FB: American Rivers Conference

[DutchFan2004]

Kids playing their hearts out and giving it all shows the love they have for the game.  Weber is a gamer and in that category as well.

[Klopenhiemer]

Walston- Got a question for you where do you thing the knights need to improve for next year, what position do they did help at ?

I think that is a good question for the entire board/all the teams in the IIAC...where does each team need to improve for the 2008 IIAC season???

I will give me 2 cents worth on the Beavers. 

O-Line:  need to keep improving.  Showed some better signs of rushing late in the season but was a constant battle. 

RB:  Looks like they have a good freshman...Looking forward to seeing him a year older. 

DL:  Need to put more pressure on the QB

LB/Secondary: Replacing Pierce and Sly will be difficult. 

I would agree with all of the above.  The O-line has long been a trouble spot for BV and should be their #1 priority in recruiting.  With Osty's absence, I hope they finally quit recruiting Valley kids for this group.

The receiving corps and backfield look to be solid, although BV has lacked a hard-nosed fullback since Crook's graduation in '06.

BV's D-line loses some horses, but it might be good to get a few younger guys with a little more spring in their step.  A few young guys showed some potential this year.

Pierce and Sly will be missed, but you can count on Coach Larry finding a new Will LB to rack up 37 tackles a game.

The corner spots are wide open, as the Beavs lose both starters and the twin midgets who backed them up.

On the bright side, there are no fewer than 8 kids from my high school alma mater seriously considering playing ball at BV.  Granted, they may not all turn out to be college football material, but if Jay is able to get some more guys on campus, he can sort them out when they get there, a la Wartburg.

BOY

I heard some good things about Austin Dickinson and some other young BV DL's.  Anyone else up there have some talent to make an impact? 

What about QB.  Sounded like they had a pretty talented kid backing up Hawkins.  Is he tough and does he have talent?

Dickinson will be a great DL if his knees last 2 more seasons.  He's been the Brian Ferentz of BV so far.  There's a Jensen kid who was a freshman this year, and I heard he did pretty well at NG when he rotated in to give Burley and Amick a rest.  Brian Bode (Soph.) came to BV as a LB, but towards the end of the season he saw action at DE and did pretty well considering the amount of time he had to learn the position.  He's very athletic and has the potential to make some plays coming off the edge.  Chukuske will be the veteran on the DL, and the rest of the unit is made of freshmen who didn't play and Schmee types who will probably never see the field.

As far as QB goes, Pearey was officially the backup all year, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Phelan take the starting job next year.  He's a pretty hard-nosed kid--I've seen him throw blocks and lower his shoulder when scrambling in JV games.  Pearey is capable of doing the same things, but Phelan throws a better ball and his extra height helps his field vision.  Another factor is that Phelan will be around a year longer than Pearey, so Jay might want to give him some experience and avoid changing QBs 3 times in 3 years like we did '03-'05.

BOY...Thanks for the insight.  Sounds like we have some postive players still in the program.  I hope that Dickinsons knees hold out.  
Very interesting regarding the QB situation.  I didnt think that Peary would stay at QB.  I kind of thought you might see him at another postion.  If he takes the reigns next year there might be a changing of the offense based upon height alone.  

Have you heard any solid players coming out of NW IA leaning the SL way?  I saw you said some SOB boys were looking hard.  Always a good thing.  What about Harlan.  Were they down this year.  I did not see them making any noise in the playoffs.  

[Klopenhiemer]

Walston- Got a question for you where do you thing the knights need to improve for next year, what position do they did help at ?

Going to need a corner to replace Weber, that's for sure. Could use a game breaking running back, but I'd really like to see us get back to a smash-mouth team. Really seemed more like a finesse team this year. That's going to take an ***-knocker of a fullback a la Ben Thompsen.

I agree with you. We need a back like Hammes or  Parker and the run back in 2003, Iknow his name just can't spell it. How about some guys on the O-line that can open up some holes. I don't know if they have recurit a fullback, in a while.  Did you know that Weber have surgery on his hand after the season was over?

That's the sign of Weber being a gamer.  Tim Connell will need to look at surgery here soon too.  He broke his first finger on his throwing hand 2nd week of the year.  That would be 3004 yards and 33 tds with 3 good fingers and a thumb.  Just a couple of really tough guys that want to win.

