FB: American Rivers Conference

[coocooforcoekohawk]

Best food and drink after a game:  In-n-Out Double-Double with grilled onions

I'd kill for an In-n-Out Double-Double!

I love In-n-Out Burger!
However, in C.R. I always go for the Zio Johno's 16" gondola.

[kohawkfan]

Okay folks its getting to end of the season, who are you picking for the following: 

COY:  Anderson-he ALMOST took the Bevoers to the top of the IIAC after 30 years of absence.
POY:  McGrew-a RB than any IIAC team would love to have.Biggest disapointment: BV not winning the IIAC after getting SO close and letting Wartburg back into it.
Biggest turning Point in the season for any team:  Coe - getting robbed of the Loras win by the refs and never really recovering fully after that.   
Your favorite IIAC mascott:  Charlie Kohawk 
Best food and drink after a game:  Irish Democrat Grille in Cedar Rapids 

I pretty much agree, especially on biggest turning point, but there's a new game in CR. Best burger in town is Hamburger Mary's. Check it out before or after your next visit.

Good tip on Hamburger Mary's...  Also, we have to look at the glass (or mug) 1/2 full-Kohawks are UNDEFEATED on the road in conference action thus far.   

[Fannosaurus Rex]

What a weird season.  After looking over the standings, I discover I am a Cornell fan.  That way, after they beat Buena Vista and somebody wins the Luther Loras game, Central can beat Simpson for a one third share of second place in the conference.  As weird a season as it has been, I hope no one at Simpson has any plans other than to take their beating and get back over on the wrong side of the river as fast as they can.

[The Show]

Congrats to Wartburg on the conference title.  Still a chance for BV to finish strong and finish in 2nd place.  I'd have to look back, but I think I had them slotted in 4th.  I think the lack of a dominant running game may due in the IIAC in the playoffs.  Especially with the typical November weather and playing a high seed (more than likely).  It clearly limited both BV's and Wartburg's offense yesterday.  Hopefully I'm wrong.

Not that my vote counts, but I still see Anderson as Coach of the Year and McGrew as POY.  Any idea of when the last time the conference champ had neither the COY or POY???

[sportsknight]

I can't even begin to say how great it was to see the Knights raise that conference championship trophy yesterday.  It would simply be against the natural order of things for a class of Wartburg football players to go through their entire careers without claiming an IIAC title (and I'd say the same thing for Central).  Congrats to those Wartburg seniors for responding this season.  This year reminds me a lot of the 2004 season, where the Knights dropped an early season date at BV and had to take care of business and hope the Beavers would drop a couple.  The theme of that team after the BV loss became "Respond' and this year's Wartburg team did a very good job of responding too.

All that said, the Knights still have some work to do heading into a bye week and the playoffs.  A lot of it can probably be chalked up to the conditions yesterday (for half of the game Wartburg couldn't go vertical as often as they would like), but outside of Harvey the offense didn't look particularly outstanding at times, including having to settle for a field goal after a first and goal from the 3 just before the half.  Harvey is a stud.  Reminds me of the Hammes/Beatty/Hodapp style of Wartburg backs that might not be the fastest guys on the field, but they go north and south very well and give out hits just as well as they take them.

Wartburg is playing some pretty good football right now, and if they can use this bye week to get healthy and get some things straigtened out before they have to worry about game-planning for any one particular team, the Knights could be very dangerous in two weeks.

[sportsknight]

Couple other quick thoughts:

-  Klop, thanks for giving me credit for the "folding like a cheap card table" line.  I'm pretty proud of that one.

-  On the attendance in Waverly:  I'm hoping that 3000 is the default setting on Wartburg's Stat-Crew program and it will be edited later on, because there weren't that many people at the game and there's frankly no reason to exaggerate something like that.  I know that Wartburg's SID was over at the IIAC championship soccer matches, so hopefully that gets fixed.  500 would be a pretty aggressive estimate of the crowd.  I was in the "skybox" (the conference room of The W looking out onto the south endzone) and I think we counted 20 people in the visitor's stands.  Some brave souls over there, especially with the wind coming out of the west the entire game.

