FB: American Rivers Conference

[DutchFan2004]

Because I have a backlog of season previews in my inbox, we gave SIDs access to post previews from their login.

Kickoff (t-minus 7 days) is the priority above and beyond anything else right now.

If you have a question about site operations you can always drop me an e-mail.

Pat you don't need sleep or a life do you? 

If I hadn't been moving across the country this summer I'd have gotten a little more of all of that done.

I know Pat we are happy to have you back in the Midwest welcome back!  Are you interested in the pickems?  I know you dont have a lot of extra time but all are welcome!

[Pat Coleman]

In the past fans have taken my Pick 'em picks against their team personally, so I no longer participate. 

[Klompen]

I think that if you don't have a winning program already established, you need to look out of state for some talent because the competition in state is too strong.  Face it, we all want the great Iowa kids.  If kids are getting recruited by a winning program and a losing program, the losing program is really fighting an uphill battle.  Out-of-state kids can also see if a program is winning or not, but odds are you aren't fighting all the other conference schools for the good kids from beyond the borders.

[doolittledog]

Because I have a backlog of season previews in my inbox, we gave SIDs access to post previews from their login.

Kickoff (t-minus 7 days) is the priority above and beyond anything else right now.

If you have a question about site operations you can always drop me an e-mail.

Pat you don't need sleep or a life do you? 

If I hadn't been moving across the country this summer I'd have gotten a little more of all of that done.

Pats observation from his move half way across the country this summer...  "Good lord there are a lot of corn fields in this country!!!"  

Pat to his kids during their cross-country drive...

...You can not possibly have to go potty again, we just did that 30 minutes ago
...I am sick of listening to the Wiggles, please let me put something else in
...I know it's hard to believe kids, but there are actually people and cities west of the Allegheny mountains
...I don't care if you do have to go potty, we will never get to Minny if we keep stopping every 30 minutes!!!

[Pat Coleman]

Ah ha, the best part! We sent the kids ahead to stay with grandma and grandpa for a week.

Yes, lots of corn. But I've driven from DC to Minneapolis and back several times in 18 years.

[Klompen]

In the past fans have taken my Pick 'em picks against their team personally, so I no longer participate. 

Probably a wise move on your part.  Plus the rest of us who invariably pick with our hearts would have a hard time against a true objective observer.  Look how good K-Mack did, but we still love to see him picking with us.  Of course, we can take his picks personally too, but we don't bash him too bad.  We just assume he is wrong, until he beats us.   

[TheOne89.1]

I am in.  Just let me know when the page is up on the other board.  And let me know the rules for this year. 

Ok go to the pickem board to sign up for the up coming season.  I put out a suggestion for a tie breaker there.  If that is agreeable with everyone we will use it.  If not make some suggestions here for a tie breaker and we can talk about it here.  ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

I am so ready.  Had a flag football practice last night for league this fall.  It felt great to lace up the cleats again, been 4 years now with only filling in once or twice in Flag FB, it will be good to play every week this year.

Signed up for the IIAC pick'em today as well as my fantasy football team.  Going to WSU picture day at 1pm to get interviews and bumpers shot.  Shooting the final scrimmage of the year tomorrow night.  Our first high school game is Friday Aug. 29th and WSU's first home game is Sat. 6th.

Wartburg plays sat. Sept 6th with Notre Dame to follow just a few hours after (unfortunately due to work I will be in the truck at the time, but plan on keeping tabs via the internet).  Bears/Colts to follow on Sunday.  What a great way to kick off the sesason.

17 Days 2 Hours and roughly 30 min. til kickoff!  

[du-sz]

Soooo finally I heard some Loras news today. I took a look at the roster today and it had about 30 freshman on it (Right around 100 on the team, nice mix of Iowa and Illinois kids).  Looks like O. Davis, Loras' backup running back is out the door. I also hear the quarterback battle is down to 2 from 4 people.  Dan Langfield (Senior, knows the playbook well) and Brody Budmayr (Soph. transfer, lacks size) should battle it out for the spot as we head into the season.

[TrainsEqualCrowdNoise]

TCEN,  I would agree that if you can get out of state kids to campus and they will stay on campus all four years you can win with those kids.  The trouble has been as mentioned here is keeping them all four years.  Kids coming in as freshman and sophmores can not win (if the team is made up mostly of underclassmen) at the college level.  If the coaches can recruit successful kids out of state then the will have some good results.  I am in the camp of trying to recruit locally if possible.  Know human nature kids will get lonely for home and if things are not going well at a school far away from home they will not stay long.  

