FB: American Rivers Conference

[knightlife06]

So I haven't posted on this board in a while but all this talk about partying and performance on the field is not valid at all.  Like SK was saying, the Knight teams from 02-05 all knew how to have a lot of fun on the weekends after the game.  But he is right, the swagger is gone right now.  I don't doubt Willis can get it back but I think the Knights need that power running attack back.  Get the fullback in the backfield and run power until the cows come home.
Also, all this talk of Central having a no drinking rule is not true.  It may have been years back but not now.  I know several Central ball players from the past few years and we have had discussions about this.  It goes on at every school. 

[doolittledog]

To me, swagger sounds similar to cocky.  Which reminds me of a-holes.  To me I would rather have confident players.  Players that know they are good and just go about their business. 

I also don't know if we can go back to the days of smash mouth football.  Two backs in the backfield and run run run.  Good defenses can load up 8 in the box and beat you.  2006 Wartburg/Dubuque comes to mind.

[BeaverOfYore]

In regards to the comments on Wartburg's drinking habits, one of my favorite quotes comes to mind. 

"When it's third-and-10, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time." - Max McGee

Truer words were never spoken.

[knightlife06]

To me, swagger sounds similar to cocky.  Which reminds me of a-holes.  To me I would rather have confident players.  Players that know they are good and just go about their business. 

I also don't know if we can go back to the days of smash mouth football.  Two backs in the backfield and run run run.  Good defenses can load up 8 in the box and beat you.  2006 Wartburg/Dubuque comes to mind.

Swagger is confidence.  Swagger is stepping on the field with supreme confidence and knowing that if you play as hard as you can you are going to beat the guy up against you. 

Fullbacks and tight ends are still the way to go in college football.  Those positions create matchup problems, much like Wartburg used to have with Ben Thomsen. 

[The Show]

Now after the football season was done I could have been a candidate for AA due to my drinking practices. 

I sat in front of one of your AA co-candidates at the game on Sat.! 

Mr. John Beck

Schwartz and Jacobson were up there by us as well.

[doolittledog]

To me, swagger sounds similar to cocky.  Which reminds me of a-holes.  To me I would rather have confident players.  Players that know they are good and just go about their business. 

I also don't know if we can go back to the days of smash mouth football.  Two backs in the backfield and run run run.  Good defenses can load up 8 in the box and beat you.  2006 Wartburg/Dubuque comes to mind.

Swagger is confidence.  Swagger is stepping on the field with supreme confidence and knowing that if you play as hard as you can you are going to beat the guy up against you. 
Fullbacks and tight ends are still the way to go in college football.  Those positions create matchup problems, much like Wartburg used to have with Ben Thomsen. 

I like that definition.  Before, my idea of swagger is someone strutting around pointing at himself and boasting he is better than you.  Maybe playing dirty to beat you at the same time.  Your definition is what I like.  Confidence in your and your teamates abilities to beat the other team. 

[repete]

"The Knights just don't have that swagger right now." 

I guess I would prefer FOCUS to SWAGGER. 

Another thought....I think it is so healthy for the IIAC that the conference race may be up for grabs with teams other than the Dutch and Knights in ascendancy.  IMHO perhaps the worst thing that has happened to D3 athletics is the addition of the playoffs.  Teams and coaches now are successful to the degree they make it deep into the playoffs and the conference competition (where the real rivalries are) are diminished.  I don't think we will eliminate playoffs since D3 seems to want to imitate D1.  But the economics of small colleges may dictate a change in the long run.

oldnorse,

I don't know if you know that D3 unlike NAIA picks up the tab for the playoffs.  The colleges do not absorb the cost of the playoffs.  I also don't see the connection between D3 and D1.  D1 has the bowl system and not the playoffs.  So I don't think you have to worry about that.  If anything D1 is talking about becoming like D3. 

Old Norse,

Don't know if I really buy the line about conference play being diminished ... since the primary route to the d3 postseason is based on winning the conference title. It's not like d1, where you pile up four NC cupcakes, win two league games and then go to one of 73 bowl games.

Sure there are some elite d3 teams, but there's great value in being a traditional conference year in and year out -- especially in leagues that are stable with long traditions.

[sportsknight]

IMHO perhaps the worst thing that has happened to D3 athletics is the addition of the playoffs.  Teams and coaches now are successful to the degree they make it deep into the playoffs and the conference competition (where the real rivalries are) are diminished.

I know its been a while since Luther got there, but are you familiar with how teams currently qualify for the playoffs?  You have to win in the conference to get there.  If you think the importance of conference games has been diminished, then I'd like to know what you think has become more important in getting IIAC teams to the postseason.

