the rest is history 17 to 14 in OT. With the passing game the way its been in the first three games. they (UD) will have to play both parts of the game.  As a fan I noticed that if you got a pretty good lead on UD they seemed to give up. But that was in the past the way the Simpson game went it doesn't look like they gave up. Wartburg will have to play another good game on D and the O will have to pass the ball with success.

          GO KNIGHTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Buckwheat]

Read earlier today about declining numbers at B.V..  Just curious for Beaver followers - are they doing a better job recruiting?  For 4 years, my son attended the B.V. Football Camp -- was in the top 5% of athletes attending - based on 40 times, shuttle, lifting, etc.  Had an initial interest in attending B.V. because he got to know the coaches so well.  But 30 college recruiters later - B.V. Coaches finally made a call -- after he had signed with Wartburg.  That was 18 months ago.