FB: American Southwest Conference

[crualum55]

Another nail biter this week for the Cru. I'm glad to see that teams are beginning to get stronger. Great showing for the ASC. My one question, though, is at what point does UMHB change their philosophy and begin playing an actual two deep coverage against these passing teams. We can't expect to have the same opportunities every week. We've got to adjust.

umhb2001..how long have you been following the cru..change is not likely.

[CruAlum58]

Change is not necessarily going to happen   But I think UMHB having to play four quarters is going to make them battle tested. One thing I have noticed is how well UMHB is doing on special teams. This is a direct correlation to the amount of time spent daily on special team work.

I can imagine that UMHB is frothing at the mouth to get revenge on the loss at MC last year. I can imagine there will be some hard hitting going down in Belton this week.

[cover2]

Sounds like choosing not to play Quincy Daniels almost backfired.  I also noticed the number 2 back, Wilson, didn't have as many carries as one would think with Daniels being out.  The third and fourth options got some action.  Could it be that the UMHB coaches were trying to develop some depth by playing other guys?  That seems like a good idea but it came very close to being terrible.

[Toby Taff]

Sadly, the 1 pm kick off is going to keep me from making the game this week.  i hate missing homecoming, but the kids have fencing until 11:45 and missing 2 hours of the game just isn't worth it.  i'll man the computer.  I am interested in seeing how the cru approaches the game.  I hope they bring their whooping stick.

[Toby Taff]

Sounds like choosing not to play Quincy Daniels almost backfired.  I also noticed the number 2 back, Wilson, didn't have as many carries as one would think with Daniels being out.  The third and fourth options got some action.  Could it be that the UMHB coaches were trying to develop some depth by playing other guys?  That seems like a good idea but it came very close to being terrible.

I think they're always trying to develop depth, but QD was rested because of being hurt.  I find it interesting that DJ Monroe is a LB playing RB.

[umhb2001]

Another nail biter this week for the Cru. I'm glad to see that teams are beginning to get stronger. Great showing for the ASC. My one question, though, is at what point does UMHB change their philosophy and begin playing an actual two deep coverage against these passing teams. We can't expect to have the same opportunities every week. We've got to adjust.

umhb2001..how long have you been following the cru..change is not likely.

Well, I got there in 1997, the team came in 1998, so I've been here from the beginning. I realize "it's worked", but it hasn't. We can't continue to give up such huge numbers. I know I'm Monday morning qb'ing, but we've got to do something. Just throwing it out there.

[umhb2001]

Sadly, the 1 pm kick off is going to keep me from making the game this week.  i hate missing homecoming, but the kids have fencing until 11:45 and missing 2 hours of the game just isn't worth it.  i'll man the computer.  I am interested in seeing how the cru approaches the game.  I hope they bring their whooping stick.

On the computer or at the game, what is the difference? Just kidding. I totally understand. Saturdays with the family are special. Where do you get into fencing, though?

[Toby Taff]

Sadly, the 1 pm kick off is going to keep me from making the game this week.  i hate missing homecoming, but the kids have fencing until 11:45 and missing 2 hours of the game just isn't worth it.  i'll man the computer.  I am interested in seeing how the cru approaches the game.  I hope they bring their whooping stick.

On the computer or at the game, what is the difference? Just kidding. I totally understand. Saturdays with the family are special. Where do you get into fencing, though?

there's a martial arts school in abilene that offers fencing so that's the karate and fencing are the family activities.  The girls did the first intro class and my wife and I are starting on the 16th

[crualum55]

umhb 2001, Hey I agree it would be nice to seem some adjustments from time to time.  I've on both ends frustrated and wanting change and sticking to what we do and making people like it.  It's hard to know whether the scheme is not good or it is not being executed properly.  Hopefully the players are having a great week of practice with great intensity and are ready to play a better game.

[Toby Taff]

umhb 2001, Hey I agree it would be nice to seem some adjustments from time to time.  I've on both ends frustrated and wanting change and sticking to what we do and making people like it.  It's hard to know whether the scheme is not good or it is not being executed properly.  Hopefully the players are having a great week of practice with great intensity and are ready to play a better game.

An article in today's telegram seems to say the problems with the  defense are execution based. 

[crufootball]

Not being executed properly due to age in my opinion. If you look at the two deep for the LC game, you will see 3 FR's, 1 SO, 2 JR's, and 2 SR's in the defensive backfield. The freshmen obviously didn't play last year, the sophomore wasn't on varisity, one of the juniors was on offense last year, and the two seniors started only 1 game in 2009.

Hopefully with some more plyaing time and coaching these guys will improve.

[CruGuy]

I remember Nick Saban's first year at Alabama, his team lost a game to the University of Lousianna AT Monroe. People were furious, and could't believe that he left freshmen in to lose such a close game against an inferior opponent. After the game He spoke and said something along the lines, that there were some quick fix ways that they could have changed their game plan and won the game, but he said that's not important. "What's important is that these kids learn to win the right way."

