FB: American Southwest Conference

[zipmac22]

I'm trying to figure out how the selection committee have Whitewater at home with Linfield traveling. The strength of schedule has Whitewater #54 and Linfield #50. Mount Union is #84 while Wesley is #1 and Mount Union is at home. The same can be said for UMHB at home and St. John Fisher traveling. UMHB is #118 and St. John Fisher #6. Now I'm not complaining that The Cru is at home since it's only a 30 minute drive to the incredible Crusader Stadium. The only game that has the team with the better strenght of schedule has Bethel #7 at home with North Central (Illinois) #112 traveling. I know that the selection committee gave the strength of schedule a major part of the equation when they picked the brackets. So, is there anyone out there have any insight for this?

[Toby Taff]

I'm trying to figure out how the selection committee have Whitewater at home with Linfield traveling. The strength of schedule has Whitewater #54 and Linfield #50. Mount Union is #84 while Wesley is #1 and Mount Union is at home. The same can be said for UMHB at home and St. John Fisher traveling. UMHB is #118 and St. John Fisher #6. Now I'm not complaining that The Cru is at home since it's only a 30 minute drive to the incredible Crusader Stadium. The only game that has the team with the better strenght of schedule has Bethel #7 at home with North Central (Illinois) #112 traveling. I know that the selection committee gave the strength of schedule a major part of the equation when they picked the brackets. So, is there anyone out there have any insight for this?

SOS is important, but its not everything. Winning matters as well. Wesley has 2 losses (one of which was a pretty good stomping by UMHB) SJF 2 losses (one to an Ithica team that Wesley just knocked off) the other two are push for me.

[fisheralum91]

Yet another Fisher guy jumping on and getting whatever info I can.
Im not as pessimistic as 82, but I am a realist.
Fisher has shown me GREAT maturity in the face of adversity.
They have grown as a team and are playing the best fb of the year.
You don't get to the elite 8 as a fluke.
2 top ten teams up....2 top ten teams go down.
At this point...what the hell....Go Alma Mater!
Traveling is no new thing.
Lets hope for the best, and if it happens......fantastic!
If not- elite 8 is NOTHING to sneeze at!
Safe travels boys!

[Toby Taff]

Yet another Fisher guy jumping on and getting whatever info I can.
Im not as pessimistic as 82, but I am a realist.
Fisher has shown me GREAT maturity in the face of adversity.
They have grown as a team and are playing the best fb of the year.
You don't get to the elite 8 as a fluke.
2 top ten teams up....2 top ten teams go down.
At this point...what the hell....Go Alma Mater!
Traveling is no new thing.
Lets hope for the best, and if it happens......fantastic!
If not- elite 8 is NOTHING to sneeze at!
Safe travels boys!

no reason for pessimism. in 04 who was UMHB and they took out Mount at home in the snow to make the finals. Any given Saturday. Look forward to the game saturday.

[boobyhasgameyo]

Talking about team speed...I remember in 2004 when we went to W&J. They talked a lot of trash during warm ups. From the opening kick off the difference in team speed was unimaginable. They might of had 1 guy that could run with us. Our full back broke long runs on their defense. Lol They were not happy about that. UMHB has speed at every position...(minus a few of the hogs on the o-line). Pretty much anyone who touches the ball can go house with an opening. The defense is aggressive, fast, and physical. DB's are on an island a lot but hold their own. Getting to the edge on our defense is very rare. QB better throw fast, be mobile, or tough...cause the d-line will run circles around most o-lines. Offense is run run run...a little less power running than when I played but still heavy run. Which opens up the play action pass a lot. Good luck to y'all and safe travels. Hoping the video feed is strong again.

In their defense, as well as the defense of a lot of teams that act that way, what else would you really expect?  If for the entire year they've been faster or better than any team they've faced, then the confidence is at least a little bit warranted.  It would really suck if a team went in with a defeatist attitude.  I bet they would get rolled even harder. 

Can you recall what, if anything, W&J did that day that was above average?  I'm just wondering because if everyone has speed in Texas as Ralph suggests and if W&J was clearly slow - then unless they did something else at least adequately well you would think that they would have been your biggest blowout win of that year.  I looked at the final score and it was not close...but there were bigger blowouts that year against teams in your conference.   

[fisheralum91]

any given Saturday!!

that's why they play the games!!!

hell that's why Fisher is in the playoffs to begin with!

So proud of this team!

[boobyhasgameyo]

Also, we did it!!  Page 1000! 

It was a long journey filled with some tears, some laughs (remember that time Ralph thoroughly convinced roocru that UMHB was moving up to D1 football beginning in the 2012 season?), but above all - some great football talk. 

+k to my page 1000 friends. 