[5 Words or Less]

Cornell to get new field

http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq299/5wordsorless/IIAC%20ICONS/Field862x558.jpg

[Walston Hoover]

from '99-02, we were anything but saints, but we left school with the best winning percentage in Wartburg history.
I know players from Central from recent years and from many years past, and they have stories from in season that rival mine.
I know players from BV and Simpson, and they have stories from in season that make me blush.

Difference was back then we won games up front and set up the pass off the run. Ran for 2500 yards in 2001 and didn't give up a single sack all year. We took a ton of pride in that,
College football has changed, unless a team has superior talent, they can't line up in the I and shove it down people's throats. The college game has been wussified, trying to get playmakers isolated to make plays, but if they aren't going to do it, its time to line back up again and get 3-4 yards a pop.
I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen Wartburg play yet this year. I will be back in 2 weeks and then see them in Indianola. I hope the playmakers start to step up and make plays, from reading play-by-plays and listening on the 'net, it sure sounds like they've had ample opportunities so far.

[storm_tracker65]

Cornell to get new field

http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq299/5wordsorless/IIAC%20ICONS/Field862x558.jpg

funniest thing i ever seen (my 5 words is my way of giving you karma right now)

[Walston Hoover]

Cornell to get new field

http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq299/5wordsorless/IIAC%20ICONS/Field862x558.jpg

Nice. I like it.
Early in the season there should be lots of points playing in the corn since no one can find the ball. Late season will suck to fall on the remaining cornstalks after the combine has been through.

[DutchFan2004]

IMHO perhaps the worst thing that has happened to D3 athletics is the addition of the playoffs.  Teams and coaches now are successful to the degree they make it deep into the playoffs and the conference competition (where the real rivalries are) are diminished.

I know its been a while since Luther got there, but are you familiar with how teams currently qualify for the playoffs?  You have to win in the conference to get there.  If you think the importance of conference games has been diminished, then I'd like to know what you think has become more important in getting IIAC teams to the postseason.

One addendum to this SK.  The main way you get to the playoffs is by winning the conference and getting the AQ.  You can get an at large invitation.  But if you don't win the conference you better only have one at the outside two losses.  Then you can still possibly get in.

[dutchfan1]

At this point I'd settle for some hard drinkin' hell-raisers for the Knights as long as the hell-raisin' was on the field.

Damn straight.  This line of thinking that you can't be a bunch of partiers and a good football team is a load of crap.  The 2002-2004 Knights had plenty of guys that were making the big plays on the field on Saturday afternoon and were belly up to the bar by Saturday night.  Bishop, Cody, Vinny, Mac, Burns, Junge, Dapp, Velky...all hard partiers and everyone of them All-IIAC at least once.

It all comes down to an attitude.  Right now I'm reading "Boys Will Be Boys," a book about the Cowboys dynasty of the early 90s.  There's a group of guys that not everybody liked.  They may not have been the most talented team in the league.  And they were far from choir boys.  But they were brothers and they went out there every Sunday and knew they were going to win. 

The Wartburg teams of 2002-2004 were like that.  Central was like that last year.  There was a time on the Wartburg campus that when the football team lost, it was a near-catastrophic event.  Now when they drop a game, you always hear the chorus of "They can afford to lose one here and there and they'll still be OK."  The hell with that.  If you expect to be a dominant program in this league, or any other, the words "lose" and "OK" should never appear in the same sentence.

The Knights just don't have that swagger right now.  Willis and the coaching staff can only do so much to instill that in a group of players.  They can yell and scream until they're blue in the face (and I'm sure they have).  The players are the ones that have to buy in and internalize that attitude.  If that doesn't happen soon, then congratulations Wartburg seniors, you'll be the first class in a decade to go through the program and not make the playoffs.

Very nice -- way to post directly to the players... maybe some locker-room fodder is what they need in Waverly right now, eh?

[LCNorse]

In today's world I hate that in order to be successful you have to be number 1 or win the championship, it just sets up a lot of people for failure. Basically your saying at the end of the season only 1 team had a successful season. From what I'm hearing from wartburg and central posters is that if they don't win conference then its a disappointing season. Well what let's look at it from a player's perspective. Let's say your a freshman or sophomore on that team, your playing your a*% off every week and just falling short, or barely getting by. Do you think that maybe that will be some motivation for the off-season, do you think that maybe a program builds itself up and occasionally it has to have a reloading year. I never won a conference championship at Luther, and I would never consider my time their unsuccessful. Give this kids a break, you'll learn way more about yourself and your program in a down year then you ever will in a successful year.