Sometimes with younger players you stick to the system even when it's not working well, so that they learn to execute the right way. UMHB's schedule has been pretty tough so far. After this week's game against MC I see a significant increase in effectiveness and efficiency for the CRU. I think things worked out alright for Nick, hopefully we'll see similar results.

[bleedpurple]

The BPD3 Level System Top 25 unveiled:

NOTE:
BPD3 Level System Top 25
To add to the intrigue and fun of the ranking system, I am creating "Levels" within the Top 25. In the "Level System", I will be grouping teams that are reasonably comparable in my opinion and exposing where I believe there is a drop-off of some kind between ranks. 

Is there anyone "intruding" on Level 1 with UW-W and Mount Union?

UMHB?

On what level does HSU land?

Where do the "breaks" occur between levels?

www.uwwfootball.blogspot.com

[Bill McCabe]

Defense is where the Cru is struggling.  They have given up a lot of points this year.  Special teams have been stellar as usual.  The offense is doing ok.

[crufootball]

Gotta a little more indepth this week so I could rank every single team to include all ASC teams.

		D3 BCS	D3football.com Poll			AFCA Poll			Computer Rankings
	Team	AVG	Rank	Points	%	Rank	Points	%	BPI	Laz Index	Atomic	Massey	%
1	WI Whitewater	99.48%	1	622	99.52%	1	996	99.60%	236	235	0	238	99.30%
2	Mt Union	96.48%	2	603	96.48%	2	931	93.10%	238	238	0	237	99.86%
3	Wesley DE	92.02%	3	565	90.40%	3	884	88.40%	235	236	0	235	98.88%
4	St Thomas MN	89.29%	4	547	87.52%	5	831	83.10%	237	237	0	233	99.02%
5	M Hardin-Baylor	87.09%	5	525	84.00%	4	864	86.40%	217	227	0	227	93.98%
6	Coe	79.01%	6	487	77.92%	8	703	70.30%	204	220	0	218	89.92%
7	N Central IL	77.73%	7	430	68.80%	6	757	75.70%	233	232	0	232	97.62%
8	Wittenberg	72.60%	8	421	67.36%	7	743	74.30%	187	215	0	179	81.37%
9	Thomas More	65.84%	10	356	56.96%	9	615	61.50%	210	211	0	207	87.96%
10	Hardin-Simmons	63.47%	11	348	55.68%	13	473	47.30%	223	231	0	226	95.24%
11	Delaware Val	63.06%	12	332	53.12%	11	495	49.50%	230	230	0	229	96.50%
12	Central IA	61.25%	9	360	57.60%	15	364	36.40%	227	224	0	216	93.42%
13	Trine	59.91%	15	293	46.88%	10	568	56.80%	222	225	0	189	89.08%
14	Ohio Northern	57.39%	13	310	49.60%	16	354	35.40%	231	222	0	225	94.96%
15	Linfield	54.92%	14	301	48.16%	18	287	28.70%	232	213	0	231	94.68%
16	Montclair St	54.02%	16	248	39.68%	14	454	45.40%	221	218	0	213	91.32%
17	Wheaton IL	49.77%	18	179	28.64%	12	477	47.70%	224	226	0	222	94.12%
18	St John Fisher	42.54%	20	136	21.76%	17	307	30.70%	228	229	0	228	95.94%
19	WI Eau Claire	41.83%	17	215	34.40%	27	79	7.90%	220	208	0	219	90.62%
20	Wabash	39.03%	19	157	25.12%	21	262	26.20%	190	195	0	184	79.69%
21	Alfred	34.10%	21	98	15.68%	22	133	13.30%	213	219	0	223	91.74%
22	Cortland St	32.97%	25	46	7.36%	19	278	27.80%	226	207	0	205	89.36%
23	St John's MN	32.13%	23	79	12.64%	25	101	10.10%	234	214	0	217	93.14%
24	Hampden-Sydney	31.51%	26	44	7.04%	20	271	27.10%	192	217	0	197	84.87%
25	Randolph Macon	30.99%	24	78	12.48%	23	116	11.60%	209	223	0	192	87.39%
59	McMurry	18.56%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	177	184	0	169	74.23%
69	Louisiana Col	17.33%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	183	140	0	172	69.33%
71	Mississippi Col	17.30%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	161	152	0	181	69.19%
95	E Texas Bap	15.09%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	129	141	0	161	60.36%
135	TX Lutheran	10.92%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	92	100	0	120	43.70%
144	Howard Payne	10.26%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	88	87	0	118	41.04%
157	Sul Ross	8.89%	0	0	0.00%	0	0	0.00%	72	80	0	102	35.57%