I am also in agreement with this statement, I know all to well how hard it is to keep quality kids from out of state at school and not wanting to go back closer to home.  Cornell seems to have had trouble in the past keeping kids from Arizona staying on campus.  However, for every kid that has decided to leave, there has been the guys that have stuck around even though they were a couple hundred miles away from home.  Everyone would love to be able to recruit and get the best local kids to fill out their rosters, but even those kids are susceptible to leaving school for somewhere else, i.e. Neil Suckow.  I think that because Cornell's class schedule is so different, it takes a different kind of person to be able to fit into the program as the schedule is definitely not for everyone.  And by no means am I saying it's better or you have to be smarter or anything like that, it's just different and not everyone will succeed, just like being a Cubs fan is not for everyone because most people like seeing their team succeed at least some of the time.  (I know cruel joke, but as a Cards fan I must, though its probably not the best year to make this joke as the cubs are 1st in the division.)

All in all, I'm hopeful that the diversity means we have good athletes coming in that are a good fit not just for the program but for the type of school Cornell is and hopefully this will help to retain these athletes and hopefully grow our numbers in the next few years.  While winning is important, it's almost as if retention should be the number one focus at the moment.

[BeaverFan3208]

Ok who all is up for the Pickem page this year?  That Girl (DF1) had been doing really well until last year when she missed a couple of weeks.  I know she will want to put us guys to shame.  K-Mack you in this year too?  It was nice to have you and you add a lot when FB time is upon us.  Good Luck to all this year!

I'm in

[ShowMe]

I know Cornell wants an offense.  What does wanting and time have to do with one another.  Do you mean won't be long?

I miss typed, it should have said. "It won't be long" before we have some offense

[ShowMe]

Looking at the Cornell roster it's dissappointing to see a freshman class with only 5 Iowa High School players. I truly believe that this conference is one with quality players from Iowa High Schools. Look at how Central, Coe and  Wartburg have had recent success with Iowa kids. Until Cornell can do a better job of getting Iowa kids they may continue to struggle.

Thats no problem that a little winning cannot solve. Cornell have the players now that want to make a winner, the players that want to play for a winner will follow.

[Mav45]

I think Cornell would love to have more Iowans on their team.  It seems to me that Iowans don't want to play for a program with a losing history.  Dubuque, for years had a hard time recruiting local kids...not through a lack of trying.  Now that Dubuque has a winning team there are more and more Iowa kids showing up on their roster. 

So true.  That is why Central is flooded with football players this year.  But some other sports I follow struggle to get the numbers.

Mav45 - Is your newest nephew at Central going to play basketball too?

Not likely this year....he's been amazed at "inner workings" differences between the two programs and had noted that he feels the culture of the players in the FB program is to be and beat the best, where the BB team doesn't seem to be as focused.

J2nd complication: just found out that my nephew blew his knee on a little across the middle pass --  no pads...no contact to speak of....a little honest bump from the D and came down funky.  A real shame; he had ivested a ton to prepare for the season!

[Mav45]

I think Cornell would love to have more Iowans on their team.  It seems to me that Iowans don't want to play for a program with a losing history.  Dubuque, for years had a hard time recruiting local kids...not through a lack of trying.  Now that Dubuque has a winning team there are more and more Iowa kids showing up on their roster. 

So true.  That is why Central is flooded with football players this year.  But some other sports I follow struggle to get the numbers.

Mav45 - Is your newest nephew at Central going to play basketball too?

Not likely this year....he's been amazed at "inner workings" differences between the two programs and had noted that he feels the culture of the players in the FB program is to be and beat the best, where the BB team doesn't seem to be as focused.

J2nd complication: just found out that my nephew blew his knee on a little across the middle pass --  no pads...no contact to speak of....a little honest bump from the D and came down funky.  A real shame; he had ivested a ton to prepare for the season!

Oops: was speaking about the older nephew, sorry.

Don't know yet about the younger.  I think he would like to give it a try, but is loving his Central FB experience so far, so who's to guess.

[doolittledog]

Luther concerns me with some of the player defections from the program they are getting with the start of a new coaching staff. 

Loras has about 100 in camp which is nice.  But hearing there are only 30 newcomers there seems worrisome.

Cornell needing to replace an entire o-line along with low overall numbers can be a problem. 

Hearing a radio interview with the Simpson coach where he said they are implementing a new system and "hopefully the players get it" concerns me as well. 

BV has a solid recruiting class with about 45 new kids.  But each of the 2 prior years they only had about 25 each year.  Should be interesting to see how their season plays out. 

Dubuque lost a lot of 4 year starters and their OC.  Should be an interesting year for the Spartans.

Coe is replacing their coach.

Wartburg returns a boatload of starters but is making a coaching change.

Central lost a whole mess of starters...but things have a way of maintaining in Pella.

Should be a fun year in the IIAC.