That being out in the open now.  Some facts about the season.  Tim did break his finger (didn't know that till today) the second quarter of the Hope game.  The next week during the Luther game he sprained his foot in the first quarter.  He played with a sprained foot and broken finger that game.  That lead them to only use a hand full of plays at Loras.  I could not address these questions during the season because of keeping things quiet so the teams didn't know what to prepare for.  There was talk on the board about the toughest player Tim would IMO qualify for it.  He loves the game and would do anything to compete and win.  It has been a good ride and he loved playing the game.

DF2K4....I wish him the best of luck in any surgries that he might have coming.  All I will say is find a good doctor so that he isnt paying for that the rest of his life. 

[doolittledog]

DF2K4...sounds like your kid would make a great coach!!!

[BeaverOfYore]

Klop,

Harlan was #1 most of the year, so they definitely have some players on the team.  I haven't heard much about anyone specific, but I did notice at one of the games this year there were a lot of guys decked out in Harlan gear hanging around.  That's probably a good indication that some of them are at least semi-interested.

My brother is one of the kids from SOB looking at BV, and he's talked to a lot of kids from their district about where they might end up playing.  Since he's almost certainly going to end up there, he's been trying to talk some of the guys he knows around the area into taking a look.  From what he's said, there are a few kids who you would normally expect to go to NW or Morningside that are at least exploring the option of going to BV.  Hopefully Jay can persuade them to get on campus for an overnight visit--one trip to M-Town is usually all it takes to sway a lot of recruits.

[The Show]

BV would benefit from a couple Jefferson recruits this year.  I know at least 4 have visited campus and I'll go out on a limb and say that 3 could make immediate contributions in some areas of need.   Usually a couple Carroll recruits make their way up there as well.  Dirkx is returning, so I'm sure he still has a couple contacts down there.

[sportsknight]

Andy Parker wore #5 when he was one of the Wartburg RBs in 03-04.  Hodapp wore #34.  Both guys could deliver and take a hit pretty well.  That's the thing that's impressed me with Wartburg's backs since my time in school...tough SOBs usually.  Beatty, Dapp, Parker, Hammes, VanRees, Benny Thompson...mean dudes between the lines but decent guys off the field.
#78 was Andy Heitman.  Dude was just a monster.  I think they listed him at 330ish, but he was a lot closer to 375 his senior year.  And at 6'8 he had a wingspan that could keep damn near anybody at an arm's length.  Pretty funny dude to hang around with.  And he loves 7 & 7.

Andy was one of the nicest guy off the field and I have a picture of him and my son at a party. Andy was a monster. Dan Hammes is one of the nicest guy I've met, competely different guy on the field. Linclon taylor, Dan Hammes , Riley Lieiman and Zach Eggleston and my son were roommate all great kids.

Wartburg Fan,
When was your son a roomate of Dan Hammes.  Dan and my son were suite mates I think my sons senior year which was like 3 years ago.  Small world.  You are right Dan was a really nice kid.  He and my son got along great.  I think that with the experience of having two sons go to two different schools in the IIAC and have two great experiences is a real testament to the IIAC.

Dan and my son graudated  in 07 and they were roommate I believe the middle of  their junior year and senior year.  Dan was in my sons wedding. Dan parents are great people also, in fact just talk to them the other day.

While we're tossing around niceties, Wartburg Fan your lad is a hell of a good kid too.  Got to know him fairly well when I was at Wartburg and had at least one class with him.  His wife is good stuff too.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Wow!  When is the last time an IIAC football coach was named national coach of the year?

It is getting harder and harder to remember when Central was around .500.  It now seems like a while ago.

That would be 2003 where the Dutch went 5-5 and 2004 when they went 6-4.

Now...if you take out those 2 seasons when they went a combined 8-8 in the IIAC...in the last 2 seasons and the previous 5 before the 2003 and 2004 seasons Central  has gone 58-4 in conference play over those 7 years.  Not too shabby. 

Doolittle,
I was trying to say that Central has done a very nice job of winning since 2003 and 2004.  Most followers of IIAC Football were watching pretty closely to the scores from Pella those two seasons.  The Dutch have been winning so much since then that it seems more like 10 years ago that there were serious questions about the future in Pella.