[Toby Taff]

Talking about team speed...I remember in 2004 when we went to W&J. They talked a lot of trash during warm ups. From the opening kick off the difference in team speed was unimaginable. They might of had 1 guy that could run with us. Our full back broke long runs on their defense. Lol They were not happy about that. UMHB has speed at every position...(minus a few of the hogs on the o-line). Pretty much anyone who touches the ball can go house with an opening. The defense is aggressive, fast, and physical. DB's are on an island a lot but hold their own. Getting to the edge on our defense is very rare. QB better throw fast, be mobile, or tough...cause the d-line will run circles around most o-lines. Offense is run run run...a little less power running than when I played but still heavy run. Which opens up the play action pass a lot. Good luck to y'all and safe travels. Hoping the video feed is strong again.

In their defense, as well as the defense of a lot of teams that act that way, what else would you really expect?  If for the entire year they've been faster or better than any team they've faced, then the confidence is at least a little bit warranted.  It would really suck if a team went in with a defeatist attitude.  I bet they would get rolled even harder. 

Can you recall what, if anything, W&J did that day that was above average?  I'm just wondering because if everyone has speed in Texas as Ralph suggests and if W&J was clearly slow - then unless they did something else at least adequately well you would think that they would have been your biggest blowout win of that year.  I looked at the final score and it was not close...but there were bigger blowouts that year against teams in your conference.

The ASC was a different conference in 2004. you had 2 teams at the top UMHB and HSU then a couple of 2d tier teams that would pop up from time to time and then it fell off...way off. I was at that McMurry game and it seemed like everyone that touched the ball took it to the house. Also consider those were the teams the Cru was built to beat and the teams UMHB was taking recruits from. You have to win the conference first. It was also the first time W&J had played the Cru. I think a 36 pt drubbing in qtrs was good enough

[Kelly Boggs]

All I will say is just because UMHB primarily totes the tater, The CRU is anything but one dimensional. Anderson can proficiently chunk the pumpkin. 

[Ralph Turner]

any given Saturday!!

that's why they play the games!!!

hell that's why Fisher is in the playoffs to begin with!

So proud of this team!

This is SJF's 4th year straight in the playoffs. They have the winning culture, so I don't expect them to give up.  It should be a full 60 minutes of football whatever the score!

[Ralph Turner]

What will help SJF is to have 3-5 guys with lots of speed.  Getting separation 3-5 times per game with a closely matched team may be enough.

Like Alabama Auburn last night.

[Ralph Turner]

I'm trying to figure out how the selection committee have Whitewater at home with Linfield traveling. The strength of schedule has Whitewater #54 and Linfield #50. Mount Union is #84 while Wesley is #1 and Mount Union is at home. The same can be said for UMHB at home and St. John Fisher traveling. UMHB is #118 and St. John Fisher #6. Now I'm not complaining that The Cru is at home since it's only a 30 minute drive to the incredible Crusader Stadium. The only game that has the team with the better strenght of schedule has Bethel #7 at home with North Central (Illinois) #112 traveling. I know that the selection committee gave the strength of schedule a major part of the equation when they picked the brackets. So, is there anyone out there have any insight for this?

Mount Union is undefeated and Wesley has 2 losses.  That is enough criterion alone, but Mount Union was the #1 seed in the bracket and Wesley was not.

I also don't think that one ordinal out of 244 is enough difference in the eyes of the committee to use to distinguish the 2 teams.

Happy 1000th page of posts!

[umhb2001]

It's hard to believe, but I think this Cru team is better than last year. It's also hard to believe, and said with no disrespect to LB, but Anderson is much further along in his throwing than LB was, even as a senior. I believe that if the Oline and Dline can keep up their tenacity, things could very well go the Cru's way this year.

[Toby Taff]

It's hard to believe, but I think this Cru team is better than last year. It's also hard to believe, and said with no disrespect to LB, but Anderson is much further along in his throwing than LB was, even as a senior. I believe that if the Oline and Dline can keep up their tenacity, things could very well go the Cru's way this year.

i tend to agree. Anderson is definitely further along than LB was as a sophomore and probably a more accurate passer than LB was. I like the way the rest of this season looks and I like the seasons to come.

[zipmac22]

Mount Union is undefeated and Wesley has 2 losses.  That is enough criterion alone, but Mount Union was the #1 seed in the bracket and Wesley was not.

I also don't think that one ordinal out of 244 is enough difference in the eyes of the committee to use to distinguish the 2 teams.

Happy 1000th page of posts!
[/quote]

If Whitewater and UMHB end up meeting in the semifinals with both undefeated, I'd like to see UMHB get the nod for the home field. I think all in all UHMB is the better team. Of course we're never given the true ranking for the playoffs, the selection committee does a good job of keeping it under wraps. This way they can put whichever they desire as the home team without any recourse. UMHB has payed its dues and deserves the home field.