FB: American Rivers Conference

[sportsknight]

I was also a bit surprised to not see Nico Botembe anywhere on the All-Conference list.

[doolittledog]

Luther finished with a 6-4 record this year one more win than that had last year. 

Nope, Luther finished 5-5 overall and 4-4 in conference play.  Same as last year. 

[warthog]

dutchfan1 & sportsknight:

I give up trying to figure this stuff out.  Some teams people just love to hate. Oklahoma, U of Miami, Georgetown (basketball), Oakland Raiders, NY Yankees, WDM Dowling and Wartburg.

[sportsknight]

dutchfan1 & sportsknight:

I give up trying to figure this stuff out.  Some teams people just love to hate. Oklahoma, U of Miami, Georgetown (basketball), Oakland Raiders, NY Yankees, WDM Dowling and Wartburg.

Fair point.  Guess I'd just rather be hated than a hater.

[doolittledog]

It does get you to thinking about how once someone gets a reputation it's hard to get rid of it.  When I was at Dubuque it was accepted that you didn't like Loras and that Wartburg played dirty and their fans were A-holes. 

Now, that is the reputation.  Any time I have ever been in Waverly everyone has been very nice to me.  Whether that was hanging out in the dorms overlooking the field during a game back in my school days to having kids from that same dorm today shouting out Hawkeye updates to us a few weeks ago.  People coming up to us after games and talking about the game that day were always friendly, nobody ever got into our face.  Yet, that isn't the Wartburg reputation.  Perhaps that carries over into voting.  Though I doubt it.  Maybe there is a western Iowa bias in the voting???  Or, perhaps, whenever you have Wartburg winning the title you get a year where a team like BV goes from average team to title contender and their coach gets the sentimental vote to give one to the little guy instead of always giving it to the conference winner...like whenever Central wins!!!

[Klompen]

If urgency is what has gotten WB through the past few weeks, I'm worried about their playoff longevity.  Urgency got them OT against Dubuque???  That sounds like a one and done forecast, not something I would be talking about in terms of the playoffs.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here, Klompen, but a year ago at this time I'd be willing to bet that you'd be singing the praises of a team that "just found a way to win."  I don't think it would take a lot of effort to look back to last year's regular season to find games that Central probably should have won by a much larger margin than they did.

You would be completely right.  I would have been, and was, singing the praises of Central finding a way to win.  I wish I could be doing it again this year.  I don't recall the exact quote, and I'm willing to say I may have misinterpreted what the player that said it meant.  My interpretation of what I think I remember it said was that Wartburg was playing with a sense of urgency knowing they had to win every game to get into the playoffs and that had prepared them for the playoffs.  When I think of playing with a sense of urgency, my personal interpretation of it is that he was saying that they knew they had to come out and play their best game every game to make it and playing their best games made them ready.  In that interpretation, I did not see the win over Dubuque as that impressive, so to be saying that had Wartburg ready, didn't strike me right.  Could be that I did misinterpret it and I'm willing to say so.

Last year with Central was very similar, except that I do not know if Wartburg has played as much of their regular season with the kind of injuries to the kind of players that Central had to deal with during regular season last year.  Maybe they have, but since I'm not a Wartburg fan, I'm not in a position to know.  The healthy Central team that put a beat down on St. Johns was not exactly the same Central team that played the majority of the season.  You were announcing for Central last year and you followed Wartburg this year, you would be in a far better position than I to know that.  I was thrilled that Central was able to face the injury adversity they had last year and still managed to pull off an undefeated season.  And I do think the close victories made us better prepared for the playoffs.  Like I said, I wish we could have said the same thing this year.  But this year we could not over come the injuries to the likes of Baethke and Snead.  

Maybe it still gets back to my early season expectations.  You said then that I was over estimating the Knights and/or under estimating my Dutch.  While it is hard to say that I under estimated a team that finished with 4 losses more than last year, maybe I was over estimating what I expected out of the Knights.  I really thought Central would be the only game they struggled with this year.  And I'm a bit afraid that the teams that Central struggled to beat last year were better than the teams that Central struggled to beat or lost to this year.  Given that WB didn't waltz to the conference championship as easy as most of us expected, I'm concerned for how well the IIAC will represent this year.  Which I would have said no matter which team was in the playoffs representing us.  

[Purple Heys]

dutchfan1 & sportsknight:

I give up trying to figure this stuff out.  Some teams people just love to hate. Oklahoma, U of Miami, Georgetown (basketball), Oakland Raiders, NY Yankees, WDM Dowling and Wartburg.