[BeaverOfYore]

BV would benefit from a couple Jefferson recruits this year.  I know at least 4 have visited campus and I'll go out on a limb and say that 3 could make immediate contributions in some areas of need.   Usually a couple Carroll recruits make their way up there as well.  Dirkx is returning, so I'm sure he still has a couple contacts down there.

What positions do the Jefferson guys play?

The SOB kids would likely be penciled in as follows:
1 OL
2 DL
2 DB
1 WR/P
1 FB/LB
1 ?

One thing I forgot to mention earlier--apparently BV has a new $3k grant available to kids from around 20 or 30 counties in western Iowa.  Since that's the amount the average kid at Northwestern or Morningside gets for athletics, it may help BV attract a few more athletes from the area.

[doolittledog]

Wow!  When is the last time an IIAC football coach was named national coach of the year?

It is getting harder and harder to remember when Central was around .500.  It now seems like a while ago.

That would be 2003 where the Dutch went 5-5 and 2004 when they went 6-4.

Now...if you take out those 2 seasons when they went a combined 8-8 in the IIAC...in the last 2 seasons and the previous 5 before the 2003 and 2004 seasons Central  has gone 58-4 in conference play over those 7 years.  Not too shabby. 

Doolittle,
I was trying to say that Central has done a very nice job of winning since 2003 and 2004.  Most followers of IIAC Football were watching pretty closely to the scores from Pella those two seasons.  The Dutch have been winning so much since then that it seems more like 10 years ago that there were serious questions about the future in Pella.

I knew what you were getting at Floyd.  I was just throwing out the joke - "you don't remember when??? well here are the dates!!!" - I suppose I should have put some smilies in there. 

Interestingly there were some posts on here from a year ago that were saying since McMartin had now gone 8-0 and won his second straight title they guess they could take him off the hot seat list for coaches.  I guess nothing short of 1st or 2nd place year after year is acceptable down in Pella

[footballdaddy]

Walston- Got a question for you where do you thing the knights need to improve for next year, what position do they did help at ?

Going to need a corner to replace Weber, that's for sure. Could use a game breaking running back, but I'd really like to see us get back to a smash-mouth team. Really seemed more like a finesse team this year. That's going to take an ***-knocker of a fullback a la Ben Thompsen.

I agree with you. We need a back like Hammes or  Parker and the run back in 2003, Iknow his name just can't spell it. How about some guys on the O-line that can open up some holes. I don't know if they have recurit a fullback, in a while.  Did you know that Weber have surgery on his hand after the season was over?

That's the sign of Weber being a gamer.  Tim Connell will need to look at surgery here soon too.  He broke his first finger on his throwing hand 2nd week of the year.  That would be 3004 yards and 33 tds with 3 good fingers and a thumb.  Just a couple of really tough guys that want to win.

I couldn't agree more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's tempting to say that Central and Wartburg can just reload and compete for the championship next year, but in Connell and Weber. along with all the other seniors, were players of outstanding character and ability. You just don't reload those guys. Nevertheless, I'd bet that the #2's of both of those teams could,with playing time, give a lot of team's starters a real problem. Even though there is snow on the ground and Christmas is coming, I can't wait 'till next year. 

[HoosierinIowa]

DutchFan 2004, this is what makes DIII so great. Basically the players have no NFL aspirations and are playing for the love of the game yet they nut it up and go out week after week and compete harder than many DI kids. Every team has someone inspirational who is playing through pain purely to help their team. Please tell your son thanks for giving Central fans a lot of thrills.
Also congratulations to all the seniors who toughed it out for four years and gave all the fans around the league so much great football to enjoy. Everyone who played knows there are tough times even for the best players in the best programs. Now you get to become a message board has beens

[footballdaddy]

Or a never was like me! 

[sc_stormchaser]

Simpson's website shows that they will be playing Grand View the first game of the season next year. Won't this be Grand View's first season? Don't newly established teams usually play a couple years of a JV schedule to let kids develop? I believe Briar Cliff played a two year JV schedule and even after that I don't think they won a game in their first "true" year.

[footballdaddy]

I just looked at Simpson's website, and they list Lounsberry as associate head coach. Could it be that they will interview candidates that will not take the job and then just give it to Lounsberry? Just idle speculation on my part.