-  Coach of the Year:  I'm probably of the same mind of WH in that I think Willis is deserving of the award, but may not get it.  You can probably take your pick between Willis, Anderson, and Durnin.  My vote would probably got to Durnin.  To come in to a brand new setting like he did and to exceed expectations as much as they did is nothing to sneeze at.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

It would simply be against the natural order of things for a class of Wartburg football players to go through their entire careers without claiming an IIAC title (and I'd say the same thing for Central).  Congrats to those Wartburg seniors for responding this season.

This is why Willis should get coach of the year.  He made sure they got theirs.

[Walston Hoover]

There was a comment made yesterday about Wartburg "backing in" to the conf. Title.
Not sure I would call winning your last 5 games backing in. I realize the Knights needed help, and we have backed in before, but I don't think this year qualifies.

[kohawkfan]

Fun game in Waverly today.  I don't think the ref should have thrown the flag for excessive celebration...no more celebration on that TD than any of the others today.  I listened to the game via the website and the announcers didn't feel that penalty was warranted, either.  (I'm guessing I was listening to the UD audio by then-I had started listening to the W'burg audio but the guy was too hard to listen to-he was almost yelling into the mic.  UD guy was much more professional in voice tone, etc. and game situation descriptions.)That said, if UD hadn't missed a short FG earlier in the game it wouldn't have mattered.  And the home team will probably get a few calls in a game...that is the nature of things. 

Congrats to Wartburg on another title.

By the way, what was the announced attendence???  I counted 20 on the UD side and 174 on the Wartburg side today.

[warthog]

The Show:

The last time the COY or POY didn't come from a championship team was 2003 when Wartburg rolled through the IIAC with a 10-0 regular season record.  That year the POY was Donnenwerth of Simpson and the COY was Niemann of Simpson.  This also happened in 2001 when Central won the crown and got shut out.  That season Jackson of Coe was POY.  Miller of Cornell was COY.

[warthog]

Walston Hoover:

Back in or not, I could care less what others think. 

I'd rather back into a champonship than walked face first into a second division finish.   

[Walston Hoover]

2004, Osterberger was COY and BV finished 6-4, in third place behind Wartburg and Coe.
Until the final week of the year, BV was in the driver's seat and that was the first of their 2 choke jobs in the last 5 years.

The Show:

The last time the COY or POY didn't come from a championship team was 2003 when Wartburg rolled through the IIAC with a 10-0 regular season record.  That year the POY was Donnenwerth of Simpson and the COY was Niemann of Simpson.  This also happened in 2001 when Central won the crown and got shut out.  That season Jackson of Coe was POY.  Miller of Cornell was COY.

[doolittledog]

If a team plays 8 conference games and comes out of it with the best record they earned it and did not back into it.

Now...you might be able to argue Wartburg backed into the conference attendance title if that count of 3,000 for the Dubuque game stays in the books.   

[BB]

Congrats to the Knights...a win is a win and a championship is a championship, no matter how you do it! 

I would like to see Willis get the COY.  Yes, Wartburg had a lot of talent returning this season but to win the championship with all the coaching changes says a lot about him and the rest of the staff!

[Old Dutch]

Congrats to the Knights...a win is a win and a championship is a championship, no matter how you do it! 

I would like to see Willis get the COY.  Yes, Wartburg had a lot of talent returning this season but to win the championship with all the coaching changes says a lot about him and the rest of the staff!

All the coaching changes?  I'm not sure of it, but I thought all assistants but Koehler stuck around, I'm sure someone can straighten me out on that.  I can see Willis getting COY, but to take a team that was supposed to win it all and do so is a good, but not a slam dunk, credential.  And for his being new, I believe his AD office was right in amongst the FB guys anyway, and much of this team still were his recruits. 

Since off season talk was of poor numbers at BV,many of us were speculating as to a down year by the Lake.  Since a 2nd place finish is far from down, I would lean towards  Anderson, but there are also two new guys who succeeded beyond expectations in Indy and NorseLand.  It will be interesting