Has Walston Hoover been associated with the Sooners, 'Canes, Hoyas, Raiders, and Yankees too?   

[Klompen]

I do not know if I would go as far as saying that Luther was better last year.  They lost their coach, key players, had players quit, suffered injuries, and still finished with the same record in the conference as they did last season.  This year they beat the Beavers in Storm Lake, which is something that the Norse seldom do.  I would make an argument that Luther is a damn good football team and took a step forward. 

Okay, so Central wasn't your typical Central, but the way Luther stomped all over us, I sure as hell hope they were a lot better this year!!!  I think if Central had replayed them later in the year, the results would have at least been close, if not different, but I'm giving Luther credit for being better this year. 

[Klompen]

I am not meaning to be a jerk here, but it seemed to me that SK was saying that if you look back a year ago the Central posters would have been singing the praises of a team that just found a way to win regardless of how it looked.  Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that was the mantra of the Central football program lately was screw style just win!

Screw style just win works for me, as long as they did win.  Once we got healthy last year, we won the SJU game with style to spare.  I would have been most happy to skrew style and have won the Wartburg, Luther, Loras and Simpson games this year.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure we had much style in some of those and we still lost.     But I do agree that the conference was stronger last year, so barely winning last year was more impressive than our barely winning and losing this year. 

[Purple Heys]

All-Conference Team Released
http://www.iowaconference.com/news/2008-09/1120football.htm

BV's Anderson named Coach of the Year
Loras' McGrew MVP

Tradition holds -- Willis is screwed again. So was Yordi. Interesting. Anti-Wartburg bias at work again?

I don't think either of them got "screwed".  I think both had a strong case and were deserving, however, were their achievements, taking the league's best team and winning the league as expected; more remarkable than the achievements of McGrew and Anderson largely responsible for both of whose respective teams far exceeded expectations?

I think the weight of where Loras and BV finished was the deciding factor.

[DutchFan2004]

I think you nailed it on the head.  Willis even with taking over the team with two weeks to go got the same results as last year.  He did not improve the teams record at all.  BV improved by two wins for the conference race and almost won the AQ.  Loras improved by 4 conference wins and without Mcgrew would have more than likely ended up where they were last year.  Yordi was a year older and did not improve his teams wins.  Could Yordi and Willis have been the picks yes they could have but I agree that there is a case to be made for the outcome that happened.  Either of the choices were not bad choices. 

[Purple Heys]

I think in terms of conference strength, the Haves and the Have nots each made moves toward the middle.

I think individual talent-wise, the conference, team for team is a least equal if not better.

Team-wise...speaking from a Cornell perspective, we just couldn't get everything going well a the same time.

Reading the post of several others, I'd say they have a similar take.

I saw DBQ look very confident and put together in game 1 then in game 2, after the 2nd quarter, it was like they were different team.

[Klompen]

Perhaps you feel Central won the IIAC last year because they are vastly superior in every way and know how to win the close games.  Perhaps you feel Wartburg won the IIAC this year because they are just lucky.

I don't know that anyone from any IIAC team's fans that said Central won the IIAC last year because they were vastly superior.  Last year's team did know how to win close games, but that's about all I would agree with in your statements about last year's Central team.  I would also argue that Wartburg didn't win this year because they were just lucky.  I would say that they were the best IIAC team this year, they needed help from Central to get to the playoffs after they lost to BV, but I would still say they were the best IIAC team.  

Don't ever make me say it again though, like DF1, it makes me feel kind of like I need a shower after saying it.  

I do think if WB can win Saturday, which I think will take a near perfect game, they have a good chance of winning the next round.  I'm just not sure they can get there.  Those WIAC teams are darn hard to beat.  It can be done, it just isn't easy.

[Storm Chaser]

All Conference teams are not much more than beauty contests and test of who has the bully pulpit among the coaches.  Simpson leads the conference in Total Defense and gets 2 total honorees /  Wartburg (sorry I know you won conf. but defense was suspect) is 6th in conference and gets 6 honorees.  But then again maybe the Stover twins were worth 6 other guys, man we are going to miss them.

[the_mayne_event]

I think in terms of conference strength, the Haves and the Have nots each made moves toward the middle.

I think individual talent-wise, the conference, team for team is a least equal if not better.

Team-wise...speaking from a Cornell perspective, we just couldn't get everything going well a the same time.

Reading the post of several others, I'd say they have a similar take.

I saw DBQ look very confident and put together in game 1 then in game 2, after the 2nd quarter, it was like they were different team.

i dont think talent wise, team for team, the IIAC was better this year then last... i feel that there were some spots on some teams that took a step up, but some teams also took steps back.